GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump settles lawsuit with Univision
12 February 2016 Entertainment News
Fourth Estate Staff
Los Angeles, CA, United States (4E) – Donald Trump and Univision have settled their lawsuit over Miss USA and Miss Universe telecasts, which were dropped by the latter last year.
Trump said in a speech after announcing his candidacy for the presidential race this 2016 that undocumented Mexican immigrants were “rapists.” His exact words are as follows: “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” This has stirred backlash and outrage from many people including Univision.
During the decision to no longer air Miss USA and Miss Universe, Univision just signed a five-year deal with the Miss Universe Organization for U.S. Spanish-language TV rights. The Miss Universe franchise at that time was jointly owned by Trump Organization and NBC Universal. NBC was the forced to join Univision in dripping the July 12 Miss USA telecast to show that they are protesting against Trump after making the remarks about Mexican immigrants.
The Miss USA pageant was then aired on the independent network called ReelzChannel . The sudden redirection of the pageant has caused a fraction of the audience as compared to the typical numbers of viewers when the pageant was aired on NBC.
Trump then filed a $500 million lawsuit against Univision and claimed that Democratic fundraiser Haim Saban drove the company to decide to back out of the contract citing political interference. Saban is one of the owners of Univision. The five-year deal that Univision has signed initially was valued at $13.5 million.
Trump also filed a lawsuit against NBC but it was settled much earlier. The grounds for settlement included the agreement that Trump will buy the remainder of the pageant’s owner. He sold this to the WME /IMG talent agency last September.
After the lawsuit was filed, Univision even banned their employees from engaging in work-related business at any Trump-owned facility such as Trump’s National Doral luxury hotel.
The details of the settlement have not been revealed and Trump said in a statement, “I have known Univision’s president and CEO, Randy Falco, for more than 20 years, and I’m glad we are able to put these differences behind us.” Falco echoed Trump’s statements.
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