Why Michael J. Fox’s Next TV Appearance Was Just Canceled

Michael J. Fox’s upcoming TV appearance has beenscrapped. The Back to the Future actor had been slated to appear on Thursday’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but the episode has been canceled amid the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike.

The WGA is currently fighting for “increased residuals for streaming programs, more transparency about streaming audiences, minimum staffing levels for writers rooms and regulations on the use of artificial intelligence in writing,” per The Hollywood Reporter. After the WGA’s negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, representing studios and streamers, failed and its contract expired at 11:59 p.m. Monday, May 1, the WGA officially began a strike at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, May 2. As TV writers put down the pen and went to the picket line, the TV landscape immediately shifted, with late-night talk shows being the first to be impacted.

It was confirmed early Tuesday that The Late Show would immediately halt production. The nightly programming, which did air a new episode Monday, was set to welcome Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Chita Rivera on Tuesday’s show, but the episode was scrapped and instead replaced with a rerun. Chris Hayes and Zach Cherry were scheduled for Wednesday’s show, with Fox set to appear Thursday along with Shonda Rhimes. With production halted, these episodes have also been canceled, with Deadline confirming that the show will instead pivot to reruns. It is unclear if the previously scheduled guests for this week will be rescheduled once production resumes. If the strike goes long enough, Last Night On suggested that late-night hosts could return to the stage without their staff, something that has happened in the past. However, at this time, networks have made no indication that this will happen.

Fox’s Thursday scheduled appearance was set to come just days after he opened up about his battle with Parkinson’s disease during an April 30 appearance on CBS This Morning, admitting, per PEOPLE, that each day is “getting harder.” Fox, who was diagnosed with the disease in 1991, told Jane Pauley, “I’m not gonna lie. It’s getting harder. Every day it’s tougher… It’s falling, and aspirating food and pneumonia – all these subtle ways that [it] gets you. You don’t die from Parkinson’s. You die with Parkinson’s. I’m not gonna be 80.”

Fox added that he is focused on gratitude, explaining, “I recognize how hard this is for people, and I recognize how hard it is for me, but I have a certain set of skills that allow me to deal with this stuff. And I realize, with gratitude, optimism is sustainable.”