As we approach the eleventh month of the Trump Era, several black celebrities are trying to bounce back from the backlash for their support of Trump. From Mary Mary’s Tina Campbell postponing her tour due to lack of support, to Chrisette Michele being dropped from her label, the Trump effect is spreading. Now, according to Daily Mail, Steve Harvey is trying to revitalize his new talk show after ratings took a hit over his January meeting with the celebrity-in-chief.
According to the publication, Harvey launched a new show based in Hollywood, titled “Steve.” The new show kicked off on September 5, but both the ratings and reviews were subpar, with sources close to the production linking the tank in ratings to Harvey’s January meeting with Trump.
Sources say, Harvey lost his black audience after the meeting and the show numbers are reflecting that fallout. As a result, Harvey is distancing himself from the Celebrity-in-Chief as a final effort to save his show. In fact, on his radio show, Harvey claimed the January meeting “was the worst mistake of my life.”
On the other hand, production sources have told DailyMail that the show is just not doing it for the audience. “People just hate the show,” the source said. “He wanted to do a late-night feel for the show, but he’s on a big stage with a desk and a lot of open space and nothing about the show is engaging or warm. People just aren’t into it at all.”
“Steve could have continued to survive with the first version of his show with these ratings because the show was produced out of Chicago and was less expensive to produce,” the source added of the host’s initial talk show that was cancelled after Harvey refused to sign his contract without a raise. “But doing a daily talk show out of Los Angeles costs big dollars and with his current ratings [1.4], there’s no way in hell WME-IMG can continue to bleed money like this into a sinking ship.”
“This is the moment his brand took a hit,” the source continued of Harvey’s reaction to the backlash of the meeting. “He had been through a few scandals before – the divorces, the Miss Universe Pageant and the Asian joke gone bad – but he had never faced the wrath of his core audience before, middle-aged African Americans.”
“And unfortunately for Steve, he was too arrogant to realize the weight of his mistake and never made amends to his loyal followers for it,” the source added, and as a result, all of Harvey’s shows have taken a major blow in ratings, from Family Feud to Little Big Shots to his new show, Steve.
Although Harvey has tried to salvage his relationship with fans, the source believes they just “aren’t interested in him any longer.”
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