Jason Carr’s firing from WDIV-TV (Channel 4) earlier this month came after multiple run-ins with co-workers and management, station insiders have told the Detroit Free Press.
Carr, who had been a co-host of “Live in the D,” was dismissed after the Dec. 6 airing of “Jason Carr Live” on the station’s streaming channel, Local 4+. His biography was quietly purged from the station website and he was edited out of the “Live in the D" intro.
WDIV confirmed Carr's termination but did not offer further details. A "Live in the D" Facebook page confirmed his departure in a Tuesday statement.
"WDIV is very fortunate to have viewers who are deeply passionate about our programs and our people," the message read. "Many of you are asking what happened to Jason Carr. As you might imagine, we don't comment on station personnel issues. As it relates to Jason, last week he and the station parted ways. Jason's impact at WDIV was substantial and we wish him great success and happiness in the future."
Carr did not respond to a request for comment.
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Co-workers told the Free Press that Carr had been admonished by management half a dozen times before his final show, in which he described unnamed colleagues as unfriendly. In one previous incident, the co-workers said, he left the set during a commercial break to browbeat someone working in the control room.
In a video of the Dec. 6 show obtained by the Free Press, Carr called an unnamed former colleague "one of the worst human beings" he has ever met.
"I pull no punches and I offer no apologies," he said. "There’s somebody that used to work here who no longer does. No secret at all that this person and I ... oil and water, did not care for one another in the slightest. In fact … one of the worst human beings I feel like I’ve ever met in my life."
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Carr said during the rant that he has "never encountered" so many unfriendly people at any of the other news stations he has worked at, and that they never stop to talk to him.
Throughout the video, Carr is talking with co-worker Khary Hobbs, who is mainly off-camera.
"You and I both work with somebody, and you know exactly who I'm gonna talk about," Carr said to Hobbs about an unnamed co-worker, "who is infamously cranky, cantankerous, sullen. Rarely smiles or laughs. ... I see him being gregarious with other people, but all I have ever gotten from him is cantankerous. Why he and I are not friends ... I literally have no idea."
Carr said a manager in the building once told him he was "aloof," a characterization he disputed at length.
"Do you find me to be remotely aloof?" Carr asked Hobbs
"No," Hobbs replied.
Carr noted that at a previous job, he was well-liked and nicknamed "the mayor," "the glue" and "man of the people."
"I feel like the word implies I'm too good to talk to you, I'm aloof. BS," Carr said. "I walk down the street to American Coney Island, I get stopped seven, eight, nine times in four blocks for selfies and I talk to the viewers. 'Oh, we love you' and I'm like, 'I love you back, thanks for watching.' I'm always engaged. ... I'm not aloof.
"I find three in 10 people that work in this building to be aloof."
Carr, a Michigan State University graduate who is married to WJBK-TV (Channel 2) anchor Taryn Asher, has amassed a large following on social media, but has not commented on any of his platforms about his departure from WDIV.
He came to WDIV in 2016 from WJBK, where he had been a casualty of corporate-wide budget cuts. He had been regarded highly enough there that the station allowed him to craft a Facebook Live video in which he left WJBK on his final day and was transported to his new job at Channel 4.
At WDIV, he co-hosted the 11 a.m. “Live in the D” program with Tati Amare, who has been joined since his departure by Michelle Oliver.
Contact Emma Stein: estein@freepress.com and follow her on Twitter @_emmastein.