Well, this didn't happen fast enough didn't it.

NBC Drops Imus Show From Its Cable Network

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NBC announced this evening that it was dropping Don Imus’s program from its MSNBC cable network as the backlash continued to grow over racially disparaging remarks Mr. Imus made about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team and advertisers said they were pulling their commercials from the morning television program.

MSNBC, which simulcasts Mr. Imus’s nationally syndicated radio program, had previously said it would suspend Mr. Imus for two weeks, beginning Monday, as did CBS Radio, his chief employer. CBS Radio reaffirmed the suspension in a statement this evening after the NBC announcement and said it would “continue to speak with all concerned parties and monitor the situation closely.”

NBC said in a statement that it made its decision to drop Mr. Imus’s program after a review and “many conversations with our own employees”

“What matters to us most is that the men and women of NBC Universal have confidence in the values we have set for this company,” NBC said. “This is the only decision that makes that possible. Once again, we apologize to the women of the Rutgers basketball team and to our viewers. We deeply regret the pain this incident has caused.”

The decision was also announced on “NBC Nightly News” this evening at the beginning of the broadcast and on MSNBC.

Earlier in the day, General Motors and American Express joined the list of company that said they would not advertise on the simulcast of Mr. Imus’s radio program on MSNBC.

American Express was the fourth largest advertiser on the simulcast of “Imus in the Morning” on MBNBC, spending $1.2 million during the show in 2006, according to estimates from Monitor-Plus, a unit of the Nielsen Company. And the credit card company was also among the top spenders on the radio program aired by CBS Radio.

Judy Tenzer, a spokeswoman for American Express, said the company pulled its commercials because Mr. Imus referred last week to the Rutgers women’s team, most of whose members are black, as “nappy-headed hos.”

General Motors was one of the radio program’s top advertisers last year, but the company stopped advertising on it earlier this year in a decision unrelated to Mr. Imus’s remarks, said Ryndee Carney, a spokeswoman for General Motors. Initially, Ms. Carney said Tuesday that the company would continue to advertise on the MSNBC program.

“This doesn’t mean that we either agree or disagree with the views that are expressed on the show,” Ms. Carney said Tuesday. “We are a sponsor.”

This morning, however, General Motors issued a statement saying that it was suspending its advertising on the MSNBC program.

On Tuesday, Staples said it had asked MSNBC to remove it from Mr. Imus’s show, and Procter & Gamble said it would temporarily suspend all of its daytime advertising from MSNBC.