Jennifer Hudson pitching talk show with Ellen DeGeneres team

By IANS

LOS ANGELES: Singer-actress Jennifer Hudson is reportedly pitching a talk show that will use the team from ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ after it wraps filming next year.

According to Variety magazine, Hudson has already shot a test show with ‘Ellen’ executive producers Andy Lassner and Mary Connelly serving as the showrunners, and the test show was even shot on the ‘Ellen’ stage, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Hudson’s new show would not be billed as a continuation of ‘Ellen’ and is being shopped as an “entirely new series”, although it’s considered to be Warner Bros TV’s new flagship daytime talk show once ‘Ellen’ ends.

Variety stated: “Meetings are taking place this week and appear to be going well so far; the show has been developed as a first-run syndicated broadcast TV daily strip, and there are currently no plans to pitch to other platforms, including streamers.”

Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show is set to come to an end next year after 19 years on air, and DeGeneres recently said she will be emotional when her show ends.

She said: “Nineteen years is a long time to do anything. I’ve loved every minute of it. I’m gonna be very emotional…I’m not emotional yet because it’s not real yet. The last day when I walk out of here, it’s gonna be really hard.”

She also spoke about her plans for the future and how she intends to spend some time in Africa with her wife Portia de Rossi once the show comes to an end.

DeGeneres explained: “We are for sure gonna go. My Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund will be open then in Rwanda, so we are going to go to Africa and see my campus and take about a month and go on safari.”

“That’s my favourite thing in the world to do … get to do things I haven’t gotten a chance to do.”