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Sherri Shepherd, the longtime co-host of The View now starring on The Soul Man is no stranger to the small screen. But you’re not going to see her on a reality show, even though it seems everyone in entertainment is doing one. With all the personal drama she has going on, this might be a great time for people to see her full life as a single mother and career woman. But Shepherd says it’s not going to happen.

“I pitched a reality show that was none of that,” she says. “They don’t want it unless it’s fighting and drama and slapping. I went all over pitching it. It was a show about women uplifting each other. They’re saying the audience won’t watch it. In my life, my sister friends lift me up and recharge my soul.

To see beautiful, intelligent Black women sniping at each other’s accomplishments, it hurt me. I watch The Real Housewives of Atlanta. And I love Phaedra Harris and Cynthia Bailey both of them I’ve associated with. You’ve got one with a modeling agency and Phaedra, she’s a Juris Doctor and she owns businesses. And to see them sniping at each others accomplishments, it hurts me.”

The problem with reality TV is that it wouldn’t exist, if ironically enough, women weren’t watching it. There must be some attraction because although ratings are declining across the board, the shows from the Housewives franchise to the Kardashians, are still popular. But Shepherd says she’s seen how they exacerbate tensions between young women in real life.

“I was the keynote speaker at a charity event called ‘Real Beauty’ in Chicago. Juanita Jordan [Michael Jordan’s ex] is on the board, teaching girls to have self-esteem and self-worth. And you know what they have problems with? Bullying? They record it each other, they snipe at each other, they tear each other down but they love these shows.”

Shepherd doesn’t want to disparage women who are on reality TV, she just wishes she could do a show that shows women celebrating each other’s accomplishments, but she doesn’t think it would work.

“I think we’re so insulated in this Hollywood bubble and we don’t see it, but [young girls] do emulate it. I do understand you’re doing a show and its entertainment and it’s a platform. Wendy and Nene Leakes did the Women’s Expo and it sold out. It’s like being in a relationship and its so dysfunctional and than it’s so hard to be with a nice guy. There’s no drama, there’s no fighting.

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