:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58221505/848120850.jpg.0.jpg)
FX, the television network that comedian Louis C.K. called home for eight years while working on Louie and other shows, knew going into the Television Critics Association winter press tour that it would be called on to address the sexual harassment allegations that led to it dropping one of its biggest creative stars.
While addressing a room full of journalists during a press conference, FX President John Landgraf confirmed that the network had conducted an investigation into whether or not any “complaints” had been filed or “misconduct” had taken place during C.K.’s time on the programming he produced for FX — including Louie, Better Things, and Baskets — and concluded that nothing was amiss.
Whispered allegations of C.K.’s sexual misconduct — more specifically, masturbating in front of nonconsenting women — had circulated in corners of the internet for years before the New York Times officially broke the story in November. But when Vox asked a follow-up question as to whether or not anyone at FX had been aware of such allegations against C.K. outside of his projects with the network, Landgraf insisted that they were not.
“We didn’t know about them,” Landgraf said. “The only thing I was aware of was a blind item in Gawker, which, to me, that’s not an actual news source. It’s not a verifiable quote. It didn’t even mention Louis’s name. So we had no awareness before the New York Times’s report.”
Later in the session, Landgraf said that after the Times’s report was published, C.K. told Landgraf that he would release a statement of his own to confirm that the allegations were true. FX subsequently announced that it would sever ties with C.K. and his production company, and that C.K. would “no longer serve as executive producer or receive compensation” for any FX programming. Whether or not that change will be a permanent one remains to be seen.
