Why Julie Chen Moonves Thinks The Talk Became ‘Tone Deaf’ After Her Exit

The CBS television personality explained why she believes ‘The Talk’ became “such a different show” following her 2019 departure, and also weighs in on the talk show’s cancellation.

Julie Chen Moonves is sharing her thoughts on how The Talk fared in the years after her exit — and what she thinks about the show ultimately being canceled last year.

While appearing on Monday’s episode of SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live, the television personality — who left The Talk in 2019 — reacted to the daytime talk show’s cancellation and explained why she felt it became a “such a different show” after her departure.

“I was sad, but I was also aware that it had become such a different show because when I was on, it was all women, and there was some chatter about maybe putting a guy on, on the panel when Aisha left,” Chen Moonves, 55, told Andy Cohen.

“The year before was my last year, and my husband always said, he was like, ‘You know, if you put men on that panel, you just change the dynamic. Right now, it’s a bunch of women having a grand old time, you know, yucking it up,'” she continued, referring to her husband, Les Moonves, former CBS CEO. “And it was sad for me to see, but really, there was very few remnants left of the show that I had worked on. Disappointing, ’cause I look at The View and I’m like, I felt like The Talk could have lasted just as long as The View is lasting.”

Cohen brought up how The Talk, unlike The View, “[ran] away from topical issues.”

“It was tone deaf,” Chen Moonves said, to which Cohen agreed.

“When we started, you know, things were different in history,” Chen Moonves added. “You know, the tone was different in the country, but you gotta listen and you gotta adapt.”

After eight seasons on The Talk, Chen Moonves announced her exit from the show just nine days after her husband stepped down from CBS following assault and harassment accusations in 2018. Moonves told The New Yorker that he recognized three of the sexual encounters detailed in Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker exposé but said they were consensual. Chen Moonves — who has always supported her husband — later described herself as “collateral damage” in her 2023 audiobook, But First, GOD.

In the years following her departure from The Talk, her two other OG on the panel, Sara Gilbert and Sharon Osbourne, subsequently left in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Sharon exited The Talk in late March 2021 after a heated on-air discussion about racism with her co-host Sheryl Underwood, and an internal investigation by CBS.

The panel consisted of all women until 2021, when Jerry O’Connell replaced Osbourne, and Akbar Gbajabiamila later joined as a permanent co-host. The Talk was canceled in April 2024, and signed off the following December, with O’Connell, Gbajabiamila, Underwood, Natalie Moralas, and Amanda Kloots as the hosts at its conclusion.