'The Real' Co-Hosts Emotionally Praise the 'Historic' Show During Series Finale

The Real is saying goodbye. On Friday, after eight seasons and 1,360 episodes, Jeannie Mai Jenkins, Adrienne Houghton, Loni Love and Garcelle Beauvais wrapped the show's historic run.

"I didn't think we would make it two seasons, so to make it to eight is great," Love, joining her co-hosts by video conference, said.

Beauvais, who joined the series in season 7, praised the other three ladies, who had all been on the show since the beginning.

"I hope you guys take this moment to realize what you were able to do," Beauvais said. "Eight seasons of a talk show with a panel of women of color! I mean, congrats, congrats, congrats, congrats."

While tears ran down her face, Houghton marveled that she'd "done a decade of my life on this show." Mai Jenkins, meanwhile, reflected on how she's changed during the course of the series.

"I started off this show so naive. I was very green to a lot of things. I learned all of my life lessons on this show," she said. "Not only that, but I walked out of here with a husband and a baby. Wild!"

Mai Jenkins tied the knot with Jeezy in 2021. They welcomed their daughter, Monaco, in January.

Houghton later acknowledged that she and her co-hosts have "made our mark" thanks to the long-running series.

"There was never a show that looked like us," she said. "I'm so grateful and I hope that we're not the last."

Love expanded on similar feelings, explaining that "the whole purpose of the show is that we would put on people that would not normally get on daytime talk."

"When you look back at eight seasons over 1,300 episodes, it's phenomenal and it's historic. This is actually a celebration," she said. "We hope our example, with what we've done, can continue. Don't let this end. Get another show like this together with fabulous women... We are so proud and we will not be sad today."

Houghton also reflected on the end of the series in a nearly 20 minute-long video posted to her personal YouTube channel.

"I took real pride in being fun, silly, honest -- too honest for my own good," she admitted in the video, before marveling, "I'm an Emmy Award-winning daytime talk show host because of The Real."

"This has been amazing," she said. "I hope you enjoyed the last decade I spent telling you guys every single thing."

On Instagram, Love wrote that she's "not sad that’s it’s ending" but is instead "celebrating that it happened." 

"Thank you to all the co hosts, staff and crew," she wrote. "I wish you all nothing but the best in your next journey and to the viewers, I hope The Real provided some of you with some lovely days!!!"

When ET's Kevin Frazier spoke to Mai Jenkins last month, she reflected on the end of the series. 

"It’s hard because the show was the first of its kind. When you have a show that is by minority voices for minority voices, I gotta say, I didn’t have a show like that when I started," she told ET. "And even today I’m like, 'Where can I go that has such a great culmination of different aspects and women's perspectives that come from different lives and cultures?' Especially as an Asian woman, I don't see that representation enough."

"So, for me getting off that show was hard because I still think we need a show like that," Mai Jenkins added. "So, if we open doors for other shows like that to be in production, I’m excited about that. I wanna see that happen."

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