Which TV Shows Have Resumed Production During the Coronavirus Pandemic? - Vanity Fair

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The coronavirus pandemic brought television production to a screeching halt during the week of March 9. “It all ramped up so fast,” Rachel Shukert, creator of The Babysitter’s Club revival and a writer on GLOW, told Vanity Fair in April. The week started, she said, with crew members actively avoiding handshakes and hugs. “By Friday,” she continued, “we were told we’re shutting down.”

The fallout from that week—which also included the stoppage of the NBA season, as well as Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announcing they had contracted the coronavirus—has extended for months as the virus has spread, infecting more than five million Americans. But even amid this turmoil, by this point in the pandemic, a few American television productions have managed to resume—albeit with numerous health and safety protocols in place.

Ahead, a look at all the television shows that have resumed shooting during the coronavirus pandemic so far.

Tyler Perry Studios

Tyler Perry has been at the frontlines of Hollywood’s production restart, creating a coronavirus-free bubble at his eponymous studio in Atlanta by quarantining cast and crew together before they stepped foot on set. “After losing a crew member to COVID that was on another production at the very beginning of this thing [hairstylist Charles Gregory Ross], clearly I understand the nervousness, I understand the trepidation, and they should enter with extreme caution,” Perry told Deadline last month. “But I tell you, if you can’t test everyone every day, I don’t know how you do this unless it’s a quarantine bubble. I don’t know another way, because COVID could be among you and spreading and you not know it.”

Thus far, Perry has completed the second season of his BET series Sistas and will begin shooting season two of BET’s The Oval shortly. In September, he’ll continue to produce inside the bubble, with planned shoots for the BET+ series Bruh and Ruthless set to occur in succession.

S.W.A.T.

The first primetime drama on broadcast television to return to set, S.W.A.T. resumed production in early August. “We start day 1 production on season 4 of [S.W.A.T.] today. An experience sure to be full of triumphs and lessons minute by minute,” executive producer Aaron Rahsaan Thomas wrote on Twitter. “To the best cast and crew on TV, be safe, be responsible and #rollSWAT.”

Soap Operas

Not even a global pandemic could keep the soap opera industrial complex down for very long. The Bold and the Beautiful has been producing new episodes since June, while The Young and the Restless and General Hospital started shooting again in July. Assuming things go to plan, the cast and crew of Days of Our Lives will join that trio on set in September.

The Bachelorette

For once, this really might be the most dramatic season of The Bachelorette ever. As with the Tyler Perry shows, the cast and crew of the hit ABC reality dating show have been quarantined together to create a bubble atmosphere. The rub, as fans already know, is that show lead Clare Crawley may have already quit the season after falling in love, allegedly leading producers to pull former Bachelor contestant Tayshia Adams into the bubble as a replacement. ABC has not confirmed any of this—but expect the network to push this potential storyline for all it’s worth when the show returns this fall.

Love Island

The new season of the reality show import launches on August 24 from a hotel in Las Vegas, with cast and crew sequestered into bubbles to help keep the coronavirus at bay.

Big Brother

Of all the reality shows to relaunch, it is CBS’s long-running Big Brother that may be best equipped for a quarantined shoot. After all, the cast is already locked into a house for the duration of the show. The new season of Big Brother, which returned with an all-star cast of former contestants, started on August 5.

Hollywood North

Plans are currently in motion for some shows shot in Vancouver to resume production. But the restart has not gone off without a hitch. The Good Doctor was supposed to become the first U.S. production to resume production in Vancouver, but late last month plans were scuttled amid a disagreement about testing. Local officials actually want less testing, according to Deadline, because of the low case count in Canada overall; U.S. studios, however, in accordance with established health and safety protocols, want frequent tests. Assuming this gets worked out, the expectation is that shows like The Good Doctor, the final episodes of Supernatural, The Flash, and Riverdale could restart before the end of August.

Fargo

The fourth season of Noah Hawley’s acclaimed anthology series could have factored heavily into this year’s Emmy Awards, had it premiered in April as originally planned. But because the season wasn’t completed before that infamous week in early March, production was halted, and its debut was delayed. Now Fargo is expected to resume production at the end of August, and is targeting a September 27 premiere date. Chris Rock and Jason Schwartzman costar.

Late Night

The pandemic didn’t slow down late-night production, with cable and network hosts adjusting to an at-home production cadence. But it should be noted that many of those hosts, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien, and James Corden, have returned to the studio in some form or another over the last month, albeit without live audiences or in-person guests.