After Much Deliberation, Sara Gilbert Is Leaving The Talk
Daytime television is headed for a change.
Sara Gilbert announced Tuesday that she's leaving The Talk, the daily CBS gabfest that she created, executive produced, and has co-hosted since it first aired in 2010.
Sharing the stage with fellow anchors Cheryl Underwood, Eve, Sharon Osbourne, and Carrie Ann Inaba, Gilbert announced through tears that she's saying goodbye to her TV family so that she can find "more balance."
Between her role on The Conners and her real-life role as a mother to Rhodes, 4, who she shares with former 4 Non Blondes frontwoman Linda Perry, as well as Levi, 14, and Sawyer, 11, from a prior relationship, she realized she needed to shift her priorities.
"I've decided that it's time for me to leave the show... I obviously love it here and, like I said, this was extremely difficult," the 44-year-old admitted on Tuesday's episode. "Last season I did The Conners and was also producing and I loved it and felt totally empowered but also, if I’m being honest about it, I think my life was slightly out of balance and I wasn’t able to spend as much time with my three kids as I'd like, or time for myself."
She added, "As I continue on, I'm starting to develop more things to produce and I'm having opportunities to act and I’m just feeling like, I don’t know, how I’m going to do it all? I was looking at the next months and just thinking, there's not time, you know?"
"And I'm looking at even small things in my life, my youngest is four years old and I still haven’t made his baby book," she explained. "You sit and you think, you know, my daughter's looking at hers last night and I'm like 'Oh, he’s gonna figure it out soon!' So, just basic life things, but it's difficult because this is a place that I love and I'm extremely happy and I love the hosts, I love the crew, I love the staff. I'm so grateful to the audience for letting me in your homes every day. It’s such an honor."
Fans of Gilbert don't have to share their parting words just yet. She promised that she'll be on the show through the rest of the season and she'll return to c0-host.
"You're not gonna get rid of me," she assured the audience, while Underwood told Gilbert, "Your spirit will always be here."
Gilbert, who won a Daytime Emmy in 2016 for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show was applauded by Angelica McDaniel, executive vice president of daytime programs for CBS. In a statement she said,"Sara’s passionate vision for a forum in which women on camera and off could celebrate mutual support, emotional growth and everyday achievements was a driving force behind bringing The Talk to air in 2010 as CBS' first daytime talk show."
Though Underwood may have put it best-or certainly most effusively. “You are a true example for others to follow. God has given you a great talent and I think he’s opening doors for you to use that talent wherever you go. But more than that, you are an amazing mother, you’re an amazing partner, wife, you are just such a beautiful spirit and everything I think you touch, you’re going to be successful because you care about other people. We all wish you godspeed to greater things. You’ll never be forgotten.”
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