“SEAL Team” – Cliff Lipson/CBS ©2020 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.(LOS ANGELES) — NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, SEAL Team, Why Women Kill and Diary of a Future President are among the shows extending their holiday hiatus for a week amid Los Angeles County’s COVID-19 surge, according to Variety.
Those shows are set to resume production on January 11, while other CBS Studios shows are scheduled to resume later in in the month, insiders tell the industry trade.
So far, CBS is the only major studio known to be pausing or delaying production due to the pandemic. Other TV studios are in the process of determining the fate of their productions moving forward.
While TV studios have implemented increased safety measures, such as mask-wearing on set and segmenting casts and crews into “zones” to regulate contact, there are a number of productions that have reported clusters of positive COVID-19 cases to Los Angeles County health officials through November and December.
Several crew members of Apple TV’s Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet who tested positive for the virus disputed the producers’ initial assertion that there was no evidence of transmission at work. The Lionsgate TV production recorded nearly 20 positive cases, according to Variety.
Los Angeles County reported 13,661 new COVID-19 cases and 73 deaths on Monday. Statewide, California logged a record high of 66,811 cases that day. Los Angeles County now reports the most COVID-19 infections of any other U.S. county, with 746,666 cases as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University.
By George Costantino and Stephen Iervolino
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