The times, they are a changin’ shades.
While historically, talk shows have centered around white women, the latest in daytime programming demonstrates women of color are boldly and enthusiastically taking over the scene.
Along with CBS’s upcoming The Queen Latifah Show and Aspire’s Exhale, this week Fox premieres The Real, a daily talk show featuring Tamera Mowry-Housley, Tamar Braxton, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, and Adrienne Bailon.
That’s five women of diverse backgrounds, and no white folks.
“The girls joke and say I’m the white one just because I’m half-white,” Mowry-Housley tells theGrio.
“We speak freely,” Bailon points out. “No one holds back or is worried about offending anyone…The five of us just had the best chemistry. And it goes against the stereotype that in order for a show to work there has to be a white girl.”
A show reflecting America
From home-concocted remedies for beautifying your “vajayjay” to scheduling in time for sex, The Real keeps it sensational, yet honest without restriction.
Black, Latina, Asian and interracial, the show serves as a mirror of American society, and a voice echoing the crowds on its streets.
It arrives on the heels of programs like The View and The Talk, after Oprah Winfrey built a monarch and Wendy Williams further proved women of color mattered on daytime.
Additionally, the influence of the HBO series Sex and the City, which opened the door for provocative commentary on sex and relationships, seems inherent.
“They’ve never had anything like this on TV,” says Bailon, former star of Disney’s The Cheetah Girls. “A cast that reflects what America really looks like: multicultural. And for the first time, there will be a Latina representing on daytime television.”
However race doesn’t necessarily drive conversations on the show.
Every host expresses a vantage not simply related to the color of her skin, but the story of her journey.
Mai, who most know as the star of Style Network’s How Do I Look, brings to the roundtable her Bay Area panache, and stilettos as bold as her trademark blue highlights.
“It’s not so much my ethnicity that plays a big role in everything I do, it’s my culture,” she explains. “Being raised first generation Vietnamese Chinese American, growing up in the Bay Area where I was influenced by so much creativity and self expression, all of these attributes formed the way I think and behave today. I think it’s important to be known for your identity and represent the parts that influenced you, and not just be characterized as a color.”
Testing the limits of pop culture
On the series premiere, The Real women settle into a set flanked by hues of purple, gold and silver to hash out their thoughts on celebrity baby names, ‘twerking,’ and shoe preference. Rapper The Game later arrives as the show’s first guest.
Future visitors include actress Lauren London (BET’s The Game), Kody Brown (TLC’s Sister Wives), Daymond John (ABC’s Shark Tank) and Patti Stanger (Bravo’s The Millionaire Matchmaker).
Younger, energized and ready to get to the bottom of every sex toy on the market, the women of The Real admit they haven’t got their lives completely together yet, and that’s part of the deal.
Braxton, a singer and reality star, contributes her spunky comebacks to the show.
“We want to hear from a girlfriend, from a sister, so this is what you get,” she says. “It’s a really unfiltered perspective.”
Love, a well-known stand-up comedian, adds, “Folks will get to see other layers of me that is just not the funny side. I am single, a former engineer, and a working woman.”
The tanning of daytime
The landscape of daytime TV has definitely diversified in recent years.
Following Winfrey’s rise, more signs of change came when Star Jones, Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg appeared on The View. Later, Williams received her own program, and Aisha Tyler, Julie Chen, and Sheryl Underwood joined The Talk.
Now, with Queen Latifah added to the slate in September, and not one but two additional talk shows without white women, the shades are colorful.
“Talk shows as a whole have changed because they’re not just TV your mama watches after soaps,” observes Braxton. “It’s not just about politics anymore or one person’s opinion. Now, we can talk about beauty, and fashion and boyfriends. It’s different perspectives from different people.”
“There are so many Latino Americans,” Bailon remarks. “Networks are seeing that and it’s opening doors on casting for women like me.”
The Atlanta-based Aspire network launched its first talk show in June called Exhale, a panel of African-American women starring journalist Angela Burt-Murray; comedian Erin Jackson; director, writer and actress Issa Rae; blogger and TV anchor Rene Syler; and actress Malinda Williams (Soul Food).
Exhale airs at night and similarly delves into lifestyle, political and social issues from the perspective of females in different age groups and backgrounds.
For The Queen Latifah Show, the actress aims not only to focus on celebrity interviews and human-interest stories, but to bring firsthand accounts from the community onto the screen.
With such growing variety, the voices are louder, the issues fresher, and the spectrum of insight more distinctive.
“More women in general need to be represented in television,” notes Mai. “I would like to see more of the wonderful cultures behind the Pan-Asian community.”
Embracing their real selves
Particularly for the hosts of The Real, the gig offers a chance to expand their presence in entertainment.
“My transition into a grown-up has been a really natural one,” comments Mowry-Housley, who rose to fame on Sister, Sister, and currently stars in Tia & Tamera on the Style Network. “I never felt the need to get naked to prove to anyone I was an adult, probably because I took a break and went to college. Then I came back with my own grown-up experiences and was myself.”
Love credits her nonstop pursuit of comedy as the drawing board for which she’s illustrated this new position.
“My schedule for the past three years has been: TV tapings Tuesday and Wednesday; I take a redeye Wednesday night to my club gig for five to six shows from Thursday to Sunday; I fly back on Monday; repeat,” she says. “The touring has helped me to see what makes America laugh. We laugh at some sick things!”
Life still being a work in progress, The Real allows its hosts to work out their kinks together.
It’s a list Love admits is “long and mighty.”
Specifically, she’s focusing on, “My career, my life, my Cousin Skillet asking me for money and telling him no!”
Follow Courtney Garcia on Twitter at @CourtGarcia