After becoming the youngest woman to achieve EGOT status, Jennifer Hudson is tackling daytime television. Her talk show, The Jennifer Hudson Show, premieres September 12, which also happens to be her birthday. J.Hud spoke to reporters, including HollywoodLife, about how much her musical background will be incorporated into her talk show.
“I am music and music is me. It will always be a part of anything that I do, and it will always be present,” the 41-year-old said. “It may be a word I heard, or a subject and it may inspire a song and I may start singing. I’m not going to pull a mic from up under my chair. I want it to be more organic, more as an expression.”
She added, “And I’m quite random. So, you never know when it’s going to hit or I may want to lift your spirits and sing you a song or get you to sing a song. There will be instruments around – if you want to go to the piano; you want to bust a move? What do we need to do right here? I like to respond to the moment and read the room and the energy in it. It will always flow. Read the room and whatever that requires in that moment, we are going to let it ride.”
As she takes on this new and exciting endeavor, Jennifer revealed she’s been inspired by Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres, and The View. After 20 years in the business, Jennifer said her job with this talk show is “to simply be myself. And I say it that way, because for 20 years I played Effie to Aretha and singing everybody’s songs. This time it’s my turn to simply be me. Although I’m inspired from all the other talk shows, I want to simply be Jennifer.”
For the Oscar winner, her talk show will focus on the positive aspects of life. “I’m big on accentuating the positive,” Jennifer noted. “I was once that person who didn’t have an opportunity. I want to be that person to help give those who don’t have an opportunity, the opportunity. I’m really big on both of those things. And that is a huge thing that The Jennifer Hudson Show is about, creating a platform for people who don’t get those opportunities and accentuating the positive.”
Jennifer has an epic line of guests in her first week as a talk show host. She will kick things off by reuniting with former American Idol judge Simon Cowell for the first sit-down since she played seventh in the third season of the show. Jennifer will also be sitting down with Magic Johnson, Mickey Guyton, Yvonne Orji, Hannah Waddingham, and Viola Davis in her first week.