America’s Got Talent returns to TV this week, but once again, a familiar face won’t be in the mix. Nick Cannon hosted the show for eight seasons, but he quit after Season 12 (and was later replaced by Tyra Banks) after NBC threated to fire him for ridiculing the network in his Showtime comedy special Stand Up, Don’t Shoot. Speaking to Yahoo Entertainment a year after the scandal, Cannon says he still has no regrets, saying it’s “probably one of the best decisions” he ever made in his career.
“It was super-controversial for some time… but it was a freedom-of-speech process and me standing firm for my own beliefs and culturally who I am, and really for all the employees who have been thumb-pressed by their bosses,” Cannon explains, discussing the importance of adhering to his brand. “I kind of stood up and said, ‘Yo, I was threatened for some content that I created.’ And they wanted me to shape up and get in line and watch my choice of words or how speak about the network. …I was threatened to be fired. I told them, ‘You can’t fire a boss. I quit!’”
At the time, Cannon’s decision to walk away from a reported $4.5 million salary shocked his fans, but even people in Cannon’s camp thought he was making a mistake. “People on my own team, people that were with me, man, like they scared for me,” he chuckles. “And I was like, ‘Yo, that job doesn’t define me.’ … As an artist, that was a self-defining moment, because a lot of people was like, ‘How can you walk away from such an amazing job? You’re the No. 1 host on television, highest-paid,’ all of that stuff. And I was like, ‘None of that stuff matters to me. I’m an artist and it’s not about money. It’s about having my own self-worth.”
Since wrapping his final AGT season in 2016, Cannon certainly hasn’t slowed down. He’s been working on the 11th of his comedy game show Wild N Out, studying in his “spare time” at Howard University, and, most importantly, constantly releasing new music.
“I’ve probably made so much more money since walking away from [AGT] and doing it the way that I wanted to do it. I’m almost like, ‘Man, I should’ve stepped away earlier,’” Cannon says. “You ever had those decisions where you’re kind of in your comfort zone and so you kind of you go about the mundane process, and as soon as you step out of your comfort zone it’s all of this freedom and just the universe starts to just throw so many things in your direction? That’s what happened. I’m elated with everything that I’ve been doing since I stepped away from America’s Got Talent.”
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This article originally ran on Yahoo Music.
