Drew Barrymore explains why she made the controversial decision to return her talk show to production amid the ongoing Writers Guild strike, telling critics in a new video that there’s “nothing I can do or say at this moment to do” with resuming production without her picketing the “Okay” writers.
In a video statement she posted on Instagram on Friday (below), Barrymore reiterated an earlier assertion from CBS Media Ventures that The Drew Barrymore Show He will return “in compliance” with the WGA’s strikeout rules. This is despite ongoing backlash from union members and the union itself, which picketed outside the CBS Broadcast Center in New York as taping resumed this week.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting this kind of attention,” the actress, producer, and talk show host says of her decision. “We’re not going to break the rules, we’re going to stick to them. I wanted to do this because like I said, this is bigger than me, and there are other people’s jobs at stake.”
The actress and presenter denied that the “PR” machine was behind the choice to resume the show without WGA writers. Her video comes one day after the WGA and AMPTP publicly announced they were planning to hold a meeting next week. (The studios have not returned to negotiations with SAG-AFTRA, which is also on strike under a different contract than the one covering Barrymore’s talk show.)
“I don’t know exactly what to say because sometimes when things are very difficult, it’s hard to make decisions from that place. So all I can say is that I wanted to take responsibility, and now I don’t have a PR machine behind it. My decision to come back is,” she said. I didn’t want to hide behind people.” “I’m not going to sugarcoat this with bells and whistles and propaganda and corporate rhetoric. I’m going to stand out there and accept and be accountable.
CBS Media Ventures, which produces and distributes The Drew Barrymore Show, is part of Paramount Global, one of the media companies the book addresses. Some daytime talk shows, including Barrymore’s, use the WGA book, although they typically do not reach the number of late-night shows or scripted series. Two other shows are covered by WGA, CBS the talk and Warner Bros. Spreader Jennifer Hudson Show, are also scheduled to return on September 18, with sit-ins likely outside of both. ABC the view It aired throughout the writers’ strike (and picketed), although the network said no one was performing the duties of the two WGA writers who worked for them before the work stoppage.
Barrymore noted that the reason for the return was based in part on her and the show’s experiences during the pandemic.
“Since launching live during the pandemic, I just wanted to make a show dedicated to people in sensitive times, and I weighed the scales and thought if we can continue through the global pandemic, and everything the world has seen during 2020 why is this sidelining us? “So I just want to put “One foot in front of the other and I’m making a show that’s out there for people no matter what else is going on in the world because in this time I think we all need something that wants to be there very realistically for real times.”
Rick Porter contributed to this story.
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