Amanda Kloots talks with USA TODAY's Charles Trepany about her new book, "Live Your Life: My Story of Loving and Losing Nick Cordero."
CBS' peppy daytime show ended its 15-season run Friday after an hourlong series finale.
The audience gave the show's hosts - Sheryl Underwood, Jerry O'Connell, Amanda Kloots, Akbar Gbajabiamila and Natalie Morales - a standing ovation as the farewell show got underway.
Morales wiped tears from her eyes, while Underwood blew kisses to the live studio audience. "This is the last time we gon' get this, so we gon' get this," Underwood said as she took in the applause.
"I just wanted to know why everyone is being so nice today?" O'Connell joked as Morales introduced the show "for the very last time ever."
'The Talk' cast says goodbye to daytime talk show as Shemar Moore, Howie Mandel bid farewell
The co-hosts reminisced about their time on the show and shared emotional memories.
"When I came here to 'The Talk,' and I'm so grateful to everyone along the way who let me be here, I had been a substitute teacher on daytime talk shows," O'Connell remembered about joining the show in 2021. "I thought I knew everything, and I got here, and I really want to thank the audience for really teaching me ... not only the audience at home but the audience here, who taught me what it takes. My first day that I was here, I went back and watching my first episode, and you guys aren't going to believe it, but I was jumping out of my seat."
O'Connell shared the advice Underwood gave him in that moment: "Just act like you've been here."
"I really want to thank Sheryl, you've been a real love," O'Connell said.
Kloots broke down in tears talking about the show's platform and "for being able to talk."
"I'm so grateful for that. We can't forget that, listen to each other, talk to each other," Kloots said (O'Connell joked that for the rest of the episode he would just hold a box of tissues).
"We gave people an opportunity to give folks a break," Morales said. "I hope we gave you just a little respite from some of the world's problems and just a chance to uplift one another. We love each other here. I think we've shared that, you know, respect and joy every day, and we hope you felt it as well."
"It was just always just good energy, good people," Gbajabiamila joked that he hoped O'Connell would back him on his hot takes for the final episode.
Multiple video compilations of the show's 15 seasons filled the episode, and a few celebrity guests joined to bid the show farewell. Actor Shemar Moore shared goodbye wishes for the cast, while TV personality Howie Mandel joined the broadcast "to do something special for my friends" with the "first ever Talkie Awards."
"Nikki Glaser gets the Golden Globes, I get this," Mandel joked as he handed out awards like best competitor to Morales and the "best 1-800 shoutouts" to Underwood.
The entire "Talk" crew joined the cast on stage at the end of the episode for a champagne toast with the audience.
Sheryl Underwood reflects on tribute, recalls Sharon Osbourne 'vomiting' all over her
Underwood was beaming as she watched a tribute that chronicled her 14 years on the daytime show, showing her comedic moments alongside her more serious conversations about diversity, her health and philanthropy.
Underwood, the current longest running co-host, has been on the show since its second season in 2011.
"On daytime, you're the person that I think about," Gbajabiamila said.
Underwood recalled her first day on the program as well as a particularly memorable meal with former co-host of the daytime show Sharon Osbourne.
"I go to breakfast at the Polo Lounge with Sharon Osbourne, and she vomits on me," Underwood said of taking a meeting.
"I wasn't going to tell the story until she told the story. And then she tells the story, and at the end of the story, she said I put her in her car, and I go, 'Listen, we didn't meet. This didn't happen. I don't want you to be embarrassed.' And she gets in her car, but as she tells the end of the story, she said that she got in her car and she vomited. She had a stomach bug," Underwood said. "I'm so glad I didn't offer her a ride home," she joked.
'The Talk' original cast celebrated in series finale
The original panel featured show creator and "Roseanne" star Sara Gilbert, actress Holly Robinson Peete, "King of Queens" star Leah Remini, British TV personality Osbourne, Tony Award winner Marissa Jaret Winokur and "Big Brother host" Julie Chen Moonves, who is married to now-embattled ex-CBS CEO Len Moonves.
The show's other former co-hosts include comedian Aisha Tyler, rapper Eve, music legend Marie Osmond and "Dancing with the Stars" judge Carrie Ann Inaba.
The show, created by Gilbert, premiered in 2010 during Barack Obama's first presidency and was pitched as a laughter-filled, light alternative to TV's "The View." While both shows were aimed at female viewers, with all-women panels, "The Talk" was a twist on its ABC counterpart with topics about sex, motherhood and relationships later in the day without the fiery political clashes that take place early each day on "The View."
But the show had its share of its drama. As the country grappled with a complex history with race after the 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Osbourne and ex-close friend Underwood had in on-air argument that led to the Brit's ouster from the show in March 2021. The live conversation centered on Osbourne's friendship with controversial TV host Piers Morgan, who was making headlines at the time for his controversial comments about Duchess Meghan.
Later in 2021, ex-Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Elaine Welteroth exited the program after the Osbourne incident, saying that it was "categorically false" that there was a conspiracy to slam Osbourne. Kloots, a former Radio City Rockette and fitness fanatic, joined the show with Welteroth that January, replacing Marie Osmond.
And in an effort to refresh "The Talk," the show added two men to the panel lineup later that year. O'Connell, a daytime TV mainstay, and "American Ninja Warrior" co-host Gbajabiamila joined "The Talk" in 2021 as the show's first permanent male co-hosts. Morales exited her longtime home at NBC, including on "Today," to take over "Talk" moderating duties in October 2021.
CBS announced it was cancelling the daytime show "The Talk" after 15 seasons in April to make way for "The Gates," a soap opera with a predominately Black cast.
Developed by a joint venture between CBS Studios and the NAACP and produced by Procter & Gamble, for which the genre is named, the show will debut in January and follow the lives of a wealthy Black family living in a posh, gated community.
The groundbreaking NBC soap opera "Generations," the first to feature a predominantly Black cast, proved short-lived, lasting from March 1989 to January 1991.
"Gates" will mark only the fifth daytime soap in a schedule that still features "Bold and Beautiful" and "Young and Restless" on CBS, which premiered in 1987 and 1973, respectively; "General Hospital" (1963) on ABC; and "Days of Our Lives" (1965) on NBC. It also marks P&G's reentry into the genre 15 years after the cancellation of its last soap, CBS' "Guiding Light," in 2009.
