INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Julie Chen Ripped For Quitting ‘The Talk’ With A Pre-Taped Video Message

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 00:25 PST, Sep 18, 2018

Julie Chen is done Talk-ing, but fans are talking about the way she is going out. The longtime CBS host will exit The Talk amid sexual misconduct allegations against her husband, ousted CBS president and CEO Les Moonves, but she won’t address her audience—or her former co-hosts— in person. Instead, Chen is reportedly opting to check out via a videotaped message to viewers on Tuesday’s episode of the Emmy-winning CBS chatfest, according to CNN.

Sources close to Chen say the longtime CBS star “has decided that her main focus needs to be clearing her husband’s name from accusations made 25-30 years ago and tending to her son,” as previously shared by the Inquisitr.

Chen, who has disabled her Instagram comments in the wake of the shakeup at CBS, will reportedly continue to host the CBS reality show Big Brother, which wraps its 20th season next week.

When Les Moonves was first accused of sexual misconduct in late July, Julie Chen publicly supported her husband of 14 years and vowed she would only issue one statement on the topic. Chen took to Twitter to write, “Leslie is a good man and a loving father, devoted husband and inspiring corporate leader. He has always been a kind, decent and moral human being. I fully support my husband and stand behind him and his statement.”

On The Talk, Chen said her Twitter statement would be her one and only statement on the allegations against her husband and that she would stand by it “today, tomorrow forever.”

Now it seems Julie Chen is holding true to her word as she has no plans to discuss this very hot topic on The Talk and will instead exit the show with a pre-taped message.

But Julie Chen’s decision to slip away from The Talk with a pre-taped message has some viewers of the show outraged. Chen is being slammed on Twitter with some calling her a “coward.” Others are calling out the CBS star for her past negative comments about Camille Cosby, who has long stood by her husband, Bill Cosby, amid an avalanche of sexual assault allegation against him. Chen is even being compared to O.J. Simpson.

You can see some of the backlash against Julie Chen below.

Chen’s exit from The Talk comes as no surprise to some of her peers, who predicted she would never be able to return to the CBS chatfest without directly addressing the allegations against her husband’s situation as any other Me Too story.

Last week, the panel on rival talk show The View predicted it would be next to impossible for Chen to survive the fallout of her husband’s scandal.

“I think it’s going to be hard for her to go back to The Talk,” The View’s Joy Behar said on Friday. “What topics can they do? They can’t talk about the Me Too movement without her coming clean about her husband.”

Chen seems to be taking talk show queen Wendy Williams’ advice. On Monday, Williams said Chen should release a statement saying she feels she “would be too much of a distraction” sitting at the table with The Talk ladies and that she should quietly step down.

Julie Chen made her “stand by my man” stance crystal clear last week when she signed off from last Thursday’s live Big Brother double eviction episode with, “I’m Julie Chen Moonves.” Chen has never used her married name in 18 seasons of hosting the CBS reality show, so her surprising sign-off was seen as a show of support for her husband.

The Talk airs weekdays on CBS. Big Brother will air its final episode on Wednesday, September 26.

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