Julie Chen Moonves Opens Up on ‘The Talk,’ Calls It ‘Tone Deaf’

In April 2024, CBS bid adieu to its long-running daytime talk show The Talk after 15 seasons. Now, former Talk seat warmer Julie Chen Moonves has a few words for her former employer.

When CBS’s The Talk was canceled, it was hosted by Sheryl Underwood, Amanda Kloots, Jerry O’Connell, Akbar Gbajabiamila, and Natalie Morales. The show ended after Season 15, with its final episode airing in December 2024.

On SiriusXM‘s Andy Cohen Live, Chen Moonves opened up about the canceled daytime talk show. “What was your first reaction when you heard The Talk was canceled?” asked host Andy Cohen.

“I was sad, but I was also aware that it had become such a different show because when I was on, it was all women, and there was some chatter about maybe putting a guy on the panel when Aisha [Tyler] left. The year before was my last year, and my husband always said, ‘You know, if you put men on that panel, you just change the dynamic. Right now it’s a bunch of women having a grand old time yucking it up,’ and it was sad for me to see, but really there was very few remnants left of the show that I had worked on,” explained Chen Moonves.

“Disappointing, ’cause I look at The View and I felt like The Talk could have lasted just as long as The View is lasting,” said Chen Moonves.

“I think that The Talk running away from topical issues was, I never, I think they should have,” Cohen clarified.

“Yes. It was tone deaf,” agreed Chen Moonves. “When we started, things were different in history. The tone was different in the country, but you gotta listen and you gotta adapt.”

Julie Chen Moonves served as a co-host and the moderator of The Talk from its launch in 2010 through 2019. At the time she left the show, she officially gave the reason as to “spend more time at home with my husband and our young son,” though during the time, her husband, Les Moonves, resigned as CEO of CBS amid multiple harassment allegations. In more recent interviews, Julie Chen Moonves has stated that her departure was not entirely voluntary.

“It was a job that I loved going to, it just made my heart sing. It was my job cohosting and moderating the CBS daytime talk show called The Talk. In short: yes, I was collateral damage. The decision to leave the show was made for me,” she stated in her audiobook, But First, God.

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Julie Chen Moonves Speaks Out About Abrupt Exit from 'The Talk'

Chen Moonves alleges that the day before Season 9 premiered, she was told: “With my name and my husband’s name being in the headlines and all this chaos, two of my co-hosts called the powers at CBS and said, ‘If Julie shows up to work tomorrow, we’re not coming in.’ So, I was basically told, ‘Please don’t come back to work anymore.’”

Chen Moonves currently hosts the reality show Big Brother.