TBS Suspends Production on Louis C.K. Comedy 'The Cops'

The Louis C.K. fallout continues following sexual-misconduct allegations made against the comedian Thursday.

TBS has suspended production indefinitely on The Cops, an animated series from C.K. that was set to debut in 2018.

"Production on The Cops has been suspended until further review," the network said in a statement Friday.

On Thursday, five different women accused C.K. of misconduct and claimed that he either masturbated in front of them or asked to do so.

C.K. issued an apology Friday, in which he admitted "these stories are true." He continued in a lengthy statement, "At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my dick without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly."

(Read his full statement here.)

On Thursday, FX said in a statement that the situation regarding the Louie creator and star was "under review." However, on Friday, the cable network announced it was severing all ties with the comedian and ending his overall deal at FX Productions after he admitted that the allegations were true in his lengthy statement. At the same time that FX announced it was cutting ties with C.K., he was also dropped by his management company, 3 Arts, and by his publicist.

C.K. was executive producing The Cops through his Pig Newton production company, which, until Friday, had been based at FX Productions under a rich overall deal. Through Pig Newton, he also produced FX's Baskets and Better Things, Amazon's One Mississippi and FX's Louie, which had been on an indefinite hiatus since May 2015.

As part of its statement, FX said C.K. "will no longer serve as executive producer or receive compensation on any of the four shows we were producing with him — Better Things, Baskets, One Mississippi and The Cops."

The Cops was co-created by C.K. with Albert Brooks. Together, the two were also set to exec produce and voice the two main characters: two cops working in Los Angeles. While The Cops was originally developed for FX, it landed a series order at the Turner-owned TBS in January.

It's unclear if the animated series would move forward with a new voice actor and executive producer in C.K.'s place, or if the series would be scrapped altogether.

In a series of tweets late Friday after production was suspended, trans actress Jen Richards (Nashville) revealed she had been cast on the series to voice an animated trans character.

"There was going to be an animated trans character, voiced by a trans actress, on network television. The consequences of these actions go far," she wrote on Twitter. "Fuck. That announcement kinda took the 'look at all these amazing women' wind out of my sails. I know this isn't about me, but I was really excited to voice a cartoon character. To have a badass, openly trans character on network t.v. would have been awesome. Oh well."

In addition to FX and TBS, HBO has since cut C.K. from its upcoming Night of Too Many Stars autism special and also removed his stand-up specials and series Lucky Louie from its on-demand services. Netflix has scrapped an upcoming stand-up special from C.K., the second in a two-special deal, citing the "disturbing" allegations made against him.

In addition to his sprawling TV slate, C.K. also wrote and directed the new film I Love You, Daddy, which was set for a Nov. 17 release. However, The Orchard nixed plans to distribute the film on Friday in the wake of the New York Times exposé.

Netflix made a similar move to TBS' when House of Cards star and executive producer Kevin Spacey was first accused of sexual harassment by Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp on Oct. 29. Production was suspended indefinitely on the upcoming sixth and final season of the political drama two days later, and the streamer has since cut all ties with Spacey, including dropping his upcoming Gore Vidal biopic. It remains unclear when or if House of Cards will resume production minus Spacey. Sources told THR earlier this month that the writers were actively reworking the final season to write out Spacey's character.

Nov. 10, 6:45 p.m.: Updated with comments from Jen Richards.

TBS Suspends Production on Louis C.K. Animated Comedy 'The Cops'