The girl can talk.
Ask Wendy Williams any question about anything and she’ll go on. And on. She might not actually answer the question, but she’ll certainly entertain you in the process.
It’s that prodigious gift of gab that carried Williams through 23 years on the radio, where she was so popular that she’s being inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame this November. Now she’s leaving the medium that’s been so good to her in a bid to become the new queen of daytime TV.
“I’m not resting on my laurels,” says Williams, noting that she’s conducting this phone interview while perched on the edge of her master bathtub. “I need to know as much about TV as I know about radio.”
So far so good.
Williams made the leap to TV last summer with the launch of her own daytime talk show. Fox tested the show in four markets for six weeks, including New York, where it pretty much blew the doors off of WNYW. The show premiered nationally on July 13, and it took Williams no time flat to make New York her very own, beating every other show in the market — including repeats of “Oprah” and “Judge Judy” — from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. among the young women that advertisers covet.
“American audiences are hungry for something new and fresh, someone who’s not afraid to tell the truth and say what she really thinks,” says Rob Dauber, the show’s executive producer, who’s also worked with such daytime divas as Rosie, Martha and Oprah herself. “I really believe it’s Wendy’s time.”
On her show, Williams spends time every episode talking to her audience – which she considers her co-hosts – about pop culture, celebrity couplings, and the audience’s own problems in her daily “Ask Wendy” segment. She encourages audience members to shout out questions and comments, and they often do.
But Williams’ favorite topic about which to tell the truth is herself. She’s quick to admit things that very few other women in television – whether stars or executives – would even admit to their husbands: her age (45), her weight (175), her height (5′ 11″ in flip-flops, 6’4″ in the 5-inch Christian Louboutin’s she favors), her plastic surgery (double-D boobs and liposuction) and the fact that she’s never seen wearing her real hair.
Williams is all about her wigs, with as many as 10 at home and 10 at the show. For regular, everyday wear, she has a wig that looks windswept and natural, like she’s coming off of a day at the beach. For the show, she often wears a long, blonde flip, and if it’s not on quite right, she has no problem adjusting it right on camera. If she finds herself in a room with a woman taller than she is, she ducks into the nearest powder room to give her wig of the day a tease and a spray.
“I get angry is there’s any woman in the room bigger than me,” she says. “I hate it. If I’m not the tallest when I walk in a room I will go and tease up my wig.”
Williams admits that when she was younger, she hunched to hide her height but no longer. “With age comes acceptance of who you are and what you have to offer the world. What I choose to do is put on 5″ heels. You are seeing me at my physical peak. I feel fabulous and sexy and wonderful.”
It’s Williams’ never-ending stream of wig-tugging, truth-telling moments that make her a dream to produce, says Dauber. “This is the only time in my career that if all of the sudden there was a huge snowstorm and that day’s guest couldn’t make it in, I would just put Wendy in front of the camera, let her do her thing and know we’d do a good show.”
“I’m loving doing it,” says Williams. “It seems as natural as breathing to me. I’ve never thought that by getting on TV I’d become this overnight sensation. I’m working in a brand-new career.”
With New York under her fashionably wide belt, she says she’s well up to the task of conquering the rest of the country, which may not quite be ready for the force that is Williams.
“I’ll always be comfortable being me, because at the end of the day I don’t know what it’s like to cater to one personality to get something I need. I’ve always been the outsider, the misfit.”
THE WENDY WILLIAMS SHOW
Weekdays, 10 a.m., Fox
SIDEBAR:
Wendy SpeakI love you for listeningDefinition: What Wendy always says to her loyal fans.I love you for watchingDefinition: What Wendy says now to all her TV viewers.Friend in my headDefinition: A person or celebrity that Wendy doesn’t know and has never met, but if she ever did, she knows for certain that she and the person in question would be besties.BailDefinition: When Wendy thinks an advice-seeker must get out of a relationship (reasons may vary). Soft and PinkDefinition: Something (or someone) that is emotional or feminine. Wendy likes to say this about herself.LuxuriateDefinition: When Wendy fully immerses herself in all things fierce and fabulous.Fu Fu LaDefinition: Going over the top with girlie things, like pink, ruffles, glitter, make up, nail polish and teased up hair.DonkeyDefinition: A person who does something that shows a complete lack of common sense.Jump OffDefinition: A friend with benefitsMiss HoneyDefinition: A gay man