Members of the Writers Guild of America and writers for The Drew Barrymore Show held a protest outside CBS Studios in New York on Monday, as the talk show resumed filming amid the ongoing writers and actors strikes.
The picketers gave two audience members who had obtained free tickets for the taping WGA pins as they entered. They were later asked to leave before the show started because they wore the pins.
The scheduled guests for the taping included Brooke Shields, who was set to talk about a documentary not covered under the WGA, and Jordan Fisher, who would speak about his time in the Broadway musical Sweeney Todd.
Two students, Dominic Turiczek and Cassidy Carter, had planned to attend the show after signing up for tickets, unaware of the strike. They were handed buttons from the picketers that read “Writers Guild on Strike” as they entered the building and were later asked to remove them.
Turiczek left his on, and both were asked to leave by a crew member upon entering the studio space. Turiczek and Carter then joined the picket lines outside, wearing WGA shirts. Turiczek expressed that if they were being seen as part of the strike, they might as well embrace it.
Originally a The Drew Barrymore Show fan, Carter felt disheartened by the experience, stating: “It really has changed my perspective on her and the show in general,” Carter said. “I’ve been completely alarmed and disheartened by this whole process.”
On Sunday, Barrymore announced that the show would resume filming without WGA writers but would comply with WGA and SAG-AFTRA rules.
The three co-head writers of the show were present at the picket line and expressed their surprise and disappointment at the show’s resumption. They felt that it undermined the value of union writers and contradicted the efforts of the WGA and other unions.
The writers had not heard anything about an interim agreement and were unsure of their job status once the strike was resolved. Despite their disappointment, they acknowledged the issue’s complexity and understood that everyone had to do what they felt was best for them. They emphasized their support for the union and the fight for a fair contract.
