Univision host Rodner Figueroa fired for racist Michelle Obama remark

By: Chris Thompson

March 12, 2015

FILE - In this June 22, 2014 file photo, Rodner Figueroa accepts the award for outstanding daytime talent in Spanish for “El Gordo y la Flaca” at the 41st annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

In this June 22, 2014 file photo, Rodner Figueroa accepts the award for outstanding daytime talent in Spanish for “El Gordo y la Flaca” at the 41st annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

Rodner Figeuora, an Emmy Award-winning talk show host for the Spanish-language broadcasting company Univision, was fired yesterday after he declared on the air that Michelle Obama looks like someone from the cast of “Planet of the Apes.” Figueroa is known for his biting fashion commentary.

According to CNN, Figueroa said on the entertainment show “El Gordo y La Flaca” that Obama “looks like she’s part of the cast of ‘Planet of the Apes.'” Figueroa was fired thereafter. A Univision spokesperson confirmed the termination to the Huffington Post’s Spanish-language site HuffPost Voces, adding that Figueroa’s remark was “reprehensible.”

Univision is the fifth-largest television network in the country, with a broadcast power that reaches 94 million households.

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