Lake had considered getting back into the talk genre since October 2005, just a year after her original show ended in 2004. At that time,
Broadcasting & Cable magazine reported that Lake might return to do a "new" version of her show. A source said it would be a surprise if there was no deal struck by October 2005. If it were to have happened, it would have likely debuted in September 2006. Right around the time the "new" version of her show would have been proposed, Lake was hosting
Gameshow Marathon on
CBS. Lake did not appear at the 2006
NATPE convention to pitch the proposed program to television stations in the
United States, only furthering speculation that there would be no show. In a 2009 interview on
CNN, she was asked about what was next for her. Lake noted that a follow-up documentary was coming out, and that she was in talks to do another talk show, however this has yet to come to pass. In follow-up interviews since then, such as Oprah in 2010, Lake had consistently said "never say never" about hosting a new show, but that she is happy working on other projects. However, in a February 2011 appearance on
The View, when asked about doing another show, Lake said that she "misses the platform" and that when it comes to hosting another show, "that's certainly a possibility." In March 2011, reports flourished that Lake would be making a possible television comeback in 2012. A month later, on April 20,
Twentieth Television announced that it would develop Lake's new program. On May 23, 2011, a U.S. federal trademark registration number 85328080 was filed by 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, giving a description for the new show with the title as
The Ricki Lake Show. The request for the title was approved, with Lake herself just required to sign off. In June 2011, a logo banner for
The Ricki Lake Show appeared on the websites for
trade magazines such as
TelevisionWeek and
Broadcasting & Cable. In August 2011, an ad for the new show appeared on its
YouTube channel. In November 2011,
The Ricki Lake Show was sold to stations across the United States, and other countries. Though the show was picked up by some stations, the producers were officially waiting for a launch group, with Fox and/or NBC being a possibility. According to the industry trade
TVNewsCheck, "many syndication observers say NBC stations and Fox stations may end up cherry-picking
Jeff Probst and Ricki Lake in large TV markets". (
Survivor host Probst debuted his
daytime talk show in September 2012.) On November 8, 2011, Twentieth announced that 11 of
Tribune Broadcasting's stations picked up the show, with
WPIX/
New York City using the show to replace
Anderson, which it lost to Fox-owned
WNYW in 2012 due to the lackluster performance and timeslot WPIX had with the program. On November 17, 2011, Lake's show was cleared in over 50% of the United States, with most of the major market commitments coming from Fox (including its co-owned
KTTV/Los Angeles and
WFLD/Chicago),
Local TV and
Sinclair stations. By December 2011, Twentieth reported that the show had been cleared in over 80% of the country with more broadcasters (including
Journal Communications and
Hearst Television) adding the program to their outlets. By January 2012, the show had been cleared in over 90% of the country. Lake cited her performance on
Dancing with the Stars as the reason behind the interest in her show. On February 4, 2013, it was announced that
The Ricki Lake Show would not return for a second season due to low ratings, with the series averaging only 926,000 viewers. Despite not being renewed for another season,
The Ricki Lake Show continued production until March 21, 2013 and reruns aired throughout the summer. The series aired for the final time on September 6, 2013. ==Critical response==