Hosts ‘Talk’ about Osbourne
“The Talk” returned to the air Monday afternoon, with co-hosts Sheryl Underwood, Elaine Welteroth, Amanda Kloots and Carrie Ann Inaba engaging with a diversity and inclusion expert after the recent firing of longtime panelist Sharon Osbourne.
Donald E. Grant, who also focuses on equity and justice, served as moderator as the women discussed the notorious March 10 episode during which Osbourne spun out while discussing racism, prompting an extended hiatus while CBS investigated It’s difficult to go back to that day because I just feel the trauma,” Underwood told Grant after saying she had aimed to be an example for people.
She said she didn’t want to come across as the stereotype of the “angry Black woman” and explained that she began to tear up while talking to Osbourne because she had to restrain her strong feelings.
Welteroth said viewers that day had seen a familiar scene unfold on TV: two women “walking the tightrope that Black women are walking the entire day in the workplace.”
She lamented that the conversation went “off the rails” into disrespect when she and Underwood were trying so hard to keep things respectful.
Welteroth also wanted to make one thing quite clear: She and Underwood, she said, are in no way part of a “conspiracy” to attack Osbourne.
Press reports suggesting that scenario are “abso
lutely, categorically false.” (Osbourne had suggested in an “ET” interview that she was set up by network executives.)