Drew Barrymore announced on Sunday her decision to cancel the upcoming season premiere of her namesake daytime talk show, “The Drew Barrymore Show,” a reversal that echoed mounting backlash over Barrymore’s original plans to return to the show despite WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike.
“I’ve listened to everyone and I’m making the decision to put the show on hold until the strike is over,” Barrymore said in a Instagram post shared Sunday morning.
“I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I’ve hurt and of course to our incredible team who work on the show and have made it what it is today,” she continued. “We really tried to find our way forward. And I really hope for an industry-wide solution very soon.”
Barrymore drew criticism from members of the writers’ and actors’ guild last week when she initially announced her decision to move forward with the talk show’s planned fourth-season premiere date of Sept. 18. She said at the time that her talk show would abide by the rules of the strike.
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“I own this choice,” Barrymore wrote on Instagram on Sunday, September 10. “We do not abide by discussing or promoting movies and TV that are affected in any way.” That post has now been removed from the social media.
In the wake of Barrymore’s initial announcement that she would return to the series as planned, members of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA chose to stand outside the studio, where taping of “The Drew Barrymore Show” takes place at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City. Meanwhile, the National Book Foundation withdrew Barrymore’s invitation to host the 74th annual National Book Awards ceremony.
Writers Guild tweeted Sunday that “any writing” on Barrymore’s show “violates WGA strike rules.”
“The Drew Barrymore Show is a WGA-covered, stricken show that plans to return without its writers,” the tweet read. “The Guild has and will continue to plague affected shows that are in production during the strike.”
A spokesperson for CBS Media Ventures said in a statement, “The Drew Barrymore Show will not be doing any writing work covered by the WGA strike.”
Members of the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike in May amid ongoing negotiations over a new contract that meets their demands for better compensation, increased royalties for streaming content and rules regarding the use of artificial intelligence. SAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the strike in July.
Paramount+ and CBS News and Stations are part of Paramount Global, one of the companies affected by the strike. Some CBS News employees are WGA and SAG-AFTRA members but work under different contracts than the striking writers and actors.
—Gina Martinez and S. Dev contributed reporting.