Bill Maher will not be returning to his HBO series “Real Time” to late night this week. The comedian says he is holding off on resuming production on his weekly late night show ‘for now’.
In a tweet today, he says his change of mind about returning to work comes after the news late last week that the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are setting a new round of contract negotiations.
That meeting between the WGA and AMPTP is now expected to take place on Wednesday. He says:
“My decision to return to work was made when it seemed nothing was happening and there was no end in sight to this strike. Now that both sides have agreed to go back to the negotiating table I’m going to delay the return of Real Time, for now, and hope they can finally get this done.”
Maher revealed back on September 13th that he would bring his long-running HBO show back without writers, saying members of his staff are “struggling mightily” with the strike now going on for more than five months.
The plan was that “Real Time” would not feature an opening monologue, desk piece, ‘New Rules’ segment or any other prewritten material. The decision to return drew criticism from the WGA of which Maher is a member.
Maher’s reversal follows a similar reversal of several daytime talk shows like “The Drew Barrymore Show, “The Talk” and “The Jennifer Hudson Show” which all planned to return and have now opted not to after a wave of criticism.
Source: THR
