A&E might be burying a Scientology And The Aftermath episode about Danny Masterson
In 2017, months after numerous sexual assault allegations surfaced against Danny Masterson, outspoken Scientology critic (and host of A&E’s Scientology And The Aftermath) Leah Remini theorized that the reason no charges had been brought up against Masterson was because Scientology had been working behind the scenes to convince the LAPD to drop its investigation. Masterson is a member of Scientology, and Remini noted that buttering up local police departments so nobody will examine their actions too closely is directly in line with established Scientology practices. Masterson was eventually fired from Netflix show The Ranch, hit with a fifth rape accusation, and then got dropped by his agent, and Remini’s A&E series was set to explore the accusations against Masterson and the supposed cover-up in an episode that was filmed in 2017 and apparently should’ve aired later this month.
According to a story from The Daily Beast, though, A&E has quietly pulled the episode. A delay had previously been agreed upon back in 2017 after the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office reportedly expressed some concern that airing the episode could impact its investigation, but similarly outspoken Scientology critic Tony Ortega said that the network had recently decided that it had waited long enough and that the episode would air this month. Now, A&E says that it never actually scheduled the episode, which Ortega and unnamed Masterson accusers say is proof that a targeted campaign from Scientology (involving a number of possibly phony letters to the network and parent company Disney) has scared the network off of the Masterson story.
Whether or not that’s true, this was a story that already seemed to be the subject of a conscious cover-up, was put on a shelf for over a year, and is now being hit with more cover-up accusations. No matter what’s happening, it’s not a great look for A&E.