If her dramatic physical presence didn’t stop casual viewers in their tracks, her big mouth almost certainly would. And in that void lingers a tricky legacy that did as much to burnish gossip journalism as tarnish it.Īmid the cacophony of daytime TV sirens, the 5ft 10in Williams rang out loudest. “I swear if I wasn’t here doing it, I’d be at home watching.” One of the last shots in the reel was her empty chair. “This is the best show ever,” she said at one point in the highlight reel.
If anything, the former radio shock jock was ahead of the curve, changing the tone and pace of rumor-mongering as gossip expanded out from the tabloids and TV newsmagazines into social media. Altogether, the program endured for 14 years and probably could have gone on for more had Williams’s health crises and personal and financial tumult seemingly quashed her enthusiasm for boldly trafficking in celebrity gossip without worrying whether what she was saying was true or not, or whether that offended anyone.Įven though she hasn’t hosted the show in person since 2020, her departure from daytime is of a piece with a broader turnaround and not because Williams failed to keep up with the times. Of course that’s why the Wendy Williams Show is signing off, after 1,500-plus episodes. All that was missing was, well, the actual host.
