Sherri Shepherd hopes to give her new talk show viewers “permission to breathe and feel good” and a break from “doom and gloom.”
So don’t expect the “Sherri” host to fire up political debates, as she was wont do during her tenure co-hosting ABC’s “The View.” Instead, the new daytime TV star is offering lighter fare and leaning into her stand-up comedy background.
“I don’t feel I need to lean into politics. You have a plethora of shows you can lean into to get your politics. Number one, my old stomping grounds: ‘The View,’ ” she recently told Yahoo Entertainment.
“I’m your escape from the doom and gloom,” Shepherd said. “We’re hearing and seeing so much stuff from Instagram, social media, this network, that one. Fear … Sometimes you just want to escape and you want to laugh and you want permission to breathe and feel good. That’s me.”
Her new series premiered Monday on Fox and in syndication, taking over the long-held time slot of “The Wendy Williams Show,” which she guest hosted since last year when the titular host
stepped away amid health concerns.
Navigating the uncertain future involving Williams, media company Debmar-Mercury announced in February that Shepherd would headline the new program and end Williams’ 13-season run. Shepherd bid farewell to Williams’ audience when the syndicated gossip program went off the air in June before fully diving into her own namesake show.
So Shepherd not only has to set herself apart from “The View,” but also from the “Wendy” backstory that laid the groundwork for her new series, in addition to the legacy daytime talk shows “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to which she will inevitably be compared.
“The Sex Lives of College Girls” star told Yahoo that she’s excited to bring her sense of humor to the audience “because I think it’s needed.”
“There’s a big gap that needs to be filled with Ellen [DeGeneres off the air] and I look forward to stepping in that pool … I relish the challenge,” she said.
Shepherd joins a crowded daytime TV field that also includes “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” which also launched Monday, along with “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” “The Drew Barrymore Show,” “Tamron Hall” and top draws “The View,” “Dr. Phil” and “Live With Kelly and Ryan.”
Clarkson, Hudson’s fellow “American Idol” alum, has held steady with a top-rated show, Barrymore kicked off Season 3 of her series on Monday too and Hall launched her latest season last week.
Discussing the daytime TV landscape, Hudson recently told The Times she “love[s] a challenge” and name-checked former TV queen Oprah Winfrey in the interview. Incidentally, Shepherd, whose new show leads into Hudson’s, said she “took 15 pages of notes” when she sought advice from Winfrey to prepare for “Sherri.”
“One thing I took from Oprah is, she said, ‘Sherri, the show, is not about the ratings, it’s about the energy. You put out the energy, and it will come back in direct proportion to you from the audience. It’s your responsibility. You’re in charge of the energy that is on your show,’ ” she told Entertainment Weekly. “I felt that, because I was like, damn, I just wanted to show some viral videos and make people laugh. But it’s true, it’s the energy you give off, which is why we love Oprah.”
Shepherd, whose acting credits include “The Jamie Foxx Show,” “30 Rock,” “How I Met Your Mother” and “Everybody Loves Raymond,” also told Yahoo that she learned few things from veteran journalist and “The View” creator Barbara Walters, whom she famously clashed with before Walters retired in 2014.
“You couldn’t pay to have a better education on interviewing people,” she said. “Barbara would always say, ‘Be curious about people.’ … ‘Do not take no for an answer.’ [She] also said, ‘Why don’t you read a book, dear.’”
