If VH1's upcoming scripted series Daytime Divas is a case of art imitating life—well, a little bit of that life is coming to play around in the art.
The series, inspired by Star Jones' book Satan's Sisters...A Work of Fiction (which in turn is loosely based on her time as a co-host on The View), focuses on the hosts of The Lunch Hour, a long-running women's talk show with more backstage drama than you can even imagine. Sound familiar? Giving the new show a little boost of daytime TV credibility, a handful of real-life talk show pros will be making guest star appearances in the first season—including Jones herself—the network announced ahead of the show's panel at the 2017 Winter TCA Press Tour.
A handful of The View hosts, including Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Jedediah Bila and Sara Haines, will stop by playing themselves as the behind-the-scenes drama of The Lunch Hour makes news that the ladies on the ABC chatfest can't help but talk about. Not only that, The Real co-host Tamera Mowry-Housley will appear as a friend of Tichina Arnold's Mo, while Jones will pop up as well, playing herself.
In putting the show together with showrunners Chris Alberghini and Mike Chessler, Jones admitted that there wasn't much she considered off-limits when mining her history for inspiration.
"My only rule was I would not violate any of the closed door sessions that I had with my co-hosts or in any interviews that I've done over the years. You really can't tell the secrets of someone who you put your Spanx on with, so I knew that I couldn't cross that line," she said during the panel. "But, sincerely, I've worked with some of the smartest, best, most talented people in daytime television for 25 years. So, I've seen everybody, heard everything…so I had a whole lot of stuff to work with in putting together the show and, of course, writing the book originally."
And lest you think Jones' former co-hosts are feeling some type of way about her using them for inspiration, she's saying otherwise. (As if Behar's involvement wasn't proof enough.) "I can sincerely tell you that the only thing that I have heard from my former co-hosts, especially Joy Behar, is ‘Who is playing me?'" she said, laughing. "That's all she wants to know."
Daytime Divas stars Vanessa Williams, Chloe Bridges, Camille Guaty, Fiona Gubelmann and McKinley Freeman, as well as Arnold. It's set for a spring 2017 premiere on VH1.