Member Since: 2/6/2012
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Wendy succeeds in broadening her appeal
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"The Wendy Williams Show" is watched by roughly 2 million people each day. The bejewelled microphone she carries and the collection of wigs in her dressing room speak to Williams' outsized personality. She's noticeably toned things down, however, to broaden her appeal.
"Much like Obama winning the White House, you cannot just deal with your base - black women and gay men," Williams said. "You've got to learn to bend a little bit to expand, but you can't alienate your people."
Talk shows fail more often than succeed, but Williams has settled comfortably into the middle of the pack. She trails leaders like Dr. Phil and Ellen DeGeneres, but outdraws a second tier of Dr. Oz, Jerry Springer, Rachael Ray and the like.
The time slots she's been given are improving, as much a measure of success as ratings, said Bill Carroll, an expert in the syndication market for Katz Media. Her audience skews young.
"She didn't walk away from who she is, but over time they made her more accessible," Carroll said. "When she came on, she was a lot more New York and a lot more like she was on the radio. She's grown into television."
"In my opinion, a celebrity would be foolish not to come to Wendy," she said. "Even if you don't care about me, you should care about who's attracted to the show. My audience, they're the tastemakers. They're the ones who dictate what becomes No. 1 at the box office, what shoes you'll be wearing this season, what the best mascara is, what you're going to watch on Netflix."
Increasingly, it's more about Williams and her audience, which she calls her co-hosts. Williams blatantly stole the "Hot Topics" idea - even the name - from Goldberg's show "The View" and expanded the amount of time she chats about pop culture and current events. Monday's shows are entirely devoted to "Hot Topics."
She'll bound up the stairs to interact with spectators, who sometimes seek advice. One young woman asked Williams about a boyfriend who keeps requesting threesomes. Mostly women fill the seats, but Williams quickly zeroes in on a guy she can tell has been dragged there by a wife or a girlfriend. She'll check on a break to see if he's enjoying himself.
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Read more at: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/563a2f78e4b0b24aee4848b0
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