UPDATED 3/12, 8:12 p.m. ET: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers will be suspending production and will not be back until the end of March, according to The New York Times. The shows are not expected to resume production until March 30th, at the very least.
UPDATED 3/11, 5:33 p.m. ET: The Late Show, The Tonight Show, Full Frontal, Late Night, Last Week Tonight, and The Daily Show have now also decided to film their shows, which are filmed in New York, without an audience due to concerns regarding the coronavirus, Vulture reports.
UPDATED 3/10, 8:49 p.m. ET: More television shows are making the decision to forgo filming with audiences. The Wendy Williams Showannounced on Tuesday that they will tape the show without an audience, Deadline reports.
"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 via a statement, per Deadline. "We will continue to produce a daily live talk show and look forward to welcoming the studio audience back when the time is right."
Dr. Philis also moving forward with recording without audiences over coronavirus concerns. "The health of our audience members, staff and crew are the priority," Carla Pennington, an EP on Dr. Phil, said according to Deadline.
See original story below.
Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune will be filmed without a live studio audience due to the coronavirus, TMZ reports.
One of the reasons for the decision was reportedly over concern for Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. The longtime host of the game show was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer last year and as a result has a compromised immune system that could be more susceptible to contracting the virus.
A one-year update from Alex: pic.twitter.com/W9101suZeZ
TMZ also points out that Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune audience members usually consist of older people, a group that's more vulnerable to the virus. There was also the issue of audience members traveling to join tapings. Sources told TMZ that they aren't currently certain on how long they will not have a live studio audience for tapings of the show, as it all depends on the status of the respiratory disease.
In other news, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is reportedly in the process of getting pushed back to October due to the coronavirus. The annual music festival was scheduled to go down April 10-12 and April 17-19. Just last week, organizers announced that they were cancelingSXSW.
An Update on SXSW 2020. Please read our full statement here: https://t.co/P56nF8KFmE pic.twitter.com/ouJPKM9GNy
According to the CDC, there are 423 total cases of the virus in the United States as of Monday, March 9 and 19 deaths. 35 states, which includes the District of Columbia, are reporting cases.
