Photo Credit: Instagram / @NickCannon

Earlier this week, Nick Cannon announced that he’d be quitting America’s Got Talent after eight seasons. The reason behind his departure, according to Nick, was that NBC had threatened to let him go anyway because he’d made a racial joke about the network, and he wanted to beat them to the punch.

They’re calling BS, however.

Marisa Mendez: Twitter || Instagram

Per PageSix, NBC execs were “blindsided” by Nick’s announcement, and say they never even threatened to fire Nick. They also say he’ll likely run into legal problems if he tries to leave for real. For now, it looks like he’s not backing down, so let’s see what happens!