'The Wendy Williams Show' Ending Amid Ongoing Health Concerns; Sherri Shepherd To Take Her Place
It's official: The Wendy Williams Show is ending after this season.
Williams has not been available to host the show since the beginning of this most recent season in the fall, due to ongoing health concerns. The broadcaster has been purposefully vague with the details of her issue, but we do know that she was diagnosed with Graves' disease - an autoimmune condition in the thyroid - in 2018.
The show has been kept afloat by strings of rotating guest hosts, of which Sherri Shepherd was the most popular.
Shepherd is an actress, comedian, and author, but she is perhaps best known for her time as one of the co-hosts of The View, from 2007 to 2014. She was also recently featured in Mindy Kaling's HBO Max hit The Sex Lives of College Girls.
Now, she'll get to add another credit to that list: Host of her own talk show, Sherri, which will occupy the time slots that used to belong to The Wendy Williams Show.
"OMG! I am so excited to have my dream come true and debut my very own talk show" the new host said in a statement. She further noted that Sherri will combine her love of "pop culture, talk, entertainment and comedy" in its subject matter.
Company co-presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein of Debmar-Mercuryhad this to say in a statement:
"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."
The Wendy Williams Show will continue to finish out the season, still using rotating guest hosts, including Sherri Shepherd herself.
