‘The Real’ is officially canceled

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After earlier speculation that the syndicated talk show “The Real” would be canceled, the news is now, well, real.

The show, which is produced by Telepictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Television Distribution, will end after its current eighth season.

Co-host Loni Love confirmed the news on social media, blaming the cancellation on increased costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She noted that producers made efforts to reduce costs by shooting up to seven to eight episodes in three days, which also meant the show reverted back to the pre-taped format it abandoned in Season 4.

Switching to a live format let the show become more timely, with the co-hosts discussing news of the day, something that couldn’t be done consistently with pre-taped shows.

The cancellation will leave a hole in many Fox-owned stations in major markets, which had a deal to carry the show, pairing it with “The Wendy Williams Show” in many cases.

“Wendy,” from Debmar-Mercury, is also ending its run after this season, but will be replaced with “Sherri” featuring Sherri Shepard.

Telepictures and Warner Bros. are also losing “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” after this season, though they will launch “The Jennifer Hudson Show” in the fall of 2022. Fox has already signed on to carry the show on its owned stations.

Had “The Real” continued, Fox stations would have been faced with a bit of a scheduling challenge and likely would have had to drop another syndicated or local program in favor of carrying “Sherri,” “The Real” and “Hudson.”