Wendy Williams is the latest TV personality who plans to tape her show without a studio audience as an ongoing preventative measures against Coronavirus.
‘Wendy values her co-hosts and their daily participation, but in light of the current health climate, The Wendy Williams Show will not have a live studio audience until further notice,’ the show said in a statement Tuesday. ‘We will continue to produce a daily live talk show and look forward to welcoming the studio audience back when the time is right.’
Williams’ show, which is filmed in her native New York City, is the latest in a number of TV industry stalwarts to eliminate having a studio audience on hand as a safety measure against the international virus.
The latest: Wendy Williams, 55, is the latest TV personality who will indefinitely tape her show with no studio audience present amid the ongoing preventative measures against Coronavirus
Dr. Phil, which is filmed in Los Angeles at Paramount Studios, said it will forge forward without a studio audience on hand to tape 12 episodes over the next two weeks, with a target return date of March 23.
The second series of Rob Lowe’s game show Mental Samurai is making alternate plans after it was set up to air from Madrid, Spain, insiders told TMZ on Tuesday.
Travel and quarantines in the area brought about by the Coronavirus have forced the show to film from the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, but producers already bought a full set to use in Spain, the outlet reported.
The show’s new season is slated to air on Fox next month.
Plans: The show said issued a statement Tuesday detailing its upcoming schedule
Impacted: The second series of Rob Lowe’s game show Mental Samurai is making alternate plans after it was set up to air from Madrid, Spain
Elsewhere in TV, Disney+’s upcoming The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has halted production in Prague, Deadline reported Tuesday.
The show has been slated to shoot there this week, but the cast and crew were told to return to Atlanta, where the series has been shot extensively.
And from RuPaul’s Drag Race, the Los Angeles convention RuPaul’s DragCon, slated for May 1-3 was canceled Tuesday, according to organizers.
‘DragCon’s first priority is always the health and safety of everyone involved and we’ve been actively tracking the situation around the Coronavirus,’ DragCon said in a statement. ‘The situation in California (and the world) is rapidly changing, with new information coming out everyday. Unfortunately, there’s no way for anyone to know what the situation will be like in May.’
Another time: RuPaul’s Los Angeles convention RuPaul’s DragCon, slated for May 1-3 was canceled Tuesday, according to organizers
Change of plans: The gameshows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune will not have studio audiences present for the immediate future as a precautionary measure to the Coronavirus prevention. Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, 79, is fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which includes chemotherapy treatments
The game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune announced their decision to go without a studio audience Monday. The stalwart television shows, which are produced by Sony, are due to film in mid-April in Culver City, California, insiders told The Hollywood Reporter.
The decision came as Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, 79, is fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which includes chemotherapy treatments.
CBS last week halted production on its long-running show The Amazing Race in response to growing concerns about the ailment.
Demographics indicate that audience members for the shows have an average age of more than 60 years old, a group the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says stands at an additional hazard of contracting the virus.
The CDC says that the Coronavirus can exacerbate conditions in pre-existing conditions of older adults.
The World Health Organization said that most people can recover from the illness in two weeks if it’s mild, while those who are impacted by a more severe strain can take between three and six weeks to heal.
Adapting: White and Sajak will film the show without a studio audience present
Stalwart: Trebek was snapped in Hollywood in November
Stalwart: Trebek has been the host of the syndicated game show for more than 35 years
Trebek a year ago revealed his cancer diagnosis in a video clip, telling his fans, ‘Hi everyone, I have some news to share with all of you. And it’s in keeping with my longtime policy of being open and transparent with our Jeopardy fan base.’
Trebek said he ‘wanted to be the one to pass along this information’ in an effort to shield his fans ‘from reading or hearing some overblown or inaccurate reports’ in regards to his health.
Speaking to ABC News in December, he said he was grateful and fulfilled for all of the well-wishes he received in the wake of the announcement.
‘I have learned something in the past year and it’s this: We don’t know when we’re going to die,’ he said. ‘Because of the cancer diagnosis, it’s no longer an open-ended life, it’s a closed-ended life because of the terrible survival rates of pancreatic cancer.
‘Because of that, and something else that is operating here, people all over America and abroad have decided they want to let me know now, while I’m alive, about the impact that I’ve been having on their existence.’