"The Breakfast Club" mainstay Angela Yee is leaving the syndicated morning show that she co-hosts with Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy to launch a midday radio show of her own.
The news comes on the heels of Yee's cryptic Tuesday tweet claiming that "The breakfast club as you know it is officially over" and after she dropped hints in the spring that she was working on a new gig.
"I am going to be leaving 'The Breakfast Club,'" Yee said Wednesday morning on the program, adding that she had to wait for the official press release to go out before sharing more details. "It'll be a different iteration of 'The Breakfast Club,' but I will have my own daily show. It is really exciting, I honestly can't believe this is happening."
The IHeartMedia announcement came shortly thereafter and said that Yee will host "Way Up With Angela Yee," a weekday show syndicated by IHeartMedia's subsidiary Premiere Networks. The program will debut in the fall across at least 30 IHeartMedia stations, including "The Breakfast Club's" home station Power 105.1 WWPR-FM in New York.
Yee's afternoon show will feature the Brooklyn-bred broadcasting veteran "in a fast-paced, listener interactive show as she connects directly with listeners on the kinds of hot and timely topics in which she's garnered trust over her decades on air," said IHeartMedia, including relationships, hip-hop and R&B, headline news topics and overall culture, both in and out of the music industry.
"Way Up" will also include celebrity interviews and special guests.
"I'm overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement to have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a brand-new show," Yee said in the IHeartMedia statement. "I appreciate everyone who has helped to make this happen at IHeartMedia, and most importantly, the listeners who are like family to me."
She added: "It's a bittersweet feeling to leave an iconic show like 'The Breakfast Club,' which we built from the ground up for 12 years, but we will forever be an extension of each other. I'm working hard and dedicated to making our new program exciting, thoughtful, provocative, and most importantly, a safe haven for even more of us to grow and learn while having fun. I'm ready for this new chapter!"
The announcement did not say when Yee's last day on "The Breakfast Club" would be, but in a separate tweet, she told a fan that she'll remain on the show "for at least a month."
"Angela Yee is a Powerhouse! She's a businesswoman, entrepreneur, philanthropist and a highly entertaining, smart and witty talent who will go down as one of the greats of her generation. We are thrilled to have her lead this new show," Thea Mitchem, IHeartMedia's executive vice president of programming, added. "Angela has her finger on the pulse of entertainment and culture, and I look forward to watching her bring her positive outlook and even more great content to her devoted listeners in new and influential ways."
"The Breakfast Club" debuted on Power 105.1 in 2010 where it is broadcast live in more than 90 markets nationwide, including Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and Palm Springs, California, as well as on Revolt TV and via streaming. It also airs on weekdays and weekends on more than 100 stations and has 8 million monthly listeners, according to Forbes. The show, which features Yee's segments the Rumor Report, Ask Yee and Front Page News, was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2020.
That same year, Yee's co-host Charlamagne Tha God — also the host of Comedy Central's "Hell of a Week" — signed a five-year deal with IHeartMedia to continue to host the show and was also named the company's senior creative officer of culture content and programming, according to the Root. The deal also launched the Black Effect Podcast Network, a platform for podcasters geared toward Black audiences.
Yee's popular "Lip Service" podcast, in which she and her friends discuss intimacy, sex and relationships with hip-hop and R&B stars, will also soon be available through the IHeartPodcast Network, IHeartMedia said.
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