The holiday season is about bringing people together, and there’s arguably no bigger event than the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting. People come from all over to see the massive tree light up the night sky. However, one celebrity who wanted to join the festivities, Flavor Flav, got sent home.
As part of the event, NBC, which airs the lighting, invites musical guests to perform. Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, and Thalia are just a few of the big names that dropped by this year. Flavor Flav was also in attendance, but when he went backstage to meet up with his old pals, The Backstreet Boys, he was asked to leave.
The hip-hop artist explained the situation in a now-deleted tweet. “I feel weird,,, I was invited to the Rockefeller Tree Lighting tonite and I was escorted to see my boys,,, THE BACKSTREET BOYS,,, and we were backstage in their dressing room,,, security came up and says @nbc does not want me in this are and I need to leave,” he wrote. “At the same time,,, their social media woman came up and asked to capture social content. What did I ever do to NBC or anyone,,?? all I ever do is try to spread joy and love,,, and I think I did that for NBC at the Olympics.”
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Flavor Flav was actually one of the feel-good stories of the 2024 Olympics, sponsoring the US Women’s water polo team. He heard about some of the women’s struggles to maintain a career and represent their country, so he stepped in. NBC aired a lot of the events, and clearly, the artist thought he made a good impression on the powers that be.
However, none of that seemed to matter at the tree lighting. Flavor Flav deleted the initial tweet and added that his “spirit was broken,” but plenty of his supporters came to his side, calling out NBC for its actions and demanding some sort of explanation.
“This is some bulls**t,” one X user said. “All that Flavor Flav did for NBC during The Olympics and put his money up to sponsor many US athletes who needed the help.”
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“@nbc, what gives with this obnoxious move? Please explain,” added another.
Despite all the backlash on social media and beyond, NBC has yet to address the situation. It’s possible that the whole thing was a misunderstanding, but without word from any of the higher-ups, fans are left to speculate as to why an artist who had done work with the network before was made to leave an event that’s sole purpose is to spread cheer.
It’s been a pretty rough morning for the network, as the event that followed the tree lighting, Jimmy Fallon’s Holiday Seasoning Spectacular, was met with mixed reviews, with some even going as far as to call it “horrendous.”
Published: Dec 5, 2024 09:56 am