Serena Williams’ Nail Salon TV Show Pilot Reportedly Nixed by Lifetime

Serena Williams has a few interests outside of tennis. Two of the notable ones are fashion and nails (and to a lesser extent, karaoke). She apparently made a TV show that revolved around her time at a nail salon and pitched it to Lifetime Networks — you know, television for women. According to the New York Daily News, they took a pass.

We hear the tennis star has whiffed on her attempt to interest the Lifetime cable network in a reality series based on her second obsession: caring for and decorating nails. A source tells us the pilot featured “a salon set-up” and footage of Williams giving Oprah Winfrey a pedicure (possibly taken from the time Williams pampered Winfrey’s tootsies on her old syndicated show). Alas, our source says Lifetime programmers “felt the audience wouldn’t think Serena was being authentic,” even though Williams has studied professional nail care. Given Oprah’s pedi participation—insert cringe here — we asked Winfrey’s OWN channel if there was interest there. A spokeswoman replied: “OWN has no plans for a reality series with Serena Williams.” Williams rep did not respond to our requests for comment.

Serena giving Oprah a pedicure? On camera? And they passed? That’s like TV gold. That’s a scene good enough to make Dave Chappelle’s head spin. I don’t even think a television set would be able to hold all the star power those two ladies possess. It takes a lot of ovaries to pass on an idea like that, that’s for sure.