TS Madison Talks New TV Show, Trans Representation And More With Bossip

Congratulations are in order for TS Madison!

Source: WeTV / WeTV

She’s the star of a brand new WeTV show “The TS Madison Experience” which premieres tonight on WeTV at 10 PM. The series follows Madison, her personal assistant Che Che, her showrunner Craig, her editor and AV expert Oliver, her friend and sometimes guest host Tiffany Pollard and her mother, Ms. Mary as Madison works toward her goal of building her “TS Madison Experience” into a household name. We spoke with the popular YouTube star about her new show, the Mo’Nique episode of Queens Court that ended her longtime partnership with Khia, her guest judge appearance on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and the importance of LGBT+ representation on television. Check out our Q&A below, along with an exclusive clip from tonight’s debut episode!

BOSSIP: We love that your mom is on the show and has her own little segment on her “Mary-isms” lingo!

TS MADISON: Ms. Mary will tear a word and your name up. She don’t even mind.

BOSSIP: Tell us about the evolution of the show, did you see yourself doing a reality show or was your vision more for your own talk show?

TS MADISON: To be honest with you I did see myself here with WeTV — AND with my own talk show. You’re no stranger to the whole TS Madison Experience and we know that the Queens Court has had multiple phases. Phase 1, unfortunately phased out the way that it did and the most that I’ll say about that is that I wish everyone the best in their endeavors. Phase 2 came and we started rotating guests out and the pandemic came through and it kind of made me lose, it made me lose, not hope in the show, but it made me lose interest because I wasn’t able to feed off of my guest judges and that comedic timing that I have with my guest judges and it made me want to stop doing the show. WeTV came along and we got in bed with each other and here we go! Here we go with “The TS Madison Experience.”

BOSSIP: On the first episode it’s a plot point that Tiffany Pollard is supposed to join you but COVID interferes with those plans. How has it been maneuvering in the pandemic?

TS MADISON: Those were the kind of obstacles that have made it difficult for me to keep a heavy interest in the Queens Supreme Court show. It’s like she’s the missing piece to my puzzle and I can’t have her because this thing is crazy. I will say that the pandemic has been a gift and a curse for me. I did need to stop having such a large studio audience at the house, so it cleaned that up. That was a gift. But the curse was my guest judges can’t make it either so for me Tiffany is like a missing piece. That’s my girl and I can’t have her because of this whole foolishness that’s going on in the world right now. Something that was so avoidable.

BOSSIP: You’re very open about being Trans in the public eye, we’ve seen the success of Laverne Cox and the support people showed Caitlin Jenner, to the extent there are people who feel that the trans community has been normalized, but in your first episode you mention still being the first in your specific space. What is your goal in terms of having Trans people be more visible?

TS MADISON: This is where the importance of visibility comes into play. Yes there might be Laverne, there might be Janet Mock, there might be Angelica Ross and countless other women in Hollywood. Now there’s TS Madison so for me the important thing is for me to bring more LGBT+ people in on the visibility tip because this carves spaces and opens doors for us to be seen more. Just because you’ve seen five or six of us on one program or you see us here or there does not mean we’re not facing adversity so this is why it was important for me to bring my team along because we were able to create spaces and create jobs and create opportunities for LGBT+ people and that’s really the only way we’re going to be able to fight a lot of the stigma in our community and bring forth more visibility and more representation. When people say that they’ve seen five or six of us I say ‘Honey you ain’t seen enough of us.’ More, more, more.

BOSSIP: Was there ever a point where the cameras became too much or there was something you were resistant to showing?

TS MADISON: It’s very hard for me to cry. I’m going to be honest with you because this is Bossip. There was a time when I cried so heavy and that was during the time of that Mo’Nique interview. I cried because I wanted things to work out and I was focused on the big picture which is where I am occupying now and people made fun of me for crying and for showing a sign of weakness. Because that’s what it seemed like to them, like I was weak and my emotions were all over the place. Which is really not what it was. It was me knowing what it was and seeing the vision this moment things are not unfolding they way I planned so it was just a break in emotion. So when it came to filming my television show, I’ve cried, but there were a lot times I’ve held back because I didn’t want to experience any more of that taunting that they did to me when I was showing a moment of extreme vulnerability and crying like that. Like I was so devastated when that situation happened. That was my biggest fear with the cameras. It was like ‘Oh my gosh, they’re going to see me looking weak… again.” But I have learned through the course of filming the show that tears and releasing emotions and releasing feelings are a sign of strength.

BOSSIP: That interview was the last time you worked with your former co-host (Khia) correct?

TS MADISON: That was the last time we were together and it was not about us being together, it was about the moment that was transpiring. I knew that this would be the moment that would change for the first phase of the Queens Court. It would change that, it would be a part of real media. But it didn’t work out that way and it would work out the way it was supposed to and now we’re in the situation that we’re in with WeTV and I’m working toward my own huge talk show. Everything works out as it should. In the moment that I was crying, I was crying because I really thought that that was going to be the moment to make the things manifest the way I had seen it. However, it was not. It was me picking up the pieces from that moment that would make things happen for me.

There you have it, everything works out as it should. Bam!

Hit the flip for more from the interview and an exclusive clip from tonight’s episode.