How Loni Love, Jeannie Mai and Others Said Goodbye to 'The Real' on Final Episode

06/04/2022 01:32 pm EDT

It's the end of the road for The Real. The talk show came to an end on Friday after almost ten years on the air. Naturally, the co-hosts — Loni Love, Jeannie Mai Jenkins, Garcelle Beauvais, and Adrienne Bailon Houghton — all shared some lovely words in honor of the show's end, per Entertainment Weekly. 

Houghton began by highlighting their work over the years and how their show featured a diverse group of women unlike many others in the daytime TV landscape. She first said, "We have made our mark." Houghton continued, "I was talking to my mom earlier this morning. She knows this is the farewell show, and she was just telling me, 'You guys really did break the mold of daytime television,' and it's so crazy when you think of it that way. There was never a show that looked like us." Love, who had to participate in the last episode virtually, went on to discuss the "purpose" behind The Real. She even mentioned that their show was able to spotlight "people that normally would not get on" daytime TV. 

"We were able to talk about things that some people, they just ignore. When you look back at eight seasons, over 1,300 episodes, it's phenomenal and it's historic," Love said about the show's legacy. Despite the fact that the show was ending, Love stressed that she didn't want anyone to be "sad" about the situation. Instead, she wants everyone to focus on what they were able to produce over eight seasons in the hopes that another group of women will pick up their mantle soon. She added, "We hope that our example, with what we've done, can continue. Don't let this end. Get another show like this together, with fabulous women, because we have a whole future of things that we still have to fight for, like justice and equality. We can't be afraid to talk about this." 

"We've had deep discussions, and when you have multicultural people on, from different cultures, we've been able to cover AAPI, we've been able to cover the Haitians, we've been able to cover the Latinas, the Black people, the women," Love continued. "We are so proud, and we will not be sad today. We celebrate." It was originally reported in March that The Real, which began in 2013, would be coming to an end. Love herself confirmed the news via Instagram and noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on the show's eventual demise. Still, she wrote a "thank you to the studio" for producing eight seasons of "Emmy winning and historic" television. 

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