Norman Baker says he won’t surrender control of his story as Peacock prepares a 2027 Wendy Williams retrospective featuring more than 20 former staffers.
ByBernadette Giacomazzo
September 13, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Former Wendy Williams Show producer Norman Baker has declined documentary offers because he wants control over his perspective and “doesn’t want to be involved in trashing her.”
- Baker said he might join a loving tribute, but he remains unsure whether Williams supports Peacock’s three-part Clap If You Care, which will feature more than 20 former staffers and premiere in 2027.
- His caution follows backlash over Lifetime’s Where Is Wendy Williams?, whose intimate portrayal of her health and guardianship led to litigation that A+E Networks settled in July.
Norman Baker spent years helping Wendy Williams turn celebrity gossip into appointment television. But when filmmakers came looking for him to help tell Williams’ own story, the former Wendy Williams Show producer decided to sit this one out.
Baker revealed during an appearance on the Awf The Record podcast that he has received documentary offers but turned them down, largely because he doesn’t want someone else deciding how his relationship with Williams is portrayed.
“I have been asked to participate,” Baker said. “I respect the game, and I don’t begrudge anyone doing any documentary about her. It’s just not really for me.”
For Baker, the problem isn’t documenting Williams. It’s surrendering control of what happens after the interview.
“I really want to have control over my own point of view,” he explained, raising the possibility of a documentary editing his comments into a context he never intended. “I don’t want to be involved in trashing her.”
His comments arrive just as another major Wendy Williams retrospective moves forward. Peacock has announced a three-part documentary with the working title Clap If You Care: The Wendy Williams Show, set to premiere in 2027. More than 20 former staffers are reportedly involved, with longtime Wendy Williams Show executive producer Suzanne Bass helping lead the project.
Baker stressed that his decision not to participate isn’t an indictment of Bass or the people who agreed to appear. He has friends working on the documentaries and believes Bass wants Peacock’s project to celebrate what Williams and her staff built during the show’s long run.
“Suzanne really wants to make like a really, really nice tribute to our show and to Wendy,” he said, adding that she has recruited numerous former staffers to remember Williams in a “nice, loving, tribute-y way.”
Whether Williams wants her story told this way is another matter. Reports claim Peacock blindsided her with the documentary announcement and she did not participate in the production. But when Baker was asked directly whether the project had Williams’ blessing, he couldn’t say.
“I’m not sure,” Baker responded. “I don’t know.”
The uncertainty comes two years after Lifetime’s Where Is Wendy Williams? triggered backlash over its intimate portrayal of Williams amid her health problems and guardianship. Litigation stemming from that docuseries was privately settled with A+E Networks in July.
Netflix has also reportedly explored its own documentary about Williams.
Baker’s history with Williams makes his refusal particularly notable. He credits her with transforming him from a behind-the-scenes producer into one of the show’s recognizable personalities after the two quickly bonded over their shared sense of humor.
“It’s all really due to her,” Baker said of his visibility on the show.
He remains protective of Williams, and the legacy of a show he believes left a hole in daytime television. Baker described Williams as someone who was “so irreverent” and willing to speak her mind at a time when, as he put it, “nobody really is allowed to do that, especially a Black woman.”
That loyalty doesn’t mean Baker will never sit for a Wendy Williams documentary. He simply wants to know what kind of story he’s helping tell.
“Never say never,” he said. “I would maybe consider participating in something that was, like, you know, a tribute to Wendy.”
