In a recent interview, Vice Media’s new CEO hinted that the company was still in their feelings about the departure of Desus Nice and the Kid Mero, the two comedic talk show hosts who recently took their talents to Showtime.
Speaking to Elle about her vision for the media company, Nancy Dubuc shared a quick but notable word about the two wildly popular personalities, who co-hosted the Desus and Mero program on Viceland until this summer.
“They’re going to a platform that their audience doesn’t pay for,” she told writer Carrie Battan of the pair. “I told them, ‘You can always come back.’”
Girl, OK.
It’s fairly clear that Dubuc doesn’t have high expectations for the show’s success on Showtime—though her rationale feels a bit murky. You need a cable package for Viceland, after all—though Desus and Mero’s best clips frequently made it to YouTube and the usual social media platforms. It was also fairly presumptuous to assume the Bodega Hive—Desus and Mero’s devoted fandom—wouldn’t find a way to follow the hold-no-punches pair to a new platform.
Because listen, I don’t know whose password I have, but I do know I can watch Showtime.
Dubuc’s reveal was all the more interesting considering that Desus and Mero claim it was Vice that cut their contract early. As Desus told Bossip earlier this summer (h/t the Fader), “Vice has us for 2 more months.”
“We did not leave Vice, Vice ended our contract. They were in their feelings because we were leaving,” he said.
Desus also divulged that Viceland’s demands weren’t sustainable for the pair, whose show was played every weeknight (their Showtime series will run once a week).
“Viceland wanted 160 episodes a year...We have no writers, it’s literally me and Mero talking to one another every day. If you want us to do this for 160 episodes, pay us 160 million dollars—otherwise we would have killed each other,” Desus told the gossip site. Mero added, “They kinda undervalued us a little bit.”
Desus and Mero was among the channel’s most popular offerings, frequently tagged as the “number one show in late night” for the last two years.
With Dubuc’s latest comment, Vice sounds a whole lot like that dude who gaslights the ever-living hell out of you for two years only to get salty as hell when he sees you finally moving on. Hair all shiny. Skin all clear of his toxic bullshit. Showtime money keeping you fed.
I think it’s appropriate to end the post by channeling the words of one wise Dominican.