Drew Barrymore Explains Decision To Resume Talk Show Amid Strikes, Planned Picketing: ‘I Own This Choice’
10.09.2023 - 21:57
/ etcanada.com
Last week, it was announced that “The Drew Barrymore Show” was resuming production, with the fourth season kicking off in mid-September.
When the WGA initiated strike action back in May, Barrymore was among the first to stand in solidarity with striking writings, announcing that she was stepping away from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards, in support of the strike. When her show returns, it will be without writers.
One wrinkle to the show’s planned return, however, will be WGA picketers outside her show’s studios, which will mean audience members will be forced to cross a picket line in order to attend tapings.
“The Guild has, and will continue to, picket any struck show that continues production during the duration of the strike,” WGA spokesperson Jason Gordon told Cracked.
In fact, the outlet is reporting that picketers will be protesting outside CBS Broadcast Center in NYC, where the show is taped, on Monday, Sept. 11 — the first day of “Drew Barrymore Show” tapings — with a second day of picketing planned for the following day.
In an Instagram post she issued on Sunday, Barrymore explained why she’s resuming production on her show in the midst of both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
READ MORE: ‘The Drew Barrymore Show’ Season 4 To Kick Off In September
“I made a choice to walk away from the MTV, film and television awards because I was the host and it had a direct conflict with what the strike was dealing with which was studios, streamers, film, and television,” Barrymore wrote in her post.
“It was also in the first week of the strike and so I did what I thought was the appropriate thing at the time to stand in solidarity with the writers. And to be clear, our talk show actually wrapped on April 20th so we never