'We feel very comfortable continuing with Carter in the show,' said TLC president Nancy Daniels on Friday.
TLC is standing by embattled Trading Spaces star Carter Oosterhouse amid sexual misconduct allegations.
On Friday, TLC President and General Manager Nancy Daniels was put on the hot seat and asked to explain why the network chose not to part ways with Oosterhouse.
"We did look into the allegations. We also looked into everything that we did throughout our production on this [run] of Trading Spaces, and we take it all very seriously," Daniels said at the winter Television Critics Association press tour, per THR. "At the end of the day, we feel very comfortable continuing with Carter in the show."
Oosterhouse was originally scheduled to appear on the panel for the Trading Spaces reboot, airing this spring, but was taken off the panel list.
Oosterhouse has been accused by makeup artist Kailey Kaminsky of sexual misconduct during production of his HGTV series, Carter Can. Kaminsky alleged in a December interview with The Hollywood Reporter that the Carter Can host coerced her into giving him oral sex after he threatened her employment in 2008.
Oosterhouse responded by saying that he found the allegations "upsetting," and admitted that he had an "intimate relationship" with Kaminsky but insisted it was "was 100 percent mutual."
Actress Amy Smart, Oosterhouse's wife of six years, defended him as well. "When you are in a CONSENSUAL RELATIONSHIP, then you need to take responsibility for engaging in that and not play victim," wrote the 41-year-old actress in an Instagram post in December. "IF a relationship does not work out the way you want it to, then sorry, but that is the risk you take when getting intimate with another person."
Oosterhouse is among the stars returning for the Trading Spaces revival, nearly a decade after the series left TLC, joining host Paige Davis, Ty Pennington, Genevieve Gorder, Doug Wilson, Hildi Santo-Tomas, Vern Yip, Laurie Smith and Frank Bielic.
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