Matthew Weiner ANTHONY HARVEY/AFP/Getty Images Matthew Weiner has exited Eddie Murphy‘s Peacock series The Chairman following a clash with producers, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Murphy is among the producers.
Weiner (Mad Men) was the project’s showrunner. The reason given for his departure was “creative differences.”
A new showrunning team is already in place, we’re told, and will be announced soon. The writers room has been shuttered for two weeks amid the transition.
THR reached out to Weiner for comment did not immediately respond back.
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Variety first reported the news of Weiner’s exit.
The Chairman is being produced by Universal Television and David Glasser’s (Yellowstone) 101 Studios, which has a first-look film and television deal at NBCUniversal. The show also stands out as the first project from Chris McCarthy under his overall deal with NBCU. (McCarthy followed his buddy Taylor Sheridan over from Paramount.)
The plot of The Chairman remains under wraps.
The Chairman will be Murphy’s first TV series regular role since NBC’s Saturday Night Live, which launched his comedy career. He served as a cast member on the sketch comedy series for four seasons from 1980 to 1984. Murphy is often credited with having saved the struggling SNL — he even hosted it once as a cast member when movie star Nick Nolte fell sick. (And then twice more as planned.)
Murphy later went on to star in dozens of films, including the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, 1996’s The Nutty Professor, 1998’s Doctor Dolittle, 2003’s The Haunted Mansion, 2003’s Daddy Day Care, 2008’s Meet Dave and 2023’s You People. Murphy’s also voiced multiple characters, such as Donkey in the Shrek franchise and Thurgoode Orenthal Stubbs in The PJs. In 2007, he was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor for Dreamgirls.
Weiner has won nine Emmy awards, mostly for his iconic AMC series Mad Men. He was also a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos. Other credits include The Romanoffs, Becker and Are You Here.
In 2017, Kater Gordon, an Emmy-winning writer for Mad Men, accused Weiner of sexual harassment. Gordon said that while working late one night, Weiner told her she owed it to him to let him see her naked. She was let go from the series a year later. Weiner has repeatedly denied Gordon’s allegations, telling the New York Times in October 2018, “I have reasons I don’t believe that I said it, if that makes sense, but I really don’t remember saying it.”
For its part, 101 Studios has gone through numerous showrunner shuffles itself, mostly on Sheridan shows.
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