Jenna Wolfe NBC Demotion, Erica Hill Replacement Because She's a Pregnant Lesbian? NBC Source Says No [VIDEO]
When NBC News journalist Jenna Wolfe announced on March 27 that she was expecting a baby girl with her partner, Stephanie Gosk, many rumors swirled if NBC had previously demoted her back in November because she was a lesbian.
The network denied those rumors and said that the network found out about her pregnancy after she was already demoted.
"Jenna was not demoted because of either her sexuality or her pregnancy - NBC has been extremely supportive of her," a source said, according to RadarOnline. "In fact, Jenna only recently revealed to her bosses that she was pregnant - AFTER she had already been demoted from co-host to news reader."
Erica Hill made her debut appearance on the weekend edition of the TODAY show in November and at the time caused a social media feud from devoted viewers, according to The Huffington Post.
Viewers took to their Facebook and Twitter accounts and expressed their frustrations that the NBC morning show had made another bad anchor transition: "Here we go again, NBC stabs yet another of their people in the back, still love you Jenna!!" one commenter posted on the show's Facebook page.
"I just think it's pretty sad that you replace the best people. I loved Ann Curry and I love Jenna Wolf. I almost stopped watching your show when you replaced Ann. Jenna Wolf is one of my favorite people. Shame on you," another person wrote.
Rich Sanchez, a former CNN anchor, bashed NBC and the TODAY show over Wolfe's demotion, and started controversy when he questioned if the demotion happened because the network is unhappy that Wolfe is a "pregnant lesbian."
"Wonder if @JennaWolfe's terrible demotion on @todayshow was b/c @NBC didn't want a then soon 2 be pregnant lesbian to be cohost. I hope not," Sanchez tweeted.
A NBC source said that the TODAY show has fully embraced Wolfe's pregnancy and have always offered her well wishes.
"TODAY show staffers have absolutely embraced Jenna's pregnancy, and Erica has been giving her advice because she has two young sons herself. The women got off to a rocky start, but that is all in the past now," the source said.
