As ‘The Talk’ Ends, Relive the Show’s Defining Moments
CBS will be much less Talk-ative in the new year. The network’s daytime program The Talk is ending its 15-season run on Friday, December 20.
In a press release honoring the show’s legacy, CBS notes that The Talk will have aired 2,993 episodes, garnered more than 70 awards and nominations, welcomed more than 10,800 guests, gifted over $103 million in giveaways, and hosted more than 250,000 audience members.
Ahead of the show’s live series finale on Friday, browse through the photo gallery below to see major moments (and lots of behind-the-scenes gossip) from the show’s history.
The Talk, Series Finale, Friday, December 20, 2/1c
2010: The Talk premieres, replacing As the World Turns
After CBS opted in December 2009 to end As the World Turns’s 54-year run, the network considered possible replacements for the soap opera’s time slot. Network execs eventually settled on a mother-centered talk show, informally dubbed The Mom Show, based on an idea from Sara Gilbert, as Deadline reported.
CBS formally announced the project the following July — naming Leah Remini, Julie Chen Moonves, Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson Peete, and Marissa Jaret Winokur as Gilbert’s cohosts — and The Talk debuted on October 18, 2010.
2012: Leah Remini blames Sharon Osbourne for her and Holly Robinson Peete’s exits
Remini and Peete exited The Talk after Season 1, and Remini alleged in a Twitter Q&A the following year that Osbourne asked for them to be fired, as BET reported at the time. “Sharon thought me and Holly were ‘ghetto’ (her words), we were not funny, awkward, and didn’t know ourselves,” the King of Queens alum tweeted.
Peete backed up Remini’s claim in a 2021 tweet, writing, “I’m old enough to remember when Sharon complained that I was too ‘ghetto’ for #TheTalk… then I was gone.”
2013: Osbourne insults the hosts of The View
During a 2013 appearance with the other women of The Talk on The Arsenio Hall Show, Osbourne took a foul-mouthed dig at all but one host of The View. After praising the “divine” and “superhuman” Barbara Walters, Osbourne said, “The rest can go f*** themselves.”
Within days, Osbourne was apologizing to the ladies of the rival talk show. “Unfortunately, I was inappropriate, and I was trying to be funny at somebody else’s expense,” she said on The Talk, per E! News. “I want to apologize to Jenny [McCarthy], Sherri [Shepherd] and Whoopi [Goldberg], who are all accomplished, self-made women who have amazing careers. … So please understand, it was my irreverent behavior, and no disrespect meant.”
2016: The Talk beats The View at the Daytime Emmys
At the 2016 Daytime Emmy Awards, The Talk won the Outstanding Talk Show/Entertainment trophy, beating The View and fellow nominees The Real and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, just as it would do two years later.
“I don’t know if it was something that happened this season that made it a standout, but we’ve been on for six seasons now, and it was our time,” Chen Moonves told Variety after the 2016 triumph. “In daytime TV, viewing habits shift, and it takes a while to become a household name and I think we have accomplished that.”
2018: Julie Chen Moonves leaves the show amid her husband’s scandal
In 2018, Chen Moonves told viewers she was leaving the show. Her announcement came days after her husband, Les Moonves, stepped down from his post as CBS chairman and CEO amid multiple allegations of sexual assault or misconduct against him.
“I have been at The Talk since the day it started nine years ago, and the cast, crew, and staff have become family to me over the years,” Chen Moonves said in a pre-taped message, per CBS News. “But right now, I need to spend more time at home with my husband and our young son.”
2021: Sharon Osbourne is fired from the show
After Osbourne got heated with cohost Sheryl Underwood in an argument about racism on The Talk, CBS put the show on mid-season hiatus and then announced that Osbourne would be exiting the program. The network also said its review of the situation determined that Osbourne’s behavior toward her cohosts “did not align with [CBS’] values for a respectful workplace.”
During a 2022 appearance on Fox & Friends, Osbourne claimed she “was this lamb slaughtered that morning” and that CBS “denied responsibility.” And this March, on the U.K. reality show Celebrity Big Brother, the TV personality said that she’s “banned in America” and that she “did nothing wrong.”
2021: Jerry O’Connell becomes the show’s first full-time male cohost
After the Osbourne fracas, The Talk hired Jerry O’Connell as its first full-time male cohost. Months later, Akbar Gbajabiamila became the second.
“I came here as a guest months ago, and just from the moment I walked in, you’re just gracious, you’re kind, you’re fun, and it worked,” O’Connell told his costars after the news broke, per The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re going to have a lot of fun, we really are.”
2023: Julie Chen says she was forced out of The Talk and “stabbed in the back”
In her 2023 audio memoir But First, God, Chen said that she was told via phone not to return to work a day before The Talk’s 2018 season premiere.
“I was told with my name and my husband’s name being in the headlines and all this chaos, two of my cohosts called the powers at CBS and said, ‘If Julie shows up to work tomorrow, we’re not coming in.’ So I was basically told, please don’t come back to work anymore at The Talk,” she said, per USA Today. “I felt robbed, and I felt wronged. I felt like so many people that I loved and trusted or thought were friends… wow, they did me so dirty.”
Chen revisited that time in a 2023 interview on Good Morning America. “That was a hard time,” she said. “I felt stabbed in the back. I was, you know?”
2024: The Talk is canceled in favor of new soap Beyond the Gates
In April, CBS announced that The Talk would end after an abbreviated 15th season, with the final air date later scheduled for Friday, December 20.
In one of the Season 15 episodes, Peete came back to The Talk and commended the show’s current hosts — Underwood, O’Connell, Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, and Natalie Morales — on their work.
“I’m so sorry that you’re not continuing,” she said. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but that’s a whole other story. But at the end of the day, it’s great to have been on the first show and on one of the last shows.”
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