There’s a new contestant on Who Wants to Replace Oprah? Vulture has confirmed that Fran Drescher is getting her own daytime talk show, just in time for the holidays. The Fox-owned TV stations have signed a deal with Drescher and syndicate Debmar-Mercury (which also produces Wendy Williams’s show) to test out a chat-fest starring The Nanny actress and cancer activist for about three weeks this fall, starting November 26, the day after Thanksgiving. The self-titled entertainment-driven show (think Ellen with a little bit of The View’s love for current events) will be based in Los Angeles and air on the Fox stations in New York, L.A., Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Orlando, and Phoenix. If viewers spark to it, Debmar-Mercury will attempt to take the show national. And if a three-week run sounds like an awfully short commitment, it’s actually not all that unusual in the world of syndicated talkers these days: Williams herself started out with a trial run on Fox stations, and the group also gave a similarly brief test drive to Craig Kilborn over the summer. The official deal between Fox and Drescher is being announced today, though the actress first hinted at her plans in May (via Twitter, natch).
