Rodner Figueroa, the prominent host on Spanish-language Univision, has been fired by show producers after he made a racist comment about Michelle Obama. During a segment that featured on March 11, he told viewers that according to him, Michelle Obama looked like she was one of the casts of ‘Planet of the Apes.’
How and when of this issue:
During a show, Figueroa was talking about Paolo Ballesteros when Michelle Obama appeared to him. As per the reports, he was the host of El Gordo y La Flaca and doing an item on Paolo Ballesteros. Michelle Obama came up when he and one of his co-hosts were going through pictures of Paolo Ballesteros.
One of the pictures was in blackface. Looking at this picture, Figueroa couldn’t control himself and went on saying to his co-host that Michelle Obama looked as if she was from the cast of the movie ‘Planet of the Apes.’ On this, Raul de Molina, his co-host replied that he was wrong. He said that she looked very attractive.
As soon as this show went on-air, his act attracted everyone’s attention, including his own employer Univision. In a tweet, Univision stated that Rodner Figueroa’s comments about the first lady Michelle Obama were not tolerable. His act on the live show didn’t reflect the opinions and values of Univision. As a result of this behavior of him, the company decided to fire him immediately.
Right after his termination, Univision deleted his profile from the official page of the company and also deleted one of the pictures featuring him celebrating 2014 Emmy win. Soon after his termination, Figueroa wrote an open letter to Michelle Obama and expressed apologies for making comments on her during the commentary. He said that he misinterpreted the portrait of the first lady, for which he was sorry.