Bill Maher is the latest TV host to likely get his very own picket line. Real Time With Bill Maher is set to return to HBO “sans writers or writing” as the WGA strike carries on, the host recently announced in a statement.
“Real Time is coming back, unfortunately, sans writers or writing,” Maher shared Thursday (Sept. 13). “It has been five months, and it is time to bring people back to work. The writers have important issues that I sympathize with, and hope they are addressed to their satisfaction, but they are not the only people with issues, problems, and concerns.”
Maher’s statement continued, “We all were hopeful this would come to an end after Labor Day, but that day has come and gone, and there still seems to be nothing happening. I love my writers, I am one of them, but I’m not prepared to lose an entire year and see so many below-the-line people suffer so much.
“I’ll say it upfront to the audience: the show I will be doing without my writers will not be as good as our normal show, full stop,” he added, before concluding his statement with: “The show will not disappoint.”
Real Time will return with its first episode on Friday, Sept. 22. Since most of the show’s segments are written, the new episodes will only be a panel discussion between Maher and his guests.
Predictably, the WGA blasted Maher’s decision as “disappointing” and vowed to picket the show when it returns.
“Bill Maher’s decision to go back on the air while his Guild is on strike is disappointing. If he goes forward with his plan, he needs to honor more than ‘the spirit of the strike’. Bill Maher is obligated as a WGA member to follow the strike rules and not perform any writing services. It is difficult to imagine how Real Time with Bill Maher can go forward without a violation of WGA strike rules taking place. WGA will be picketing this show,” the guild said in a statement, per Deadline.
As noted by Deadline, Maher is the first late-night host to return since the writers strike began in early May. Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver and Stephen Colbert are still holding off and have instead joined forces on a new podcast to raise money for their crews.
Maher’s decision to return earned the ire of writers on X, formerly known as Twitter, who took to the replies of his post to call him a scab. But his return to late night is hardly a surprise after his recent comment about the writers strike, in which he called the writers’ demands “kooky.”
“What I find objectionable about the philosophy of the strike [is] it seems to be, they have really morphed a long way from 2007’s strike, where they kind of believe that you’re owed a living as a writer, and you’re not,” he said on a recent episode of Jim Gaffigan‘s Club Random podcast. “This is show business. This is the make-or-miss league.”
The news of Maher’s return to production comes after WGA picketed The Drew Barrymore Show when it resumed filming earlier this week. Other daytime talk shows are set to return later this month, including Sherri and The Talk, which has already been picketed this week.
Real Time With Bill Maher returns to HBO on Sept. 22 at 10 p.m. ET.