Emig conflict of interest

That's not quite the same. I don't know Ralph's employment situation, but whether he works for Feld, Fox, CBS, Speed, etc., as a full-time employee or independent contractor, he doesn't work for a sponsor of the series. A sponsor is sort of like a customer. You do your job to please them, but you don't work for them. Monster couldn't directly fire Sheheen if they wanted him gone, but they could do something like threaten to pull money away from his employer if they didn't fire him. It would be like a customer complaining to a manager about a server at a restaurant.