Jada Pinkett Smith Returns for First ‘Red Table Talk’ Since Oscars

Weeks after the Oscars drama that was heard around the world, Jada Pinkett Smith is returning to Red Table Talk. This will mark the show’s first episode since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage after the comedian joked about Pinkett Smith. It’s unclear whether the episode, which will air on Wednesday, will touch upon the incident. 

Red Table Talk, which Pinkett Smith hosts alongside her daughter Willow Smith and mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, will return on Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET on Facebook Watch. Upon its return, new episodes of the series will drop weekly. While there’s no telling whether Pinkett Smith will address the Oscars controversy, a press release for the series did share what the episode will entail. For the return episode of Red Table Talk, the hosts will interview singer Janelle Monae, who will be discussing her coming-out story and why she no longer sees herself as a woman.

This episode will air a few weeks after the Oscars drama. During the ceremony, Rock, a presenter, shared a joke about Pinkett Smith and said that he couldn’t wait to see her in “G.I. Jane 2,” in reference to her baldness (he reportedly did not know that she suffers from alopecia, which leads to hair loss). Smith did not take kindly to the joke and went on stage and slapped the comedian. Once he got back to his seat, he yelled out, “Keep my wife’s name out your f—king mouth!” To make the matter all the wilder, Smith won an Oscar for his role in King Richard shortly after this all went down. The whole situation caused a stir and led to Smith resigning from the Academy. Later, the Academy stated that the Oscar winner was banned from any events and ceremonies for the next 10 years. 

Following the ceremony, Smith took to social media to issue a public apology to Rock. He stated, “Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally.” Smith went on to write, “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”