The daytime television show The Talk kicked off its fifth season this month on CBS with hosts Sara Gilbert, Aisha Tyler, Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Underwood, and Julie Chen.

The show is much like sitting at home and talking with friends as the hosts laugh, debate, share their personal stories and offer support to each other. The women share a sisterhood among them as they converse on the latest headlines, talk with celebrity guests, and conquer fun and exciting challenges on-air.

“So much of television is women being unkind. We wanted to create a space where women can be smart and supportive and disagree without it devolving into cruelty or antagonism,” said co-host Aisha Tyler at a media event held recently at the CBS headquarters in San Francisco.

The first week of Season 5, which premiered Sept. 8, challenged the hosts to face their fears and Tyler’s experience was one not to miss. The comedian stepped barefoot in fish guts, animal brains, an African bullfrog, cockroaches, and an alligator!

“I think what we do at The Talk is unique and that we’re trying to create a space where people can be authentic and tell the truth. It feels safe and its fun, and it’s also a place where women are not pulling at each other’s weaves and heaving their prosthetic legs across the room,” Tyler said humorously.

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As a comedian, actress, author, and TV host who hails from San Francisco, Tyler wears many hats and that’s something she says she is proud of.

“I wanted to create a career that was so multifaceted that no one else could shut it down,” she said. “I wanted to build a stool with so many legs that if I lost five legs, I still had six to stand on. I tried to create a life for myself that was diverse and challenging, both for my own personal satisfaction and so that I won’t have to do a Sleep Number Bed commercial.”

This week on The Talk, the hosts will reveal personal secrets they have never shared before, a recurring theme from last season where Tyler shared her fertility struggles with her husband and coming to terms with not having children.

“There is, right now in our culture this intense devaluing of the choice of being a career woman, that you somehow are not a woman if you don’t have children, and that choosing career over family is not a valid choice. I think it is a valid choice and I think that women who choose that should be proud of it,” Tyler said.

“I wanted to say, ‘I choose this for myself, I don’t regret it, I wouldn’t do it any other way and if you’re going through this, it’s okay to stop.’ Every family configuration, if it’s right for you, is the right one and that was why I wanted to talk about it,” she said.

Watch Tyler and her co-hosts on The Talk, which airs weekdays at 1 p.m. PT/2 p.m. ET on CBS.

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