The Drew Barrymore Show's Writers Decline To Return After Strike Backlash

The Drew Barrymore Show will be back on the air soon... but its old writers won't be coming back with it.

The daytime talk show's three writers — Chelsea White, Cristina Kinon and Liz Koe — have declined an offer to return for the upcoming season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show is now interviewing writers for the new season, which debuts Monday, Oct. 16.

The writers' room exodus follows a firestorm of controversy when host Drew Barrymore announced last month that her show would be returning for its fourth season despite the ongoing Hollywood writers' strike. (The writers' strike ended last week after the Writers Guild of America reached a tentative deal with studio group the AMPTP.) Barrymore initially defended the decision to return without her writers before eventually backtracking and postponing the premiere.

White, Kinon and Koe — who shared the title of co-head writer on Drew and have all been with the show since its first season — were vocal about their opposition to Barrymore's decision to return without them, even picketing outside the show's Manhattan studio in person for multiple days. "It is a bummer to hear that the show is going back because it sends a message that union writers are not valuable," White told THR at the time.

The WGA also made it clear that Drew's proposed return during the strike was "is in violation of WGA strike rules," adding: "The Guild has, and will continue to, picket struck shows that are in production during the strike."