Bill Maher Walks Back Plan to Cross WGA Picket Line ‘Now That Both Sides Have Agreed to Return to the Negotiating Table’

Comedian Bill Maher has become the latest host of a WGA-signatory talk show to abandon plans to return to production amid the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike.

Maher said late last week that HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher would return to the studio, despite the strike. With the WGA and AMPTP resuming talks Wednesday, Maher in a tweet Monday, walked back the return-to-work plan.

Maher’s retreat follows that of Drew Barrymore. The first host to announce — then abandon — return-to-production plans, Barrymore issued a tearful video apology to the WGA over the weekend.

Maher, who has faced a steady barrage of criticism in recent history, particularly from the left, for hosting figures including billionaire provocateur Elon Musk, ultra-conservative influencer Ben Shapiro and Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone, faced a reinvigorated round of social-media barbs on Monday.