The Daily Show Suspends Production Because of Coronavirus

The Daily Show has suspended production because of coronavirus. Comedy Central‘s parody news program joins a host of other shows to shut it down as the spread of the virus becomes more of a concern according to The Hollywood Reporter. David Spade’s show, Lights Out, will also be stopping production. This comes after a week that saw the United States kick their response to the growing issue into overdrive. Movie release dates have been moved, theme parks have been closed, and now late-night television is feeling the crunch as well.

Programs like The Tonight Show and The Late Show had already banned audiences. But, that move barely lasted a day before decision-makers opted to shut down production entirely. CNN reported that CBS, NBC, ABC and others had all elected to display an abundance of caution. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Late Night with Seth Myers also decided to call things off for a while as well. A lot of these shows are filmed in the New York area where governor Andrew Cuomo has called for tighter restrictions on gatherings of people.

NBC initially put out a statement on the decision. They said, “The safety of our guests and employees is our top priority.” Their company will be taking “precautionary measures” with The Tonight Show, Late Night and cease live audiences starting next week. Saturday Night Live is already in a scheduled hiatus for a couple of weeks.

Stephen Colbert’s show sits atop the late night throne as the highest-rated show. The statement from their show explains that there haven’t been any “specific developments at The Ed Sullivan Theater to cause concern for audiences with plans to attend the show tonight, tomorrow, or who have attended in recent weeks.”

Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee also delivered a statement, “Despite the efforts being taken, we still have heard from Sean Spicer that tonight’s taping ‘was the largest audience ever to witness an [taping of Full Frontal], period, both in-person and around the globe.’ Wow!”

Former Disney CEO Bob Iger weighed in on the concerns in recent weeks with CNBC. “All of the movie companies that are expecting to distribute movies coming up in China, obviously are impacted by this,” he began. “Again, it is hard to tell. We have a release coming out in March, Mulan, which obviously would have been of great interest to China. It will eventually get into China, at this point, we’re not sure when. Obviously, the big issue on everybody’s mind and everyone’s concern is what’s going on with this virus. And how far will it go in terms of its impact on people.”

What will you be tuning into during the late-night programming block now? Let us know in the comments!