Ricki Lake was “one of 100 women” who auditioned to host her talk show.
Ricki Lake has recalled her TV audition
The 57-year-old star hosted Ricki Lake, her hit TV talk show, between 1993 and 2004, but Ricki insists she was forced to work hard for her success.
She explained via Instagram: “I was basically cast into it.
“I was one of 100 women that they met with. There were journalists and models and all different types of people. I was an actor. I went and met with Garth Ancier and his team, and they chose me to do a pilot.
“I was 23 at the time we did the pilot and I went on the air at 24, and the show was just this sort of overnight success.
“To this day, I look back on it. It was such a phenomenon and no one expected it, most likely me. I had truly never, ever thought that it would be the hit that it became and sort of the cultural point for so many people.”
Ricki previously explained that 9/11 prompted her to quit her talk show.
The TV star hosted her popular chat show between 1993 and 2004, but Ricki’s outlook changed when she witnessed the 2001 terrorist attack in New York City at first hand.
During an appearance on the On Par with Maury Povich podcast, Ricki shared: “I could have done it for probably a decade longer.”
Ricki Lake was near the top of the TV ratings at the time, but she felt ready for a major change after witnessing the terrorist attacks in New York.
Ricki said: “I made that choice. 9/11 was a huge trajectory shift in my life. Every aspect of my life changed from witnessing that experience that day from my West Village apartment.”
Ricki recalled being “freaked out” by 9/11 and she subsequently decided that she wanted to overhaul her life.
She explained: “I was so freaked out watching that plane fly down the Hudson and hit that building.
“I had a two-month-old and a four-year-old. So I was a lactating new mother protecting my cubs, you know?
“I mean, I just felt like the world was coming to an end that day. And I said to myself — I had an epiphany on the roof of my building as I watched it all unfold — that I would leave New York.”
