Image Credit: George Burns/OWN
If I ever run into Jennifer Hudson at a Weight Watchers meeting, I’m going to have to bop that girl upside the head. In Sunday’s episode of Oprah Behind the Scenes, we learned that the still-svelte crooner almost prompted Oprah Winfrey and her team to cancel their first show ever — the equivalent of Armageddon within the Harpo Studios walls. The irony of BTS, which is meant to chronicle what Winfrey describes as “the best team in the business,” is that it’s at its juiciest when something goes wrong on Oprah. So while wreaking havoc on the good people of Harpo, Hudson also inadvertently helped to deliver the best episode to date of BTS.
Let’s recap: That wicked blizzard in Chicago last February forced the postponement of the special soaps reunion, so the Oprah team scheduled not two but three (very rare) tapings on one jam-packed, butt-cold Friday. Everything looked as if it were going to go off without a hitch, until Hudson skipped town after her rehearsal Thursday evening without telling anyone that she had a previous (see: no doubt highly paid) engagement at the home of Jerry Jones in Dallas. The sneak probably would have gotten away with it, had an ice storm not hit Texas and forced her to miss a flight back to Chicago. At 4:45 a.m. on the day of the taping, Hudson’s publicist alerted Harpo that her client might be a leeeeeeettle late. Way to go, J. Hud!
What’s been so great about BTS is that with each week, we’ve seen Winfrey more and more unplugged – and tonight was no exception. Though the show spared us those expletive-fueled moments that probably raged on once the staff learned of Hudson’s whereabouts, Winfrey still appeared on camera (and without makeup) looking angry and demanding fast answers — just like a professional should behave if an idiot guest pulled a boneheaded move like this one. My first reaction was to scream out to Winfrey to CANCEL THE DANG SHOW but if that happened, the Queen of Daytime couldn’t have drilled Hudson about the actual number of pounds she lost on WW. (Memo to her WW coach sitting in the audience: I have attended meetings. We live for little milestones like 5- and 10-pound losses. Don’t give me and the millions of women in Winfrey’s loyal audience a line of crap that it’s all about how you feel, rather than how much you’ve lost. Good lord.)
In the end, Hudson made it to the studio (two hours late!) and revealed how much she lost (80 freakin pounds!) so Winfrey got a great episode for her talk show and a marvelous one for her fledging reality show on OWN. Unfortunately, soap fans were only treated to a quick scene or two from the soaps reunion – which in retrospect, was a pretty bittersweet affair since no one knew at the time that ABC would ultimately yank All My Children and One Life to Live. At least Genie Francis got a fulltime gig on CBS out of the appearance.
I dig BTS and can’t wait for the final episode that will chronicle Winfrey’s much-anticipated finale, set to tape May 25. What did you think of Sunday’s episode?
You still count points like nobody’s business, J. Hud. @EWLynette
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That was a well-deserved public spanking of JHud.
uhmm shut up
you shut it!
Hardly. She should have gotten worse. I seriously doubt JHud’s on-screen comment “it was a contractual thing”. No, it was a “I am a 29-year old nit-wit that is more concerned about money than integrity”. She lost at least one fan…
I agree. No matter whether or not she had a “contractual thing” she made that “contractual thing” either before or after she agreed to be on Oprah. So a decision was made at some point to push the two obligations side by side. So that Thursday night she felt it was okay to go ahead with her Dallas plans and THAT was her mistake. It should have been the event in Dallas to be left high and dry, not Oprah Winfrey, arguably one of THE most viewed shows in the world.
Does anyone even watch OWN?
I watch it all the time
OWN bothers me because it is not HDTV with Direct TV and looks horribly cheap on a flat screen TV. Plus, the shows are not very compelling. The Judds every Sunday for 2 hours?? Puh-lease!!
Hudson has a tremendous voice but I think she’s a little out of her element being tagged as a “superstar”. She seems very uncomfortable in the role. Had the Broadway smash ‘Dreamgirls’ not been turned into a movie when it was, she would’ve been just another Idol cast-off. The role of Effie White would have turned whoever played it into a star and award winner.
so true – she won her Oscar but has no hits no songs that are memorable other than one from the movie – I do wish her the best in becoming all that she can be.
agree. I think she was at the right place/right time. She’s honestly nothing special.
I agree…the role Jhud had would have made anyone a star! She is nothing special at all–has had 2 albums scrapped and redone,never had a hit song or a gold album yet! Beyonce was the real superstar in Dreamgirls,even sang differently than her usual for the role’s requirements,while Jennifer is one note and not versatile. Jennifer is also conceited and not too nice,this stunt she did sounds typical of her egotism and selfishness. She has never thanked Beyonce or Jamie Foxx for all the help given to her on Dreamgirls,especially Beyonce who helped Jennifer learn the dance moves and helped her record the songs for the songtrack as the executive producer….Beyonce helped her every inch of the way instead of letting her flounder. She did not fare as well at all with SATC and those actresses,esp Sarah Jessica Parker who cut Jennifer’s role back. Seems like some humility and gratitude are in order,including Oprah,cause Oprah helped Jennifer when her family was victimized,this girl stayed with Oprah!!
I am so glad you said this, because I was recently thinking the same thing. Now, don’t get me wrong — I think she has an excellent voice and I also think she did turn in a great performance… BUT…. the role is a star-maker. I also think that PART of the reason she won the Oscar was a perception that the Oscar was a way to help right the wrong of her early ouster from Idol. In other words, if she’d won that season of Idol, I have my doubts as to whether she would have won the Oscar.
If you look at her career outside of that role and that award, she has achieved nothing special. Her lack of music success is why she’s working on using her weight loss to achieve enough pr to help sell her music (or the inevitable reality tv series).
i agree with these comments but do you honestly think oscar voters were thinking “oh, this poor girl should have won idol so let’s give her an oscar instead”???
Oh really!! She is a superstar and she is not just another idol cast off because James Cameron saw something that no one else saw, simple raw talent, I understand that she is not strutting around half naked like all of the other so called super star but she is a super star and a triple threat something a lot of these super stars cant claim.
What in the heck does James Cameron have to do with Jennifer Hudson? What did I miss?
What does James Cameron have to do with anything?
When this episode aired in February, it seemed Oprah was very rough on JHud. Now we know why. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it three times, don’t eff with oprah, effie!
I am loving this BTS look at what goes on. JHud should have told somebody what she was doing. I wouldn’t be one of those producers for the world.
OWN is a bunch of all ready re-run –reruns of reality shows and Dr. Phil—and her daily ABC show is a collection of Oprah reruns —its boring and who cares?
Oprah needs to up her guests in the last days… I mean shes the richest woman in the states, heck she can have ANYONE on her show.. and shes wasting it all on crap episodes.. like she should have some royals on, harry potter..she is super huge and anyone whos anyone wants to be on the show.. so she needs to STEP IT UP.. cause i dont like watching crap
Jennifer Hudson is beyond annyoing..she truly needs to take speech lessons,and learn how to speak correctly. I cringe when she starts to talk. And, yes, she’s over-rated – big time.
OWN is really good and BTS is must see. They do re-runs because they re still producing original shows. Give them at least a year and it will have more new shows.
It replaced Discovery Health Channel, that’s why you see some reruns of their shows but OWN ratings has been up 200% compared to DHC. So stop hating on their success.
I loved last nights episode…whoever is JHUD’s pr person should be fired…you don’t overbook an engagement when you already confirmed with OPRAH…I actually watch BTS as I work during the day so can’t watch OPRAH unless I DVR it, but I find these shows more interesting then the actual show they are taping.
The BEST episode has not aired yet – it will be the LAST episode which will no doubt be how wonderful Oprah thinks she is.
BTS – No wonder the executive producer for the Oprah show is where she is in her career. I have never, ever seen so much butt kissing, ego stroking in my life than what the executive producer does for Oprah. I couldn’t sleep nights for prostituting myself like that.
Was it just me, or did Jennifer Hudson seem to be under the influence of SOMETHING, especially when she went to do the sound check?
No, she seems that way because deep down she’s not a bright bulb.
Jennifer Hudson won the Oscar for singing ONE SONG. But when it boils down to it, she absolutely cannot act. She was dreadful in SATC.
She did not win for singing the d*mn song, she won because she made you believe in Effie, she made you feel her pain and she made you want to root for her, In all of my years going to the movies, I have never been in a movie theatre where people stand to their feet and clap for an actress or actor and not only that but wait for the credits and give another standing ovation, honey it was not JUST about the song, and if you hating now get ready to hate again because Winnie is coming just in time for oscar season and she is going for number 2.
Can’t say that I’ve given much thought to Hudson before, but I disagree. She was absolutely fresh, charming and believable in that SITC film.
Good God, people are so quick to pounce. In the aftermath of the her mother, sister and nephew’s horrific murder, she moves forward with such determination and grace. Marries, has a young son, changes her eating/weight lifestyle, and grows professionally. Pretty astonishing. Like Oprah in her 20′s wasn’t juggling professional commitments and scrambling to max her earnings. Please.
Add Jennifer Hudson to the list of young talents to be concerned about. It’s clear she does not have wise people giving guidance.