*”The Talk” is breaking new ground by featuring guest comedians on the program for the first time.
As Deadline reports, “Stand Up At The Talk” debuted on April 26 and continues every Friday thereafter.
Hosts Sheryl Underwood, Natalie Morales, Jerry O’Connell, Akbar Gbajabiamila, and Amanda Kloots will watch from the sideline as the set is converted into a comedy club, allowing the featured comedians to perform a 5-minute set in front of a live audience. The transformation follows reports that the Emmy-winning daytime talker show will end after 15 seasons in December.
“I am excited to bring two things I love together — standup comedy and The Talk,” fellow comedian Sherly Underwood shared with Deadline. “This is the first time The Talk has done a standup series, but it won’t be the last. See you every Friday!”
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Wendy Liebman kicked off the series on April 26, followed by Preacher Lawson (May 3), Zarna Garg (May 10), and Brad Upton (May 17), per Deadline.
Word on the street is that CBS’ forthcoming all-Black soap opera, “The Gates,” will take over “The Talk’s” timeslot. The drama series is slated to premiere in January 2025.
“The Gates” is a soap opera about a wealthy Black family living in a posh, gated community. George Cheeks, CEO of CBS and chief content officer for news and sports at Paramount+, recently unveiled the genesis of “The Gates” and the team behind it.
Cheeks told Vulture that “The Gates” is being developed with Sheila Ducksworth, president of the CBS/NAACP Production Venture, which develops content for the CBS Television Network and increases the visibility of Black artists.
“One of the things that the data made very clear to both of us is that daytime soap operas over index with Black women, and yet when you look at soap operas, it’s usually sort of a white-led family with supporting characters that reflect more of our society,” Cheeks continued. “So we just thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to flip that and make the core anchor family a Black family, and then make the other characters reflect more the broader scope of society?”
Cheeks credits Sheila for bringing award-winning writer Michele Val Jean onto the project.
“[Sheila] found this great writer, Michele Val Jean, who’s been in the soap opera space for 30 years. She came up with a pitch, and we loved it. We brought Procter & Gamble into it as well, because if there were going to be [product] integrations, we could do it more holistically and organically. All of that is to say, we did a lot of work on the front end to put this together. So while yes, it’s development, it’s accelerated development.”
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