Drew Barrymore Explains Why She’s Bringing Back Talk Show Amid Strikes: ‘I Own This Choice’

Drew Barrymore confirmed in a statement Sunday that her talk show will resume this month despite the ongoing writers strike that has shut down both daytime and late-night.

Back in May, Barrymore stood in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America when she dropped out of the MTV Movie & TV Awards in the early days of the strike. “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 Sunday.

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Despite that early support, CBS Television revealed earlier in late August that the Drew Barrymore Show would return this month despite the writers strike, with Barrymore confirming the decision in her Instagram statement.

“I am also making the choice to come back for the first time in this strike for our show, that may have my name on it but this is bigger than just me. I own this choice,” she wrote, also noting of the actors strike, “We are in compliance with not discussing or promoting film and television that is struck of any kind. We launched live in a global pandemic. Our show was built for sensitive times and has only functioned through what the real world is going through in real time.”

Barrymore added, “I want to be there to provide what writers do so well, which is a way to bring us together or help us make sense of the human experience. I hope for a resolve for everyone as soon as possible. We have navigated difficult times since we first came on air. And so I take a step forward to start season 4 once again with an astute humility.”

The Drew Barrymore Show will operate without writers, CBS Television announced, but the talk show is still drawing scrutiny from the writers strike: “The Drew Barrymore Show is a WGA-covered struck television show. It has stayed off the air since the strike began on May 2nd, but has now (unfortunately) decided to return without its writers,” WGA spokesperson Jason Gordon told Vanity Fair; Barrymore countered in her Instagram post that the strike started after the talk show’s season wrapped on April 20th “so we never had to shut down the show.”

(Earlier this summer, Barrymore was also accused of sidestepping the actors strike picket line by shooting a non-union commercial in Canada.)

Taping for the Drew Barrymore Show is set to begin Monday, September 11, with WGA protests already planned outside the show’s New York studios, Cracked reports.

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