At least Don Imus won't be wondering about the status of his radio program anymore: CBS announced this afternoon that it has fired the controversial talk-show host.

The "Imus in the Morning" show was cancelled late this afternoon; the decision is effective immediately.

Coincidentally the firing was announced soon after an article by Mike Reilly satirizing Imus was posted on the influential Web writing site Xomba.com.

Mr. Imus was overheard mumbling as he left the building, "I did NOT make fun of the cast of Eight is Enough!"

(In all seriousness, though, CBS did cancel the show.)

Don Imus had for decades made a habit of offending people from many ethnic, religious, and racial groups, but the targets were usually politicians, professional athletes, and pundits.

His attack last week on the Rutgers University women's basketball team--which came on the day after the team lost in the NCAA national championship game--struck many people as a mean-spirited swipe at young people who did nothing to deserve such treatment. Five of the 10 Rutgers players are freshmen: a year ago, they were high school students.

During his show today (which he did not know would be his last), he criticized the media backlash against him, but also took responsibility for making the comments that caused the firestorm.

“I said a stupid, idiotic thing that hurt these kids,” he said of the Rutgers players, as quoted by the New York Times. “If I hadn’t have said it, we wouldn’t be here. So let’s stop whining about it.”