Sherri Shepherd won’t let talk show cancellation get her down

Stand-up comic and actor Sherri Shepherd was surprised and saddened when her syndicated talk show was canceled earlier this year after four seasons.

Despite solid ratings, she was a victim of shrinking audiences and ad revenue for traditional broadcast TV as viewers shift more to streaming.

Sherri Shepherd taped more than 600 episodes of "The Sherri Shepherd Show," which began airing on Fox 5 in Atlanta in 2022 and will run through September of this year. (Courtesy of Debmar-Mercury)

Shepherd, who will be doing a stand-up show Saturday at Buckhead Theatre, with tickets starting at $57, said if she had debuted a decade earlier, her show could have easily stuck around for many more years.

“Timing is everything,” Shepherd said. “But I don’t look back doing shoulda, coulda, woulda. That energy doesn’t serve me. Else, I’d be depressed and stuck in bed.”

She spoke to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution during her final week of production of her show, which has banked enough new episodes to air through early September.

“I consider my staff my family, and I’m sad that I won’t have them around me,” she said. “And I’m so grateful for the love and support from my viewers. It’s been overwhelming. We’ve had people from all over the world fly in for tapings.”

Traditional talk shows are not cheap to make compared to the growing world of video podcasts. Her show employed 223 people, she said. She felt the weight of that responsibility, and it discouraged her from ever taking a sick day.

“That’s a lot of pressure,” she said. “If I’m not there, the cameramen don’t need to come in. The grips don’t come in. The writers don’t work. They get paid per show. I get a flat fee.”

Many of her crew at television syndication company Debmar-Mercury came from “The Wendy Williams Show,” which Shepherd’s show replaced on Fox stations like Fox 5 in Atlanta, where it’s seen at 11 a.m. weekdays. Williams’ show ended in 2022 because of her health problems.

Sherri Shepherd's syndicated talk show has run for four seasons, airing in Atlanta on Fox 5 at 11 a.m. It was canceled earlier this year but will run through September. (Courtesy of "The Sherri Shepherd Show")

Having only her name on the marquee contrasted with her time as a panelist on ABC’s “The View” from 2007 to 2014.

“On ‘The View,’ I had four other women to rely on,” she said. “The queen, of course, was Barbara Walters. She did the heavy lifting as far as meeting with affiliates and doing press. I got to go to the Broadway shows and read the books. I could call in sick. I could do ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ I could guest star on a TV show.”

But Shepherd said doing her own show has been worth it because she’s executive producer and has full creative control.

“Nobody is telling me what to put on or what to say,” she said. “If I want to do a contest to honor female comics over 50, I just tell the showrunner (Fernita Wynn) and she makes it happen.”

She deliberately made her show a haven from politics. “I can touch on politics on stage in my stand-up,” she said. “The TV show is meant to be an escape from all that.”

Shepherd, 59, said she hoped she made a difference for her fans: “I am proud of the impact my show has had on people who tell me how I got them through the day with laughter. People need laughter. It’s not a cliche. I can also encourage people my age to try new things, to run toward things they fear.”

And she knows she created a unique product as the only stand-up comic left on daytime TV.

“You can try to replace me with news,” she said. “It ain’t going to work. I got to touch people in a special place. You will remember Sherri Shepherd!”

She expects many of her talk show fans will show up for her Buckhead Theatre show. “They will see an edgier version of me,” she said. “But I think being a stand-up comic helped me be a good talk show host. I got Michelle Obama to dance with me. I had a viral moment where I ‘break up’ with Lenny Kravitz. People feel safe with me.”