The Talk, CBS' afternoon panel talk show, has been canceled. The decision was announced today by CBS and paves the path for The Talk's timeslot to be taken over by the first new soap opera in a quarter of a century.
"The Talk broke new ground when it launched 14 years ago by returning daytime talk to CBS with a refreshing and award-winning format," CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach said in a 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."
She continued, "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. We also want to acknowledge our former show hosts and colleagues who contributed throughout the seasons. We truly appreciate the skill, creativity, and dedication everyone involved brought to the show every day. And of course, we thank the numerous guests who appeared, and the millions of viewers who tuned in daily. For the final season, we plan to celebrate the show and give it the proper sendoff it deserves when it concludes in December 2024."
In 2009, CBS still had a four-soap lineup consisting of The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful, As the World Turns, and Guiding Light. In 2009, Guiding Light was canceled and replaced in the lineup by a reboot of the popular game show Let's Make a Deal. The following year, As the World Turns was axed, and its timeslot was handed over to The Talk, which premiered just two weeks later. Both ATWT and GL were produced by Procter & Gamble Productions and marked P&G's exit from a genre that it had pioneered.
Fifteen years later, The Talk will be gone, and CBS and P&G are developing what will be the first new soap to launch in 25 years. Titled The Gates, the new daytime drama is set to center around a wealthy Black family living in a gated community. It is being produced and written by veteran soap scribe Michele Val Jean. It is currently slated to be an hour-long soap.
In another soapy twist, on this day in 1999, NBC announced that Another World -- another P&G soap -- would be ending.
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