The young generation may recognize A.J. Calloway as a news correspondent for Extra, but we know there are a few of you who are old enough to remember him as one of the original co-hosts of BET's 106 & Park. From 2000 to 2005, fans tuned every evening, Monday through Friday, to watch Calloway and Free interview their favorite stars and present the most popular music videos. He left that gig to pursue other avenues and landed a job as the co-host of the popular entertainment show, Extra.
Things were going well for the newscaster until he was accused of sexual misconduct back in the summer of 2018 when journalist Sil Lai Abrams came forward with claims that Calloway assaulted her back in 2006. Calloway was reportedly arrested for groping Abrams and forcibly placing her hand on his genitals, but the charges were dropped.
Calloway issued a statement regarding the accusations that read: "I was disappointed to read the false allegations about me in The Hollywood Reporter. As I have maintained from the beginning, these allegations are not true. When I was first notified about these allegations by law enforcement more than a decade ago, I fully cooperated from the beginning and the case was dismissed."
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At the top of 2019, two more women came forward with their stories of alleged assault at the hands of Calloway. One accuser stated, "And he thought it was a game or something because he kept laughing and giggling and I’m like, no, stop, stop. And the more I said stop the more he got aggressive, and that’s when I started to realize, oh my God, this is serious. Like, he’s really going to try and force me to have sex with him.”
Calloway was suspended by Extra with pay while the network completed their own investigation to determine "whether any employee of the show had been the victim of any such misconduct,” they said back in February. "To date, we have found nothing to suggest that Mr. Calloway has ever engaged in workplace misconduct.
According to Deadline, Warner Bros. released a statement on Wednesday announcing that Calloway has been let go. “The Company has investigated the claims made into Mr. Calloway’s conduct and he and the Company have mutually agreed to part ways,” they stated. If or how Calloway will be able to bounce back from this scandal has yet to be seen and only time will tell.
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