Last week, a group called Twittermoms created an online petition protesting Chris Brown’s nominations on Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards, which they planned to send to the cable channel’s parent company, Viacom.
On Monday morning, they had 74 signatures. By Tuesday morning, the number of signatures had skyrocketed to nearly 1,000.
LINK: Click here to see the online petition.
This comes amid reports that Viacom is getting pressure to remove Brown from consideration from the Kids’ Choice Awards as top executives report an “overwhelming” number of calls and emails from angry viewers.
According to a report in the Chicago Sun Times, a top Viacom official said Monday that the response was unlike anything the company had seen.
“The words I’d use to describe the situation are overwhelming and swamped. [The issue has] even gotten to the Sumner level,” the official told the Times, referring to Viacom head Sumner Redstone.
On Thursday, Brown encouraged young fans to vote for him for the Kids’ Choice Awards on the same day that he appeared in front of a California Superior Court facing two felony counts for his alleged attack on girlfriend Rihanna.
Brown published a post to his Myspace page reaching out to fans and urging them to vote for him for Favorite Male Singer and Favorite Song for “Kiss Kiss.”
“Hey fans,” the post reads. “Vote for Chris on the Kids Choice Awards 2009 link provided below … Thank you for your support.”
LINK: Click here to read Chris Brown’s MySpace post.
To many critics, Brown’s blog post was an indication that the star may not fully understand the severity of the charges he is facing, or that he simply doesn’t care.
And while Brown, 19, has already lost several endorsements, Nickelodeon, a network dedicated to children’s entertainment, has decided so far to keep Brown on the ballot. Nickelodeon said in a statement that “the kids who vote will ultimately decide who wins in the category.”
PHOTOS: The Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award online ballots featuring Chris Brown and Rihanna.
According to Sonia Ossorio, the president for the New York chapter of the National Association of Women (NOW), while Nickelodeon may be in a tough position since the viewers nominated Brown months before the incident, the singer should hardly be considered eligible.
“He’s not worthy of any award,” Ossorio told FOXNews.com. “He is in no way a positive role model for young men and women and needs to spend time obtaining professional help.”
If convicted, Brown – who remains free on $50,000 bail — could face anywhere from four years of probation to eight months in state prison.
While he issued an apology a few days after the incident, FOX 411 reported that it took Brown nine days to apologize to Rihanna herself, and did so through a text message — surprising in light of the charges that he allegedly slammed her head into a window, reportedly pounded on her face until her mouth filled with blood and possibly choked her to the brink of unconsciousness.
RAW DATA: Click here to read the chilling details of the LAPD affidavit.
RAW DATA: Read the California Superior Court Criminal Complaint against Chris Brown.
Weeks later, Brown reportedly reunited with Rihanna, 21, on the Star Island mansion of Sean “P.Diddy” Combs, where Brown was photographed laughing and flexing his muscles while jet skiing on the getaway.
Now, with the argument patched up and Browns’ arraignment postponed until April 6, the singer has returned to the studio to work on his third album.
PHOTOS: Click to see latest photos of Chris Brown.
PHOTOS: Click to see photos of Chris Brown and Rihanna.
But while stars like Diddy, Terrence Howard and several others have seemingly supported Brown, talk show mogul Oprah Winfrey warned Rihanna Friday that Brown “will hit you again.”
“Both Chris Brown and Rihanna, if I were your friend, I’d call you up and say, ‘Give it some time. Get yourself some counseling. Take care of yourself. Heal yourself first,’” Winfrey said on her talk show. “If a man hits you once, he will hit you again. He will hit you again.”
NOW’s Ossorio expressed support for Rihanna as well, stressing that the young singer is not alone.
“She’s not the first in this situation, and is not even the first who feels sympathy for her abuser and goes back to him,” she said. “But there are many ways out of the cycle of abuse, and everybody is rooting for her.”
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