From humble contestant on American Idol to the pinnacle of winning an Oscar, Jennifer Hudson has lived more lives than most entertainers ever get to — and she’s not finished reinventing herself yet. Warner Bros. has announced that Fox will air The Jennifer Hudson Show — a daytime talk show — in the fall.
Hudson, already a star in multiple genres, is seemingly well prepared for surprising transitions. She’s been through many as an actress, as the ‘That’s Not My Name’ meme below amply demonstrates.
Hudson began her career playing herself, enchanting Idol fans with her big voice and big dreams, before moving on to rarified film fame in which she snagged her Academy Award for Dreamgirls and then portrayed the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, in Respect. (The late Franklin personally selected Hudson for the role.)
Now Hudson’s coming full circle and heading back to playing herself, as host.
Hudson said in a statement announcing the show: “I have always loved people and I cannot wait to connect on a deeper level and let audiences see the different sides of who I am, the human being, in return.”
Could the talk show host role be a letdown, especially just after portraying an icon like Aretha Franklin, one of the biggest names in the culture? If Hudson thinks so, she can assuage herself by thinking of Oprah Winfrey, the model of talk show success that Warner Bros. surely has loosely mind. Oprah, the Queen of Daytime and undisputed TV legend, is one of the few names around as big and well-respected as that of the Queen of Soul.
When Oprah left the proverbial building in 2011, there was a gap so big even the outsize success of Ellen DeGeneres wasn’t quite enough to fill it. Starting this fall, Jennifer Hudson is going to try. She’s a dreamgirl, after all.
