‘The Talk’ To End At CBS, Possibly Making Room For Black Soap Opera ‘The Gates’

CBS renews The Talk for the last time, and is seemingly paving the way for a potential new Black daytime soap opera.

Deadline reports that The Talk will end after its 15th season, with an end date set for December. The talk show has gone through some major shake-ups over the years, with Sara Gilbert leaving to star in The Conners, Julie Chen Moonves leaving due to her husband CBS head Les Moonves’ sexual harassment allegations, and Sharon Osbourne leaving after a racist outburst over Meghan Markle. But despite its drama and adding Amanda Kloots, Akbar Gbajabiamila, Natalie Morales and Jerry O’Connell to carry the show with sole remaining original host Sheryl Underwood, the show continued to cater to its audience until now.

CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios president David Stapf released a joint statement regarding the show’s upcoming end.

“The Talk broke new ground when it launched 14 years ago by returning daytime talk to CBS with a refreshing and award-winning format,” they said. “Throughout the years, it has been a key program on CBS’ top rated daytime lineup as it brought timely, important and entertaining topics and discussions into living rooms around the globe.”

The statement goes on to thank the show’s hosts and the show’s executive producer and showrunner, Rob Crabbe, as well as the entire team. The CBS heads also thanked the “numerous guests who appeared, and the millions of viewers who tuned in daily.”

The Talk‘s end comes as CBS’ upcoming soap opera, The Gates, sparked concern that the talk show would eventually run its course. The Gates was announced in March to fanfare as the first new daytime soap opera on a major network since Passions in 1999 and the first Black daytime soap since 1989’s Generations.

A joint project between CBS Studios and the NAACP, The Gates is CBS’ first Black daytime soap opera and, as Shadow and Act reported in in March, will follow “the lives of a wealthy Black family in a posh, gated community.” Michele Val Jean, a veteran Daytime Emmy and WGA Award-winning soap opera writer for The Bold and the Beautiful and General Hospital, will write and serve as showrunner and executive producer. Sheila Duckworth, Leon Russell, Derrick Johnson and Kimberly Doebereiner will also executive produce.

A daytime soap opera needs to air during the daytime, of course, and a prime spot would be the one currently occupied by The Talk. Despite The Talk‘s longevity, it’s a show CBS could easily cancel without upsetting its daytime audience. As Deadline reports, other series, such as The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful, and game shows like The Price is Right and Let’s Make a Deal are cornerstones of CBS’ daytime fanbase.