NBC scraps Bill Cosby comedy after sexual assault claims

NBC has scrapped a Bill Cosby comedy which was under development, the second outlet within a day to put off or abandon a Cosby project as another sexual assault allegation against the comic has emerged.

NBC spokeswoman Rebecca Marks said today that the project “is no longer under development”, and would make no further comment.

The announcement came after Netflix announced yesterday that it was postponing the November 27 premiere of a new Cosby stand-up comedy special.

Actress Janice Dickinson became the third woman in recent weeks to allege that she was attacked by Cosby when she told Entertainment Tonight that she was sexually assaulted by the comic in 1982.

Cosby’s lawyer said Dickinson’s charges are “false and outlandish”.

Dickinson told Entertainment Tonight that Cosby had given her red wine and a pill when they were together in a hotel room in Lake Tahoe, California, in 1982. When she woke up the next morning, "I wasn't wearing my pyjamas and I remembered before I passed out I had been sexually assaulted by this man".

Cosby’s lawyer, Martin Singer, said in a letter to reporters that Dickinson’s charges were “false and outlandish” and were contradicted by Dickinson herself in a published autobiography. Cosby’s spokesman, David Brokaw, was not available for comment.

The spiralling scandal has threatened the 77-year-old comedian’s reputation as America’s TV father at a time when he was launching a comeback. He has at least 35 performances scheduled throughout the US and Canada until May next year. None of the performances has been cancelled.

NBC’s project, announced in January, was in the very early stages, without a script or commitment to production. But it would have brought Cosby back to the network where he had reigned in the 1980s with the top-rated The Cosby Show.