Covid US: CBS Studios suspend NCIS and Seal Team filming

CBS Studios will suspend filming of five of its shows, including two from its NCIS franchise, due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the Los Angeles area as other production firms are expected to follow suit after a request from health officials.

The company’s five LA-based shows that were scheduled to start filming in the LA region – NCIS; NCIS: Los Angeles; SEAL TEAM; Why Women Kill, which airs on CBS All Access; and Diary of a Future President, which is available on Disney+ – will return on January 11, a week later than expected.

The decision makes CBS Studios the first major Hollywood studio to pause production due to the sharp spike in COVID-19 cases in Southern California, according to USA Today.

DailyMail.com has reached out to other major studios to inquire as to whether they are putting their production on hiatus in light of the public health crisis gripping Los Angeles County.

Wilmer Valderrama (left) and Mark Harmon (right) star in the hit series NCIS. The show is among five that have suspended filming due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles

The primary actors union SAG-AFTRA sent out an important message to their members on Tuesday, revealing film and TV productions likely won’t start until mid-January.

The message, posted on the SAG-AFTRA website, comes from the top of union leadership, SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris and National Executive Director David White.

‘We are writing to let you know that we are closely monitoring the recent surge in COVID-19 infections along with the reported lack of intensive care unit (ICU) beds throughout the state of California and particularly in Los Angeles County,’ the statement began.

‘This is deeply concerning to us all and we have taken immediate action to connect with our epidemiologists and public health experts regarding the surge in cities across the nation,’ Carteris and White added.

CBS Studios plans to resume production of the shows, including SEAL TEAM (above), on January 11, a week later than originally scheduled

Why Women Kill, which airs on CBS All Access, will also go on hiatus due to the spread of COVID-19 in the Los Angeles area. The above August 2019 image shows Why Women Kill stars Kirby Howell-Baptiste (far left), Ginnifer Goodwin (center), and Lucy Liu (right) in Beverly Hills

‘Most entertainment productions will remain on hiatus until the second or third week of January if not later. This means that the number of our member performers working on sets right now is reduced,’ they added.

The safety protocols that are currently in place include, ‘additional time for testing prior to the resumption of production.’

The union leaders added they are in ‘close contact with our sister unions and guilds,’ along with ‘expert epidemiologists, industrial sanitation specialists, public health officials, member leaders and staff,’ so they can provide, ‘the safest possible work environment and protocols for SAG-AFTRA members.’

‘We will continue to monitor this situation and its impact on production and employment in all contract areas and will take appropriate measures as needed to ensure the continued safety of our members and others,’ the statement continued.

They urged all of their members to, ‘remain vigilant and adhere to the safety principles to protect yourselves, your families, communities and colleagues.’

These protocols include, ‘Always, wear your masks, maintain safe physical distancing, wash hands frequently and well, and follow the public health recommendations for preventing the spread of infectious disease.

The union leaders also asked actors to ‘review the SAG-AFTRA Safety Tips’ to stay safe, while thanking them for, ‘taking action to protect yourself and others during this pandemic.’

Diary of a Future President, the CBS Studios offering that airs on Disney+, is one of the shows affected by the hiatus. From left to right: Show stars Ilana Pena; Selenia Leyva; Gina Rodriguez; Tess Romero; Michael Weaver; and Charlie Bushnell in Hollywood in January 2020

FilmLA, the agency which handles all of the film production permits in the city and county of Los Angeles, said last week that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health asked studios to ‘strongly consider pausing work for a few weeks during this catastrophic surge in COVID cases.’

‘Identify and delay higher risk activities, and focus on lower-risk work for now, if at all possible,’ the email read.

A spokesperson for FilmLA told DailyMail.com that ‘production has slowed down considerably in the past two weeks’ though there is no data on which shows have been affected. 

While film and TV production resumed over the summer, with high-profile projects like Mission: Impossible 7, and in greater numbers in the fall, there has been a recent spate of COVID-19 outbreaks on TV sets.

The final season of Showtime’s Shameless was shut down, with the production reportedly in ‘full panic mode’ after 18 false-positive tests were discovered after a lab error last week.

Just a day later, filming on Impeachment: American Crime Story was halted after multiple team members tested positive for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, there is no sign of a slowdown in the case surge.

A mutant variant of the coronavirus that appears to be more contagious has been found in Southern California, where the state’s most populous county recorded more than 10,000 deaths and authorities warned they will be patrolling streets to shut down large New Year’s Eve gatherings that could spread the infection.

The primary actors union SAG-AFTRA sent out an important message to their members on Tuesday, revealing film and TV productions likely won’t start until mid-January

The message, posted on the SAG-AFTRA website, comes from the top of union leadership, SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris and National Executive Director David White

Statement: ‘We are writing to let you know that we are closely monitoring the recent surge in COVID-19 infections along with the reported lack of intensive care unit (ICU) beds throughout the state of California and particularly in Los Angeles County,’ the statement began

Los Angeles County reached a ‘terrible milestone’ with 274 additional deaths in 24 hours for a record toll of 10,056 deaths, Los Angeles County Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer announced on Wednesday.

The COVID-19 daily death toll over 14 days has averaged about 150 people, or ‘about equal to the number of deaths from all other causes, which is about 170,’ said Ferrer.

‘Most heartbreaking is that if we had done a better job reducing transmission of the virus, many of these deaths would not have happened.’

The county, which has had about 40 per cent of the state’s virus deaths, is one of nearly two dozen in Southern California and the agricultural San Joaquin Valley area where hospital intensive care units have technically run out of room, although ICU patients are being placed in other hospital areas under ‘surge’ procedures.

Meanwhile, California became the second state after Colorado to report finding a new strain of the virus that was first confirmed in the United Kingdom.

The patient, who developed symptoms on December 27, is a 30-year-old San Diego County man who didn’t have any history of travel, which could indicate that someone else already had brought the new strain into the state, officials said.

It is common for viruses to undergo minor changes as they reproduce and move through a population.

Scientists have found no evidence that the variant is more lethal or causes more severe illness, and they believe the vaccines now being dispensed will be effective against it.

But the fear is that mutations at some point will become significant enough to defeat the vaccines.

Los Angeles County reached a ‘terrible milestone’ with 274 additional deaths in 24 hours for a record toll of 10,056 deaths, Los Angeles County Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer announced on Wednesday

Also, a faster-spreading virus could swamp hospitals with seriously ill patients.

In LA County, more than 1 in 4 COVID-19 patients sent to hospitals are winding up in ICUs, according to county figures. 

The struggle to find places for the most seriously ill means ‘it’s not just the virus that’s proving fatal, but also the nightmare scenario of Angelenos dying because they cannot get the appropriate care from overwhelmed ICUs,’ Ferrer said.

The cases triggered a host of questions about how the version circulating in England arrived in the US and whether it is too late to stop it now, with top experts saying it is probably already spreading elsewhere in the United States.