By Chiara Piacentini
Staff Writer
Drew Barrymore has found herself in hot water these past couple weeks after CBS announced on Sept. 6 that “The Drew Barrymore Show” would make a return on Sept. 18.
Barrymore was attacked from all sides by a wide range of critics, including the Writers Guild of America, “Will and Grace” actress Debra Messing, and “The Handmaid’s Tale” actor Bradley Whitford, to name a few.
She has since announced on Instagram that the show will not return until the strike ends.
“I have listened to everyone, and I am making the decision to pause the show’s premiere until the strike is over,” Barrymore said. “I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt and, of course, to our incredible team on the show and has made it what it is today. We really tried to find our way forward. And I truly hope for a resolution for the entire industry very soon.”
The WGA had sharply criticized Barrymore for agreeing to restart her show during the strike.
“Drew Barrymore should not be on air while her writers are on strike fighting for a fair deal,” WGA said in a statement to Deadline after Barrymore sent out an apology in light of this development.
“The Drew Barrymore Show” is being released under Paramount Global, one of the media corporations the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes are targeting.
Barrymore also made a controversial decision last May to step down as the host of the MTV and TV Awards due to the start of the WGA strike. As a result of both this choice and the recent backlash, Barrymore lost her spot as the host of November’s National Book Club Awards.
She initially responded to the blowback by defending her decision to return to the show in an Instagram post on Sept. 10.
“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,” she said. “However, 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.”
Five days later, Barrymore released an Instagram video in an attempt to apologize to her critics.
“I believe there is nothing I can do or say in this moment to make it okay,” she said. “I deeply apologize to writers, I deeply apologize to unions, I deeply apologize. I don’t exactly know what to say because sometimes, when things are so tough, it’s hard to make decisions from that place.”
Her apology was not taken well by her critics which explains the video’s disappearance from her account only five hours later.
“Drew Barrymore would like you to know that undermining union solidarity at the most crucial moment in Hollywood labor history makes her the victim,” Whitford sarcastically posted on X, tagging Barrymore’s apology video to his post.
The WGA also issued another biteback on the same platform in response to the apology: “The @DrewBarrymoreTV Show is a WGA covered, struck show that is planning to return without its writers. The Guild has, and will continue to, picket struck shows that are in production during the strike. Any writing on the ‘Drew Barrymore Show’ is in violation of the WGA strike rules.”
While the ongoing backlash against Barrymore is making waves in major media outlets, her show is not the only production under fire. “The View,” “The Jennifer Hudson Show” and “The Talk” were also slammed for preparing to come back on air without their WGA employees, according to Yahoo! News.
Regarding The Drew Barrymore Show criticism, a representative from CBS Media Ventures—CBS is the show’s producer—has come to Barrymore’s defense. The spokesperson says that her decision is not violating SAG-AFTRA strike rules. CBS also mentions that there is a separate contract with SAG-AFTRA that gives Barrymore, along with other talk show hosts, permission to continue hosting her show.
