Two days after a tape surfaced with network star Duane “Dog” Chapman repeatedly using the n-word, A&E said Friday afternoon that it was pulling all episodes of Dog The Bounty Hunter from the air.
“In evaluating the circumstances of the last few days, A&E has decided to take Dog The Bounty Hunter off the network's schedule for the foreseeable future,” A&E said in prepared statement. “We hope that Mr. Chapman continues the healing process that he has begun.”
A&E suspended Chapman last Wednesday, after the National Enquirer posted an audio clip of Chapman using the n-word on its Web site. Dog, which had debuted on A&E in 2004, was one of the first reality shows A&E added to its schedule.
On the audiotape, Chapman is heard using the n-word several times in a telephone conversation with his son Tucker. Chapman expresses his displeasure that Tucker is dating an African-American woman, warning that she could jeopardize the show if she overhears Chapman and his team using the n-word.
“I don't care if she's a Mexican, a whore, whatever. It's not because she's black. It's because we use the word n----- sometimes here,” Chapman tells his son. “I'm not going to take a chance ever in life of losing everything I've worked for 30 years because some fu---ing n---- heard us saying n-----.”
The Associated Press reported on Friday that Tucker Chapman taped the phone call with his father, and sold it to the Enquirer.
“I guess because of whatever level of anger he had of his father, he felt the need to express it in that manner,” Brook Hart, an attorney for Duane Chapman, told AP.
