‘The Wendy Williams Show’ to End After Nearly 14 Years
It’s an end of an era. The Wendy Williams Show will come to an end after nearly 14 years, PEOPLE confirmed.
“The final original episode of The Wendy Williams Show will air on Friday, June 17th, with a video tribute to the iconic host,” a spokesperson for the show told the outlet. “The series comes to an end after 13 successful years in syndication.”
The talk show host who has been battling various health issues, will not be physically present for the last episode Entertainment Weekly reports.
Back in February, it was reported per PEOPLE, “Wendy won’t be returning to the show for the rest of this season” — though one month later, Williams told Good Morning America about her plan to return.
“I’m going to be back on the Wendy show,” she said in March. “Bigger and brighter than ever.”
In October of last year, ahead of show’s 13th season premiere, Williams’ ongoing health issues tied to Graves’ disease delayed the show’s return.
“Her healing is going slower than everyone had hoped. She continues to deal with a number of medical issues, including Graves’ disease, and she and her team are taking it one day at a time,” the source said per PEOPLE.
The show was delayed to Oct. 18 from the original start date of Sept. 20, and that was later pushed to Oct. 4 when the talk show host was diagnosed with COVID-19.
In Williams’ place various hosts covered for the talk show host this past season including Leah Remini, Michael Rappaport, and fan-favorite Sherri Shepherd who will be hosting her own show Sherri this fall.
“You can’t replace Wendy. You can’t take over what Wendy does. What Wendy has created is specifically for Wendy,” the former The View co-host said to The Washington Post. “I just fill in with my brand of laughter and joy and I try to make it my own. But no one can do what Wendy does … nobody can re-create it. Nobody can take over.”
