Steve Harvey's daytime talk show 'Steve' to end in June after 2 seasons
'Steve', the Steve Harvey syndicated daytime talk show will have its curtains down in June. 'The Kelly Clarkson Show' is slated to move into the prime daytime slot occupied by Harvey’s show for the past seven seasons on NBC owned-and-operated stations. The show taped its final episode on Thursday and originals will air through June. The reruns are slated to run through September.
Harvey entered the daytime talk sphere in 2012 with 'The Steve Harvey Show', produced by Endemol Shine. The show averaged about 1.8 million viewers a week. The show was number five among syndicated talk shows behind 'Dr. Phil', 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show', 'Live with Kelly and Ryan' and 'Maury', according to Variety.
Soon after the ending of his deal with Endemol, Harvey signed with IMG Original Content to create a new duplication of the show in 2016. The show, titled 'Steve,' premiered in 2017. IMG offered Harvey a much larger ownership stake in the show, a higher salary and more creative control over the production.
After initially struggling with the change in format, 'Steve' lost viewers. Recent audience tallies for the show have it down more than half a million viewers from the original’s last season. This loss of viewership also hampered IMG's efforts to show the show elsewhere as no markets signed on for it.
That Harvey had a larger ownership stake did not sit well with NBCUniversal executives as they were furious at losing their stake in Harvey’s show after the transition to IMG, even though it remained the distributor of 'Steve,' reported THR. The new version of the show also remained in its time slot on the NBC O&Os in crucial major markets, but it was no surprise when NBC moved to develop a high-profile new show to replace 'Steve.'
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in 2018, Harvey acknowledged the transition had not gone as well as he had anticipated. “I’m a die-hard believer in reinvention,” he said. “But sometimes you just have to leave the wheel alone, and let it roll down the hill.”
The 62-year-old comedian has no shortage of assignments though. He also hosts the syndicated version of 'Family Feud,' the celebrity edition on ABC and multiple recurring emcee gigs.