Viacom's BET (DStv 129) channel is adding another show from talk show host Wendy Williams, Wendy's Style Squad, with the new hour long red carpet fashion commentary show that will emulate Fashion Police on NBCUniversal's E! Entertainment (DStv 124).
With E! Entertainment's damaged Fashion Police brand struggling to regain its former popularity and viewership, Wendy Williams of The Wendy Williams Show is now directly challenging that show and will be doing 6 Wendy's Style Squad episodes in 2016 but will deliberately ignore the Oscars.
Wendy Williams will be the moderator, with a panel of fashion insiders that include Bevy Smith, Lloyd Boston and Robert Verdi who himself was a former host of Fashion Police on E! Entertainment.
The programming schedule of BET's international channel feed on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform does not yet indicate the addition of the new show for South African and African viewers.
Starting with the Grammy Awards, Wendy's Style Squad will cover 5 other red carpet events in 2016: The BET Awards, the Emmy Awards, the MTV Video Music Awards and the Billboard Awards.
Wendy's Style Squad, executive produced by Talia Parkinson Jones for Debmar-Mercury and Wendy Williams Productions, is however deliberately snubbing the Oscars due to the lack of black nominees.
"The purpose of the specials is to celebrate our viewers. Our viewers are black and unfortunately the Oscars is not reflective of our community. We hope next year that will change," says BET.
Wendy Williams will provide viewers "with plenty of attitude, games, laughs and must-see moments, and she and her co-hosts will provide a fresh and exciting take on the worlds of fashion and celebrity," says BET Networks in a statement.
Wendy's Style Squad topics and segments will include the "Dos and Don'ts" of celebrity fashion, hot and upcoming trends and opinionated coverage of the best and worst fashions of the big awards show nights.
