The Talk might sound an awful lot like The View, but its co-hosts seem much more interesting.
The daytime series, which will replace As the World Turns this fall, stars Julie Chen, Leah Remini, Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson and Marissa Jaret Winokur. On the daily, the first five women will sit at a table and discuss motherly issues, while Winokur serves more as a field correspondent, joining the panel when necessary.
The idea for the series helms from Gilbert, who wanted to share what she received from her own support group when she became a new mom. “I was overwhelmed,” she says. “Was I giving my son enough attention?”
Gilbert specifically asked if Chen, who is married to CBS CEO Les Moonves, would be interested in doing the series, and the new mom, who is often referred to by critics as The Chenbot, jumped at the chance. “I thought this was my calling,” she says. “I had the same issues and questions (about parenting).”
Specifically, the series will expose the ladies’ personal lives, something Gilbert has never done publicly before. In fact, in the press release that CBS sent out announcing the show, the actress asked them not to name her partner, Allison Adler, despite the fact that the release mentioned all of the other women’s partners.
“I’ve acted my whole life and I’ve never really discussed my personal life,” says the former Roseanne star. “I felt the first place I wanted to do it wasn't in a CBS press release.”
She was loath to really name anything about Ali that annoyed her, though, choosing to pick the fact that her partner is “taller” than her and therefore “looks better in clothes” as her most annoying trait.
Remini, who is just as aware of her own image as Chen (she did a robot impression to demonstrate the power of The Chenbot), admits that she knows she isn’t always well-liked.
“Sometimes I’m very unlikable as a person,” she admits. “I feel comfortable here with these women, whatever comes out of my mouth is really who I am.”
Unlike The View, these women are aware of how grating it will be to viewers if they talk over one another on the show. To prevent it, they’ve implemented the understanding that while it’s “OK to interrupt each other,” they will try not to “stampede over each other,” according to Gilbert.
The Talk begins this fall on CBS.
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