Gabrielle Union is no longer a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent. While the network says the move was due to a simple choice of wanting to refresh the judges every season, it's been made clear that the decision was made after Gabrielle had a meeting with HR about a racist joke guest judge Jay Leno made. As the story goes, during a taping Jay referenced an image he saw of Simon Cowell with his dogs and said it looked like something one would find “on the menu at a Korean restaurant.”
Gabrielle told HR that they need to understand why such a comment is inappropriate not only for the viewers watching the show but all the Asian staffers on set. By no surprise, the clip was cut from the final airing of the show. While Gabrielle has declined to comment on the situation, her husband Dwyane Wade has sent out a couple of tweets defending his wife.
"Men lie, Women lie, numbers don’t” Over this past year I’ve been approached by many people saying that my wife @itsgabrielleu is the main reason they’ve started watching #AGT or that they love her insight and sincerity on the show," he wrote, adding in another tweet, "As proud as i were of her being selected as a judge on #AGT— I am even more proud of her standing up for what she stands for and that’s US."