Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

It’s official. The addition of Michael Strahan to the morning show lineup was a good idea. Live! With Kelly and Michael topped all talk shows for first time this season. The show even beat out Dr. Phil, which had been the top syndicated talk show for the past 13 weeks of the 2012-2013 TV season, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Live! With Kelly and Michael captured a 2.8 rating in total households, meaning about 3.6 million people tuned in during the week of December 16 to December 23. By comparison, 3.5 million watched Dr. Phil.

It was the show’s highest rating since early September when Strahan was announced as Kelly Ripa’s new co-host, replacing longtime host Regis Philbin. Strahan joined the show during a period when a record number of African-American men took hosting slots on TV shows, as we reported last September. Among the others were ex-106th & Park BET host Terrence J (Jenkins) who replaced Ryan Seacrest as co-host of E! News and Steve Harvey on The Steve Harvey Show.

At the time we asked if the addition of more African-American men on daytime TV would boost ratings? Well, now we have the answer.

Source: neontommy.com

If you were like me, you probably loved the original cast of CBS’ “The Talk.” (Minus Marissa Jaret Winokur, who left the show last January.) “The Talk,” which was clearly CBS’ answer to ABC’s “The View”was strong in the fact that its co-hostesses all came from diverse backgrounds. There was a lesbian (Sara Gilbert), a Brit (Sharon Osbourne), a black woman (Holly Robinson Peete), an Asian woman (Julie Chen) and the feisty Jewish and Italian woman, Leah Remini. In an industry dominated by white men, it was more than refreshing to see such a diverse cast on daytime television. In all seriousness, it was beautiful. And often more light-hearted and less controversial than “The View.” Sometimes all that screaming over one another really is too much.

But all good things must come to an end right? In a shocking and unexplained move, the network axed Peete and Remini and replaced them with Sheryl Underwood and Aisha Tyler. Interesting, right? While I don’t mean to throw any shade whatsoever to Underwood and Tyler, I miss the old lineup! I loved Leah’s authentic frankness and Holly’s delightful overshares. The dynamic of all the women and how they communicated with one another really made for good television. But what was so unsettling about Peete and Remini’s exit was the fact that no one said a thing about it.

Until now.

Leah Remini took to the 24 hour celebrity press conference, a.k.a. Twitter, to finally address why she and Peete had to go. (Finally, some closure.)

This is what she had to say: (Buckle your seat belts.)

“Sharon thought me and Holly were ‘Ghetto’, (her words) we were not funny, awkward and didn’t know ourselves… She had us fired.”

Oh lawd.

Before we get into this, let’s pause for the cause, if I hear yet another ignorant person, Caucasian or otherwise, incorrectly use the word “ghetto,” I’m going to start a riot…in the confines of my own apartment…without breaking any valuables, of course.

Leah went on to tweet that Sharon revealed all of this on Howard Stern when she, Chen and Gilbert appeared on his show back in December. Looking at the some excerpts of the interview, Sharon did say that the two didn’t “know themselves.” But the ghetto thing, I didn’t see. But who knows. In Ms. Osbourne’s defense though, if she thought Holly and Leah were ghetto, I’m sure Sheryl, though she is not ghetto, would probably be waaay too much for her to handle. And I’m not the only one who believes this, one of Remini’s followers tweeted:

@LeahRemini if so then it looks like Sheryl is the next to go cause Sharon looks like “shut up Beyotch” when Sheryl is talking

(On the real, sometime Sheryl says some very cringe worthy things.)

And Leah replied,

“That’s who she is. she did that to me everyday. I feel for them.She has the power that was given to her. And yes, you are also right”

Looking at these allegations, what do you think? Do you think Osbourne really had the two of them fired? Do you prefer the new line- up on “The Talk”? Hell, do you even watch “The Talk”? Maybe I’m the only one who is still tripping about this absolute scandal…

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Julia Pace-Mitchell, daughter of actors Judy Pace and Don Mitchell, is the newest face on “The Young & the Restless” and what a beautiful brown face it is. Playing the shrewd Sofia Dupre, Pace-Mitchell told AOL Black Voices that she was surprised to even get an audition, much less land the role.

“Honestly, I was just as surprised when I got the audition because a lot of times, for my type, you don’t even get the opportunity to audition for soaps,” said Pace-Mitchell.

Check out the AOL Black Voices article to read more about this season on Y&R and also to see a slideshow of black actors who got their start in soaps! Taye Diggs is that you?