Inside The Real's Devastating Cancellation
Over the years, the popularity of daytime talk shows has grown. One of the most favored genres of daytime talk shows is the panel-style show featuring multiple hosts of various backgrounds discussing the hottest topics of today. "The View" is one of the longest-running shows of this genre and is currently celebrating it's 25th season on ABC (via USA Today). Since it's premiere, other networks have followed suit with their own versions of "The View" with different all-female hosts. Fox's version is "The Real," which first aired in 2013 and is currently hosted by Loni Love, Adrienne Houghton, Jeannie Mai, and Garcelle Beauvais.
While "The Real" hasn't been around as long as "The View" or "The Talk," it sure has proven its worth as one of the best daytime talk shows with some recent Daytime Emmy wins. "The Real" actually took home the Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host in 2018, and has won best hairstyling the past two years along with outstanding makeup and outstanding styling awards in 2020 and 2019, respectively. After winning their Emmy in 2018, "The Real" posted a reaction video of then-hosts Love, Houghton, Mai, and Tamera Mowry-Housley after their win on Instagram. With so much recent success, it comes as a shock to the fans and hosts of the show that "The Real" has been canceled after eight seasons.
Loni Love blames COVID-19 for the cancellation
Rumors started flying around that things weren't looking good for "The Real" at the beginning of March. To address the cancellation news, host Loni Love shared on Twitter, "It's been a busy few days but I got a call from the studio.. no official decision has been made about #TheReal." Love also reassured her fans that she was okay, but mentioned that a cancellation would affect the crew members of the daytime talk show as well.
Unfortunately, Warner Bros. and Telepictures, the studios behind the talk show, have officially decided to cancel "The Real" after eight seasons, according to Variety. Love confirmed the devastating news on Instagram and revealed she believes the reasoning behind the cancellation is the COVID-19 pandemic. "COVID costs killed this show," Love admitted. She also shared, "'The Real' cast & crew did everything we could to scale the show down," but it wasn't enough. New host Garcelle Beauvais also shared the news on Twitter and wrote, "It [was] a fun ride!! Got to work with an [sic] group of amazing women and crew."
While Love shared that the show's cancellation was due to COVID, there were also rumors that the show was ending to make room for the launch of Jennifer Hudson's new daytime talk show. However, Variety reports the decision was ultimately made after Fox stations did not want to pick up a Season 9 of "The Real," according to insiders.