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Drew Barrymore took one for the daytime talk show team over the last week after she learned the hard way about trying to navigate a return to the airwaves during a strike. The talk show host tried hard to explain her side, but it landed with a thud until she realized it was better if she waited until the Writers Guild of America’s strike against the studios was settled. And that’s when Jennifer Hudson and The Talk entered the chat.
Hudson, host of The Jennifer Hudson Show, and The Talk were also attempting a return to TV without their WGA-union writers. They would have to improv and avoid writing any type of dialogue, but that was met with resounding pushback on social media. The online criticism from Barrymore’s situation made everyone realize that it was a losing battle in the court of public opinion — don’t cross the picket lines.
It’s what Variety is calling a “domino effect” — once Barrymore postponed her season, The Talk, and then Hudson, soon followed by pausing their production. That leaves The View, currently on the air, as the last daytime talk show that employs WGA writers standing. (The Kelly Clarkson Show is still in the middle of the West to East Coast move and has not addressed the strike.) Other shows like Sherri Shepherd, Tamron Hall, and Live With Kelly and Mark are freely able to tape since they are not WGA-signatory shows.
The hosts are in compliance with their SAG-AFTRA Network Code contracts, but it’s the complicated two-union strike that makes things messy. Can a host move forward without a script? The WGA doesn’t think so and that’s why Barrymore and others succumbed to the outside pressure that crossing a picket line is a very bad idea until the studios strike a fair deal.
Before you go, click here to see all the celebrities who supported the SAG-AFTRA & WGA strikes.
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