10 Celebs Who Damaged Their Reputations With Major Fails On Live TV

When it comes to finding fame in Hollywood, holding onto success can sometimes be even more difficult than first achieving it, a lesson many celebrities have had to learn the hard way. All it takes is one reckless moment for everything to go wrong, whether it be a careless comment, embarrassing blunder, or an all out controversy that causes the demise of a once-promising career. When such snafus happen on live TV, the incidents are forever immortalized and can be that much tougher to escape.

While some of these famous faces were able to ride out the negative publicity and slowly repair their reputations, many weren't so lucky and found themselves exiled from Tinseltown. These live TV moments serve as cautionary tales and reminders that fame and fortune can disappear with one wrong move.

Southern chef and Food Network staple Paula Deen made headlines in June 2013 when her former employee Lisa Jackson sued her for sexual and racial discrimination, the celebrity cook denying the allegations. Jackson claimed that Deen had made derogatory comments and racial slurs about African Americans, saying she had wanted her brother Bubba to have a wedding with a "true Southern plantation-style theme" with Black male servers, according to Reuters. In her deposition, Deen openly admitted to using the N-word in the past, which caused a media firestorm and backlash.

Deen attempted to clean up her image by appearing on the "Today" show, but made things far worse for herself by going on the defense and deflecting any blame while being interviewed by Matt Lauer. In the sit-down, the host questioned whether Deen had only agreed to the appearance in an effort to help fix her financial situation, with many feeling as though she played the victim instead of taking accountability. "Would I have fired me? Knowing me? No," she said when asked if her offense warranted her termination.

Though the lawsuit was dismissed and seemingly settled out of court, the damage was done and the chef's reputation took a huge hit. Her Food Network contracts were canceled, including her show "Paula's Home Cooking," her products were pulled from stores, and she was also dropped by her publisher. Deen's career never returned to its former glory despite her attempts to reinvent herself and her recipes.

For decades, Will Smith was Hollywood's go-to leading man and one of the industry's most bankable stars, headlining hits like "Independence Day" and "I Am Legend." At the 2022 Academy Awards, he was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in "King Richard," but while on stage, host Chris Rock made an off-script joke about Will's wife Jada Pinkett Smith. The jab did not go over well for Will, who walked on stage, slapped the comedian in front of millions, then sat back down and aggressively yelled at Rock from his seat.

The audience and viewers initially thought the slap was scripted, but Will Smith's combative attitude and cursing made everyone quickly realize it wasn't. Though he later accepted his Oscar and apologized to attendees (but not Rock) in his tearful speech, Will Smith was banned from the Academy Awards for 10 years. "I accept and respect the Academy's decision," he said in a statement to CNN. Smith would break his silence on the slap and released a five-minute apology on YouTube in an attempt to calm the media storm.

Nevertheless, several of his film projects were put on an indefinite hold, his movie "Emancipation" became a box office dud, and his curated image as a devoted family man came into question. "Smith's heroic stature inside and outside Black culture, and his carefully constructed persona as the patriarch of a celebrity family, only intensifies the fallout. And his actions have now placed his reputation in jeopardy," the Los Angeles Times wrote.

Singing the national anthem is an esteemed honor for any performer, but that doesn't mean it doesn't come with its own potential perils. Singer Fergie learned this lesson the hard way when she performed the song at the 2018 NBA All-Star Games, her rendition ultimately going down in history as one of the worst ever. The former only-female-member of the Black Eyed Peas decided to give "The Star-Spangled Banner" her own jazzy, sensual spin, causing many to critique her and call the performance highly-inappropriate.

Players and attendees were visibly stunned by Fergie's questionable rendition, as fellow celebrities like Jimmy Kimmel and Chance the Rapper had a hard time hiding their laughter at her unique delivery of the tune. Fergie's performance set social media ablaze as people poked fun at the singer, one attendee telling People, "It actually didn't sound so bad at first. Everyone was just trying to figure out what was going on. Like, was she about to break out into a different song? Then she started doing all those ranges and it just went downhill."

After the intense backlash, Fergie issued a statement, acquired by People, regarding her polarizing performance, saying, "I'm a risk taker artistically, but clearly this rendition didn't strike the intended tone. I love this country and honestly tried my best." Fergie's music career was already waning at this point, and her controversial version of the song didn't help her career struggles, as she has yet to release new music since the embarrassing blunder.

Irish singer/songwriter Sinéad O'Connor never shied away from speaking out about issues near to her heart, and in 1992 she was riding high on the success of her double platinum album "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got." O'Connor was booked as the musical act for the October 3, 1992 episode of "Saturday Night Live," performing a cover of Bob Marley's "War." During the show, she protested the Catholic Church and its mistreatment of children by tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II and urging people to "fight the real enemy."

The performance was immediately met with criticism by the media, viewers, and the Catholic Church, as members including Madonna and Joe Pesci mocked O'Connor's act when they appeared on "SNL." Time Magazine named O'Connor as the year's most influential woman, though her career never rose to its previous heights and the protest tarnished her public reputation. Her subsequent albums failed to become major commercial successes and O'Connor was effectively exiled from the music industry.

Despite the intense backlash, O'Connor did not regret her act as she always felt like she was a protest singer, not a pop star. "I'm not sorry I did it. It was brilliant," she told The New York Times in 2021. "But it was very traumatizing. It was open season on treating me like a crazy b****." Sadly, Sinéad O'Connor died in 2023 at 56, and tributes poured in to honor her legacy.

Yet another "Saturday Night Live" performance that made headlines for all the wrong reasons featured singer Ashlee Simpson, who appeared on the October 23, 2004 episode as the musical act. Simpson was promoting her chart-topping debut album "Autobiography," and after successfully singing her song "Pieces of Me," was about to perform the titular tune when the previous vocal track began to play instead. Confusion quickly ensued and her band tried to fix the error, making the whole ordeal that much worse.

The cringe-worthy snafu revealed that Simpson had been lip-syncing to a pre-recorded track during the performance. Clearly uncomfortable, she then did an awkward jig before fleeing the stage while her band continued playing. "It's so embarrassing," Simpson said when she spoke to "Total Request Live" via VH1 shortly after the incident, "Because it sucks. The total situation was a bummer. I made a complete fool of myself." Simpson also claimed she was advised by her doctor not to sing live because she had been suffering from vocal cord inflammation due to acid reflux.

Simpson received a lot of backlash for her lip-syncing and for playing the blame game, and her career was never able to match the level of success as her sister Jessica Simpson's after the notorious blunder. Her sophomore album "I Am Me" sold significantly less in the United States than its predecessor did upon its debut (more than 170,000 fewer copies), and she was brutally booed during her performance at the 2005 Orange Bowl.  

Kanye "Ye" West is no stranger to creating controversies with fellow celebrities, as the polarizing rapper has made his fair share of shocking comments throughout his career. Though nothing he has said or done has definitely destroyed his career, West's reputation took a massive hit in 2009 when he stormed the VMAs' stage after Taylor Swift won Best Female Video, making for one of the most memorable pop culture moments of all time.

The Grammy-winning rapper grabbed the microphone from a then 19-year-old Swift and proclaimed that Beyoncé should have been the one to win the award instead. West infamously declared, "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!" His stunt stunned a mortified Swift and caused the live audience to boo him. West eventually gave the microphone back to Swift and flipped off the crowd.

West was removed for the remainder of the show and was heavily criticized by the media, fellow celebrities, and viewers at home for the appalling TV moment. President Barack Obama even called West a "jacka**" for his behavior, and the live moment led to a years-long feud between the rapper and the pop star which would only intensify over time. The VMAs moment also marked a major turning point in the way the public viewed West, who would continue to cause controversy in the ensuing years.  

Despite having a decade-spanning career and selling over 100 million records worldwide, the iconic Janet Jackson was shamelessly villainized in the media after she performed alongside Justin Timberlake at the 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Show. During their joint performance of "Rock Your Body," Timberlake pulled a part of Jackson's costume off and her breast was briefly exposed, causing instant chaos amongst viewers.

Deemed "Nipplegate," Jackson and Timberlake's Super Bowl Halftime Show even led to a federal investigation, and she was ridiculed by the media, many panning it as a tacky publicity stunt. "It's truly embarrassing for me to know that 90 million (actually 140 million) people saw my breast, and then to see it blown up on the Internet the size of a computer screen," Jackson told USA Today at the time. "But there are much worse things in the world, and for this to be such a focus, I don't understand."

The singer was subsequently blacklisted by Hollywood and the radio and she was banned from attending the Grammys shortly thereafter despite Timberlake being allowed to appear. It took years for the controversy to die down and for Jackson to be welcomed back in the industry. In the 2022 A&E and Lifetime documentary "Janet," the songstress reflected on turbulent time. "Honestly, this whole thing was blown way out of proportion. And, of course, it was an accident that should not have happened, but everyone is looking for someone to blame and that's got to stop."

There was a moment in time when comedian Steve Harvey was the butt of all jokes and relentlessly ridiculed by the media. The "Family Feud" host made a major faux pas while presenting Miss Universe 2015 in Las Vegas, for which he accidentally named the wrong winner of the competition. During the pageant, Harvey mistakenly named runner-up Miss Colombia (Ariadna Gutiérrez) as the winner before realizing that Miss Philippines (Pia Wurtzbach) was the true victor, having read the results wrong.

Harvey profusely apologized for the blunder and took full responsibility, and for a while his reputation was sullied and he was heavily mocked on social media. After the mishap, he tweeted a since-deleted apology (screen-grabbed by USA Today) that did more harm than good, as Harvey attracted further anger by misspelling both "Philippines" and "Colombia." Miss Universe winner Pia Wurtzbach took the chaos in stride and later called the whole event a "very non-traditional crowning moment" (via NBC News).

The aftermath of Steve Harvey's famous Miss Universe mix-up was more serious than most realize, as the comedian received threatening messages and packages after the incident that led him to get full security. "I live on a dead-end street — and it got real when things started coming over the gate," Harvey told Cigar Aficionado (via Us Weekly). "Empty boxes with bows and pictures of bombs. And these with death threats on social media that would pop up from fake IP addresses. I wound up with 24-hour armed security at my house."

German R&B group Milli Vanilli steadily emerged as one of the industry's most successful acts in the late 1980s and early '90s after releasing their certified sextuple-platinum album "Girl You Know It's True" in 1989. The album spawned five top 10 singles and earned the duo the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990, but their spectacular rise to stardom crashed and burned after an unfortunate live performance left them shamefully exposed.

On July 21, 1989, Milli Vanilli were doing a live-performance on MTV when a malfunctioning hard-drive exposed the group for lip-syncing on-air. Member Rob Pilatus reportedly knew their music career was essentially over, with the singer telling the Los Angeles Times, "I knew right then and there, it was the beginning of the end for Milli Vanilli. When my voice got stuck in the computer, and it just kept repeating and repeating, I panicked. I didn't know what to do. I just ran off the stage."

The group eventually admitted to being frauds after attracting skepticism from the media, revealing that their vocals were performed by other people and that they didn't actually sing anything themselves on the record. After their confession, Milli Vanilli's Grammy Award was rescinded (marking the first time this happened) and they were dropped from their label. Pilatus and fellow member Fab Morvan attempted to stage a comeback in 1998 with the album "Back and in Attack," but Pilatus died from an accidental drug overdose and the record was never released. 

Formerly known by the stage name Natalia Kills, British pop singer Teddy Sinclair obliterated her music career when she was serving as a judge in the New Zealand version of "The X Factor." In 2015, Sinclair and her husband and fellow musician Willy Moon both appeared on the competition series as judges and mentors, during which she made scathing comments to contestant Joe Irvine. During the first live show, Sinclair tore into Irvine and accused him of copying Moon's fashion and music style, calling him "cheesy" and "disgusting" in her humiliating remarks.

Moon chimed in and compared him to Norman Bates from "Psycho," and the pair's scathing comments immediately led to a media firestorm. A petition was quickly made to have the couple fired from the program, and it received over 70,000 signatures within 24 hours. The show's sponsors and fellow judges condemned Sinclair and Moon's actions, and they were abruptly fired from the series the next day.

In an interview with Paper, Sinclair revealed how she and her family had received death threats as a result of her comments but acknowledged she was in the wrong for the incident. "All I can say is that I can't talk about 'X Factor' itself. I can say that I'd never support anything like what I did on TV. If I were someone else watching me, I'd think I were Satan, too. I'm not a victim here because I was there. I did that. On television."