New report says ESPN wanted to take Jemele Hill off the air for a night due to comments about Trump but others refused her seat

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September 14, 2017 11:31 PM

It turns out ESPN may have tried to punish "SC6" anchor Jemele Hill after all.

A new report from ThinkProgress cites two sources who say that ESPN's original plan was to take Hill off the air for one night due to her comments calling President Donald Trump "a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself [with] other white supremacists."

However, according to the report, when "SC6" co-host Michael Smith heard the news, he refused to do the show without her. The sources say that ESPN then tried to replace both hosts with two other black hosts but were rebuffed.

Hill and Smith did ultimately host the show. According to the report, ESPN asked Hill to come back after they failed to find a replacement.

A source from ESPN emphatically told Business Insider that they never asked any other anchors to host Wednesday's show.

"We never asked any other anchors to do last night’s show. Period," the spokesperson said.

As ThinkProgress points out, Eaves sent out a tweet 90 minutes before the 6:00 p.m. show which may be linked to what was going on behind the scenes.

Man.. this day got me like.... @ Michael Eaves

It is unclear if King's "we" is referring to ESPN in general or the folks at "SportsCenter" specifically.

Hill has not apologized for her comments on Twitter nor has she deleted them. However, she did issue a statement saying she regrets that her comments "painted ESPN in an unfair light."

So, to address the elephant... @ Jemele Hill

Hill's agent did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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