Ellen Pompeo Is Calling For a Boycott of A&E Due to Its Controversial New Show

Updated on Dec 23, 2016 at 12:00 AM

This post has been updated with new information.

A&E made headlines earlier this week when the network announced its latest show, a "powerful" documentary series called Generation KKK, a name that it has since changed. The backlash began almost immediately, and chief among the objectors is Grey's Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo, who voiced her disgust in a series of tweets on Wednesday. Though the show supposedly aims to expose the KKK's modern recruiting techniques, Pompeo claims that the network is "capitalizing on a disgusting wave that Trump started." For reference, here's A&E's official statement about the series:

"By actively targeting families and indoctrinating children, membership in the Ku Klux Klan is on the rise, causing America to come face to face with its stark divisions. In Generation KKK, cameras follow four prominent Klan families who each have a family member trying to escape the Ku Klux Klan. This series pulls back the curtain on the organization that the Anti-Defamation League calls 'a racist, anti-Semitic movement with a commitment to extreme violence to achieve its goals of racial segregation and white supremacy,' to show its effects on American families as members grapple with the consequences of leaving."

According to the network, the show "will also follow a network of anti-hate and peace activists working to break the cycle, by helping to convince members to leave the hate group." Here's what Pompeo had to say.

Shame on you @AETV https://t.co/eeGrdYbdjS

— Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 21, 2016

Hey I have an idea...why don't we all never watch ANYTHING on A&E again who's with me????

— Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 21, 2016

maybe @AETV you should just run episodes of @GreysABC instead... we are smarter more compassionate and oh yeah way better looking ✌🏾👍🏾

— Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 21, 2016

So I guess A&E stands for ...we will try to put Anything and Everything on tv... because we are a bunch of desperate pathetic tv execs 👍🏾

— Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 21, 2016

We shouldn't be giving ignorance a platform we already did that this year and look what it got us https://t.co/kkl0bEYo2E

— Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 21, 2016

The timing of this show angers me the most they are capitalizing on a disgusting wave that Trump started and media is normalizing NOT OK

— Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 21, 2016

On Friday, A&E announced it would be changing the show's title to Escaping the KKK: A Documentary Series Exploring Hate in America, a title that would "better reflect the content" of the series. A press release continued to explain that the alteration has been made "to ensure that no one can mistake its intent and that the title alone does not serve to normalize the Klan." Pompeo acknowledged the news shortly after it broke:

Thank U @aetv for caring enough to make changes 👏🏾👍🏾A&E Changes 'Generation KKK' Title | Variety https://t.co/bvwsLCKDZ6

— Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 23, 2016

Escaping the KKK: A Documentary Series Exploring Hate in America premieres on Jan. 10.