The Wendy Williams Show

The Wendy Williams Show's former studio, used until season 3 of the show.

The program is formatted as an entertainment-based talk show, focusing largely on celebrity news and gossip as well as lifestyle features.

Each episode begins with "Hot Topics," an opening segment — usually running 18 to 21 minutes (originally lasting 10 to 12 minutes until the third season), depending on the number of stories featured — in which Williams mainly discusses tabloid headlines and celebrity news, and provides her opinions — often addressing the celebrities directly and giving them advice to the camera.[7][8] The segment incorporates a heavier emphasis on stories about reality stars and African-American entertainers (particularly hip-hop, rap and R&B artists) than are covered on traditional entertainment newsmagazine programs. Occasionally, the topics incorporated into the segment may involve current issues and offbeat news items not related to the entertainment industry; Williams periodically deviates from the topic to elaborate on a particular aspect of it that relates to her own life. The studio audience (who are affectionately termed by Williams as her "co-hosts") have some active participation in the segment, with Williams often surveying them through applause about a particular point of the story being discussed.

Periodic segments-within-a-segment are featured during "Hot Topics" including "Wendy's Got You Covered" (detailing cover stories from current issues of entertainment, fashion and lifestyle magazines), the "Hot Shot of the Day" (showcasing a particular celebrity photo), the "Clip of the Day" (usually featuring clips or promos from upcoming television programs) and "Celebrity Shout-Out" (detailing a celebrity-related story highlighting a particular milestone or accomplishment).[9]

In addition to "Hot Topics", the program included other in-depth topical segments incorporating guest contributors including the

• "Hot Talk Panel" (regularly featured during the Thursday or Friday editions) in which Williams and a panel of four journalists discuss news items and current issues ranging from social and political issues to tabloid headlines;
• "What's Trending Now", an occasional segment that showcases viral videos, and details the latest fashion and beauty trends and offbeat stories trending on social media; and
• "Inside Scoop", featuring a contributor who rotates each week (most of whom are correspondents/hosts of entertainment-related newsmagazine programs or magazines) providing detailed analysis of a selection of celebrity-related stories.

The remainder of the program heavily incorporates feature segments (many of which are featured in the show's "B"-block) including "Ask Wendy" (a segment in which Williams gives audience members advice on how to deal with their work, family or relationship problems), "Celebrity Fan-Out" (featuring photographs submitted by viewers of their celebrity encounters), "Celebrity Lookalikes" (featuring photographs of viewers stating their resemblance to a particular celebrity, with Williams and the studio audience judging the closeness in their resemblance), "Hot Topics Sound-Off" (in which up to four audience members give their opinion to Williams about the stories discussed in "Hot Topics" or other topical segments mentioned in that day's episode) and "Street Talk" (a man-on-the-street segment in which viewers in public areas in U.S. cities provide their opinions of hypothetical celebrity-related questions, with humorous cutout animations added).

On the Tuesday and Wednesday (and sometimes, the Thursday) editions, Williams interviews a single featured celebrity guest; musical performances are featured occasionally. The show regularly features product giveaways, usually as part of "Trendy@Wendy", a weekly segment showcasing fashion/beauty products and electronics that are given to studio audience members, with at-home viewers being able to purchase the featured items through the show's website at a discount from their estimated retail price.

On April 21, 2008, Fox Television Stations ordered a test run of the show for the group's Fox owned-and-operated stations to air after their local weekday morning newscasts. The Wendy Williams Show premiered on July 14, 2008 as a six-week trial run on four Fox-owned outlets: WNYW/New York City, KTTV/Los Angeles, WJBK/Detroit and KDFW/Dallas-Fort Worth.[10]

After the test run concluded,[11][12] Debmar-Mercury picked up the program for a full nationwide launch, and through additional station group pickups (including stations owned by CBS Television Stations, NBC Owned Television Stations, Tribune Broadcasting, LIN TV Corporation, Cox Media Group, Local TV LLC, Raycom Media, New Vision Television and the Meredith Corporation), gained carriage on stations covering more than 95% of the country including all of the 20 largest media markets and 45 of the top 50 markets.[13] On June 4, 2009, BET acquired the cable syndication rights to the show, airing it as part of the cable channel's late night schedule.[14] The Wendy Williams Show entered into national syndication on broadcast stations and on BET on July 13, 2009 before being cancelled from the network (along with The Real) on September 15, 2017. It then moved to the rebranded BET Her at the start of the 2017–18 season for one additional season until it was cancelled again in the late summer 2018. In the 2018–19 season, the last-day episodes previously aired on Pop for the first only season and was cancelled for the third and final time. Also, the show now airs on Bounce TV.

The Wendy Williams Show went on a 17-city "Say It Like You Mean It" promotional tour across the United States in the summer of 2011, presenting mini-versions of the show at local malls.[15] Williams went on a 10-city tour during the summer of 2018, to celebrate the tenth season of the show.

On May 4, 2013, Fox Television Stations announced a deal with Debmar-Mercury to renew the show through the 2016–17 television season.[16][17] In April 2019, Debmar-Mercury began distributing with CBS Television Studios, following 20th Century Fox being bought by Walt Disney.

The show debuted outside the United States on BET International in July 2010 in markets like UK and Africa.[18] In the UK, Wendy remains the most watched show on BET where it is shown a total of four times a day. In South Africa the show premiered on BET Africa in 2014 and has since been the most watched show on the network with around 4-5 million viewers a day. The most watched episode was in May 2019 when Blac Chyna appeared as a guest drawing up to 5.7 million viewers. In 2020 BET Africa has played less of the show weekly, usually in the mornings.

On September 16, 2019, Williams announced on the eleventh-season premiere that the series had been renewed through 2022, bringing the series to its thirteenth season.[19][20]

In March 2020, production on the series was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[21] In April 2020, it was announced the series would return to television beginning April 6, with the show being taped from Williams home.[22]

On July 21, 2020, it was announced that the show would return to (an albeit empty) studio recording for its twelfth season, which premiered on September 21, 2020.[23][24]

On October 31, 2017, Williams, dressed in a Statue of Liberty costume on the Halloween episode, unexpectedly fainted during the live telecast when about to announce the winners of the show's Halloween contest. The episode then went into an extended commercial break. Williams resumed stating, "That was not a stunt. I overheated and did pass out, but I'm a champ and I'm back." Williams and her spokesperson cited heat exhaustion from her costume as the cause.[25]

In February 2018, Williams canceled three shows due to illness. On February 21, Williams announced that she was taking a three-week hiatus, due to health issues.[26] In March, actor Jerry O'Connell served as guest host during her absence, despite Williams insisting in previous years her show would never utilize a guest host. Williams returned on March 19.[27] She went on an indefinite hiatus in January and February 2019 after a shoulder injury and worsening complications from Graves' disease and other personal issues. This time around, several guest hosts such as, Keke Palmer, Nick Cannon, former "View" panelist Sherri Shepherd and O'Connell filled the slot until Williams was well enough to return.[28] Williams returned to her show on March 4, 2019. Williams noted on the March 19 episode of her show that she had also begun treatment for a decades-old cocaine addiction and was living in a sober house when not hosting her show.[29]

• Official website
• The Wendy Williams Show at IMDb
• The Wendy Williams Show at TV Guide