‘The Talk’ Ending at CBS After 15 Seasons, Final Show Set
The Talk been canceled – officially, definitively, absolutely.
Though shows like The Talk have faced interruptions in recent years, the CBS daytime show has been airing in full swing for 15 years.
And now, their days are numbered.
‘The Talk’ Canceled at CBS: Last Premiere Kicks Off With A Song
In a bittersweet moment, The Talk co-hosts kicked off its farewell season on Monday, Sept. 9.
Their “celebratory sendoff,” which will only see them on the air until December 2024, beginning with the co-hosts singing in a musical montage set to the tune of Bill Withers 1977 chart-topping hit “Lovely Day.”.
“It goes without saying that hosting and producing a year-round talk show is no easy task, and we express our sincere gratitude to our amazing hosts Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Natalie Morales, Jerry O’Connell and Sheryl Underwood, our executive producer/showrunner Rob Crabbe and the hardworking producing team and crew,” said the statement from the network.
“The Talk broke new ground when it launched 14 years ago by returning daytime talk to CBS with a refreshing and award-winning format,” continued the statement. “Throughout the years, it has been a key program on CBS’ top rated daytime line-up as it brought timely, important and entertaining topics and discussions into living rooms around the globe.”
The writing was on the wall for awhile, sadly, with fans voicing concern The Talk would be cancelled as early as last spring.
‘The Talk’ Wasn’t Airing Like It Usually Did
For awhile in March 2024, the network actually yanked The Talk off of the air.
CBS claimed that it’s a temporary measure at the time, but fans — already concerned about the show’s prospects — weren’t so sure.
On Monday, March 18, through Wednesday, March 20, The Talk aired like always. Then, something changed.
CBS pulled the show from its daytime lineup on Thursday, March 21. Confused viewers quickly realized that it would not air on Friday, March 22, either.
Fans feared that the network was doing a little spring cleaning. Had CBS canceled The Talk already?
Fans had already been expressing concern about the talk show’s future. After all, CBS has a new soap opera, The Gates, which will need room to grow.
(Notably, we should not confuse this soap with ABC’s criminally underrated 2010 supernatural crime drama, The Gates)
However, CBS put forward the official story, via a press release: “The Talk is preempted due to CBS Sports coverage of March Madness.”
CBS replaced ‘The Talk’ with WHAT?
March Madness is a sports term, referring to a series of basketball games that are, one assumes, very exciting to basketball fans.
(Yes, the Super Bowl was literally just one month earlier, but that was football. Year after year, there seems to be no end to sports events.)
Apparently, these sporting events are so important that networks are willing to place other shows on hiatus simply for viewers to watch an orange ball pass through a net.
Or not pass through the net, as the case may be.
CBS set aside noon until 5 PM (ET) on Thursday, March 21, and Friday, March 22 as all-basketball, all the time, airing the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
It’s worth noting, for those who worry for The Talk’s future, that soap operas were also placed on a temporary hiatus.
Officially, these returned on Monday, March 25. Even though “March” Madness continued until April 8, its daytime programming was limited to March 21-22.
‘The Talk’ has undergone some changes
In 2010, The Talk premiered with a different lineup. Hosts included Julie Chen Moonves, Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Leah Remini, and Holly Robinson Peete.
In 2024, the Season 14 lineup includes Sheryl Underwood, Jerry O’Connell, Natalie Morales, Akbar Gbajabiamila, and Amanda Kloots.
Departures can happen for many reasons. Most memorable of all may have been Sharon Osbourne’s firing following horror stories of racism and homophobia towards her co-hosts and others.
Even with host scandals behind them (Sharon was not alone), fans have a number of concerns.
Between The Talk‘s relatively low ratings – despite its usefulness for promoting other CBS programs to viewers – and the full dance card of soap operas, viewers were concerned that CBS wouldn’t renew the series for another season.
Now we know – it’s the end of an era!