Some of The Talk's co-hosts have caused more drama than others, but just about all of them
have taken turns being at the center of some drama.
From questionable firings to controversial opinions, this is the shady truth about The
Talk.
Sara Gilbert, creator of The Talk, was an executive producer of the series since it
launched in 2010 — but there were always whispers that one of the show's other original
hosts, Julie Chen, held the most power.
During the show's first panel for the Television Critics Association, Chen said she was aware
that her marriage to Les Moonves, the then-president and CEO of CBS, would make some viewers wonder
whether her husband helped her score a spot on the show.
Chen confessed that if she were on the outside looking in, she would have the same thoughts
— and she also said that speculation about the topic didn't bother her.
As she put it, according to Deadline,
"Everything that can be said, has been said, it can't get any worse."
However, things did get worse when nasty rumors about Chen's behind-the-scenes behavior on
The Talk began to circulate.
In 2011, sources cited by the New York Post claimed that she was a domineering presence
on set, and had once even threatened her co-hosts' jobs by saying,
"My husband can fire your asses any day."
Moonves denied the allegations on behalf of Chen during a 2011 interview with Newsweek,
saying, quote, "Anybody that knows my wife knows she would never say that."
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper star Holly Robinson Peete became one of the first co-hosts to
get the boot in 2011, and she claimed that losing her job was more unpleasant than it
had to be.
After she was fired, Peete told The Hollywood Reporter how her dismissal went down.
Apparently, no one had informed her that her job was in jeopardy when she first began "hearing
rumors that other people" would be joining The Talk panel, so her initial thought was,
"That's going to be a crowded table."
Peete recalled trying to get information about the show's shakeup from her agents and others,
but to no avail: she reportedly didn't learn that she'd been fired until a couple days
prior to the Season 2 premiere, and she "tuned in" hoping to get answers.
However, her absence and that of Leah Remini's were not explained.
She deemed the experience "the most frustrating time of [her] professional life."
On her personal blog, Peete explained why being kept in the dark about her imminent
dismissal for so long was especially frustrating.
According to E!, she wrote that being under contract kept her "from moving on and finding
other work."
Peete refused to address rumors that Julie Chen had something to do with her firing,
but she did say that she believed it had nothing to do with her performance.
According to journalist Yashar Ali, she later learned that Sharon Osbourne reportedly orchestrated
her dismissal.
While Holly Robinson Peete initially did not point any fingers after her firing, King of
Queens star Leah Remini took a much different approach.
The firebrand actor had no qualms about blaming Sharon Osbourne for her dismissal, and she
even claimed to know why her co-host campaigned to have her replaced.
In 2012, Remini tweeted that Osbourne wanted her and Peete fired because she reportedly
thought that they were, quote, "ghetto."
Osbourne clapped back on Twitter, accusing her former co-host of spreading "false gossip"
and engaging in "negative, unprofessional, and childish behavior."
She also wrote that she has no control over who gets fired and hired on The Talk.
During a 2015 interview with Howard Stern, however, Remini confessed that it was the
right move to fire her because she was "not good at interviewing celebrities" or following
her bosses' directions.
"You know, publicists tell you, 'Don't talk about this, don't talk about that,' and it's
really quite annoying."
In a departure from the show's original format, which creator Sara Gilbert initially said
would feature a panel of moms discussing news of the day, Remini and Peete were replaced
by two non-moms: Aisha Tyler and Sheryl Underwood.
During a 2011 episode of The Talk, one topic of discussion was Catherine Kieu, a woman
who was found guilty of drugging her husband, tying him up while he was sleeping, and cutting
off his penis after he filed for divorce.
She then tossed it in a garbage disposal.
Kieu was sentenced to life in prison in 2013.
Most of The Talk co-hosts chuckled their way through a segment while talking about Kieu's
actions.
Sharon Osbourne said,
"I don't know the circumstances.
I don't know why he filed for divorce, I don't know what was going on between them.
However, I do think it's quite fabulous."
"I mean —"
"Sharon…"
"I mean, can you just imagine that thing whizzing around the disposal?
It's hysterical!"
She also joked that Kieu should have thrown the appendage in a dog bowl instead.
"Chewin' on an old bone..."
Sara Gilbert tried to convince her co-hosts that the story was no laughing matter, pointing
out that they would not find it funny if the story were about a man mutilating a woman.
However, her argument didn't affect Osbourne's opinion.
"It's different, though."
"It is different."
"One's floppy, and…"
After the segment was lambasted by angry commenters, Osbourne apologized on the show and stated
that she does not condone genital mutilation.
When two shows have similar formats and are competing for the same viewers, it's easy
for their cast members to view each other as rivals.
However, Sharon Osbourne took her rivalry with the women of The View a bit too far in
2013.
During an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show, Osbourne only spared one star of The View
from her barbed tongue when she was asked how The Talk differs from the ABC show.
She said,
"The situation is ... Barbara.
Idolize her.
Divine.
She is superhuman.
I love Barbara Walters.
The rest can go (bleep) themselves."
The panel members Osbourne insulted were Jenny McCarthy, Sherri Shepherd, and Whoopi Goldberg.
According to the outlet, Osbourne was forced to apologize for what she described as her
"irreverent behavior," but she did so in a joking manner.
The day after her Arsenio Hall Show appearance, she quipped on The Talk,
"I have to own this, I'm fully responsible for myself — some of the time.
Unfortunately, I was inappropriate and I was trying to be funny at somebody else's expense."
In 2013, Sheryl Underwood angered viewers after sharing her opinion about Heidi Klum's
revelation that she saves clippings from her biracial children's Afros.
During an interview with "YourTango," Klum described the hair as "beautiful" and said
that she even used some of it for art projects.
For her part, Underwood shared her opinion that the boys' hair wasn't worth saving at
all.
"Why would you save Afro hair?
You can't weave...
Afro hair."
She went on to say that in her opinion, afro hair is, quote, "just nasty."
Meanwhile, when Sara Gilbert said that she also saves her son's hair, Underwood had no
issue with her collection of clippings, saying that they were "probably [...] beautiful."
As Ebony writer LaParis Hawkins pointed out, Underwood's comments especially upset Black
women, as those who rock natural Afro styles already struggle with negative hair stereotypes
enough as it is without a high-profile celebrity making hurtful remarks about their hair.
The Talk co-host was also blasted on Twitter, and she later apologized during an interview
with "Curly Nikki."
Assuring viewers that she is not ashamed of her own natural hair, Underwood said in her
apology,
"I'm not perfect and I bet if you put a camera on someone all day, they'd eventually say
something they'd regret too.
I am asking you to forgive me for the statement I made, which to me, is a power only God has,
really."
Julie Chen decided to leave The Talk in 2018 after her husband's alleged sexual misconduct
became a topic that the women on the show couldn't ignore.
Les Moonves was notoriously let go as CBS CEO and chairman in September 2018 after he
was accused of multiple instances of sexual misconduct.
After the first allegations against her husband were laid out in an exposé by The New Yorker
that July, Chen released a statement on Twitter making it clear that she was standing by her
very powerful man.
However, she refused to say anything more about the topic on The Talk.
She said on the show that day,
"I have issued the one and only statement I will ever make on this topic on Twitter.
And I will stand by that statement today, tomorrow, forever."
The day after her husband's firing, Chen was absent from The Talk panel.
She released a statement saying that she was "taking a few days off" to be with her family,
but she reassured fans that she would "be back soon."
On the show, Sharon Osbourne described the situation as "embarrassing and upsetting,"
and she came clean about being asked to release a statement in support of Moonves months earlier.
A few days later, Chen confirmed that she was exiting The Talk in a video filmed on
The Big Brother set.
In October 2018, the topic of Meghan Markle's first pregnancy came up on The Talk.
Sheryl Underwood stated that the Duchess of Sussex, quote, "brought Blackness to the royal
family" through her relationship with Prince Harry.
For some reason, Sharon Osbourne took issue with her remark, replying with, quote, "She
ain't Black."
When co-host Eve informed Osbourne that Markle was indeed "half Black," Osbourne wouldn't
drop the subject, alleging that the former "Suits" star, quote, "doesn't look Black...
to anybody."
Right before The Talk went to commercial break, Eve jumped in to say that the topic of whether
or not someone looks Black is a "whole different discussion."
After the show returned, Osbourne apologized and attempted to clarify her comments.
She said,
"When I said Meghan is not Black; where I come from she is mixed race.
She is not white, not Black — mixed race."
For her part, Eve later defended Osbourne by telling the Daily Mail that she was, quote,
"just being her honest self."
Sharon Osbourne wasn't feeling very holly and jolly in November 2019 after she heard
John Legend and Kelly Clarkson's rewritten and "woke" version of the problematic holiday
classic, "Baby, It's Cold Outside."
The Voice co-coaches altered the lyrics to the song significantly, adding lines like,
"It's your body and your choice" and "Text me when you get home."
On The Talk, Osbourne deemed the reimagined version "ridiculous."
"It's, what is it?
'Your mind and your body?'
What the hell are you on about?
That's ridiculous!"
When ET asked Legend's wife, Chrissy Teigen, about Osbourne's criticism, she simply waved
it off, suggesting that generating drama is part of The Talk panelist's job.
Teigen also referenced her short stint on a similar daytime talk show, FABLife.
"Sharon's always going to have something to say, it's her job, so.
I remember those days of getting to talk s--- for money.
It was very fun."
While Teigen's remarks seemed pretty innocuous, Osbourne was all fired up when she fired back
on The Talk.
She responded,
"It's amazing that you remember those days, cause the show you were on didn't even last
a season."
Um, yikes.
However, her next insult was less effective — she gloated about being "born into the
(music) industry" instead of supposedly marrying into it like Teigen did.
While she described Teigen as "lovely," Osbourne also had a warning for her:
"Don't start anything cause I know it will get ugly."
confessed to breaking an unwritten rule of female sports reporters by looking at a disrobed
male athlete after a game.
Her failure to redirect her gaze wasn't the only issue with her locker room behavior — as
she later described what she saw on The Talk in 2020.
The incident occurred inside the Dallas Mavericks locker room when Underwood was working for
a radio station in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Explaining that Dirk Nowitzki's towel had spread apart to reveal the NBA star's manhood,
Underwood recalled thinking to herself, quote, "That is so big and pretty."
Naturally, viewers took to Twitter to decry Underwood's remarks as inappropriate.
One person argued that a male talk show host would find himself in hot water if he made
similar comments about the body of a female athlete.
However, Underwood's co-hosts had a good laugh at her story and even joked about it.
Carrie Ann Inaba quipped, "I bet they weren't able to get you out of there" — to which
Underwood replied, "No, they weren't."
There were whispers that Marie Osmond was a bit too nice for two of her catty co-stars'
liking when she replaced Sara Gilbert on The Talk in 2019.
One sign that all was not well between Osmond and Sharon Osbourne came in April 2020.
After Osmond said that she was, quote, "intrigued" by the coronavirus, Osbourne criticized her
choice of words.
Osmond admitted to misspeaking and extended an olive branch to her co-host.
"I'm just like you, Sharon," she said.
To which Osbourne snapped in response, "You're nothing like me."
While appearing on Watch What Happens Live that May, Osmond downplayed the exchange and
claimed that she and Osbourne were "great friends."
However, an insider claimed otherwise while speaking to The Sun about some juicy behind-the-scenes
drama.
The source alleged that Osbourne and Sheryl Underwood were "jealous" of Osmond and never
wanted her on the show.
They reportedly refused to socialize with her and talked about her behind her back,
with one of their supposed complaints being that Osmond was "too sugary sweet" to work
with the show's dynamic.
According to Page Six, another CBS insider claimed that Osbourne and Underwood went to
CBS executives and threatened to quit if Osmond was not given the boot.
She left after one season, saying that she was doing so to pursue other projects in her
career.
Osbourne seemed to like the four-panelist format that her absence created, telling ET
that September that it gave the remaining women "more time to talk."
"I have to say that with four, we've got more time to talk."
Sharon Osbourne would live to regret having more time to talk after a March 2021 discussion
about racism landed her in major hot water.
It all started when Osbourne defended her pal, Piers Morgan, after he said that he didn't
"believe" Meghan Markle when she told Oprah Winfrey that she had struggled with suicidal
thoughts.
Morgan made the remarks on Good Morning Britain, and later basically quit the show instead
of apologizing.
Osbourne got angry and upset while discussing her defense of Morgan with co-host Sheryl
Underwood, who was patiently trying to explain why Morgan's remarks could be construed as
being racist.
"And don't try and cry 'cause if anyone should be crying it should be me."
She then asked Underwood to point to specific comments Morgan made that were racist.
Underwood told Osbourne, quote, "It is not the exact words of racism.
It's the implication and the reaction to it."
"Because she is a Black woman and to try to dismiss it or to make it seem less than what
it is, that's what makes it racist."
On Twitter, Osbourne was blasted for the way she handled the situation.
Former co-host Holly Robinson Peete was one viewer who had something to say about it.
She tweeted,
"I'm old enough to remember when Sharon complained that I was too 'ghetto' for #theTalk...then
I was gone."
After Sharon Osbourne's heated exchange with Sheryl Underwood, The Talk was placed on hiatus
while CBS conducted an internal review into the incident.
Unfortunately for Osbourne, the situation got worse for her during the break.
Years after she first accused Sharon Osbourne of calling her and Holly Robinson Peete "ghetto,"
Leah Remini claimed that her former coworker had previously made racist and homophobic
remarks about two of the show's other panelists.
In March 2021, she told Yashar Ali that Osbourne allegedly referred to Julie Chen as "slanty
eyes" and "wonton."
Remini also claimed that Osbourne used crude homophobic slurs while expressing frustration
with Sara Gilbert for not siding with her against Chen.
According to Remini, Osbourne had allegedly tried to get Peete ousted from the series
before the show even premiered, and supposedly told Remini that they needed to find, quote,
"another Black person who is funny" to replace her.
Osbourne's publicist denied the allegations in a statement that aimed to discredit Remini
by calling her "a disgruntled former employee."
Meanwhile, Ali talked to 11 sources who accused Osbourne of "bullying" her coworkers and making
derogatory remarks about them.
While The Talk was still on hiatus, Sharon Osbourne spoke to Variety in a move that reportedly
angered CBS executives, according to Yashar Ali.
Osbourne attempted to blame her behavior on the actions of producers by claiming that
she was "blindsided" when Sheryl Underwood brought up her defense of Piers Morgan.
She also complained about not being involved in the planning of the segment, which was
a luxury she'd always had in the past.
Osbourne said,
"I felt like I was in front of a firing squad.
I felt like a lamb held out for slaughter."
During another interview with ET, Osbourne expressed frustration that she had not been
given cards with the exact questions that Underwood would be asking her written on them.
While she felt like The Talk producers had set her up, she also admitted that she was
in the wrong, stating that she had gotten too personal with Sheryl Underwood.
A few days after Osbourne accused her bosses of shady behavior, CBS announced that she
would not be returning to The Talk.
The network's statement read,
"As part of our review, we concluded that Sharon's behavior toward her cohosts during
the March 10 episode did not align with our values for a respectful workplace.
We also did not find any evidence that CBS executives orchestrated the discussion or
blindsided any of the hosts."
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