Sharon Osbourne’s exit from The Talk was pretty tense, to say the least. In March, she and co-host Sheryl Underwood argued live on-air about Piers Morgan’s Good Morning Britain walkout over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's interview with Oprah Winfrey. Underwood was visibly getting emotional after Osbourne pushed back against accusations of racism. But things only worsened in the days afterward because Osbourne was later accused of using racist and homophobic language about former hosts in the past. Following a brief hiatus and an internal review, she was not brought back to the CBS show. However, Osbourne now has some choice words about the showrunners supposedly behind her ouster.
The former Talk co-host has been blunt in the past about her feelings on her exit, and she's still not mincing words here. While on The Megyn Kelly Show, she was asked about the motivation behind CBS parting ways with her out after 11 years in the role. Sharon Osbourne frankly named showrunners Heather Gray and Kristin Matthews, as well as Amy Reisenbach, head of CBS Daytime, for seemingly having a vendetta against her. She said:
I think that the showrunners were doing what Amy [Reisenbach] had told them to do. Weak, weak women, that didn't have a backbone to turn around and say, 'This is suicidal. We can't do this.' And to let it go after the break, so it was 20 minutes on national TV of bashing me. 20 minutes … They just hit me… it blindsided me.
CBS as a whole was also heavily criticized by the former talk show host. She called it a “failing” network full of “hypocrites” and “liars.” She also indicated that her firing from the show was because the CBS showrunners and others were “desperate to keep their jobs” and wanted to be “perceived as more than woke.”
In addition, Sharon Osbourne suggested that Sheryl Underwood had some part in getting her out, even though Underwood said on The Talk later that she was open to being friends still with Osbourne. The ex-host was seemingly confused as to why Underwood refused to talk or look at her while they were on a commercial break, following their initial argument. Osbourne criticized Underwood for not being a “good co-host or friend” and insinuated that she was going outside her wheelhouse by thinking she was a journalist like Gayle King. She continued:
I’d worked with the showrunners for 11 years. They were friends of mine, especially Kristin Matthews. And I told them that they've destroyed me. I told them I will never be able to get over this. It's like, once you have that seed put on you, that you are a racist, it never goes away. I told them they destroyed me.
Kelly Osbourne had also slammed woke culture in the wake of her mother's exit from The Talk. She said it should be more of a “counsel culture,” where people can be gently nudged into understanding sensitive issues rather than facing “a public execution.”
Despite these criticisms from the Osbournes, CBS has pushed on in adhering to its pledge last year to be a more equitable and diverse network. They have, for example, added more Black contestants to its reality shows Big Brother and Survivor. Big Brother 23 in fact was able to crown his first Black winner in its history last month, while Survivor’s host/executive producer, Jeff Probst, is making it a point in the new season to draw attention to their cultural blindspots.
It's more than apparent that Sharon Osbourne is still not happy with her departure or the CBS higher ups. Meanwhile, The Talk has since moved on with its replacement for her, Jerry O’Connell, who hopes to “enhance” the overall tone of the show.
