Angela Yee, co-host of “The Breakfast Club,” has announced that she will be leaving the show after nearly 12 years to host her own upcoming program with iHeartRadio, the same network that produces The Breakfast Club.
Speculation first began brewing on Tuesday night after Yee sent out a cryptic tweet indicating a change to the show. “The breakfast club as you know it is officially over,” she wrote without further explanation. On Wednesday morning’s show, she clarified with an official announcement about her new project, a development that her co-hosts Charlamagne tha God and DJ Envy were supportive of.
“I am going to be leaving The Breakfast Club,” Yee said. “You guys obviously will continue on, and it’ll be a different iteration of the Breakfast Club, but I will have my own show up here at iHeart as well.”
Yee noted, “This is something that I've been waiting to do for years now, way before the pandemic.” Years earlier, Yee had spoken to her boss at iHeartRadio looking to start her own show: “I have my podcast 'Lip Service,’ and I was thinking I would be able to get something like a weekend situation." Now, Yee will officially be helming “Way Up with Angela Yee,” a nationally syndicated daily live show that will begin airing sometime in the fall.
Her departure, though, will undoubtedly mark a major shift for The Breakfast Club. Yee has served as an integral part, particularly as a Black woman, of the central trio’s dynamic and helped propel the program to one of the most listened-to morning radio shows in the country. The show, which is known for its candid, sometimes controversial interviews with the biggest names in hip-hop, was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2020.
On Twitter, Yee confirmed that she would remain on The Breakfast Club for at least another month before transitioning into her new program. “As far as having a nationally syndicated show, and somebody in my position, a woman, a Black woman, up here, I don’t know — it’s a rarity,” she said on Wednesday’s show. “And it’s a great opportunity and it’s not something that I take lightly, so I’m really excited.”
