‘Cosmos’ Season 2 to Miss March Premiere Date as Neil deGrasse Tyson Investigation Continues

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The second season of “Cosmos” will not air in March as planned.

The nonfiction series hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was set to air on March 3 on Fox and National Geographic. But according to listings sent out by Fox on Friday, reruns of “Family Guy” will now air in the timeslot intended for the series.

The news comes after Tyson was accused of sexual misconduct by two women in November. Dr. Katelyn N. Allers of Bucknell University claimed deGrasse Tyson groped her at an event in 2009. Another woman, Ashley Watson, claimed that she quit her former job as Tyson’s assistant in response to repeated inappropriate sexual advances he made toward her. Approximately a year prior, a musician named Tchiya Amet claimed that Tyson raped her when they were both graduate students.

Fox and the producers of “” opened an investigation into the claims once they came to light.

“The credo at the heart of ‘Cosmos’ is to follow the evidence wherever it leads,” the producers said in a joint statement in November. “The producers of ‘Cosmos’ can do no less in this situation. We are committed to a thorough investigation of this matter and to act accordingly as soon as it is concluded.”

Tyson issued a response to the allegations in November. He claimed that with Dr. Allers, the alleged groping was an attempt to see whether a planetary tattoo on her arm that extended to her shoulder included Pluto. Of Watson, Tyson wrote that her departure as his production assistant was over an evening of wine and cheese at his home, during which he said he did not touch her except to give her a handshake at the end of the night. He added that when she informed him of her discomfort over the meeting, he apologized, and she accepted his apology. While he admitted to having a brief relationship with Amet during graduate school, he denied ever assaulting her.

“I’m the accused, so why believe anything I say? Why believe me at all?” he wrote. “That brings us back to the value of an independent investigation, which FOX/NatGeo (the networks on which Cosmos and StarTalk air) announced that they will conduct. I welcome this.”