Jane Lynch is the latest celebrity to weigh in on Gabrielle Union‘s firing from the NBC series America’s Got Talent. Lynch, who herself hosted Hollywood Game Night on the peacock network for six seasons, spoke frankly about Union’s ousting. Specifically, that it points to a much larger problem at NBC.
“I don’t know so much about it, but what I do know about it is I’m really glad she’s standing up for herself,” Lynch said Variety at the Season 3 premiere of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in New York City. “From what I read — I didn’t read a lot of it — but it sounds like NBC [needs] to get their act together. They just really have to get their act together around women and around race. It just kind of feels like someone is asleep at the wheel over there.”
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Speaking about her time on NBC, Lynch had nothing but good things to say. “I love my producers. I love the show. It’s wonderful. And the network is always great to me,” but she did add that, “I just think there’s a blindness” when it came to her experience.
Lynch is the latest celebrity to throw her support behind Union, which (so far) includes talk show hosts Tamron Hall and Howard Stern, actress Eva Longoria, and AGT alum Sharon Osbourne, among others. Rapper Waka Flocka Flame has gone so far as to call for a boycott of the series.
Union was fired from America’s Got Talent in late November along with Julianne Hough after both only appearing in Season 14 of the long-running show. It soon came to light that both Union and Hough had received an abundance of critiques about their appearances, which they felt lead to allegations of a toxic, racist work environment. The network has launched an investigation into the matter, with AGT executive producer Simon Cowell at the center.
Lynch, meanwhile, will see her role of Sophie Lennon expanded in the upcoming third season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. A veteran stand-up comedian, her character appeared sporadically throughout the show’s first two seasons, which won her an Emmy for Guest Actress in a Comedy earlier this year. You can catch the new season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel when it drops on Amazon Prime Video this Friday.