Network upfronts for advertisers involve plenty of weird moments, from a flying Kenny Mayne in an angel costume to Fox’s NFL cast rapping about the NFL schedule to Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer calling in. It’s rarer to see someone issue a public apology for a comment they made at upfronts, but that’s what Fox NFL Sunday studio analyst Terry Bradshaw did Tuesday.
On Monday, Bradshaw was on stage talking about his time as a contestant on The Masked Singer, but was quite inaccurate about two of the judges, saying “Unfortunately, I was kicked off by Alan Thicke and the little short guy from Japan.” Alan Thicke died in 2016; the judge in question there is his son Robin. And “the little short guy from Japan” is a reference to Ken Jeong, who is American, and was born in the U.S. to parents who immigrated from South Korea, not Japan. As per CNN’s Chloe Melas, Bradshaw issued an apology to Jeong Tuesday:
“I made an insensitive remark today about Ken, who I’ve known for some time,” Bradshaw said in a statement. “I’ve spoken to him about the importance of cultural respect and apologized for my offensive comments. I would like to also apologize to the Asian-American community for my insensitivity.”
Yeah, Bradshaw really missed on that one on a lot of levels. And this definitely isn’t the kind of conversation about their upfronts Fox was hoping for.
Update: Bradshaw was a contestant on The Masked Singer, not a judge. We apologize for our lack of knowledge of the supreme cultural touchstone that is The Masked Singer.
[CNN]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.