Meta Shuts Down Facebook Watch Originals Group, ‘Red Table Talk’ Canceled

The Red Table Talk series, featuring actor Will Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith, is being canceled as Meta — formerly known as Facebook — shuts down its Facebook Watch originals.

A Meta spokesperson told Variety that the social media giant is shuttering Facebook Watch originals, which means none of the shows will be returning for new seasons.

Red Table Talk, which has a 3.4/10 rating on IMDb, was co-founded by Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, and features “three generations of women” — Jada, her mother, and her daughter, Willow — having “candid conversations with family and friends” at their home.

In 2018, during an interview on Red Table Talk, Pinkett Smith confessed that she has coped with “several” addictions in her life, among them, an addiction to sex. On the show that following year, Willow Smith told her grandmother that she desires a sexual relationship with both a woman and a man.

In 2020, during a one-on-one conversation on Red Table Talk, Pinkett Smith admitted to having a relationship with musician August Alsina while she and her husband Will Smith were separated.

Pinkett Smith has also used her platform on the show to admit that she holds prejudice against white women with blonde hair.

But now, Red Table Talk is no more — at least when it comes to having a home on Facebook Watch originals.

Meta reportedly shut down Facebook Watch originals as part of a cost-cutting initiative. Last month, the company said it was cutting 10,000 jobs this year. The move also came after the social media giant fired 11,000 employees late last year.

Mina Lefevre, head of development and programing for Facebook Watch originals, is also leaving the company. She joined Meta in 2017 after serving as head of scripted development at MTV.

Moving forward, the company’s entertainment team will reportedly be focusing on its metaverse, Meta Horizon Worlds, which has so far been falling far short of performance expectations, and has been described as “an empty world” plagued by quality issues.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.