REPORT: Bill Maher Returning His ‘Real Time’ Show to Air in Defiance of Ongoing Writer Strike

The Hollywood writer strike has been going on for months and Bill Maher has apparently run out of patience.

The talk host has announced that his ‘Real Time’ show will return to the air without a writing staff, a move that is already causing angry outbursts from the left on social media.

In his announcement of the news, Maher said that one of the reasons he is doing this is to support his staff, many of whom are struggling financially.

Deadline reports:

HBO’s ‘Real Time With Bill Maher’ To Return To Air Without Writers

Bill Maher is going back to work without his writers.

The comedian said on social media Wednesday that Real Time with Bill Maher will return to HBO. The show will be back with an original episode on Friday September 22 at 10pm.

Maher becomes the first late-night host to return to air, although if the Strike Force Five podcast hosted by Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver is any indication, they will not be joining him anytime soon.

It’s a controversial move given that his show is written by a team of late-night writers, who are currently in the fourth month of their strike. Other talk show hosts such as Drew Barrymore have faced ire from writers, while The Talk was picketed today at CBS Radford as they were doing a run-through.

Maher posted the following message on Twitter/X:

Real Time is coming back, unfortunately, sans writers or writing. 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. Despite some assistance from me, much of the staff is struggling mightily. 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 will honor the spirit of the strike by not doing a monologue, desk piece, New Rules or editorial, the written pieces that I am so proud of on Real Time. And 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. But the heart of the show is an off-the-cuff panel discussion that aims to cut through the bullshit and predictable partisanship, and that will continue. The show will not disappoint.

Real Time is coming back, unfortunately, sans writers or writing. 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…

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) September 14, 2023

This is going to be perceived as a huge blow to the strikers. It is going to look like the world is moving on without them.