Norm Macdonald's scheduled appearance on "The Tonight Show" was canceled following controversial remarks made this week about the #MeToo movement, Entertainment Weekly reported.
The comedian was set to appear on Tuesday's telecast of the show, but execs decided to boot the segment after The Hollywood Reporter published an interview in which Macdonald appeared to trivialize the #MeToo movement as well as Roseanne Barr's racist tweet.
"I'm happy the #MeToo movement has slowed down a little bit," Macdonald told The Hollywood Reporter. "It used to be, 'One hundred women can't be lying.' And then it became, 'One woman can't lie.' And that became, 'I believe all women.'"
He noted that Chris Hardwick, who was accused of sexual assault and emotional abuse by ex-girlfriend Chloe Dykstra, "got the blunt end of the stick there."
Macdonald said the industry had become unforgiving.
"Now it's admit wrongdoing and you're finished," he told The Hollywood Reporter, turning to Barr as an example.
"Roseanne was so broken up [after her show's reboot was canceled] that I got Louis C.K. to call her, even though Roseanne was very hard on Louis before that," he said. "But she was just so broken and just crying constantly."
Macdonald added, "there are very few people that have gone through what they have, losing everything in a day. Of course, people will go, 'What about the victims?' But you know what? The victims didn't have to go through that."
MacDonald later took to Twitter to apologize for his comments.
"Roseanne and Louis have both been very good friends of mine for many years," he said. "They both made terrible mistakes and I would never defend their actions. If my words sounded like I was minimizing the pain that their victims feel to this day, I am deeply sorry."
The tweet did little to quell the backlash prompted by his comments, which culminated in the cancellation of his appearance on "The Tonight Show."
"Out of sensitivity to our audience and in light of Norm Macdonald's comments in the press today, 'The Tonight Show' has decided to cancel his appearance on Tuesday's telecast," a spokesperson for the show said in a statement, according to Entertainment Weekly.
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