Patti LaBelle & Pie Reviewer James Wright Chanel to Air Cooking Special

Patti LaBelle and Internet sensation James Wright Chanel, who reviewed LaBelle’s line of sweet potato pies in a now viral video, are slated to air a cooking special this month.

The instantaneous bond between the two began after Chanel shared a video of himself proclaiming that he “turned into Patti” while singing LaBelle’s songs and sampling a slice of her pie sold at Walmart. Shortly after the video hit the Internet, retailers nationwide struggled to keep up with demands, selling out in record time.

The video earned Chanel a place at LaBelle’s dinner table for Thanksgiving, which is also his birthday. During a recent interview with People, LaBelle spoke highly of Chanel.

“He’s such a larger than life person himself; he’s like my new son,” she said. “It’s just a blessing when people come into your life like this and you’re not expecting anything.”

Chanel shared similar sentiments, saying their relationship has been strong since the beginning.

“When she first called, it was like we’d known each other forever; we talked like we were best friends.”

In November, LaBelle spoke with The Huffington Post about her pies and the first time she saw Chanel's video.

“I heard someone singing better than me and eating my pie. He was giving all kinds of love to Patti and that Patti Pie. So I just said, ‘My God who is this guy,’” she recalled, later adding that she called Chanel to personally thank him. “In September when the pies came out, they did really, really well, but once James Wright put that video up, it went crazy. And I’ve never met James before, nor have I ever spoken to him until I was in London when I called him to thank him for that beautiful footage. And so, he woke a lot of people up.”

The holiday cooking show with these two will air on the Cooking Channel on Wednesday, Dec. 16 at 8:30 E.T.

Warning: this video contains profanity.

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