Tyra Banks says goodbye to talk show
Dec 29th, 2009 by Bilal Ali
After five seasons, two Daytime Emmy awards and too many girl-power episodes to count, Tyra Banks is announcing the end of “The Tyra Show.”
“This will be the last season of The Tyra Show,” Banks tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I’ve been loving having fun, coming into your living rooms, bedrooms, hair salons for the past 5 years.”
Wrapping at the end of its fifth season in the spring of 2010, it will be lights out for the show that brought viewers memorable weave-exposing, cellulite-revealing and tear-jerking moments.
Banks will focus on the launch of Bankable Studios, a N.Y.-based film production company currently reviewing possible projects. Sticking to her mission, Banks aims to bring “positive images of women to the big screen,” says an industry insider.
“My next huge steps will allow me to reach more women and young girls to help us all feel as fierce as we truly are,” Banks says.
Adds the insider: “Tyra is sad because she’ll be missing so much of the daily connection to her viewers, but excited at the same time to be taking on a new challenge.”
With encouragement from filmmaker Tyler Perry and longtime mentor Oprah Winfrey, Banks is “redefining beauty for women in film,” adds the source. “With Oprah’s big announcement this year, I think that gave Tyra the confidence to get out there and follow her longtime dream of film producing.”
But fashion fiends worry not. “America’s Next Top Model” is slated to return for its 15th season in February along with Banks’s ABC show “True Beauty.”
“There’s a lot cooking right now and a lot of fire burning in my heart,” Banks writes in an open letter on her Web site. “And I salute you my amazing family of viewers; without you there never would have been a Tyra Show. I really love you all.”