Drew Barrymore Defends Return to Talk Show Amid Strikes

The Charlie’s Angels star defends her decision to bring her talk show back on-air despite the WGA strike.

Drew Barrymore has faced a lot of backlash over her recent decision to bring her talk show back on air amid the WGA strike.

The Drew Barrymore show was unique when it first started because, unlike many other daytime talk shows, the writer’s staff was largely union. Now, Barrymore has chosen to bring her show back, despite criticism from fans and her own WGA writers. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Barrymore released a public statement about the situation in a now-deleted Instagram video.

In the video, the actress-turned-talk show host explained her reasoning for resuming production for her show. Barrymore addressed writers and unions, and while she offered her apologies, she affirmed that she will proceed with the decision to bring her show back, noting that many others have been affected. She is quoted as saying, “We aren’t gonna break rules, and we will be in compliance. I wanted to do this because as I said, this is bigger than me, and there are other people’s jobs on the line.”

The Drew Barrymore Show is WGA-contracted and has been off the air since the strike started. The decision to bring it back is a clear crossing of the picket line, according to WGA spokesperson Jason Gordon. "[The Drew Barrymore Show] is a WGA-covered struck television show. It has stayed off the air since the strike began on May 2, but has now (unfortunately) decided to return without its writers," Gordon said. "The guild has, and will continue to, picket any struck show that continues production during the duration of the strike."

The Drew Barrymore Show began airing in 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The talk show had been in production limbo for some time, due to lukewarm interest from studios, but eventually, it was picked up and produced at CBS. “Since launching live in a pandemic,” Barrymore said, “I just wanted to make a show that was there for people in sensitive times, and I weighed the scales and I thought if we could go on during a global pandemic, and everything that the world experienced through 2020, why would this sideline us?”

Comparisons to Conan O'Brien

Many are comparing the outrage for Barrymore’s decision to the praise that Conan O'Brien received back in 2007 when his show went back on air during the last writers' strike. The major difference between the two is that Conan specifically went back on the air to show how crucial the writing staff is to the quality and success of a show. He would go out every night without a single scripted moment and just riff for the duration of the show, leaving plenty of dead air. It proved that the entertainment that audiences love comes from the hard work that writers do.

Barrymore, on the other hand, will have scripted content on her revamped show, which goes against the WGA’s guidelines, and has gotten her labeled as a “scab” – someone who takes over a union writer’s work responsibilities during a strike.