‘The Talk’ Postpones Season Premiere Amid Strikes, Following Drew Barrymore’s Lead
Daytime TV viewers won’t see The Drew Barrymore Show return tomorrow, Monday, September 18, nor will they see The Talk’s new season.
CBS, which airs The Talk, announced on Sunday, September 17 that the talk show “is pausing its season premiere scheduled for September 18,” adding that the network “will continue to evaluate plans for a new launch date” for Season 14, per Deadline.
CBS’ decision to pull the Season 14 premiere came after Writers Guild members picketed a rehearsal on Wednesday, and it comes just hours after Drew Barrymore backtracked her decision to bring The Drew Barrymore Show back on September 18, choosing to delay the premiere following intense criticism from celebrities and fans alike.
Just days ago — on Thursday, September 14 — CBS was hyping up The Talk’s Season 14 in a press release, listing five days of all-new episodes starting on Monday.
Longtime panelist Sheryl Underwood is booked to return for the show’s 14th season, alongside newer co-hosts Amanda Kloots, Jerry O’Connell, Akbar Gbajabiamila, and Natalie Morales.
“The reality is that bringing a show back without your writers is an attempt to devalue our labor and devalue the work that we do,” argued WGA captain Chris Hazzard at #TheTalk picket https://t.co/C7zHrScylG
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) September 14, 2023
The controversial decision to resume filming The Talk came in the middle of Hollywood’s months-long WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
A source close to The Talk told The Hollywood Reporter that the show’s writing position would remain vacant until the WGA strike ends. “Until that time, the hosts will be ad-libbing and sharing their own remarks, which is not writing under the WGA Agreement,” the source added.
On Wednesday, September 13, however, dozens of Writers Guild members picketed a rehearsal of The Talk at Los Angeles’ Radford Studio Center, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“The reality is that bringing a show back without your writers is an attempt to devalue our labor and devalue the work that we do,” WGA captain Chris Hazzard told THR at the protest. “And there’s no way to make a show without writing. So whether that’s picking guests or talking about who’s going to speak when or doing pre-interviews to update your hosts about what the topic is going to be, all of that is writing. And so that work being done is scabbing, and we will be out here with a picket sign until it stops.”
Earlier today, Drew Barrymore responded to days-long backlash and announced that that her syndicated talk show — another CBS production previously slated to return on Monday — would also hold off on its Season 4 premiere until the end of the strike.
