‘How you doin’?” Now that The Wendy Williams Show is going on hiatus, I’m not so sure how to answer the question she has made into her phrase that pays. The American talk show host and her juicy, hot topics are going on hiatus from July 5. And she’ll only be back in September.
Williams began her career as the kind of ratchet radio host that was always all up in celebrities’ business. That’s why, if you know your ’90s hip hop, you will know that she was often name-dropped as someone who antagonises your favourite celebs.
In the naughties, she cleaned up her image in a sense. She’s still all up in celebrities’ business, but now she does it through the most popular segment of her TV show: Hot Topics. She has toned down the disses and just gives us the tea now. More often than not, she actually just says what we’re all thinking about the shenanigans that famous faces put themselves through.
So how I am doin’ now that I know there won’t be Hot Topics for a while? I guess I’ll have to resort to reading the blogs. Yuck. Or I could give other, similar shows a chance, right? There’s always The Real - which is also on BET - and is a round-table style talk show. Think The View with much younger, much funnier women of colour.
Wendy Williams. Picture: Supplied
Tamar Braxton, who was the sole reason I used to watch - she’s witty and hilarious - was kicked to the curb. So now we have Loni Love, Adrienne Houghton (nee Bailon), Tamera Mowry-Housley and Jeannie Mai to rely on for the piping hot tea. They’re not straight shooters - Pow! Pow! - like Wendy is, but they’ll do.
If you don’t like your pop culture trending topics delivered to you by people who actually know what it’s like to be a trending topic and not a trainwreck themselves, you might have to resort to watching The Talk. That one is hosted by Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Aisha Tyler and Sheryl Underwood. You’re falling asleep already?
Just make it to the end of the article, okay?
I guess it’s clear that some of these talk shows need more than three women to get a job done that one Wendy and a purple chair does so effortlessly. But those are the options you have until the hiatus is over and you can get back to saying it like you mean it when you ask: how you doin’?