Sherri Shepherd Pauses Talk Show After Positive COVID Test
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The rocky daytime TV landscape has hit another bump.
Sherri Shepherd tested positive for COVID, causing a temporary halt to taping of her daytime talk show. The show announced Shepherd’s positive test in an Instagram post Wednesday.
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“I am absolutely heartbroken that I cannot return to host my show this week,” Shepherd said in a statement. “As soon as I get the all-clear from my doctor, I look forward to coming back strong to deliver the fun, laughter and a real good time.”
Sherri’s producers added, “The show will return with original episodes as soon as possible. For the remainder of this week, encore episodes from the beginning of the premiere week will air. The health of our host and entire staff is of the utmost importance.”
COVID cases in New York, where Sherri tapes, and elsewhere have been on the rise in recent weeks, due largely to a new variant of the virus (updated booster vaccines became available this week).
Shepherd’s show, produced and distributed by Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury, began its second season Monday amid a chaotic daytime landscape in which three other shows — The Drew Barrymore Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show and The Talk — delayed their premieres amid the ongoing writers and actors strikes. Those three shows employ Writers Guild of America writers, while Sherri does not.
“The Sherri show is not a WGA show, and we have never employed WGA writers, so us coming back to work isn’t crossing the picket line,” she told her audience on Monday. Talk shows are also covered under a different SAG-AFTRA contract than the one the actors union is striking now.
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