Wendy Williams – nationally syndicated radio host and now, Fox morning TV personality – walks onto the set of her new talk show like a woman returning home, victorious. The audience loves her and she is at ease with them.
“You are all my co-hosts,” she tells them as they applaud, shouting out her name and her catchphrase, “How you doing?”
After hosting the top-rated WBLS radio show in New York, “The Wendy Williams Experience,” for years, the Ocean Township native, has crossed over into the already crowded talk show arena, replacing repeats of Montel Williams’ show, and come up a winner. “The Wendy Williams Show” debuted July 21 at number one in the 10 a.m. time slot.
Her new show is anything but conventional.
“I’m no polished journalist, I’m just a nosy girl from New Jersey who wants it all,” Williams tells the Post.
Williams has spent the last 14 years, 10 of them married, with her husband and manager, Kevin Hunter, whom she met a roller skating rink. They have a seven-year-old son, Kevin Jr.
“Thank God for my family and my life in the suburbs,” Williams exclaims. “We have a very normal life in Jersey. When we get back, I take off my wig and it’s all mommy and wife. . . Somebody’s got to keep track of when the Bounty paper towels get low.”
This summer, working mornings for Williams start at 5:45. That’s when she sends Kevin Jr. to camp and hops in her ride to the Manhattan stage she now calls the office – once home to the long-running “Montel Williams” show.
On her new program, Williams talks anything and everything. The conversation has ranged from the candidacy of Barack Obama to the Star Jones divorce, Al Reynolds’ sexuality to how to choose sunglasses that suit your face.
But Williams’ show is not all fun and games. She shed spontaneous tears when an audience member talked about her inability to get pregnant.
“A mother is not a woman who pushes a baby out of her private parts,” Williams told the young woman, tears rolling down her perfectly made-up cheeks. As the cameras cut away, the two embraced.
Williams’ later told the Post, “I’m a mess, but most people are a mess. I just don’t mind talking about the mess I am.”
For Williams, the show is an important experience.
“I’m learning to let go and not micromanage,” she says. “I’m letting the qualified people do what they are qualified to do.”
Williams has even asked Michelle Obama to come on.
“I know what it’s like to be labeled an angry black woman” says Williams. “Americans need to see black people prosper together. The Obamas are a fine example of that. . . I’m raising a black boy to be black man, and Obama is the best thing that happened to black men.
“But I also want to know things like how often [Michelle] gets her hair relaxed in addition to the role she plays in her husband’s politics.”
Williams’ new staff is as thrilled to have her in the studio as she is to be a regular on TV.
“She paid her dues for 22 years. says Rob Dauber, the show’s Executive Producer, who helped make household names out of talk-queens such as Oprah and Martha Stewart. “She’s done her time and she deserves this.”
Williams, who fancies herself the “Queen of All Media” with two books on the New York Times bestseller list, warns her rivals that she is here to stay:
“Rachael, Oprah, Tyra, Martha, they are all going to have to move over a little bit,” she says. “Wendy is here!”