A person participating in the meeting, which lasted nearly three hours before ending about 10:45 p.m., characterized it as "intense, very intense" in a text message to an Associated Press reporter.
Imus left the meeting without commenting to reporters.
Earlier in the day, the Rutgers players and their head coach, C. Vivian Stringer, had appeared via satellite on Oprah.
After the show, Stringer, who had resisted calling for Imus' firing, said in a phone call from her home in New Jersey: "I don't know anyone who wants to see someone else's life disrupted like this. We shouldn't gloat."
CBS had said Tuesday that it would suspend Imus for two weeks, but it delayed the suspension so he could host a two-day on-air Radiothon for charity yesterday and today. But as public ire continued to mount and advertisers began to bail, the network decided to pull the plug early, despite Imus' repeated apologies. The fund-raiser will go on as planned with sidekick Charles McCord and Imus' wife, Deirdre, hosting today.
It was a stunning turn of events for the famous broadcaster. Other celebrities have survived similarly bigoted comments by making orchestrated acts of contrition. But the difference between Imus and Mel Gibson, Michael Richards or Isaiah Washington, is that he spewed his verbal venom on the air. (Protests began when an MSNBC employee contacted the National Association of Black Journalists in Maryland to complain.)
The Rev. Al Sharpton, one of Imus' most severe critics, said, "We cannot afford a precedent established that the airways can commercialize and mainstream sexism and racism."
A CBS spokesman declined to say whether the network was buying out Imus' contract. Imus, 66, was paid a reported $8 million a year under a recently renewed five-year CBS contract. His deal with MSNBC was estimated at an additional $2 million a year.
