{"id":186020,"date":"2026-02-20T12:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/186020\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T12:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:20:10","slug":"renewal-of-jennifer-hudson-show-is-bright-spot-in-evolving-daytime-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/186020\/","title":{"rendered":"Renewal of ‘Jennifer Hudson Show’ is bright spot in evolving daytime TV"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jennifer Hudson raised more then a few eyebrows in 2022 when she was close to realizing her dream \u2014 becoming a daytime talk show host.<\/p>\n

At the time, she had just become the youngest member of the small elite group of artists who are EGOTs \u2014 winners of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. She was also aware that the highly competitive daytime talk show arena had been a notorious minefield for several top stars, leading to quick failure.<\/p>\n

But she was unfazed. Just days before the premiere of \u201cThe Jennifer Hudson Show,\u201d<\/a> she called it the perfect birthday present. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be such a gift,\u201d she said near the set of the show at Warner Bros., which produces the series. \u201cIf I were not working on my birthday, that is what I would be wishing for \u2014 performing on a stage or a platform … I love a challenge … It is a difficult arena. You will always see me try.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entertainer expressed even more excitement Thursday after her syndicated show was renewed for a fifth season, bringing some welcome sunlight to the afternoon landscape which has been shaken in the last several weeks by the upcoming departures of popular hosts Kelly Clarkson and Sherri Shepherd.<\/p>\n

Hudson and Drew Barrymore, who has hosted her own eponymous show since 2020, are now the sole survivors in the celebrity-oriented afternoon talk genre. (The talk show hosted by Tamron Hall is more focused on topical issues and trends.)<\/p>\n

Insiders say the continuing economic difficulties in Hollywood and the explosion of video podcasts hosted by stars such as Amy Poehler, Conan O\u2019Brien, Dax Shepard and the \u201cSmartless\u201d trio consisting of actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes has substantially crippled the traditional daytime talk format. <\/p>\n

Shockwaves have resonated through the daytime TV industry since early February when Clarkson said she would be ending her Emmy-winning talk show<\/a> at the conclusion of its current seventh season for personal reasons. Just hours later, producers of \u201cSherri\u201d announced they were pulling the plug<\/a> on that series, attributing the cancellation to \u201cthe evolving daytime television landscape.\u201d Shepherd in recent days has said she was fighting to save the show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rumors about the future of Hudson\u2019s show have been circulating since those announcements. Although some insiders considered Hudson an unlikely entrant in daytime, she has established herself as an engaging and warm host, connecting with her enthusiastic studio audience and highlighting the show with musical performances and duets with her guests.<\/p>\n

The show has also aggressively employed social media to promote its Spirit Tunnel<\/a>, where staff members lining a corridor greet celebrities with chants on their way to the stage. Producers say the ritual has surpassed six billion views.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jennifer Hudson Show\u201d replaced Ellen DeGeneres\u2019 talk show, which ended in 2022, had run for nearly 20 years and was produced by Warner Bros. <\/p>\n

Experts say the current landscape is indicative of the cyclical nature of daytime talk, recalling the era of \u201ctrash talk\u201d during the 1990s when afternoon talk shows such as \u201cSally Jesse Raphael,\u201d \u201cJerry Springer\u201d and others emphasized fierce confrontations and provocative, often sexually-oriented topics.<\/p>\n

\u201cDaytime has always gone through these cycles, so this is nothing new,\u201d said Rachel Schwartz, head of the Daytime Emmys and Children & Family Emmy. And video podcasts appear to be part of this latest cycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow audiences are proving that they are really hungry for podcasts, which is impacting the landscape of daytime TV,\u201d she said. \u201cThe podcast can be narrowly focused on one celebrity. It\u2019s like the listener is sitting down with a friend. And the guest can be more comfortable.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center, which explores the psychology of human interaction with media and technology, said that while daytime talk shows offer familiarity with the same host, tone and daily presence, podcasts give celebrities more control, intimacy and influence without the constraints and pressures of broadcast TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cPodcast hosts tend to be partners in conversation, not \u2018hosts\u2019 or moderators,\u201d she said. \u201cTalk shows are in the middle of the voyeurism spectrum \u2014 too curated by time, pacing and commercial interruptions to feel really intimate and too restrained to be thrilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutledge added that maintaining TV studios, crews and accommodating large audiences is becoming increasingly costly for producers, who are looking more to other types of digital and social platforms that are more attractive to advertisers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jennifer Hudson raised more then a few eyebrows in 2022 when she was close to realizing her dream…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[87642,87640,87637,87636,87638,87639,87635,48,52,51,47,50,49,87641,18303,26403,1860,4412,3239,58736,53143],"class_list":{"0":"post-186020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-afternoon-landscape","9":"tag-celebrity-oriented-afternoon-talk-genre","10":"tag-daytime-talk-show-host","11":"tag-daytime-tv","12":"tag-emmy","13":"tag-insider","14":"tag-jennifer-hudson-show","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-headlines","17":"tag-la-news","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","20":"tag-los-angeles-news","21":"tag-podcast-host","22":"tag-producer","23":"tag-sherri-shepherd","24":"tag-show","25":"tag-social-medium","26":"tag-stage","27":"tag-talk-show","28":"tag-video-podcast"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}