‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ Set to Return This Friday, After Last Week’s Decision to Push Pause

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large “Saturday Night Live” opened this week’s Season 49 premiere without a skit, but instead with host Pete Davidson discussing “the horrible images and stories from Israel and Gaza.” Said Davidson: “And I know what you’re thinking, Who better to comment on it than Pete Davidson? Well, in a lot of ways, I am a good person to talk about it because when I was seven years old, my dad was killed in a terrorist attack. So I know something about what that’s like. “I saw so many terrible pictures this week.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Wondering whether there will be more seasons or episodes of the Max animated series “Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake”? So is executive producer Adam Muto. “It’s in discussion,” Muto told Variety last week at the SCAD Animation Fest in Atlanta. “But the person who greenlit the first season is no longer at Max.” The future of “Fionna and Cake,” and the “Adventure Time” franchise as a whole, is still in the brainstorming phase, Muto said.

The writers strike is over! The problems for Drew Barrymore may just be beginning…

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Late night was back in full force on Monday night, and the hosts of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” were all expected to have something to say about it in their opening monologues. “It feels good to be back,” Colbert said at the start of his October 2 monologue — his first since May 1, the last evening before the WGA strike commenced the following day. “It feels good to be with all of you again here in the Ed Sullivan Theatre.

After ongoing speculation, “The Drew Barrymore Show” will officially be returning to small screens in October.

tentative agreement between striking screenwriters and Hollywood studios offers some hope that the industry’s dual walkouts may soon be over. But when will your favorite shows return?Well, it’s complicated.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As late night prepares to return to the airwaves post-WGA strike, that includes NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” Like “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” the sketch show also falls under the SAG-AFTRA Network Code contract, which is not a part of the guild’s current strike. That means the show, cast and crew are all in the clear to return to work once the WGA deal is finalized — or, at least, the WGA gives the all-clear for the writers to return to work. “Saturday Night Live” has been dark since April, as the WGA strike began at the start of May.

The 2023-24 television season started without several of the most prominent daytime talk shows: the syndicated The Drew Barrymore Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show and The Kelly Clarkson Show and CBS’ The Talk. They are now expected to return for new seasons by the second week of October.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As the WGA strike draws to a close, first stop on the road to normalcy will be late night — where producers are already plotting a return to air within the next two to three weeks. “We want to come back ASAP,” said one late night insider.

There was more trouble for Dancing with the Stars after it faced its second picket line of the day.

The writers are waltzing after Dancing with the Stars after all.

Just two days after Sherri Shepherd kicked off the second season of her syndicated daytime talk show The Sherri Shepherd Show, Shepherd has tested positive for Covid.

After Drew Barrymore, Bill Maher, Jennifer Hudson and The Talk reversed course on premiering their talk shows, some WGA members are now focusing on Dancing with the Stars and questioning why the dance competition is moving forward with its Sept. 26 return to ABC.

Bill Maher is the latest host to postpone his return to work.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent “The Jennifer Hudson Show” has pushed back its previously-planned premiere date and paused production amid backlash during the writers strike, Variety has learned. Jennifer Hudson’s talk show was supposed to premiere its new season on Monday, Sept. 18.

wrote Barrymore, 48, on Instagram.“I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today. We really tried to find our way forward.”The “Charlie’s Angels” star released the statement after a week of online backlash and protests outside the CBS Broadcast Center in Midtown.The “50 First Dates” actress added that she truly hopes “for a resolution for the entire industry very soon.” The Post contacted reps for Barrymore and CBS Media Ventures, which produces and distributes the show.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent As Drew Barrymore digs herself into a deeper hole regarding the return of her daytime talk show, lost in the debate is a conversation about the peculiar nature of syndicated TV. One week ago, Barrymore ignited a firestorm when she announced her talk show would be returning amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. In the week since, tensions worsened and Barrymore, normally well-liked for her good-natured personality, intensified that criticism when she doubled down with a second, now-deleted, video message.

Drew Barrymore this morning posted an emotional apology to WGA members regarding her decision to return to her daytime talk show amid the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. A number of high-profile actors, writers and organizations responded, most not happy. Barrymore has since removed the apology from her Instagram page.

Bill Maher loves to talk politics, but the Real Time host may be about to get a lesson in how real Power works.

As this seemingly endless Hollywood-hobbling strike hits week 20, Billy Ray seeks input from two veterans of the business – a vet TV exec, Peter Aronson, and a columnist, The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield — on how we got to this point and what needs to happen to get people working again. Among the points covered: how the AMPTP’S decision to chase the Netflix streaming model has had calamitous results, the high price of the signatory’s PR false messaging, and what has to happen in next week’s resumption of talks to get Hollywood back to work. Things are getting desperate — Bill Maher & Drew Barrymore are getting flamed on social media for resuming their shows, sans writers. Their reasoning; after five months without a paycheck waiting for the guilds and studios to make a deal, employees on those shows who are not members of the guilds are starving.