Drew Barrymore halts new season until writers’ strike is resolved
The television host drew criticism for taping new episodes of The Drew Barrymore Show amid a months-long writers’ strike, and says she will now pause its premiere.
Television host Drew Barrymore, who faced backlash for taping new episodes of her daytime show amid a months-long writers’ strike, said Sunday that she would pause the show’s premiere.
The show was set to return to the air Monday. Barrymore said she would now wait until the industry’s labour issues with the Writers Guild of America are resolved.
“I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today,” Barrymore wrote on Instagram. “We really tried to find our way forward. And I truly hope for a resolution for the entire industry very soon.” CBS Media Ventures, which produces The Drew Barrymore Show, said in a statement Sunday that it supports Barrymore’s decision.
“[We] understand how complex and difficult this process has been for her, ” the statement said.
CBS also said Sunday it will pause the season premiere of “The Talk,” which was due to air Monday.
The reversals are a sign of the far-reaching impacts the writers’ strike, along with one involving actors, are having across the entertainment industry, even in areas that possibly could resume work. It also highlights the power that striking actors, writers and their fans wield in an industry trying to weigh union solidarity against the need to restart projects so crew and other workers get paid.
Barrymore, who has three union writers on her show, resumed taping in New York last week. Striking workers picketed outside the studio in protest. The National Book Foundation, which presents the annual National Book Awards, rescinded its invitation to Barrymore to host the event.
At the time, Barrymore said that she owned the choice to go back to work despite the labour dispute and that she hoped it would bring people together. The last season of her show finished taping in April, before the strike began. In May, she dropped out of hosting the MTV movie awards in an act of solidarity.
The WGA called for an industry strike in May, shutting down most writers rooms for movies and TV shows. Productions went dark, including daytime and late-night talk shows that depend on fast-thinking writers to make jokes out of the day’s news.
Talk and variety shows operate under a different labour agreement than the one for movies and scripted television shows.
Other shows, such as ABC’s The View, have continued during the strike and some are planning to return for the fall television season. There will be a shortage of guests for such shows as actors can’t go on shows to promote films or television shows.
Writers on such shows who are WGA members, however, must remain on strike or risk being in violation of union rules.
Talk show host Bill Maher also announced last week that he is reconfiguring his show to run without writers.
HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher will return as a panel discussion with the host and guests, but without the comedian’s monologue and other written segments.
“I love my writers, I am one of them, but I’m not prepared to lose an entire year and see so many below-the-line people suffer so much,” Maher said in a statement.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the coalition representing the major producers of content including Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, said last week that WGA has reached out to ask for a meeting to move negotiations forward. The group said it is working to schedule a meeting.
WGA, which has 11,500 television and movie writers in its ranks, is hoping to negotiate contracts with Hollywood studios that include better pay, higher residual payments and protections against artificial intelligence’s encroachment on the movie industry.
The Wall Street Journal
