*Wendy Williams spent years making a career out of telling other people’s business. Now, another documentary is preparing to tell hers — and a source close to the former daytime queen says Williams was “blindsided” by the project and had no involvement in it.
Peacock has greenlit the three-part documentary “Clap If You Care: The Wendy Williams Show,” a working title for the project expected to premiere in 2027. The series will examine the rise, cultural impact and complicated ending of “The Wendy Williams Show,” with more than 20 former staffers sharing behind-the-scenes stories. But one very important voice apparently won’t be among them: Wendy’s.
Wendy Reportedly Didn’t Know It Was Coming
Loren LoRosa of The Breakfast Club reported that sources close to the production told her Williams and those around her were blindsided by the documentary.
“I have confirmed that that is true, that they no longer speak to each other,” LoRosa said while discussing Williams and Suzanne Bass, the former “Wendy Williams Show” executive producer who is helping lead the Peacock project.
LoRosa said a source also described the circumstances surrounding the documentary as “sketchy.” When she asked whether Williams would financially benefit from the project, her source could not confirm that she would.
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The source, not Williams herself, called the situation “disgusting.”
That’s an important distinction. There is also no indication that Peacock required Williams’ permission to produce a documentary about her former television show.
Suzanne Bass Has an Insider’s View
Bass served as an executive producer on “The Wendy Williams Show” for 13 seasons. Peacock says her experience gives the documentary firsthand insight into the show’s place in pop culture.
The project intends to celebrate Williams’ unlikely journey from radio personality to daytime television powerhouse while also exploring the “complicated truths” surrounding fame and lingering questions about her departure from the show.
Bass’ involvement, however, takes on a different dimension alongside LoRosa’s reporting that Bass and Williams no longer speak.
EURweb readers have been watching this story develop. Earlier this month, EURweb reported that Peacock and Netflix were pursuing separate Wendy Williams documentary projects, although neither streamer had formally announced one at the time. That report already contained conflicting accounts about whether Williams had ever been expected to participate in Peacock’s production.
Now Peacock’s project is official. Williams’ involvement apparently isn’t.
This Has Happened Around Wendy Before
The controversy carries an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu.
Lifetime’s 2024 documentary “Where Is Wendy Williams?” generated its own questions about Williams’ participation and whether she understood what the finished project would become.
Williams’ publicist Shawn Zanotti told NBC News that Williams believed the production would focus on her career comeback and accused the filmmakers of exploiting her.
“That is not the project that (Williams) signed up for,” Zanotti said at the time, as EURweb reported in its coverage of the Lifetime controversy.
The Peacock situation isn’t identical. “Clap If You Care” centers heavily on Williams’ television show and relies on former staffers, and there is no established evidence that Williams possesses a legal right to approve the project.
But the recurring issue is difficult to miss.
Williams remains under a court-appointed guardianship that she has repeatedly and publicly fought to end. Against that backdrop, another project about her life and career is moving forward while people close to her say she isn’t participating.
Who Gets to Tell Wendy’s Story?
There is undeniable documentary material here. “The Wendy Williams Show” ran for 13 seasons, turned its host into a pop-culture institution and helped reshape daytime television around a personality who could make celebrity gossip feel like a conversation across the kitchen table.
Former employees have stories worth hearing. Bass has firsthand knowledge worth documenting.
But Wendy Williams also spent years building the personality, catchphrases and audience that made those stories valuable in the first place.
That’s what makes “Clap If You Care” more complicated than another nostalgic look behind the curtain.
Peacock wants to answer lingering questions about what happened to Wendy Williams’ show. The question hanging over the documentary before it even arrives may be just as compelling:
Who gets to tell Wendy Williams’ story when Wendy reportedly isn’t part of the telling?
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MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Wendy Williams’ Story Reportedly Sparks Competing Peacock and Netflix Projects
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