Did Sherri Shepherd’s Random Appearance On the Oprah Show in 1990 Foreshadow Her Talk Show Success?

Last week, we told you that Oprah Winfrey blessed Sherri Shepherd with the official daytime television talk show baton. Now, the new host is talking about what that moment meant to her and what she’s looking forward to next.

But what may be interesting to note is that the connection between Queen O and Sherri goes back deeper than we may have initially realized. During the aforementioned episode, Sherri reminded Oprah that she was actually a guest on the popular daytime talkshow back in the late 80s-early 90s.

While Oprah couldn’t initially recall Sherri’s presence, her team was able to pull footage of a young, 20-somethings Sherri espousing her relationship woes to Oprah, which garnered laughs from both hosts and the audience. I don’t know about you but that feels like a serendipitous as hell moment if there ever was one and one that arguably spoke to what the future had in store for Sherri.

Additionally, Sherri recently reflected on that moment in their past and what it meant to her to finally have with Oprah’s daytime talk show blessing.

“I bawled my eyeballs out. They were swollen all night the day she came,” she explained to People at the 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards over the weekend. “It’s surreal because to be on her show at 23 years old and dream about, ‘Could I do what she does?’ She got me through a lot of stuff.”

She continued:

“I was in a physically abusive relationship. My mom was dying from diabetic complications, I had a family member on drugs I was taking care of. I hung on to Oprah for dear life. And when I was on that show, I just said, ‘What if?’ … I hope that I am for someone the way she was for me. So it was absolutely amazing.

She’s been with me through this entire journey. Oprah will text me my ratings. She will text me, ‘You’re number two with women 25 to 54.’ Long texts. And she’s paying attention … That’s how generous Oprah is. And she gives me advice and guides me.”

When thinking about her future and how she wants to differentiate herself among television hosts past and present, Sherri added: “I just feel like you can’t compare yourself to anybody else. I’m funny and that’s what I decided to swim in, the lane of humor and laughter. And since Ellen left, there was nobody to fill that void. So I was like, ‘it’s open, I’m going to take it.’”