After several years of considering coming back to daytime with a new talk show, Lake signed on as both host and producer with 20th Television for this project, which debuted in United States and Canada on September 10, 2012,[2] and began taping episodes on July 25, 2012, at the Culver Studios.

According to 20th Television, the "show will present topical conversation reflecting Ricki's own personal journey and recent life experiences.

As her fans have grown up with Ricki, a combination of relevant themes personal to the host and her audience including family, marriage, parenting, divorce, weight loss and overall well-being are being explored for the program.

It also unveiled Ricki, a digital magazine containing parenting, fashion and fitness advice, which can be downloaded for free through iTunes, Google Play and the Amazon.com App store.

Lake did not appear at the 2006 NATPE convention to pitch the proposed program to television stations in the United States, only furthering speculation that there would be no show.

[8][9] In June 2011, a logo banner for The Ricki Lake Show appeared on the websites for trade magazines such as TelevisionWeek and Broadcasting & Cable.

[14] On November 17, 2011, Lake's show was cleared in over 50% of the United States, with most of the major market commitments coming from Fox (including its co-owned KTTV/Los Angeles and WFLD/Chicago), Local TV and Sinclair stations.

[15] By December 2011, Twentieth reported that the show had been cleared in over 80% of the country with more broadcasters (including Journal Communications and Hearst Television) adding the program to their outlets.

[17] On February 4, 2013, it was announced that The Ricki Lake Show would not return for a second season due to low ratings, with the series averaging only 926,000 viewers.

Lake was nominated for Favorite New Talk Show host for the series at the 39th People's Choice Awards, but lost to Steve Harvey.