On February 2, it was announced that Sherri, the daytime talk show hosted by comedienne and actress Sherri Shepherd, was being cancelled after four seasons. Lionsgate, which produces the series, said the decision was driven by the evolving daytime landscape, and “does not reflect on the strength of the show, its production – which has found strong creative momentum this season – or the incredibly talented Sherri Shepherd.”
With audiences increasingly turning to podcasts, a platform that has proven to attract large audiences — and can be produced at a fraction of the cost — the sustainability model of the traditional daytime talk show is under major pressure to pivot. That in itself isn’t a surprise.
What is unnerving is that Sherri’s cancellation coincided with Kelly Clarkson’s announcement that she was ending her talk show as well. Clarkson posted her impending exit on Instagram, filled with thanks and gratitude for her seven-season stint.
Kelly got to announce her leave. Sherri did not.
Shepherd wasn’t given the grace to warn or warm people of her exit, or a chance to frame her reasoning for the departure. Even when CBS announced the end of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in July 2025, he was able to appeared on his program to address the news.
The Sherri cancellation signals an even more pressing issue: a climate that has led to an absence of Black female voices on our screens and beyond. From the departure of Joy Reid on MSNOW (formerly MSNBC) in early 2025 and the ongoing absence of a Black comedic voice in front of the camera on Saturday Night Live during its 51st season, to the more than 300,000 Black women who found themselves unemployed in the past year, the optics are hard to ignore.
And yet, if history teaches us anything, it’s that we can’t wait for permission to be heard. From the stealth resolve of Harriet Tubman, the defiance of Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks, to contemporary digital voices like EBONY Power 100 awardee Lynae Vanee, they remind us we can never give up our rhetoric, even when systems try to silence it.
Shepherd’s talk show may be ending, but her presence is far from finished. Producers are already looking to take her show to other platforms, following in the footsteps of Reid’s political news format online or the IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson podcast, creating avenues where we call our own shots.
Ownership is the key to protecting our narratives. By being on top, we get to decide when, where and why we want our stories to begin and end.