Bill Cosby Is Removed From The Online List of Hall of Fame Honorees

Variety.com: All references to Bill Cosby have been removed from Television Academy’s website, including from the list of honorees in the organization’s Television Hall of Fame.

In addition, the Academy confirmed Wednesday to Variety, a bust of Cosby that had been removed during construction at the organization’s North Hollywood campus will not be returned to display. An Academy spokesperson told Variety that the organization has no plans to rescind Cosby’s four Primetime Emmy awards.

Cosby has not been removed from the academy’s Television Hall of Fame, as had been previously reported by another outlet, only from the online list of Hall of Fame honorees.

Cosby last month was found guilty in a retrial on sexual assault charges. A jury ruled against Cosby for aggravated indecent assault in all three counts brought against him by Andrea Constand. The 80-year-old comedian and actor now faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.

Each count for which Cosby was found guilty carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Sentencing is expected to take place later this year, setting up the possibility that a hearing could become a forum for some of the more than 50 women who have said that Cosby sexually assaulted them.

Cosby was accused of drugging and sexually molesting Andrea Constand, who served as operations manager for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, at his home outside Philadelphia in 2004. Cosby contended the sexual contact was consensual, but a jury determined that it was not.

Deadline was first to report Wednesday that Cosby’s name had been removed from the TV Academy website, that his bust would be kept in storage, and that his Emmys would not be rescinded at this time. But an Academy spokesperson told Variety that the website’s claim that Cosby had been removed from the Hall of Fame itself was incorrect.

Cosby was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1991, part of a class of inductees that included Andy Griffith, Ted Koppel, Sheldon Leonard, Dinah Shore, and Ted Turner. His family sitcom “The Cosby Show” ended its eight-season run on NBC the following year.