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They came, they saw….some conquered and some collapsed

Black Talk Shows That Were Cancelled

Over the past 15 years we have seen a bevy of talk shows cross our TV screens at one point of another, some of them GREAT, and some of them GTFOHWTBS. When it comes to African-Americans holding down an hour’s worth of jokes, interviews, and controversy, there were very few that were able to sustain any level of success for an extended period of time.

After doing some research we started feeling a little nostalgic and thought it would be nice to look back at the good, the bad, and the super-super ugly of black talk show history.

Images via WENN

How many of these shows do YOU remember watching back in the day?

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Ananda Lewis

The Ananda Lewis Show debuted September 10, 2001 (bad timing boo). At the time she was compared to Oprah Winfrey…guess that didn’t work out too well.

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Arsenio Hall 1989-1994

The King of black late night talk is said to be making a return to your TV screens soon. Woof! Woof! Woof!

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Keenan Ivory Wayans 1997-1998

Didn’t take long for audiences to figure out that Keenan is funnier as an actor/writer than a talk show host. Good job, good effort.

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Queen Latifah 1999-2001

Dana Owens had her first shot on the talk show circuit back in ’99. Unfortunately for her, the public’s interest in talk TV waned in the early 2000s leaving the Queen without a throne. But you can’t keep a good woman down, her new talk show is being produced by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett so hopefully second time is a charm.

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Magic Johnson

The Magic Hour might hold the record for shortest lived talk show ever when his hour-long struggle came to an end after only 8 excruciating weeks.

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Mo’nique 2009-2011

The Mo’nique Show was championed by BET as a viable talk show for about a year or so before things went south, and we’re not talkin’ about ATL. We’re not sure if Hollyweird’s elite just don’t fawk with the Oscar winner or what, but it got to the point where it appeared that ‘Nique was just letting ANY ol’ body come and sit on her couch. BET pulled the plug in the summer of 2011.

But hey, who needs a talk show when you have an Oscar!

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Montel Williams 1991-2008

The piff-puffin’ advocate had as an impressive of a run as anyone who ever graced the TV screen with 17 successful years of The Montel Williams Show. In the beginning Montel rode the “trash TV” train, with ratchet topics involving baby mama drama and shenanigans. However after reformatting his show to feature inspirational stories Montel went on to be one of preeminent voices in African-American media.

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Tempestt Bledsoe 1995-1996

Bottom line, if it isn’t The Cosby Show then we ain’t interested in ol’ girl.

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Chris Rock 1997-2000

Of all the people on this list Chris Rock deserved his cancellation the least. Not only was his show hilarious, it was aired on HBO where he was free to swear, curse, and show as much fawkery as he could pack into a hour. Guess it’s harder to get ratings on a channel that most cable providers require folks to pay extra for.

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Vibe 1997-1998

It sucked with Chris Spencer as the host, and even worse when he got fired and Sinbad took over.

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Wanda Sykes ???

Somebody gave her a show?!?! SMH

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