Sherri Shepherd to host her own daytime talk show as The Wendy Williams Show ends after 14 seasons

Deadline

Shepherd's new talk show, titled Sherri, will take over Wendy Williams' timeslot this fall on Fox's owned-and-operated stations. Sherri is from Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury, the same distributor as The Wendy Williams Show. Since Williams has been absent with health issues, "The Wendy Williams Show is slated to continue through the end of this season with rotating guest hosts, including Shepherd, as Williams has been sidelined with health issues for the entire season," according to Deadline, which adds: "While Sherri is positioned as a replacement, taking over Wendy‘s time periods and inheriting that show’s producing team, Debmar-Mercury is leaving the door open to resuming her show if/when Williams fully recovers and wants to do it." The Wendy Williams Show showrunner David Perler will become showrunner of Sherri. Also, Sherri will feature The Wendy Williams Show's "Hot Topics" segment with Shepherd's own spin on it. As an alum of The View and Dish Nation, Shepherd is a daytime TV veteran. Debmar-Mercury co-presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein said in a statement that they'd still like to work with Williams in the future. “This is also a bitter-sweet moment for us and our partners at Fox,” Marcus and Bernstein said. “We all have a great love and affinity for Wendy, who grew into a true icon during her 12 incredible seasons as the solo host of a live, daily talk show dishing on 'Hot Topics' and interviewing celebrities. 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.” Shepherd called hosting her own show a dream come true: “OMG! I am so excited to have my dream come true and debut my very own talk show Sherri in the fall. I can’t wait until I return to NY to host the show and merge everything I love…pop culture, talk, entertainment and comedy. I am thankful to Debmar-Mercury and Fox for partnering with me on this show and look forward to this new journey.”

ALSO:

• Wendy Williams "understands" the decision to end her show, hopes to return to TV: “It’s been a challenging time for Wendy as she deals with her health issues. She is incredibly grateful to Debmar-Mercury, to Sherri and everybody else who has supported the show through this time,” Williams' spokesperson Howard Bragman said in a statement to Deadline. “She, more than anyone, understands the reality of syndicated television — you can’t go to the marketplace and sell a show that’s The Maybe Wendy Show. She understands why this decision was made from a business point of view, and she has been assured by Debmar-Mercury that should her health get to a point where she can host again and should her desire be that she hosts again that she would be back on TV at that time.”