Rashan Ali, Quad, Syleena Johnson join new TV One talk show 'Sister Circle' debuting Sept. 11

The field has gotten crowded. "The View" debuted 20 years ago and had this genre largely to itself for a long time, but it has since been replicated numerous times, most notably on CBS ("The Talk") and Fox ("The Real"). There's even a scripted version of a talk show on VH1 called "Daytime Divas."

Now TV One, which targets African-American women, has hired four Atlanta women for a similar concept airing from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays starting Sept. 11. It will be shot at 11Alive studios in Atlanta in the same space as "Atlanta & Company."

TV One reaches about 59 million households nationwide. Atlanta-based WATL-TV is owned by TEGNA, which will also air the show live in 11 other markets.

"The collaboration between TV One and TEGNA allows us to present a talk show uniquely tailored to African-American women that will bring the energy and fun of a good get together with your best girlfriends to our daily morning line up," said D'Angela Proctor, head of original programming, TV One, in a press release. "Watching 'Sister Circle' will be like having brunch with your best girlfriends every day. While the audience will come for the conversation, they'll stay for the sisterhood."

Ali, in an interview, said the women have all gotten together socially and get along great. "We'll do a lot of mainstream stuff. We won't have to shy away from things deemed too far into the African-American experience. That will be our primary responsibility to be able to speak in the voice of those women."

The studio space is not big enough for a studio audience but if it gets renewed for a second season, Ali said they could certainly get a bigger studio to have one.

"Sister Circle" will address a variety of topics such as relationships, parenting, fitness and personal finances. (The pilot shot last year featured consumer guru Clark Howard.) The show will also include interviews with celebrity guests and expert opinions on important issues.

"Our personalities are very strong," Ali said. "We have very different points of view on so many different things, which is great. All of us pop. It pops so good! It's been going very well."

She and Johnson are married with kids. Quad is married with no kids. And Dancie is single. Everyone has experience in front of the camera. The big difference is the fact the show is live.

The woman overseeing the production is Helen Swenson, who was a senior vice president at Altanta's Weather Channel, who developed "Wake Up With Al" featuring Al Roker.