Stars Who Ruined Their Careers On Live TV

By Michael Avery in Entertainment On 5th September 2017

Success is a fickle thing that can disappear in a matter of minutes. These performers and professionals were really going places before one spare comment, brash action, or untimely revelation stopped their careers in their tracks. Some of these missteps, on their own, wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but add live TV to the mix, and you've got a recipe for disaster.

Milli Vanilli's record skips.

German R&B and dance-pop duo Milli Vanilli rose to prominence at the end of the eighties with crossover hits such as "Girl You Know It's True" and "Blame it on the Rain." Those singles dominated the airwaves and sold millions of records, earning the duo the trophy for best new artist at the 1990 Grammy Awards. But under scrutiny, the group's musical prowess didn't hold up. First, the guys' voices didn't quite sound like their recordings, prompting questions from the press, but the moment that destroyed their careers happened on a live-to-tape segment with MTV. The duo was performing "Girl You Know It's True" when the track began to skip, revealing Milli Vanilli wasn't singing at all. Journalists and former fans descended on the group. The guys were labeled as frauds. Lawsuits were filed. Fans demanded refunds for albums. Their Grammy was revoked, and they were essentially never heard from again.

X Factor judge goes too far.

Judging a live reality show is an oddly delicate performance. Judges have to entertain as they evaluate. Audiences love a good tongue-lashing from an angry judge, especially after a particularly painful performance, but somewhere in that strange equation is a line that judges shouldn't cross. On New Zealand's version of The X Factor, one singer-turned-judge definitely missed the mark. British singer Natalia Kills lit into contestant Joe Irvine in 2015, calling him "a laughing stock," "a doppelgänger in our midst", and essentially accusing him of copying his act and his persona from Kills' husband, singer Willy Moon, who was also sitting on the panel as a judge. The intensity of Kills' disgust turned off viewers in droves, and Kills and Moon were soon removed from the judging panel. For his troubles, Irvine reportedly received consolations and a box of cupcakes from fellow singer Lorde, but he told the New Zealand Herald in 2016 that he's still traumatized.

Ashlee Simpson dances a jig.

Ashlee Simpson, the punk rock little sister of singer Jessica Simpson, was on her way up when she booked a spot on Saturday Night Live in October 2004. Her first album, Autobiography, had recently debuted to commercial success, with significant radio play for her singles "Shadow" and "Pieces of Me." But when the SNL performance experienced a technical hiccup, it exposed a fatal flaw in Ashlee's act. She wasn't actually singing on stage in Studio 6H, and instead of trying to do so and save her act, she danced an awkward jig before leaving the rest of her band stranded on stage. She even blamed the rest of her team for the snafu. The backlash hit hard. During her performance at the 2005 Orange Bowl, her live vocals were drowned out by a thunderous roar of boos. Her follow-up album, I Am Me, sold roughly a third of the copies in the United States that her debut did. Immediately after the lip-syncing incident, which garnered national news coverage, the spell of her success was broken. Her fans turned on her, and her music career never recovered.

Comic attends roast, is roasted.

In the format of a comedy roast, a gaggle of comedians takes turns on the microphone cracking jokes about a central honoree. Sometimes the panelists use their time to take jabs at each other as well, but comics don't typically expect their time on the mic to be turned against them. But comic Doug Williams suddenly found himself in the hot seat at Shaq's All-Star Comedy Roast of football player Emmitt Smith. Following an introduction by host Jamie Foxx, Williams' set starts slowly, but about three jokes in, Foxx begins sniping at the comic, mocking Williams' punchlines and all but telling him to get off of the stage. It's bizarre, hilarious, and completely unscripted. Foxx later defended his actions, calling his barrage a "very dark liquor-induced." While the production wasn't broadcast live, there were no second takes for Williams. His bomb of a set lives forever online, and his chance to prove himself among his peers was essentially sabotaged. And the worst part: it was all rather funny—to everybody but Williams.

Jackie Mason flips the bird, loses job.

The Ed Sullivan Show was one of the most popular of its era, running on CBS weekly for a legendary stretch of more than 22 years. Jackie Mason, a comedian, had scored a cushy gig for himself on the program in 1964, with six contracted appearances set to earn him a $45,000 payday—adjusted for inflation that's over $350,000 today. But the opportunity was yanked out from under his feet after he got a little bit loose with his hand gestures on live TV. Riffing on the host holding up his fingers from off-stage to indicate his time, Mason allegedly flipped America the bird while making a bit out of pointing around the room and saying, "Here's a finger for you and a finger for you and a finger for you." Even today, it's hard to imagine a guest on a general-audience late night show not getting in trouble for extending a rigid-digit salute toward the audience, but the story of Mason's firing endures as a good example of why not many people have tried since '64. Sullivan was reportedly incensed by the incident and allegedly threatened Mason, saying "I will destroy you in show business," a disputed quotation that nonetheless proved true. While he remained financially successful as an entertainer, Mason's showbiz career was never the same.

News anchor kills his career in just two words.

The first day on a new job without training wheels is always stressful, especially if your job subjects you to the scrutiny of everyone who might be tuned into the Bismarck local news. This aspiring young broadcaster handled his first-day anxiety in the most disastrous way imaginable, letting some foul words fly into a hot mic seconds after the show went live. His introduction to the world? A sharp exhale of breath and a succinct "f**king s**t." The look on his co-anchor's face is priceless as she realizes in an instant the f**king s**tstorm that's gone down to her immediate left. The offending anchor, AJ Clemente, crosses his fingers and nervously shoulders on, hoping that maybe, just maybe, he'd gotten away with it. Unfortunately for his career, he did not. Clemente was promptly fired from the station and supposedly hasn't helmed a broadcast since. Instead, he's tended bar and taught broadcasting courses, where we have to imagine lesson no. 1 is something in the spirit of "watch your mouth while the mic is live".

Charles Rocket almost destroys Saturday Night Live.

With an untested cast under the guidance of new producer Jean Doumanian, the 1980–81 season of Saturday Night Live started badly and got worse. The show dragged on throughout the winter as a national joke—its own sketches displayed a sharp awareness of its declining quality. A historic low was reached in the 11th episode of the season, when cast member Charles Rocket, for whatever reason, decided in the closing moments of the program to let the F-word fly. "It's the first time I've been shot in my life," he says, referencing a sketch in which his character caught a bullet. "I'd like to know who the f**k did it." Watching the video, it's clear this is no flub. It was a brazen, seemingly intentional provocation on the part of the performer, and it was the last straw for the studio, which began cleaning house promptly after the episode aired. You can draw a straight line from Rocket's F bomb to his exit, but the really impressive thing is how close he came to sinking the entire show. NBC also fired Doumanian, and SNL went off the air for a month. By the time it returned, the show had replaced most of its writing staff and was in the process of purging every single one of its cast members, except Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy—the sole survivors of a disastrous era.

Sinead O'Connor goes for Pope.

Here's another Saturday Night Live performance that went horribly awry on purpose. There were no technical difficulties on this one. Irish singer Sinead O'Connor used her time as the musical guest on a 1992 episode to make a political statement—and a rather provocative one at that. Concluding an a cappella performance of "War," O'Connor sang her last lines while reaching for a photograph of Pope John Paul II. Holding it square in camera view, she tore it to pieces before saying, with no small amount of conviction, "Fight the real enemy." The moment was so shocking that SNL cut to commercial as the audience sat quiet and stunned. The move torpedoed the singer's burgeoning career in the United States, turning many people off her music and branding her as a high-risk, controversial act. It's a reputation she's maintained to this day.

Howard Dean can't contain his excitement.

During the 2004 presidential election, Democratic contenders lined up for the chance to contest Republican incumbent George W. Bush for the White House. Vermont governor Howard Dean had an impressive lead over opponents Dennis Kucinich and John Kerry in early polls. but as the race went on and Kerry closed the gap, the margin for error got smaller and smaller. It all fell apart for Dean with one excited outburst, a political shot-in-the-foot that has, over time, come to appear almost quaint. Chastened by a rough showing at the Iowa caucuses, Dean addressed a crowd of supporters with a rousing speech. Like a football coach motivating a losing team, he gained momentum, gained volume, and snarled into the mic with a hoarse voice brimming with resolve. It all ended in a dramatic crescendo as Dean promised to his supporters they would soon be "going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House!" Then he, um, screamed. He screamed really loudly. It was weird, and the media destroyed him for the funny moment. Any chances his campaign had of coming back were terminally derailed.

Jenny Slate drops a bomb on her SNL career.

As far as Saturday Night Live screw ups go, it's hard to mess up more than Jenny Slate. She's a successful actress and comedian now, but in 2009 she was still an up-and-comer; one who managed, with some luck, to land a coveted role as a writer-performer on SNL. In her very first appearance as a cast member on the show, performing in a sketch she wrote called Biker Chick Chat, Slate flubbed her line fantastically, mistakenly subbing the word "friggin'" with its grown-up version. The live audience laughed awkwardly, unsure if the cursing was a part of the joke. Castmate Kristen Wiig soldiered on, pretending she didn't hear anything, but everybody heard it. What's most hilarious, and cringe-inducing, is how Slate reacts to her misread, puffing out her cheeks as she tried to catch the word and swallow it but missed. Slate wasn't immediately let go, but she departed at the end of her first season. She later talked about the ways that episode affected her. "It took me a few years to get back to myself," the comic said (via ABC News). "I developed stage fright." Slate said she's never watched the video of the incident, and frankly, we don't blame her. Regardless, she's a very funny person, and while her time at SNL may have ended in flames, it's to all our benefit that she weathered the storm and bounced back.

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