Sherri Shepherd wants to inspire viewers and make them laugh when her new eponymous daytime talk show debuts this fall. And we hear she’ll be taking cues from Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres’ former talk show.
“She’s bringing comedy back to TV… What she plans to do for the show is take Ellen and Oprah and combine it. It will be a funny, inspirational show,” an insider told Page Six.
Shepherd and her team have been schmoozing top publicists from coast-to-coast ahead of her big premiere.
On Wednesday, she hosted a mixer with top agencies like PMK and Jonesworks, which counts Tom Brady and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as clients, at Ink 48 in New York.
The event brought out TV execs Frank Cicha and Fox 5’s GM Lew Leone, who will carry her show in New York. Tony and Pulitzer-winning playwright Michael R. Jackson even popped by to meet Shepherd, we hear.
Shepherd also hosted a similar event in LA last month that brought out execs from Amazon and Interscope.
“Sherri made sure she spoke to every single publicist that attended. She did the same in LA, literally every single one – all the networks and record labels,” the insider shared.
We caught Shepherd roller skating her way into Madonna’s good graces earlier this month at a party that the pop icon hosted at Nile Rodger’s DiscOasis in Central Park.
“Nothing like skating and feeling the wind in your wig,” she joked in an Instagram video. And while she didn’t get a chance to actually chat up Madge, “I did plant a seed for her to come on my show,” she said.
Folks will be tuning in on Sept. 12 to see if Shepherd’s schmoozefest pays off.
