In a recent sit-down with The Daily Wire, Candace Owens provided a glimpse behind the scenes about the vision and development of her new weekly talk show, “Candace.”
The show, which will be filmed in front of a live studio audience in Nashville and is set to debut for Daily Wire members on March 19 (non-members can receive 25% off a membership with promo code CANDACE), will be unlike any other show out there, Owens said.
“This show is going to be funny. This show is going to be uplifting. This show is going to be political. Without question, this show is going to be all of the pieces of me,” Owens said.
Asked about what has most inspired her to launch the show, Owens cited the growing trend of “conservative voices being kicked out of culture.”
“You’re not allowed to be funny, you’re not allowed to be likable in the media if you are a conservative,” she said, adding that this wasn’t the case a decade ago. “So I think the timing right now is really crucial to stand up on a platform and to say, I’m here, I’m a conservative, I’m not apologizing, and here are all the things that we are interested in and things that we love.”
DW: What is your biggest motivation or launching the new show?
Working with The Daily Wire to me felt like it was the right move for a lot of reasons. But I think the biggest motivation is seeing conservative voices being kicked out of culture, you’re not allowed to be funny, you’re not allowed to be likable in the media if you are a conservative, and it wasn’t like this 10 years ago. So I think the timing right now is really crucial to stand up on a platform and to say, I’m here, I’m a conservative, I’m not apologizing, and here are all the things that we are interested in and things that we love. And I think that’s really a humanizing aspect that is missing from the divisiveness that we see so much in, not just America, but all around the world.
I think one of the strangest things about where I’m at is the fact that the media has done a really good job of creating a caricature of Candace Owens. And part of that caricature is that I’m always on the defense, I’m angry, I’m upset. And that just couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m a wife, a mother, a friend, a sister. And that has been completely, I think, stripped away in this age of media propaganda and building people as either good guys or bad guys.
This show is going to be funny. This show is going to be uplifting. This show is going to be political. Without question, this show is going to be all of the pieces of me.
DW: How is it going to be different than other shows offered by The Daily Wire?
What’s going to be different about “Candace” at The Daily Wire? First and foremost, The Daily Wire is male-dominated; they needed a female show. I’m excited to answer that call. And with me, you’re always going to get content that you haven’t seen anywhere else. I just have a different perspective and I have the courage to stand by my convictions.
I think that you’ll get all of those elements — especially a sense of humor. I like to have fun, I can’t stress enough that sometimes rather than being angry, the best thing to do is just to appreciate the insanity and to take a step back and to make fun of it. I think the best way that you can deliver a message is if you can make people laugh at themselves and realize, okay, maybe I shouldn’t take myself so seriously. So yeah, it’ll definitely be a lot different than all the other shows, but at the same time it will be bound by the same values — and that’s why I’m really excited to join The Daily Wire team.
DW: What are you looking forward to most about the show?
I think what I’m looking forward to the most with this show is actually sitting down with the team. Nobody ever gets to see that, but there’s so much fun working on these elements when you’re with the crew, when you are with the writers. There’s so much creativity that goes into this process, and I consider myself to be a creative person. So the creative process of looking at the stories of the week and saying, how do we get to tell a story? How do we get to bring our audiences in? And I think there are so many different things that I am interested in and people don’t get to see that because they’ve sort of painted me into a corner. So seeing all of that is something that I’m looking forward to presenting to the world.
DW: You are known for fiercely and passionately speaking out about what you believe. What inspires you to be so outspoken?
People always ask me what is my main motivation? And the answer is pretty simple, I just want to be myself. It’s such a simple thing. I just want to be who I am and not feel like I have to be someone because the media demands it or the school’s demand it. There’s just this culture of bullying and trying to paint people into corners. Well, you are a woman, so you need to be this. You are a man so you need to be this. You are a lesbian, you need to be this. And at the end of the day, I think people just want to be who they are. And a lot of my followers feel that I give them the permission to be themselves because I do so unapologetically.
DW: Have you always been like that?
Without question I have always been exactly this person. My parents really tell me that I came out of the womb like this. I was just one of those no-nonsense toddlers. They could never manipulate me. I was always so committed to the truth. I mean, simple things like when parents say, if you don’t do this then Santa’s not going to come. When my parents would say that, I would turn to them and say, well, then tell Santa not to come. I just always required a better explanation than “just because.” I wanted to understand the reasons that people wanted me to do something. And I think that I’ve just sort of carried that and it’s somehow landed me in a political space.
DW: You get so much backlash, people love to hate you. How does that affect you? Does it affect you?
I think it’s hilarious. I just want to make this super clear. People spend so much time hating me, it’s almost a full-time job. I’m impressed with some of the things that they do. I’m like you spent hours on this, there’s no way you are not on Photoshop for hours making this meme. First and foremost, I think my haters should know that I have a sense of humor. I grew up with two sisters that are a year apart. If you think you can torture me, you didn’t grow up in my household. I have an incredibly thick skin. If you think you said something about me, it’s probably already was said to me when I was six years old by a cousin, a brother or sister. So yeah, I’m thick-skinned and I just don’t get my sense of self from the internet.
I think a huge problem with this generation is that they’re looking for the internet to give them a sense of security. And it’s never going to provide that for you. So I’m lucky because when Facebook and Twitter and Instagram came upon the scene, I was already in high school. So I was allowed to grow up, I was allowed to be ugly and to have braces and be awkward and gangly without the internet.
I’m a pretty formed person. I feel strong on my two feet. I know what I believe. And I’m just not going to be bullied to say something. One thing I can say you’ll never get from me on this show is one of those celeb apologies, copy and pasted like they’re being held hostage apologies. Because if I make a mistake, I’ll own it and keep moving forward. And I hope people feel that they have the permission to make mistakes.
DW: You’ve said you want to focus a great deal of talking with people that disagree with you. Why are you so passionate about this?
I genuinely wish that any person that was convinced that they hated me would have the courage and the spirit to sit down with me. I really believe what I believe, and I think if you actually believe what you believe, you would sit in a room with somebody that you completely disagree with and hash it out. And what I have found over and over again is that people that are on the far-left will say all of these things. And when you say, you know what, let’s sit down, let’s have a conversation, they don’t want to do it. And to me, that shows that there is an intellectual cowardice going on, that for them, it’s an act, it’s a performance and it’s not actually what they believe.
I’ve been lucky enough in the past to sit down with some people who have had the courage to debate me, and I think when they hear it come out of their mouth, suddenly they realize, okay, maybe that sounded a little bit ridiculous. It’s important for people to sit in the room with people that they disagree with, because until you are challenged, you can’t be sure the things that you’re saying are actually coming from you and weren’t just copy and pasted because you saw it so many times said by your idols, your friends, your teachers.
I really genuinely believe in the importance of challenging ideas and the importance of debate, which is why I’m constantly debating the world.