Could Leah Remini Be Getting Her Own Talk Show?
Leah Remini may be best known for her role as Carrie Heffernan on the long-running CBS sitcom "The King of Queens," but the woman can also talk. In recent months, Remini has been a fill-in host on "The Wendy Williams Show," often alongside pal Michelle Visage, and some fans think she has stolen the show during Williams' long absence.
Insiders told Page Six that Remini is not especially well-liked on the "Wendy" set, reportedly because she expects "star" treatment. But, despite those rumors, she keeps getting asked back and rumor has it that she's being considered for her own talk show to be produced by Debmar-Mercury, the company behind "The Wendy Williams Show." "So it becomes the Leah Remini test show," a source told the outlet of the former sitcom star's "Wendy" stints.
Remini has maintained that she has nothing but love for Williams and her crew and that the guest spots are purely in support of the longtime talk show host who has been out since July 2021 due to ongoing health issues, per People. "This something she built and we're just getting to guest in," Remini told Entertainment Tonight of Williams in December 2021. She added that she thought that guest hosting on "The Wendy Williams Show" with bestie Visage would be "fun."
Leah Remini's first go-around as a talk show host didn't go so well
In 2010, Leah Remini was cast as one of the original hosts on the daytime talk show "The Talk." The star loudly bantered with fellow hosts Sara Gilbert, Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson-Peete, and Marissa Jaret Winokur. But by August 2011, both Remini and Robinson-Peete were fired after completing just one season on the CBS chatfest. Remini later claimed Osbourne was behind her ouster, according to Us Weekly. "Sharon said we weren't funny and ghetto," Remini wrote on Twitter in 2012.
Ten years later, Osbourne was still denying ever using the "ghetto" term or having anything to do with Remini and Robinson-Peete's firings. "As I have stated before, I have never had the ability/authority to get anyone fired from The Talk," Osbourne tweeted in March 2021, according to E! News.
Even without the feud with Osbourne, Remini expressed her reservations about being a talk show host. In a 2015 interview on 'Oprah: Where Are They Now?," Remini admitted that starting on "The Talk" was "scary." "You have to know what you're going to say, and especially dealing with celebrities," Remini revealed. "There are certain things, you know, publicists tell you: 'Don't talk about this. Don't talk about that.' And it's really quite annoying,"