“I eventually made a million, too. I always will credit Rosie O’Donnell for being free with that,” Sherri revealed after listing what Rosie, Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck all made in 2007.
Sherri Shepherd is recalling her time on The View ... and the salaries of her cohosts.
There was a bit of back and forth when it came to locking Sherri down for her stint on the daytime talk show, with the 58-year-old comedian detailing the journey she went on to land a seat at the desk in a new interview with Vulture.
“Joy Behar liked me so much and asked for me back,” she said after filling in for Star Jones when Jones had to go to Johnnie Cochran’s funeral.
“I had just found out my then-husband was cheating, and I went on there and told everybody. They were like, ‘She has got diarrhea of the mouth.’ I hit so many checkboxes — they loved that I was the Black single mom, funny, and willing to tell everything about my life,” she recalled, calling it a “defining career move.”
She made quite the first impression and co-creator of The View, Bill Geddie, who she says asked her to be a “regular,” adding that Star was going to leave.
“I said, ‘That’s too messy for me,” and said ‘no,'” she shared.
Then in 2006, Jones announced on live television that she was leaving The View after her contract was not renewed, later alleging she was “fired” by the network.
Sherri was still front of mind, leading Barbara Walters to call Sherri to join the show — not once, but twice. Both times the answer was still a hard no, per Shepherd, with Walters allegedly ending the call with, “Good-bye, dear.”
“They didn’t call me back for about nine months; Bill had to talk to Barbara because she holds stuff for a long time,” she revealed.
Then came the negotiations.
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“They didn’t want to give me no money; I would have made more in a sitcom, and I got a boy with special needs. Then all kinds of articles were coming out that I was being difficult, and I had to deal with the tabloids. Rosie O’Donnell called and was like, ‘Let me tell you what everybody’s making — I make $2 million, Joy makes $500,000, Elisabeth Hasselbeck makes $500,000, so you need to ask for $2 million,” she claimed.
“They had offered me $400,000. I eventually made a million, too. I always will credit Rosie O’Donnell for being free with that,” Sherri added.
She then joined the desk alongside Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Barbara Walters from 2007 to 2014.
Now, she is leading her own daytime talk show, filling the void left when The Wendy Williams Show went off the air in 2021, following Wendy’s highly publicized health issues.
The show, now called Sherri, is about to begin its fourth season. It is the No. 1 syndicated talk program for Black women ages 25 to 54.
