Bloomberg TV is scrapping its plan to launch a streaming show based around a famously zany New York University professor and podcaster who recently raised eyebrows with his bizarre, sexually charged promotional antics.
Bloomberg on Wednesday confirmed to The Daily Beast that the financial news network will not go through with its plan to launch the primetime program hosted by Scott Galloway, a marketing professor-turned-bombastic financial news personality.
“We’ve reached a mutual decision with Scott Galloway not to proceed with our previously announced Bloomberg Quicktake project,” a Bloomberg Media spokesperson told The Daily Beast. “It will not air as planned.”
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The move comes after Galloway shared a strange promotion for the show earlier this month on Twitter and briefly went viral for it. Posing shirtless in a hardhat while holding a pickaxe, the Vox podcaster made a series of somewhat nonsensical jokes about his sex life, at one point touting his erectile dysfunction.
“I like to bring construction into my sex life. I’m a big fan of one-night stands. I call it ‘the nut and bolt,’” he said. “Anyway, bitcoin, bitches!”
After initially sharing the 30-second promotional clip online, Galloway seemed to have a change of heart, deleting his post hours later.
But the clip, which was captured and shared by New York Times media reporter Katie Robertson, continued to circulate among Bloomberg staff, many of whom expressed discomfort and confusion about why Galloway shared the clip, and what exactly the joke was supposed to be.
The network did not respond to The Daily Beast’s question about whether the decision not to go through with Galloway’s show was linked to the video. When asked if the video was the reason Bloomberg had cancelled his show, Galloway told The Daily Beast, “no comment.”
While a marketing professor at NYU, Galloway has become an increasingly popular pundit over the past several years, offering loud economic predictions and pronouncements, and criticizing major tech platforms including Facebook and daytrading service Robinhood. He appears regularly on cable networks including MSNBC to opine on tech and business news, and hosts the Vox Media podcast Pivot with tech journalist Kara Swisher.
The show was part of a slate of new programming for Quicktake, Bloomberg’s 24/7 online-only service that was relaunched last year as part of the financial news service’s foray into the streaming space.
Galloway’s show was set to debut later this year as part of a primetime slate of shows alongside several others including a show hosted by perennial NBA all-star Chris Paul and Imran Amed, the founder and CEO of Business of Fashion.
