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The pickup comes a few months after controversy over the host’s actions during the writers strike.
By Rick Porter
Television Writer
Drew Barrymore’s daytime talk show is sticking around for another year.
CBS-owned stations, which serve as the flagship station group for the syndicated show, have picked up a fifth season of The Drew Barrymore Show. The renewal for the 2024-25 season comes three months into the show’s fourth run — and four months after Barrymore drew the ire of Hollywood writers in announcing plans to restart her show during the Writers Guild of America Strike.
In September, Barrymore announced that her talk show would begin production on season four without writers, saying at the time, “I want to be there to provide what writers do so well, which is a way to bring us together or help us make sense of the human experience. I hope for a resolve for everyone as soon as possible.”
After outcry from writers and pickets outside the show’s New York studio, the show reversed course and held off on starting production until after the writers strike ended (which turned out to be less than two weeks later). Drew’s fourth season premiered Oct. 16, albeit without the three WGA writers who had worked on the previous season; they declined to return to the show.
Since the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike in November, Drew has attracted A-list guests including Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Oprah Winfrey and Natalie Portman. The show, which local stations have the option of splitting into two half-hour blocks, averaged 1.1 million daily viewers through December, a 4 percent improvement over the same time in 2022.
“The Drew Barrymore Show is firing on all cylinders this season,” said Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures. “Drew continues to catapult the show into the cultural zeitgeist with her empathetic and thoughtful interviews transporting viewers into her living room, where they feel like they are listening to a conversation between two friends that they are a part of. It’s an experience unlike any other in television. Drew is truly creating magic in daytime, and we’re thrilled to continue to bring that to our stations.”
CBS Media Ventures produces and distributes The Drew Barrymore Show. Barrymore and Jason Kurtz are the executive producers.
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