Billy Eichner Calls Ross Mathews Twitter Feud a ‘Business Issue’

TCA 2016: “Gay people can be flawed too, and we’re all human,” “Billy on the Street” host says

Billy Eichner
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Billy Eichner addressed his brief Twitter feud with Ross Mathews at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Sunday.

Eichner was on stage promoting the upcoming fifth season of his TruTV man-on-the-street comedy series “Billy on the Street” when a critic questioned whether he had any reservations about publicly feuding with another member of the gay community.

“This is late breaking news: gay people are just like everybody else,” Eichner responded. “It really wasn’t about gay issues … That didn’t even occur to me. They’re two separate issues completely. That was a business issue, that wasn’t an LGBT issue.”

“And you know, gay people can be flawed too. And we’re all human, which is what we all learned at TCA today,” he joked.

Eichner and Mathews began squabbling on Twitter last month over a series of Capital One commercials that Eichner thought bore a few too many similarities to his series “Billy on the Street.”

“Yet another Billy on the Street ripoff. I usually ignore but this one is SHAMELESS and PATHETIC. (And not funny),” Eichner wrote, following it up with another tweet writing, “Hey @CapitalOne & @helloross – don’t steal from my f-king show. This is stolen intellectual property. F-K YOU. #GoodbyeRoss”

“Are you serious?” Mathews responded “I’ve been doing man on the street interviews since 2001. I’ve never even seen your stuff. Bless your heart.”

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