‘The Talk’ Shuts Down Production Due to Coronavirus Concerns

The ongoing crisis surrounding the coronavirus has led to many televisions shows to postpone production on their current seasons. Now, the daytime CBS series The Talk has also announced that they will suspend their production until further notice. The show made the announcement on Friday night via their official Twitter account, telling fans that they would be suspending production “for now” due to “current events.”

In their announcement, The Talk detailed that these changes will go into effect on Monday. While the show will not be airing any new episodes in the near future, they did relate that they will air some of their “favorite episodes” so that fans can still get their fix of the talk show. The Talk‘s Twitter account did not reveal when exactly they would be back to airing new, live episodes, but they did express that they have hopes to be back live soon.

The Talk is one of many shows that has officially shut down production because of ongoing concerns around the coronavirus, which was recently classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. As of right now, more than 70 shows have officially shut down production due to the crisis, according to TVLine.

In addition to The Talk, many other CBS shows like NCIS, Bull and FBI have also halted production on their current seasons. Additionally, like The Talk, late-night talk show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has also halted production and has not yet detailed when they will be back to airing new episodes. Instead, host Stephen Colbert issued a statement on Twitter in which he expressed that he “hopes to be back soon.”

Some shows, such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and various other late-night programs and talk shows, previously detailed that they would forge ahead with their productions, but that they would not have live studio audiences. But, because of the seriousness of this health crisis, they have decided to shut down production completely.

“Over the past few days, we began making decisions to temporarily postpone production on some of our pilots and current series,” CBS, Paramount Television Studios, and Showtime said in a joint statement about the numerous production shutdowns, per TVLine. “At this time, we are evaluating situations on a case-by-case basis, informed by the best information from health experts and government officials. Some productions may continue as long as they do not involve live audiences and/or environments that are considered at risk. The safety and welfare of our production team is our top priority.”