Gabrielle Union's firing from America's Got Talent at the end of November has sparked a lot of commentary. Union refrained from commenting when Variety first reported the reason for her firing. The incident that led to her contract not being renewed involved Union informing NBC's Human Resources that Jay Leno had made a racist joke when serving as guest judge on AGT. The joke ended up being cut from the episode, but Union still suffered consequences for speaking out.
NBC is now searching for a judge to replace Gabrielle Union and it looks like Sofia Vergara is at the top of their list of candidates. The Colombian actress is currently wrapping up the final season of ABC's sitcom, Modern Family, so her schedule will soon be open to pursue new projects. On Wednesday, she had a two-hour meeting with AGT executives, for which TMZ reported she was twenty minutes late. Despite her tardiness, they still had time to discuss the potential of her signing on for an AGT position, a new drama series or a possible Spanish-language show on NBC-owned network Telemundo.
If Vergara takes over for Union, Howard Stern's recent criticism of AGT's executive producer, Simon Cowell, won't be entirely accurate. Stern claimed that Union's Leno incident and her "too black" hairstyles were being used as an excuse to constantly replace female judges with "younger chicks". Union and Vergara are both 47 years old. Although Union appears unfazed by her firing, there will be hopefully be accountability for this unfair treatment soon becasue SAG-AFTRA has confirmed that the union launched an investigation into the situation.