Fox O&Os to test “The Real” – with multiethnic panel (updated)

Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of a story that originally ran on June 3. – T.H.

In a project announced late Friday, Telepictures productions, a unit of TimeWarner, announced a new daytime talk show featuring five young females of ethnic backgrounds in a format resembling The View and The Talk. Titled The Real, the series is getting a trial run on several Fox-owned stations with a tentative start date of July 8 – one week before Kris Jenner’s talk show trial run starts on the Fox O&Os (excluding Chicago. )

Members of the panel are: Tamera Mowery (of Sister, Sister fame where she co-starred with her twin sister Tia), Tamar Braxton (from WeTv’s Braxton Family Values, who is sister of Toni Braxton); Adrienne Brailon, who appeared in The Cheetah Girls; Jeanne Mai from Style’s How Do I Look? and comedian Loni Love.

So far, Fox has not nailed down the number of markets the show would air in or how long the project would run.

If one were to guess, look for the series to air its trial run in some of Fox’s urban markets with large African-American populations (i.e. Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Memphis), in addition to New York and Los Angeles. Chicago is typically not used for test-runs of syndicated programming.

Last summer, Telepictures used Bethenny Frankel as a test run in some Fox-owned markets and was a success. The show debuts in syndication this fall.

UPDATED: Fox announced Wednesday (6/12) the markets The Real would be tested for four weeks: New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Houston. Two more markets were picked, but it wasn’t those with large African-American audiences such as Detroit, Atlanta, and Memphis – Phoenix and Tampa-St. Petersburg were selected  instead.

As expected, Chicago was not selected. The Real begins its test run on the same day (July 15) as Kris Jenner’s trial run in some of the same markets.