It looks like Will Smith and Chris Rock won’t be brought to the table, after all.
After 5 seasons of viral interviews and jaw-dropping soundbites, Red Table Talk has been axed by Facebook, according to Deadline.
On Wednesday, the outlet reported that Mina Lefevre, Head of Development and Programming at Meta, had been laid off amid a new pivot for its subsidiary Facebook. The social-media platform, which launched its streaming service Facebook Watch in 2017, is scaling back its original programming to focus on virtual-reality content.
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Along with a new round of layoffs, the Jada Pinkett Smith-helmed talk show Red Table Talk has been left on the cutting room floor. The series, which began in 2018, finished up its original order last December. Westbrook Studios, Pinkett Smith’s production company with her husband Smith, is currently looking for a new distributor.
Co-hosted by Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris, Red Table Talk quickly became a coveted press stop for celebrities to discuss more serious, often taboo topics that daytime or late-night shows wouldn’t allow. Often, Pinkett Smith’s guests used the platform to address scandals or push back against public narratives about their lives.
Most notably, the Smiths devoted an episode to addressing allegations that Pinkett Smith had an affair—or “entanglement,” rather—with R&B singer August Alsina in 2020. It was a rare event to see the Hollywood power couple speak about the years-long polyamory rumors surrounding their marriage.
Viewers had also anticipated Smith coming on the show to address the infamous Oscars slap. Pinkett Smith briefly discussed the incident a few months after last year’s Academy Awards, saying she wanted Smith and Rock to “have an opportunity to heal, talk this out, and reconcile.” However, the episode was dedicated to discussing alopecia, from which Pinkett Smith suffers, adding some context to Rock’s G.I. Jane joke.
Another major guest on the show was influencer Jordyn Woods, who was embroiled in a cheating scandal with Khloe Kardashian’s ex-partner Tristan Thompson.
It’s hard to believe such a successful talk show, seemingly appreciated by celebrities, will be gone forever. It’s even more difficult to imagine what Facebook’s new programming slate, which will focus on “VR-first shows,” will look like without it.
