Alec Baldwin Talk Show ‘Up Late’ Canceled By MSNBC

MSNBC has canceled Alec Baldwin’s talk show Up Late in the wake of his recent run-in with a paparazzo.

The network initially suspended Up Late for two weeks after Baldwin shouted homophobic slurs at a photographer trying to take pictures of the former 30 Rock star and his family leaving their Manhattan apartment on November 14. Baldwin reportedly called the photographer a “c***sucking f**,” but the 55-year-old claimed he said “fathead.” Baldwin issued a formal apology through MSNBC after the incident and said he was trying to protect his family, and that his behavior was “offensive and unacceptable.”

Shortly after the suspension, Alec Baldwin admitted that the late night talk show might not return after the two weeks were up.

“Whether the show comes back at all is at issue right now,” Baldwin wrote in a blog post for The Huffington Post. “But if the show dies, its fate ends up being no different than the vast majority of start-up TV programming, and so be it.”

Up Late was scheduled to return November 29, but according to the New York Post, Comcast — the parent company of MSNBC — decided to pull the talk show altogether. A source told the Post that the dismissal was partly due to Baldwin’s “diva-like behavior toward co-workers.”

Up Late premiered October 11 with then-New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio. The debut drew 654,000 viewers, but by the fourth episode on November 1, the audience dropped to 354,000 viewers. The final episode on November 8 drew 395,000 viewers.

Alec Baldwin ended his WNYC podcast Here’s the Thing after two seasons in September. Baldwin wanted to go forward with the podcast, but there wasn’t enough funding to allow the public radio program to continue. The program debuted on October 24, 2011 and interviewees included Michael Douglas, David Letterman, Stacy Keach, Judd Apatow, Lorne Michaels, Chris Rock, and others.