TV Reporter Susannah Collins Fired After Saying 'Sex' On Air - 2013-05-04 9:46 PM
TV Reporter Susannah Collins Fired After Saying 'Sex' On Air
Quote:
For Chicago sports reporter Susannah Collins, it was an unfortunate slip of the tongue. During a live televised report outside the Chicago Blackhawks locker room, Collins said of the team: "Despite the fact that they've had a tremendous amount of sex in the regular season."
That was how she started a sentence about the team's progress during a report for Comcast SportsNet Chicago. She very quickly corrected her flub -- she meant to say "success" -- but the video went viral. Collins was fired Thursday, though CSN Chicago's parent company, Comcast, claimed that it was unrelated to her TV blooper.
Jay Leno showed the video of Collins' mistake on the "Tonight Show" Wednesday, and called it the "Freudian Slip of the Day." The video clip already has been viewed more than 170,000 times on YouTube. And the incident also took off on Twitter, with online sports news website Deadspin even tweeting out a (rather gratuitous) remix of it:
Collins has yet to comment since being canned. But she initially tried to have fun with her on-air mistake. On Wednesday, she tweeted: "Thanks for laughing along with me & my "tremendous" slip, guys. Who couldn't use a good chuckle every now & then right?"
The incident comes just two weeks after a news broadcaster in North Dakota lost his job after his on-air slip-of-the-tongue went viral. A.J. Clemente was fired after he was caught angrily using expletives during his premiere appearance as an evening news anchor for an NBC affiliate there.
More: 5 Most Outrageous Employee Resignations In 2012
Her employer, for its part, is denying the mistake was the reason Collins was fired, even though the decision to let her go was made just two days after the error. (She joined the network in September.) "Due to circumstances unrelated to her on-air remarks Tuesday night, Susannah Collins and Comcast SportsNet Chicago have parted ways," Phil Bedella, CSN Chicago vice president said in a statement to the Chicago Tribune.
According to the Tribune, the slip "put a spotlight on Collins" and her "raunchy" YouTube videos from 2009 and 2010. In the videos, Collins co-hosted a series that was produced by Middlebrow Media. Its title? "Sports Nutz." As for the comment Collins was attempting to make about the Blackhawks, it turns out to be accurate. Thus far in the season, the Blackhawks have a 36-7 win-loss record.
