Wendy Williams Had a Particular Number in Mind When Thinking About the End of Her Show
Wendy Williams’ hit television series ended prematurely due to substance abuse and psychological issues that plagued the talk show host. But before its conclusion, Williams already secretly planned out how many seasons her show would have.
Wendy Williams had an idea when she wanted to end ‘The Wendy Williams Show’
The Wendy Williams Show took Williams’ star-power to the next level, putting a face to the voice that entertained millions. The series lasted for 13 seasons before its 2022 finale, and started with a simple phone call her ex-husband Kevin Hunter received.
“Prior to being on television, I was an award winning nationally syndicated radio personality,” she once told Forbes. “I spent over 20 years doing that so I already had my name out there. It was just a matter of somebody wanting to do something with me and take it to the next level. Thank God for the Internet and for a solid career of over 20 years, because that’s how I got my talk show! It was Debmar Mecury, which consists of Mort Marcus and Ira Burnstein. They called up my husband and manager, Kevin Hunter, and said ‘We want to do a show with Wendy and we want it to be like the radio show that she’s done successfully for so many years!’”
Williams also felt the show’s longevity simply came down to its content. The Wendy Williams Show steered away from heavy subject matter, and aimed to make sure its audience had a good time.
“I think that the show has sustained because I’ve given the people something entertaining to watch. The show isn’t so heavy where it weighs on your minds and makes you sad. It’s a light-hearted show with very good morsels of information and a show, which is driven by the host. I’m just a woman from New Jersey, which will always be my platform,” she said.
Although the show lasted for 14 years, it could’ve lasted even more than that if it wasn’t for Williams’ personal issues. If it was up to her, Williams seemed to already have a date or number in mind to end her series on. But only she and her ex-husband knew what that number was.
“We’re in our sixth season and have been renewed through 2017-18. That feels really good. The ratings this season have been stellar, thank God, and I don’t take it for granted. When I started the show, I told my husband, ‘I don’t know how long this is going to last, but here’s when I want the train to stop.’ That’s between me and him. And I’m still sticking with that particular number. Hopefully, we’ll make it right to that stopping point,” she once told The Hollywood Reporter.
How Wendy Williams brought elements of her radio show to TV
Williams wasn’t offered the same amount of time with her television audience that she had with her radio listeners. According to the proclaimed shock jock herself, Williams’ radio show lasted four hours, whereas The Wendy Williams Show could only be an hour long. Condensing her material proved to be a slight challenge.
“I was already doing celebrity interviews and loved my ‘Hot Topics’. I spent the better part of my air shift talking about what’s going on with celebrities and their lifestyles. ‘Ask Wendy’ had been a part of my radio years so it made sense to put on television. The struggle for me as a born talker is being able to fit everything into a one-hour show, which is broken up into smaller segments,” she said.
The partial solution to this problem was simply to condense her radio content within the time limitations of her talk show.
“My radio show wasn’t broken so the components of the Wendy show are genuinely things that I created for my radio show and they worked there. We refined them and they work for television. It’s a no brainer to do ‘Hot Topics’ which used to be 8-10 minutes. For season 4, we listened to the viewers and now we do the segment for 20 minutes,” she said.
But Williams reminded that her program wasn’t a one-woman show, and she had a trusted team constantly helping her refine her content.
“I have a wonderful team of producers that work for us, and a wonderful staff. I truly do like to have an open ear to everyone’s suggestions. Then, with regards to timing we figure out how it would work for the show. We figure what clicks with the audience because we listen to the Wendy watchers. We watch what’s on my Facebook, Twitter, and we listen to what people say in the streets,” she said.
