Archive for the ‘Leslie Ellis’ Category

Actress Fran Drescher, Part Of The HSN Family, Launches Her ‘Tawk’ Show Friday

November 26, 2010

Actress Fran Drescher is not only a skincare vendor on HSN, she is now the host of her own daytime program, “The Fran Drescher Tawk Show.”

The show debuts tomorrow, Friday, in a test run on six Fox-owned TV stations, including WNYW in New York City at noon. The other stations are KTTV in Los Angeles, WTXF in Philadelphia, KMSP in Minneapolis, KSAZ in Phoenix and WORL in Orlando, Fla.

Drescher is a cancer survivor and a rape survivor. To top it off, her ex-husband came out of the closet and said he was gay after they divorced. This star of the back-in-the-day hit “The Nanny” is resilient, to say the least. She started doing a natural skincare line, FranBrand, for HSN earlier this year.

So how did Drescher land her talk show gig?

According to JustJared.com, Drescher appeared on “The Wendy Williams Show” and then got a call from its producers, Debmar-Mercury.

“When I was on your show, the people that make your show asked me if I wanted to do my [own] show,” Drescher told Williams, who resides in our town of Montclair, N.J. “We’ve been talking ever since. It’s gonna premiere Nov. 26 right after Thanksgiving.”

BTW, Drescher is referring to TV syndicator Debmar-Mercury, which produces Williams’ show and is now producing “The Tawk” Show,” along with the Fox Stations. And in that HSN “Six Degrees of Separation” thing, Debmar-Mercury is owned by the studio Lionsgate, which is headed by Jon Feltheimer, who is married to HSN “Hot in Hollywood” vendor Laurie Feltheimer.

Kirstie Alley is one of Drescher's first guests

Drescher’s debut show will be “A Post-Thanksgiving Weight Loss Discussion,” with zaftig actress Kirstie Alley “tawking diet and organic food.” Mmmmmmm, we don’t know if Alley is the right person to talk about diets.

The rest of the episode will include healthy cooking with Chef LaLa and Dr. Ian Smith offering weight loss advice. He will put two members of “The Tawk Show” staff on a healthy eating plan.

Here is what WNYW’s website says about Drescher’s show: “Drescher’s new ‘tawk’ show will give viewers a look at the former star of ‘The Nanny’ in a new light. From celebrity headliners to political heavyweights, Drescher is ready to chat it up with the best of them beginning Nov. 26.”

Chef LaLa is also on the guest roster

In October the trade rag B&C wrote about the show, which will have a three-week trial period.

“I’m thrilled to be able to bring The Fran Drescher Tawk Show to daytime TV, which fits me hand in glove,” said Drescher in a statement, according to B&C. “It will cover all of my passions, everything from pedicures to politics. America will have a chance to see the real Fran Drescher, beyond ‘The Nanny.’ I’m the girl next door, a self-made woman who has been to hell and back a few times.”

No kidding, girlfriend.

The name of Drescher’s show, which pokes fun at her pronounced New Yawk accent, reminds us of our days at Multichannel News. Our tech writer based in Denver, a beautiful and razor-sharp blonde named Leslie Ellis, would delight in making fun of our accent when we saw her at trade shows.

Leslie, that sly puss, got a kick out of mimicking our pronunciation of “tawk.” It made us quite self-conscious. What a silly goose we were. We should have been celebrating our manner of speaking, just as Drescher is.