Amanda Seales shocked fans of “The Real” when she decided to walk away from the show after only a few months of serving as co-host.
During an Instagram Live interview with comedian Godfrey, Seales provided more insight on why she decided to leave.
Seales said the White producers were out of touch with Black culture and it took a toll on her. The first situation that bothered her was a segment where they did the game show, “Smart, Funny, and Black.” The game allows guests to answer questions about Black history and culture.
“I did a ‘Smart, Funny, and Black’ game on ‘The Real’ and I was so excited to get to play,” Seales said. “They assigned it to the one White woman producer. But we have three Black women producers and one Black guy producer. So, I was like, ‘Why are you producing this?’ And she said, ‘Oh because so-and-so assigned it to me.’ And I said, ‘But, why would you be producing this? You’re a White woman. You don’t understand what we’re going to be talking about.’ Now, she could have said, ‘Well, actually I grew up in this culture if that was the case.’
Seales continued, “I said to her, ‘Do you even know what we’re going to be talking about?’ And she said, ‘No, I just figured you were going to talk about it and I would just write it down.’ So I said, ‘Am I going to get a producer credit?’ Because to me, you assign the different segments to people who are going to be able to produce it to the best ability. And it’s like if we were doing a segment on the Sabbath dinner, she was the one Jewish person on staff, she should be in charge of that segment because she has the most expertise on that.”
The White producers allegedly felt threatened by Seales because of the conversation. “Basically, she went crying to somebody saying that I attacked her,” she said. “There was another producer who stepped in and said, ‘Listen, we gon work on it.’ And she proved my point because I’m new to this show. I need to work with somebody who knows the show. I know my show, ‘Smart, Funny and Black’ and you’re going to help us put this together. And so, I couldn’t stay in a place like that.”
Seales said that she was also asked to not talk about certain issues that affected the Black community.
“It was breaking my spirit,” she said. “I was being asked to not talk about certain things that felt like a betrayal to my people and to me as a person.”
Seales eventually decided to walk away to focus on her “Smart, Funny, and Black” show. She served as the host for the 2020 BET Awards in June.
