‘The Talk’ Delays Season 14 Premiere After Backlash amid Ongoing Hollywood Strikes

Conversation he doesn’t come back on monday anymore.

The CBS daytime talk show, which has been on the air since 2010, has decided to postpone its originally scheduled 14th season premiere following backlash over the return amid ongoing strikes by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA, PEOPLE can confirm.

“Conversation is pausing the season premiere set for September 18,” CBS said in a statement to PEOPLE on Sunday. “We will continue to evaluate plans for a new launch date.”

According to Deadline, WGA members began protesting outside the Radford Studio Center in Studio City, California, where Conversation and other CBS productions are on tap, after it was announced Wednesday that the series would return amid the Hollywood strikes.

‘The Talk’ has decided not to go ahead with the planned premiere date of season 14.

Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty

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At the time, the outlet reported that the Daytime Emmy Award-winning series was largely unscripted, with only one writing position out of a total of 150 jobs on the show. In accordance with the WGA strike, the staff writer position will not be filled for the upcoming season and the hosts are expected to announce.

Conversation — hosted by Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Natalie Morales, Jerry O’Connell and Sheryl Underwood — went off the air in early May when the WGA officially went on strike.

Also on Sunday, Drew Barrymore announced that her self-titled talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, also produced by CBS, will not premiere again until the strikes are over. The news comes about a week after she originally said she would continue producing the series.

Barrymore, 48, released a statement on Instagram on Sunday following criticism she received for initially going ahead with the show’s return despite the strikes.

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Drew Barrymore has reversed her decision to bring back her talk show amid ongoing strikes in Hollywood.

Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

“I’ve heard everyone and I’m making the decision to pause the series premiere until the strike is over,” Barrymore wrote.

She continued: “I have no words to express my deepest apologies to everyone I’ve hurt and, of course, to our incredible team who work on the show and have made it what it is today. We really tried to find a way forward.”

“And I really hope for an industry-wide solution very soon,” she concluded.

In a statement, a spokesperson for CBS Media Ventures said, “We support Drew’s decision to pause the return of the series and understand how complex and difficult this process has been for her.”

Members of WGA-EAST and SAG-AFTRA gather outside the Drew Barrymore Show.

Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty

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Barrymore, who has hosted her own talk show since 2020, received negative feedback for returning the program during the strikes. The actress initially defended the decision in a September 10 statement on Instagram.

Later on Friday, she shared a now-deleted video on Instagram in which she apologized and stood by her stance on continuing the show. Within hours, the post was deleted from her account, along with the original post.

The WGA has been on strike since May 2 after the Guild and the Alliance of Film and Television Producers (AMPTP) failed to reach an agreement before the previous contract expired. Screenwriters are demanding higher pay, minimum staffing requirements, streaming residuals and artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, to name a few key issues. This is the first double strike since 1960.

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Source: HIS Education