When Will ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ Run Out of New Episodes With Writers’ Strike?
CBS’ hit soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful, continues on into 2023. The series serves as a sister show to The Young and the Restless, and fans have enjoyed it since its conception in 1987. Unfortunately, The Bold and the Beautiful isn’t immune to the Writers Guild of America strike that began in May 2023. How many new episodes will fans see before reruns hit the network?
When will ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ run out of new episodes with the Writers Guild of America strike?
The Writers Guild of America began striking on May 2, 2023, for better contracts and better pay. The guild has over 11,000 writers spanning two labor unions.
“With traditional TV models, jobs were lasting six months, nine months, a year,” writer Amanda Mercedes explained to Today. “I saw a writer the other day that said that her last job was four weeks, and that’s just not sustainable to be able to string together gigs in that way to make a living.”
Many beloved TV series went dark immediately following the strike, as they don’t have a backlog of new episodes at the ready. Late-night shows like Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert are officially replaying old episodes until the strike resolves.
As for daily soap operas, fans might also see the effects here. CBS currently airs new episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful Season 36, but the stockpile of new episodes could run dry after just three weeks. Depending on the season, the series can have between three to 10 weeks of new episodes at the ready. With only three weeks of new episodes, fans would see reruns as soon as the week of May 22, 2023.
The series had to pause production a few times due to coronavirus
With the writers’ strike affecting soap operas like The Bold and the Beautiful, viewers might think this is the first time the series has dealt with such a blow. But this isn’t the case. During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, production paused on the series. When the cast returned to work, the show paused once more to expand its coronavirus testing protocol in June 2020.
“We have paused very briefly to modify our testing protocol to better accommodate the large volume of testing needed,” producers Bell-Phillip Television said in a statement, according to TVLine. “Safety remains our top priority as we continue to move forward with the production of The Bold and the Beautiful. B&B filmed with cast and crew today, and it was a successful first day back at work.”
While The Bold and the Beautiful had to pause a few times, they were the first scripted TV series in the U.S. to resume production during the height of the pandemic. “The health and safety of our cast and crew are of foremost importance to us,” a B&B rep told TVLine. “We will be following all protocols set forth by the state, city, television city, and the various guilds.”
‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ is renewed through 2024
While the writers’ strike might temporarily affect The Bold and the Beautiful, it won’t affect the show’s renewal. So far, CBS renewed the series until 2024. At the time of the renewal, Margot Wain, the Senior Vice President of Daytime Programs at CBS Entertainment, also made a statement regarding the show’s 35th anniversary in 2022.
“For 35 years, The Bold and the Beautiful has been a cornerstone of our #1 Daytime lineup,” Wain said. “Congratulations to our talented cast and crew, as well as Bradley Bell, who have made this show a creative and ratings success, and thank you to B&B’s dedicated fans, whose passion for these characters and stories is unrivaled.”
This story was originally reported by Vulture.
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