Don’t expect to see Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Oprah or Celine on “Steve Harvey.”
Not yet, anyway.
While Steve Harvey gleefully rattles off his first-name-only roster of “dream guests,” he’s emphatic that his new daytime talk show — premiering Sept. 4 on Ch. 4 — will steer clear of star power.
“It’s going to be mostly topical with everyday people. This is not a celebrity-driven show,” he says. “We don’t have one celebrity booked on the show, so far.
“I find regular people to be more interesting,” he says. “They’re not on TV selling anything, they don’t want you to buy their book or watch their movie . . . They have real stories, and other people can relate to that, like when it comes to how to be a better parent, how to make it, why can’t I get along with my mom.
“This is all going to be covered on my show.”
There’s no set formula for daytime success — witness the ghosts of talk shows past — but it doesn’t hurt that the stars are aligned for Harvey, much as they were for his fellow stand-up comic, Ellen DeGeneres, who launched her daytime talk show in 2003 shortly after her breakout success in the movie “Finding Nemo.”
Harvey, 55, is following a similar daytime trajectory. The veteran stand-up comic, who headlined The WB’s “Steve Harvey Show” for six seasons, scored big in 2009 with his best-selling book, “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man,” which was turned into a successful big-screen movie starring Kevin Hart.
That, in turn, led to Harvey’s run as the host of “Family Feud” (he’s already taped the upcoming season) and helped stoke his nationally syndicated radio show, which he’ll continue to host from his daytime perch in Chicago. (“The Steve Harvey Morning Show” airs here on WBLS.)
“In 2000, out in LA, I really wanted to do a late-night talk show after [his movie] ‘The Original Kings of Comedy,’ then in 2003 I still wanted to do a late-night show,” Harvey says. “Then my life started evolving and I went from a late-night to a daytime guy. I got married to a wonderful person who gave me a peace I never had before and who enabled me to tap into who I really was, instead of trying to be somebody I wasn’t.
“After I wrote this book, it skyrocketed me into a zone I was very unfamiliar with — the general market — and because of the book here came ‘Family Feud’ out of nowhere.
“The next thing I know I quit saying I wanted a late-night show and thought, how great would it be to host a daytime show?”
But Harvey isn’t entering the daytime fray with blinders on. And while he refers to his time slot on Ch. 4 (3 p.m.) as “The heat seat,” he thinks “Steve Harvey” will cater to an audience sorely under-served.
“You’ll get a male perspective in daytime TV, which I think is missing,” he says. “I’m a little more open than the average daytime person. I talk about my personal life — this is my wife, these are my kids, this is my take on parenting and marriages.
“I’m not really scared of that part of my life,” he says. “And on top of all that I’m gonna be funny. I’ll bet you that other than Ellen [DeGeneres], no one comes close. Funny is my business. I’m a comedian.
“I’m nervous about it, of course. I’d be lying if I said I don’t want to do well,” he says. “As a stand-up comic, I’m always nervous right before I go onstage.
“That nervousness is really respect for my audience,” he says. “You learn very quickly as a stand-up that if you’re out there, and you don’t respect your audience, you’ve got a rough night on your hands.”