New reports about the cancellation of The Wendy Williams Show reveal just how unaware the famed gossip queen was about the end of her daytime talk show.
Production distributor Debmar-Mercury co-presidents Ira Bernstein and Mort Marcus spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the end of Williams’ talk show and how clueless she was about the show being axed despite all the communication leading up to it.
Bernstein and Marcus say
they spent months going back and forth with Williams amid her hiatus from the show’s 13th season. With Williams’ health remaining a concern, the show execs informed the talk show host multiple times that the show would be canceled.Even after it was announced in February that the show would end, Williams still had to be told the news on more than one occasion.
“I said, ‘We haven’t heard
from you, and we had to make a decision.’ We should have made one in November, but we pushed it to January or February, and by then, it was like, ‘Make a decision or lose the time period,'” Bernstein recalled.The producers maintained the show through a series of 16 guest hosts who came on to fill in for Williams. The execs say Wendy was still confused about the fate of her show until she realized that guest host Sherri Shepherd
was selected to replace her.“She said, ‘Well, what’s going to air at 10 o’clock?’ I told her, ‘Sherri’s going
to air at 10 o’clock.’ ‘So, can I go on at 11?’ I said, ‘We’d love to work with you, and there are lots of ways and lots of buyers, but you need to come back, and we need to know that you’re OK,” Bernstein explained.“You can’t just call after nine months and say, ‘I’m ready.'”
The publication noted that the discussion of the canceled show would happen multiple times “over the next four months,” with Williams seemingly forgetting about the previous conversations each time.
“Each time, according to the pair, Williams appeared to be having the discussion for the first time.”
Wendy has been teasing her return with her podcast, The Wendy Experience, while fans and onlookers remain concerned about her health.