Nick Cannon has delivered a blunt verdict on the idea of consolidating complicated family logistics into one giant message thread: do not expect a six-mother group chat to be a miracle solution.
During a November 9 appearance on On Par with Maury Povich, Cannon was asked whether putting everyone into a conversation to organize Thanksgiving plans would be manageable or disastrous. His response made clear that this was not a theoretical exercise. He had already tried it.
“Tried it. Off the rails. Too wild for TV,” Cannon said.
The remark came during a game in which host Maury Povich presented scenarios for Cannon to judge. But the answer also offered a small, carefully bounded glimpse into the organizational challenge of co-parenting across multiple homes. Cannon is the father of 12 children and identified the mothers involved in this wider co-parenting structure as Mariah Carey, Bre Tiesi, Abby De La Rosa, Brittany Bell, LaNisha Cole and Alyssa Scott.
Importantly, Cannon did not identify anyone as responsible for the group chat’s failure. He also did not recount what was said, when the messages were exchanged, or whether the conversation concerned a specific dispute. The available detail is limited to his overall assessment: putting every household into the same thread was not, in his view, the best arrangement.
“Civil” is the standard Cannon accepted
Povich followed up by asking whether the women get along. Cannon initially pushed back on the phrasing with a question of his own: how, exactly, does one define “get along”?
When Povich suggested “civil,” Cannon agreed. That distinction matters. In everyday conversation, “getting along” can imply close friendship, frequent socializing, or an uncomplicated shared dynamic. “Civil,” by contrast, describes a more practical baseline: interactions can remain respectful and workable even if every person is not operating as part of one unified social circle.
Cannon returned to that practical point in explaining the chat problem. Each person has an independent life, he said, and bringing all of them into one shared conversation had not been a productive move.
“Everybody has their own life, their own. But now putting them all on a group chat together, not the not the best idea,” Cannon said.
That is not confirmation of broad conflict between the co-parents. It is a comment on one communication format. A group chat centralizes messages, but it also means every logistical question, disagreement or misunderstanding is seen by every participant at once. Cannon’s answer suggests that approach did not fit the dynamics of his family.
A candid answer, with clear limits
The exchange had the shape of a television-friendly anecdote, but Cannon avoided turning it into a detailed account of private interactions. His “too wild for TV” line indicates that he found the exchange chaotic, yet he offered no evidence that would allow outside observers to identify a particular person or assign blame.
That restraint is significant because the question itself concerns several households and people with their own public profiles. The conversation established only that Cannon tried a shared chat and no longer considers it a good idea. It did not establish the nature of any individual relationships beyond his acceptance of “civil” as a fair description.
For audiences, it is a useful reminder of the difference between a memorable on-air line and a full account of private family life. The former is what Cannon supplied. The latter remains undisclosed.
The family logistics behind the joke
Cannon also spoke about participating in school drop-offs and pickups, sports, and other extracurricular activities. Those routine responsibilities are the less sensational side of the discussion: coordinating children’s schedules while also maintaining a television career.
In that context, the group-chat story is less about an unusual messaging mishap than a familiar coordination problem magnified by scale. School activities, transportation, holiday arrangements and household-specific schedules all require communication. A single thread may appear efficient on paper, but it can also combine separate needs into one crowded conversation.
None of that means one communication method is universally better than another; Cannon was talking about his own experience. Still, his answer puts the emphasis on an often-overlooked part of public discussions about celebrity families: the ongoing administrative work. The talk-show exchange was humorous, but the responsibilities he described are ordinary parenting tasks carried out across an unusually complex set of arrangements.
A Netflix family series is still on the way
Povich also asked Cannon whether anyone had complained that he spends more time with one household than another. Cannon did not directly answer that question. Instead, he teased an upcoming Netflix documentary series about his family relationships.
“It sounds like you’ve seen my docu series already,” Cannon told Povich.
Cannon said the series is due in December, though he did not reveal its title. He said that Carey, Tiesi and De La Rosa would appear. The project was already announced, and Cannon’s comments indicate it will explore more of the family dynamics that briefly surfaced in the Povich interview.
That creates a reasonable expectation that viewers will see more context around Cannon’s relationships and his day-to-day role as a parent. It does not confirm that the group-chat incident itself will be featured, or that the series will answer the specific questions raised in the interview. Cannon used the project as a tease rather than providing additional details.
The series will arrive in a television environment that continues to make room for personality-driven projects and relationship-focused programming. Elsewhere in comedy television, FX has expanded the episode order for Adults, another indication of the broad range of formats competing for viewers’ attention. Cannon’s project, however, is positioned around his actual family life rather than scripted comedy.
Where Cannon’s television work fits in
The group-chat comments also arrived as Cannon continues to work in television, including as the host of Nick Cannon @ Night, which airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on BET. There is an inherent contrast in the material: Cannon discussed the challenges of his own family logistics while working in a medium where he gives others relationship advice.
That contrast is part of what made the Povich exchange notable. Cannon did not present himself as having discovered a perfect system. Instead, he offered a concise admission that one seemingly simple organizational tool failed for his situation. The quote lands because it rejects an easy answer rather than pretending a large, multi-household family can be reduced to a holiday-planning thread.
For now, the public details remain narrow. Cannon says the group chat went off the rails; he considers the co-parenting relationships civil; he remains involved in regular school and extracurricular routines; and a Netflix documentary series is expected in December with Carey, Tiesi and De La Rosa among its participants. Everything beyond that—including the contents of the messages and the specific mechanics of each family’s communication—has not been disclosed.
