The sexual harassment reckoning may just be beginning at NBC.
Last week, the network shocked viewers with the surprise firing of Today co-host Matt Lauer for sexual harassment allegations.
Now, similar accusations are resurfacing against the new anchor they’ve lined up to cover the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February.
The network poached Mike Tirico from ESPN last year for the express purpose of filling the Olympics job vacated by Bob Costas – despite his history of sexually harassing female co-workers at his old network.
In a statement to the Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, the network said it was aware of the allegations against Tirico and are convinced that his issues are in the past. They said they had no plans to let him go.
NBC is standing by their decision to give Mike Tirico (left) the anchor desk for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics – despite his alleged sexual harassment history. Last week the network fired Matt Lauer for sexual harassment allegations (right)
‘When we hired Mike in 2016, we were aware of the incidents from more than 25 years ago, which had been addressed in 1991-92 by ESPN, his employer at the time, and for which he has apologized.
‘Mike has repeatedly assured us that this behavior is long in his past, and we have no evidence of anything to the contrary in his tenure at NBC Sports,’ the representative for the network said.
While Tirico’s hiring didn’t raise any flags in 2016, it may now that hundreds of women are coming forward to share their stories of sexual harassment and assault in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
Lauer was the latest victim of the movement, which has also seen the likes of Charlie Rose, Mark Halperin, Kevin Spacey, Louis CK and many more lose their public standing.
The allegations against Tirico stem from accounts reported about in two books about the network – ESPN: The Uncensored History and These Guys Have All the Fun. The books were written by esteemed journalists at the New York Times and the Washington Post, respectively.
Victims described Tirico making unwanted advances at work parties and refusing to take no for an answer – at times becoming dangerously intimidating.
One incident was described in both books, and was corroborated by multiple fellow and current (at the time) employees.
It involved Tirico going up to a production assistant at a co-worker’s house party in 1992 and telling her, ‘You’re the most beautiful woman here,’ Michael Freeman details in ESPN: An Uncensored History.
The woman ignored Tirico, but he ‘proceeded to follow her around the party for several minutes.’
Eventually, she snapped at him “Why don’t you f*** off’ and she left the party.
But she says he followed her out to her car and tried to put her hand between her leg.
Another incident involved a more senior member of the ESPN staff who had befriended Tirico and his fiancée at the time.
NBC has said it was aware of the allegations against Tirico and are convinced that his issues are in the past. They said they had no plans to let him go
She says one day she got an email from Tirico saying that he wanted to sleep with her. She ignored it, but he repeated those sentiments when the staff later went to the bar. She ignored Tirico again, but things grew scary at the end of the night when she went to drive home.
She says she was on the freeway when Tirico came up behind her in his own car and signaled her to pull over. She refused and started to speed up and Tirico did the same. Fearing for her safety she eventually braked and quickly took an exit, successfully evading Tirico.
This same employee went on to hear similar experiences from female staff members. She went to management, with the complaints of five other women, and Tirico was suspended without pay for three months.
Tirico has never taken responsibility for any of the incidents and has only referred to his suspension as a leave of absence.
He released this statement when the first book detailing the allegations was released in 2000.
‘In 1991, at the age of twenty-four, I joined ESPN and became friends with a group of coworkers who regularly got together after shows.
‘Shortly thereafter it was brought to my attention that some of my actions were misunderstood and made others feel uncomfortable. I was disappointed for not seeing their point of view and sorry for making anyone else feel uncomfortable.
‘Over the past eight years I’ve had the pleasure of working with hundreds of colleagues on a wide variety of projects and am proud of the many friendships that have grown out of these assignments. ‘