‘The Drew Barrymore Show’ Hit With Pickets As Audience Members Thrown Out For Wearing WGA Badges Amid Writers Strike
11.09.2023 - 18:21
/ deadline.com
This is Day 133 of the WGA strike and Day 60 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Members of the striking Writers Guild gathered outside the CBS Broadcast Center in New York early Monday morning to protest the restart of The Drew Barrymore Show and to discourage the daytime talk host and her guests from crossing their picket line.
It didn’t work, entirely: In what played out like cat-and-mouse between picketers and the show, Barrymore slipped in undetected to tape a pair of episodes with in-studio audiences at 11 and 1 p.m., as did her guests. There had been suggestions that guests included Oprah Winfrey and Brooke Shields, but Deadline understands that is incorrect.
One audience member said the guests at the first taping were on-air regulars from CBS Mornings.
Two college students with tickets to the taping never got that far: They told Deadline they were kicked out when security officers spotted them wearing WGA strike buttons. “We even offered to take them off,” Cassidy Carter said as she stood outside CBS minutes after being evicted. Her friend, Dominic Turiczek, said a security officer told them, “We’ve already talked to somebody above us: You’re out.”
Carter said that she and Turiczek arrived having “no clue” that a strike is in progress and that the Guild is picketing Barrymore until they saw marchers and accepted lapel buttons to wear into the taping. Once inside, they signed filming waivers and were waiting to be seated when, according to Turiczek, they were “verbally assaulted” by security officers and led out.
Went to @DrewBarrymoreTV after winning tickets, unaware of the #WGA strike. We took pins & went in, got kicked out, & verbally assaulted by @DrewBarrymore’s crew. It’s clear they don’t support #WGAStrong, writers