Mo’Nique makes history as first black female late-night host.
By Kenya M. Yarbrough (interview by Audrey Bernard)
“I'm not competing with nobody. What’s meant for me, I'm gonna get. What's meant for them, they're gonna get.” -- Mo'Nique
*Queen of Comedy Mo’Nique is going where no African American woman has gone before – the host desk of a late-night talk show.
“The Mo’Nique Show” premieres tonight on BET with first guest, Mo’s good friend and fellow comedic actor Steve Harvey. Yes, it's another first for blacks and black women specifically. But how did it happen?
“The same way that I got called on to the ‘Apollo’ is the same way that I walked into this talk show,” Mo’Nique said of the pioneering opportunity. Just as she had received a call from show producer Suzanne DePasse about hosting “Showtime at the Apollo,” she got a call from another African American female pioneer for her new show.
“This amazing sister named Loretha Jones, who is now president of programming at BET called me up and said, ‘I am going to be the new president at BET, and I would love to be in business with you. Can you come in and talk and have a meeting?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ When I went in and sat down with her, I immediately knew that she got it,” she said. “I’ve met with every executive that’s ever been at BET, but when we walked out of the room with that sister, we knew that she got it.”
Monique said that it was her husband, who also co-executive produces the show with her, who came up with the idea for a late-night show for her.
“I actually had three other talk show pilots. The first one I had with Disney. It was me, Wendy Williams, and they kept switching up the third lady, so we didn’t know who that was going to be. That didn’t go,” Monique said.
Incidentally, Williams’ Fox talk show is syndicated on BET and will air after Mo’Nique’s.
“Then I had another talk show deal with Fox at the same time Queen Latifah had her deal. They took both our shows to the President of Fox at the time and he said, ‘No one knows Mo’Nique, but we know Queen Latifah.’ I said, ‘Go ahead Queen, ‘cause it will make it easier for the next one of us coming through.”
Not too long after, Mo’Nique got another talk show deal, this time with Telepictures. However, a month later, as Mo’ described, Tyra Banks came through the door.
“I see the shift going to Tyra,” Mo’Nique recalled.
After speaking about the issue with company execs, they finally explained that they couldn’t “sell” Mo’Nique to the higher ups. And as history has revealed, Tyra’s show took off.
“But I was happy for Tyra. I said, ‘If you get in there, it’s going to make it easier for the next one coming in. So this time, there was no pilot. It was me, my husband, and Loretha Jones. That’s how we came up with ‘The Mo’Nique Show.’”
The comedic star said that she didn’t take any of the failed attempts as a negative and she said that she completely understood that execs weren’t confident in her name at that time.
“I wasn’t in a place where I could say, ‘I can't believe he said that nobody knows me.’ It wasn’t my time for that. When it’s my time, it’s the time for it,” she said. “I’m appreciative for those experiences. I am appreciative of Queen and Tyra. They made it so that I didn’t have to do a pilot. I thank those sisters. I thank Oprah. I thank Whoopi.”
With trailblazers like that, Mo’Nique is pretty confident about taking on any other talk show competition if she believed in external competition, that is.
“I’m not competing with nobody. What’s meant for me, I’m gonna get. What’s meant for them, they’re gonna get,” she said of fighting for the 11:00 pm TV audience. “The only person I compete with is me. I want to be the best Mo’Nique I can be. If I start paying attention to that one and that one and that one, I stop paying attention to me.”
“The Mo’Nique Show” is an original BET show, executive produced by Mo’, her husband and Merlin Gill. The show premieres with guests Steve Harvey and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. This week, Mo’ will welcome the cast of “Lincoln Heights,” Chris Rock, Hill Harper, and more.
“It’s called ‘The Mo’Nique Show,’ but it’s our show; it’s ours, and it’s going to take all of us to make it work,” she said.
Mo’Nique also discussed her next big film project and head turner, "Precious," which showcases her impressive dramatic acting skills.
She also took the time to clear up what seems to be a misconception about the film. She told EUR's New York correspondent, Audrey Bernard, that “Precious” was not conceived and produced in the Tyler Perry/Oprah camp.
“I have not yet had the privilege of working with Tyler, but we’re involved in this project together,” she said of the film. “People are under the impression that it is a Tyler Perry film or an Oprah Winfrey film. It’s not. It is a Lee Daniels film. It is Lee Daniels Production. It is Lee Daniels who directed it.”
“What happened was, the two most powerful black people that we know of – Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry – saw the film and said ‘Let’s come together and put our name in to say we’re supporting it,’ she continued. “It was just brothers and sisters coming together, but in reference to the film itself, it is Lee Daniels’. It was that brother who had the vision to take that book and put that incredible piece of work on film.”
Mo’Nique’s performance in the film is said to be stellar. So impressed, talk maven Winfrey herself called Mo’ and asked her what dress she’d be wearing to the Oscars.
While fans await such a nomination, they can catch Mo’Nique every night at 11 pm Eastern/Pacific (10 pm Central) on BET for “The Mo’Nique Show,” which promises more than chatter and comedic newcomers.
“Not only will we have new comedians, we’ll have new authors, new designers, new singers, and new poets. When we go on other shows we have to be so on the top of it that we have to have exceeded so much. This show is for us. It is for the singer in Harlem that wouldn’t get a chance unless she’d sold 25 million copies. I want the sister or brother that wrote that book, but nobody would give them an opportunity, but it’s the best piece of literature you could pick up. That’s what this show is. Very grass roots.”
http://www.bet.com/video/519829