More like The Wendy Williams-less Show. Per Variety, Wendy Williams will not be present when The Wendy Williams Show ends this week. “The final original episode of The Wendy Williams Show will air on Friday, June 17 with a video tribute to the iconic host,†a show spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “The series comes to an end after 13 successful years in syndication.†Williams has had her fair share of controversies, but there’s no denying the impact that her namesake show has had on daytime television (or the TikTok soundscape, now come on now). But the video tribute will reportedly be the only way that she’ll appear in this final farewell. Instead, the last episode will be helmed by frequent guest host Sherri Shepherd, who will eventually take over The Wendy Williams Show time slot with her own talk show, Sherri.
A Williams-less Wendy Show is nothing new: Williams hasn’t hosted since October of last year due to health reasons. In addition to getting COVID, she has Graves’ disease (an autoimmune condition that can cause hyperthyroidism) and lymphedema. Earlier this year, she was also placed under a temporary financial guardianship, and claimed that a Wells Fargo adviser lied that she was mentally unstable in order to restrict her account access. With all of these complications, why would viewers hold onto any hope that she would return to her purple chair? Quite simply, because she said she would: In March 2022, she told Good Morning America that she would be ready to host The Wendy Williams Show again in “about three months.†Hmm, did she run that by producer-distributor Debmar-Mercury? We’re not sure. So far, Williams hasn’t publicly acknowledged that her show is ending. A representative for Williams did not immediately respond to Vulture’s request for comment.