Coronavirus continues to have a major impact on just about every industry, and TV show production is one of them. Disney is the latest to announce production delays for many of its scripted series.
As Deadline reports, CBS Studios, Warner Bros. TV, and Universal TV have already added around a week to the "holiday hiatus" for production to resume on their shows. Disney's decision sees 16 of its TV shows, produced by ABC Signature and 20th Television, having their production delayed until Jan. 18 at the earliest.
The affected shows are:
- 911
- 911: Lone Star
- American Crime Story: Impeachment
- American Horror Story
- American Housewife
- Big Shot
- Black-ish
- Grey’s Anatomy
- Last Man Standing
- Love, Victor
- Mayans
- Mixed-ish
- Rebel
- Station 19
- The Orville
- This Is Us
The reason for the delay is due to an appeal by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health for a pause in both movie and TV production. There's been a surge in coronavirus cases across the county and the delay is expected to not only help bring the infection rate down, but also allows for 10 days of self-quarantine for anyone traveling back to set for production purposes following the holidays.
An extra week of delay may not seem like a big deal, but it depends on the calendar for the rest of the year and where both production teams and talent are expected to be as the months progress. Following 2020, it seems likely any plans for new productions this year were tentative anyway, though. Any delay in new episodes could certainly encourage a few consumers to try out one or more other, non-Disney streaming services in search of fresh content.