It’s been an intense last few months in the world of daytime talk shows. The Ellen DeGeneres Show concluded after a 19-season run. Meanwhile, the likes of The Wendy Williams Show, The Real and Nick Cannon’s self-titled entry were all canceled. In the case of Williams, guest hosts had been temporarily filling in for some time as the namesake reportedly struggled with health and financial problems. The patience seemingly ran out from her production company, but the star allegedly got major support from fellow ouster and longtime friend Cannon in the wake of the cancellation.
The infamous “Hot Topics” talker is being replaced in her time slot by none other than Sherri Shepherd, who had been frequently filling in as a temp host. Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury company followed up the move by not featuring Wendy Williams in the finale of her show. (The producers used a tribute video instead.) Nick Cannon’s show had been fronted by the same company and, according to a source for Page Six, he supposedly didn’t appreciate how he and Williams were treated. In addition, the Wild ‘N Out alum is said to have taken a stand against Shepherd’s appointment:
Nick Cannon would not endorse her out of allegiance to Wendy. He wasn’t cool with how they handled him and how they abruptly canceled his show and hustled everyone out of there and took their computers and shit.
The first season of Nick Cannon had been streaming on YouTube while also airing on TV after Wendy Williams’ time slot. The source claimed that Cannon felt “indebted” to Williams, whose faith in him reportedly led to the creation of his own talk show. Apparently, though, Debmar-Mercury was relying too much on bringing in leftover audiences from TWWS and The Real in order to “propel Nick’s numbers,” and as a result, “they failed miserably.”
However, another insider for the outlet refutes the insinuations about The Masked Singer host’s supposed loyalty to Wendy Williams. On the suggestion that he wouldn’t back Sherri Shepherd as the replacement, they say is entirely “not true.” In fact, he was evidently “always a pleasure and business professional” in his BTS dealings, according to them.
Initial reports had indicated that the syndicated talk show was only supposed to be on a five-week hiatus so Nick Cannon could attend to his other filming obligations (The Masked Singer and Wild ‘N Out). Eventually, though, there was talk of a sudden change of plans by Debmar-Mercury that led to the series getting shuttered entirely, with crew receiving severance pay. For his part, Cannon had reflected after the cancellation that he understood the “business” reasons behind the talk show getting cancelled after one season, adding that he was essentially just going with the flow of change.
The Drumline actor has a lot else on his plate anyway besides allegedly going to bat against Sherri Shepherd’s come up as a host, including the slew of babies he’s helped conceive with different women of late. (On the last count, his ninth child is on it way later this year.) In tandem, the media personality has been having to backpedal certain statements of his regarding wanting to win back ex-wife Mariah Carey.
But back to Wendy Williams. There was a lot of criticism from both the fanbase and Williams’ ex-husband that her show’s series finale handled things poorly by not including her in the plans. Williams weighed in herself in an interview with The New York Post. She told them that there was “nothing” she liked about the supposed tribute to her work on the show. What's more is that she confirmed the speculation that she hadn’t even received an invitation by Debmar-Mercury for a last appearance, saying her reaction to watching it play out from her living room was largely, “Eek!”
To add yet another insult to injury, as she prepares for her post-talk show future, Williams' fans got some bad news. Recently, her former show was scrubbed from the internet ethers almost entirely, as though it didn’t even really exist… Eek, indeed. Nevertheless, Nick Cannon and Sherri Shepherd are seemingly going to be just fine moving forward: Season 8 of The Masked Singer, and the freshman season of Sherri are slated for fall premieres on the 2022 TV schedule.
