Production “All Normal” At CBS Studio Center Despite Protests Blocking Traffic; LAPD On The Scene

Dominic Patten
·2 min read

It’s not quite business as usual in these unusual times, but everything is pretty much on schedule at CBS Studio Center in Studio City on Monday despite an ongoing protest over the armed clash between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Angered by a KCAL-TV report on a pro-Armenian “March for Peace” rally held Sunday in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, about 100 protestors blocked traffic at ViacomCBS’ San Fernando Valley facility this morning. The disruption caused production on the lot to be “slowed” this morning, according to a source, with crew, talent and others forced to find parking in the surrounding residential area.

The Talk, ET, sitcom The Neighborhood, SEAL Team and Big Brother all are currently filming at the sprawling CBS Studio Center. The administrative offices and a number of other units on the lot have been pretty much cobwebbed since early spring due to the coronavirus pandemic.

While unable to get to the blocked parking structure and Gate A at Colfax Avenue, everyone working today at CBS Studio Center was able to walk on to the lot, I hear. Another gate was open for vehicles to enter the lot later this morning too.

“Everyone is operating now,” a network insider noted. “It’s was hassle, but everything’s all normal,” another source added of the production schedules.

Part of that “all normal” status is in no small part because of the LAPD. After encountering almost zero problems from the estimated 100,000 marchers at Sunday’s rally, according to law enforcement, police were quick to make sure everything went equally smoothly in Studio City today. “We have several units on the scene,” Officer Pedany told Deadline today in what appears to have been an entirely peaceful protest.

The protest stemmed from a segment on Sunday march by the CBS LA affiliate that featured the Azerbaijan LA Consul General demanding its neighboring former Soviet republic withdraw and let “800,000 Azerbaijan civilians return to their homes.” After hundreds of deaths in recent weeks in the conflict over the Armenian-dominated but Azerbaijan-set Nagorno-Karabakh region, a ceasefire went into effect October 11. That detente of sorts collapsed within hours this weekend and fresh shelling resumed in the breakaway territory that has been in dispute since soon after the disintegration of the USSR.

Los Angeles County has the largest Armenian diaspora in America, especially in the neighborhoods of Los Feliz and Glendale.

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