Lance Bass says his CW show was killed after he came out as gay

Lance Bass opened up about one of the career hurdles he faced after coming out as gay in 2006, saying development on a pilot he had planned to film for The CW was abruptly halted.

“I had a sitcom with The CW at the time and we were about to shoot the pilot and this came out and they said, ‘We can’t do the show anymore. Like, they have to believe that you’re straight to play a straight character,” Bass shared on the Politickin’ podcast. “Every casting director I knew said, ‘Lance, we can’t cast you because they can’t see past that… You’re too famous for being gay now that they can’t see you as anything other than That.’ So I have lost everything.”

“It was a crazy, scary situation because all the examples I’ve ever had of someone coming out, especially in entertainment, were that it’s a career killer,” Bass continued.

Bass had transitioned into acting after starring in the boy band NSYNC from 1995 to 2002. In 2001 he appeared in the romantic comedy ‘On the Line’. In August 2006, he came out as gay in a People magazine cover. CW had just been launched at the time, following a merger between UPN and The WB.

Bass went on to say that he struggled to find work in Hollywood after coming out. He was a contestant on Season 7 of “Dancing With the Stars” in 2008 and had a six-month Broadway run playing Corny Collins in the long-running production of “Hairspray.” He and the rest of NSYNC reunited last year for a new single “Better Place.”