Albin Lohr-Jones/ Independent Still Pool photo ©2017 Consolidated News Photos

We’ll be seeing a lot less of Steve Harvey on TV soon, sadly.

News leaked that he will be replaced by Melissa McCarthy as the host of NBC’s kids’ talent show Little Big Shots only days after it was announced that his daytime talk show Steve was being canceled.

Although Harvey hosted Little Big Shots for its first three seasons, McCarthy will take over when the show returns for its fourth season, People reports.

“Melissa’s just an incredible performer and incredible comedian,” NBC’s co-chairman of entertainment Paul Telegdy said in a statement. “Melissa is a strong creative force with her own ideas. Changes will be apparent.”

Telegdy did not appear to comment on Harvey’s departure.

It was announced last week that Harvey’s daytime talk show would be airing its last episode in June after his time slot was replaced by Kelly Clarkson’s new talk show, set to debut this fall. Harvey also filmed Steve’s final episode last week.

Harvey seemed to have taken the news of Clarkson’s new show by surprise, saying that he assumed he was coming back for another season when he was interviewed at Variety ‘s Entertainment Summit in January.

Michelle Obama on “Steve.”

Many speculate that Harvey was a casualty of the animosity between NBCUniversal and Endeavor’s IMG Original Content over IMG’s takeover of the show two seasons ago. After the IMG transition, NBCUniversal executives were said to be furious at losing their ownership stake in Harvey’s show, even though it remained the distributor of Steve.



“I thought I was until they made an announcement a couple weeks ago that they wanted to give Kelly Clarkson … my slot,” he said. “I’m an honorable guy and I’m just an old school guy and I just thought that you’re supposed to talk to people and go, ‘Look, you’ve been good business for us. This is what we’re thinking of doing. Are you okay with that?’ No, you don’t just put something in the paper and say, ‘I’m gonna make this move right here’ because it’s crazy.”

Harvey has yet to publicly comment since news of the Steve cancellation and his replacement at Little Big Shots was announced.