After eight seasons, The Real has officially come to an end. Unfortunately, when it was time for the show to renew for a ninth season, it was canceled by their network, Fox. The Emmy award-winning daytime talk show premiered in 2013 and focused on millennials and featured a variety of topics that were specific to that demographic such as beauty, fashion, social media, social justice issues, and more. The show, which featured a panel of co-hosts such as Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai Jenkins, and Garcelle Beauvais, broadcasted their “Farewell” episode on Friday, June 3 where they looked back at their special moments and thanked their fans and supporters.
Adrienne, however, took it a step further and shared a video on her personal YouTube page titled “How I Feel About the End of ‘The Real.’” The singer/ actress, who is one of the original co-hosts, reflected on the memories from the show which she was on for almost a decade. She was just 29 when she started on the daytime show and made history by becoming the first Latina talk show host on an English TV channel. “Being the first Latina I definitely felt a lot of pressure but in a good way,” she said.
“But I also recognized as well that I was representing Latinas on TV, that didn’t necessarily mean that there’s only one way to be Latina. That was probably one of the first things I recognized when doing the show because there were some people that were like she doesn’t look like me, she doesn’t talk like me, why is she so urban? And I was like because I’m definitely an urban Latina from New York City, born and raised in the projects in the Lower Eastside and I’m always going to be true to who I am.”
While she always wanted to be a talk show host, there were a few things she doesn’t miss about working in daytime TV such as waking up at 4 a.m. which she said killed her social life and even put a strain on her marriage. But her husband Israel Houghton would often come on set and surprise her. When it came to the good times, she said that her dressing room was the hot spot where they would drink and socialize. “Fun fact, now that the show is over I can also admit to the fact that we used to drink and take shots up in our dressing rooms and go down and have the best girl chats ever,” she said. She even admitted that they sometimes had a little “courage juice” in their coffee mugs on the show.
But with the good times came some controversy. The 38-year-old would sometimes find herself in hot water due to comments she made on the show such as saying she can only go 12 hours without having sex and that she doesn’t always wash her hands after using the bathroom. She made sure to clear up those comments in the video. “You don’t get to have a full explanation of what you’re saying,” she said. Noting that segments are only 15 minutes long.
When the “Farewell” episode aired, the co-hosts were very emotional and Adrienne shared what was going through their heads during that time. “I feel like we made our mark. I was at complete peace with the show ending because guys I spent literally almost a decade on the show and I was ready and excited for what’s next and in the moment I was like there’s nothing to cry about,” she said.
“It’s an end of an era but it’s also a celebration of what the show has done. To some extent, we have a trauma bond of being a part of this show ‘cause it was not easy. It was not easy baring your soul, going through the changes of the cast members, being attacked in the comments sometimes or because of the things that we shared and it was really hard. And it made us stronger and it made us tougher and it made us wiser and it made us the women that we are today so that’s where all those emotions definitely came from.”
How I Feel About the End of ‘The Real’
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Featured image by Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Elton John AIDS Foundation