Mark Bourdillion/ABC
The Great American Baking Show is not on television tonight and ABC has chosen not to air the remainder of the season. According to Entertainment Weekly, ABC has cancelled the current season of the series after judge Johnny Iuzzini was accused of sexual harassment.
“In light of allegations that recently came to our attention, ABC has ended its relationship with Johnny Iuzzini and will not be airing the remainder of The Great American Baking Show episodes. ABC takes matters such as those described in the allegations very seriously and has come to the conclusion that they violate our standards of conduct. This season’s winner will be announced at a later date. Episodes of The Great Christmas Light Fight and CMA Country Christmas will take its place this week and next,” ABC said in a statement.
The Great American Baking Show had become a holiday favorite in the United States. The show followed the format of the U.K.’s baking show, lead by British food writer Mary Berry. In previous years, Mary Berry was part of this holiday treat, but this year, Paul Hollywood had taken the reigns. The show premiered on Thursday, December 7, and was slated to run a few more weeks — until the judges revealed the best baker in America.
In November, Iuzzini was accused of sexual harassment by four former employees. One was a pastry chef at Jean-Georges in New York. She told Mic that Iuzzini approached her and put his tongue in her ear — whilst she was at work.
“Iuzzini repeated the offense ‘three or four times’ on separate occasions, said the pastry chef, who worked under him for nearly two years. ‘I cried every time,’ said the chef, who spoke to Mic on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy. She did not report the incidents to management at the time, but she did tell a friend, who confirmed to Mic that she heard the story shortly after it happened. The pastry chef resigned later that year, not in reaction to any single incident, she said, but because of the culmination of Iuzzini’s behavior toward her: ‘I left because of the way he treated me.’
Another woman told the outlet that “part of [her] job” was to give Iuzzini a shoulder rub after every shift.
Iuzzini has released a statement and apologized for his behavior.
“I am shattered and heartbroken at the thought that any of my actions left members of my team feeling hurt or degraded. More importantly, I am deeply sorry to those who felt hurt,” Iuzzini said in a statement to Mic.
The four women also told Mic that Iuzzini was “verbally abusive and prone to screaming.” One of them claimed that he was on drugs, saying that she witnessed him “using cocaine” — something that Iuzzini was asked about and vehemently denied.
The outlet went on to report that even more women have come forward since those initial accusations, but Iuzzini has denied those claims, saying that are “simply untrue.”
“There is a difference between accepting responsibility for my immaturity and allowing false claims and accusations to be reported,” he told the outlet.