After months of rumors, it's official. "Sherri" will replace "The Wendy Williams Show", the distribution company behind Wendy's soon-to-end talk show confirms. Details inside.
Folks have been hoping Wendy Williams would return at some point to her iconic talk show after her heap of mental and physical health issues, but that's not happening. At least not in the same exact form as it was.
Today, distributor Debmar-Mercury announced that "The Wendy Williams Show" will be ending after 14 seasons, and long time guest host Sherri Shepherd will continue to guest host for the rest of the current season.
The company also revealed that the "Sex Lives of College Girls" star and former co-host of "The View" will be getting her own show, titled "Sherri", under their moniker. In the fall, Sherri will officially take over the time periods held by Williams’ show on Fox owned-and-operated stations.
The Hollywood Reporter revealed that some aspects of Wendy's show will be transferred to "Sherri":
Like The Wendy Williams Show, Shepherd’s program — titled Sherri — will be distributed by Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury. Wendy Williams showrunner David Perler will have the same position on Sherri, executive producing alongside Shepherd.
“Sherri is a natural who proved her hosting skills for many years as a panelist on The View, on Fox’s Dish Nation and again this season as a popular guest host of Wendy,” said Debmar-Mercury co-presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein in a statement. “Like our viewers, we have been impressed by the unique comedic twist Sherri puts on our daily live ‘Hot Topics’ segment, her creativity and interactions with our guests. Her love for the content and daytime fans is obvious, and we are excited to partner with her to create another long-term talk franchise.”
Marcus and Bernstein added, “This is also a bitter-sweet moment for us and our partners at Fox. We all have a great love and affinity for Wendy, who grew into a true icon during her 12 incredible seasons as the solo host of a live, daily talk show dishing on ‘Hot Topics’ and interviewing celebrities. Since Wendy is still not available to host the show as she continues on her road to recovery, we believe it is best for our fans, stations and advertising partners to start making this transition now. We hope to be able to work with Wendy again in the future, and continue to wish her a speedy and full recovery.”
Interesting.
Wendy also issued a statement via her spokesperson, Howard Bragman.
“It’s been a challenging time for Wendy as she deals with her health issues. She is incredibly grateful to Debmar-Mercury, to Sherri and everybody else who has supported the show through this time,” Bragman said.
“She, more than anyone, understands the reality of syndicated television — you can’t go to the marketplace and sell a show that’s the Maybe Wendy Show. She understands why this decision was made from a business point of view, and she has been assured by Debmar-Mercury that should her health get to a point where she can host again and should her desire be that she hosts again that she would be back on TV at that time.”
Wendy started a new Instagram account of her own - separate from "The Wendy Show" account - last week, so it seems she knew this day was coming. She posted a video saying she will be back to her show in New York soon, but fans are no longer sure that video is as new as she made it seem.
A Wendy return is possible though, but maybe on a different platform and with different production and distribution partners....and a different title.
Either way, Wendy will forever be a tv & radio icon. Here's to secretly hoping she goes the podcast route to give us those throwback unfiltered radio vibes that put her on the map. Whenever she's ready, of course.
Congrats to Sherri on the new venture!
Photo Credit: FashionStock.com, lev radin/Shutterstock.com
source: theybf
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