'Wendy Williams Show' Staff Reportedly Had Plan in Place for Her Death

The Wendy Williams Show staff was reportedly so concerned that Wendy Williams would pass away during the show's final season that they prepared for her death. Williams' health kept her from returning to the show, which forced producers to rely on guest hosts for the entire 2021-2022 season. Debmar-Mercury, the show's distributor, canceled Wendy and will replace it with Sherri Shepherd's Sherri, starting this fall.

Sources told Radar Online last week that the Wendy staff found themselves in an odd position. "It is not unusual for media outlets to prepare obituaries for older stars, or celebrities melting down like Britney Spears. However, to prepare a tribute to say 'goodbye' to your own boss was bizarre," the sources said on Sept. 7.

Part of the preparations included a montage that would air if the 58-year-old host died. "Producers had a package edited and ready to go just in case the worst happened," the source said. "It was basically a highlight reel honoring all Wendy's greatest moments playing over very sad music."

Wendy Season 13 was delayed multiple times last year, first due to Williams' breakthrough case of COVID-19 and then because of her ongoing complications from Graves' disease. The show eventually premiered a month later than other talk shows, but with a roster of guest hosts. In February, producers confirmed Williams would not return and Debmar-Mercury canceled the show. Wendy's final episode aired on June 17, without Williams making an appearance. Debmar-Mercury also scrubbed the show's videos from YouTube and social media.

The final episode was one of the stranger moments in modern TV history. In August, Debmar-Mercury senior VP marketing Adam Lewis told The Hollywood Reporter that it was difficult to figure out how it would work. "We knew we really didn't want it to feel like an in-memoriam because she's very much alive," Lewis explained. "We weren't going to do this huge countdown with celebratory balloons because it didn't feel celebratory."

In the end, they decided to just air a feel-good highlight reel of Williams' work that Shepherd introduced. They also never seriously considered including Williams herself. "To put her on as a guest or to do a video message from her would be a disservice to Wendy, who is so much bigger than that," one anonymous producer told THR. Williams later criticized the finale.

Williams has teased other projects. In August, she told fans on Instagram she was preparing to launch a podcast called The Wendy Experience. Williams shared a new photo of herself in front of a microphone on Aug. 29, but the podcast has still not launched. Meanwhile, Shepherd is preparing for the launch of Sherri, which debuts on Sept. 12.