Debra Messing Responds to Accusations She Trolled Kim Kardashian

Debra Messing set the record straight over whether she was trolling Kim Kardashian when the latter landed the Saturday Night Live hosting gig

By Tyler Pisapia | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

debra messing

Debra Messing is issuing a bit of a mea culpa after previously questioning the wisdom and necessity of letting former Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Kim Kardashian host Saturday Night Live. In September, Saturday Night Live did what it normally does and announced the hosts for the first few episodes of Season 47. Loki star Owen Wilson kicked off the year but he was quickly followed by everyone’s favorite reality TV mogul in a clear (and successful) move to boost the show’s ratings. Debra Messing was among the first to come out scratching her head as to why the reality star was joining the likes of Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, and Rami Malek in hosting the shows — all of whom have active projects to promote. 

In a tweet at the time, Debra Messing acknowledged that Kim Kardashian is indeed a “cultural icon.” However, she questioned why the show would bother putting her in the coveted host position if she wasn’t promoting a project — as if ratings and entertainment value aren’t enough. You can see the original message below.

Debra Messing caught some pretty swift and severe backlash as Kim Kardashian fans roasted her for mocking the star. In addition, it was pointed out to her many times that politicians, athletes, and public figures like Elon Musk have previously been tapped to host Saturday Night Live. This stood in contrast to Messing’s assertion that Kim Kardashian having nothing to promote was odd for the show.

As a result of the backlash, Debra Messing appeared on the Tamron Hall Show last week where she walked back her comments and apologized for “trolling” the reality star. She noted that she believes Kim Kardashian is a “phenomenon” and apologized to anyone who took her past tweet to be a trolling of the celebrity. She tried to explain that she was genuinely asking her Twitter following if Kim Kardashian had something to promote rather than punching it into Google like the rest of us. 

In the end, Debra Messing noted that she watched Kim Kardashian’s episode and found her to be quite the solid comedic performer. Meanwhile, the reality star hasn’t really addressed the issue at all, so it seems that the situation has resolved itself with a mea culpa from Debra Messing and a subtle “I’m too famous to acknowledge this” from Kim Kardashian.

It’s worth noting, though, that Debra Messing is indeed “missing something” when it comes to Kim Kardashian having nothing to promote. Indeed, now that her immensely popular, empire-building reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians is over, the family is free to get started on a new project. They’ve signed a deal with Hulu to continue to create reality TV content, only now it will be exclusive for the streaming platform. It will likely allow them more control over how often cameras are in their homes documenting them. According to Us Weekly, Khloe Kardashian noted that the family’s new reality show will likely debut sometime in the first months of 2022. 

As for whether or not the Debra Messing controversy will make its way to the reality show, or Kim K’s radar at all, fans will just have to wait and see what happens on Hulu.