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She today informed her staff about her departure when her contract expires at the end of the month after 8 years with the network. (Statements below.) Immediately, there was Internet chatter that Barbara Bloom had clashed with Julie Chen, wife of Les Moonves and a host of the new daytime The Talk show, 
over Bloom’s supposed attempt to “micromanage” it. But I can tell you that’s not true. “Bloom had never done a talk show before and was totally in over her head. She didn’t have the skill set,” my source says about the exec who specialized in soap operas at ABC and CBS, one of which CBS cancelled in 2009 and the other in 2010. “Julie Chen did not cause this firing. Julie is just not that person. I’d love to tell you tales about how she manipulates Les and whatever, but she just doesn’t.” I hear that, with CBS’ soaps The Young And The Restless and The Bold And The Beautiful just signing long-term renewals (which Deadline’s TV Editor Nellie Andreeva scooped), and game shows The Price Is Right and Let’s Make A Deal, in good shape, and The Talk attracting its largest audience to date for the week ending January 7th and expected to surpass that when the new weekly ratings come out Thursday, “there was not much for her to do,” another source tells me. First news of Bloom’s exit was reported by Daytime Confidential. Here’s the CBS announcement:
Barbara Bloom, Senior Vice President, Daytime, CBS Entertainment, will leave the Network when her contract expires at the end of the month.
“I’ve had the great fortune to work with an extraordinary group of executives, producers and talent who make CBS #1 in daytime,” said Bloom. “With CBS Daytime teed up for success and stability for many years ahead, the timing feels right for me to make a change now and seek something different. The dramas have multi-year renewals, ‘The Price is Right’ has great momentum with Drew, ‘Let’s Make Deal’ with Wayne Brady is firmly established and ‘The Talk’ is a growing franchise. I’ve been a writer, a producer and a programming executive, and now I’m excited to see what the next chapter has to offer.”
“Barbara artfully led CBS through several key transitions in her eight years here,” said Nina Tassler, President, CBS Entertainment. “She helped usher in a new era on ‘The Price is Right’ with Drew Carey and guided delicate programming changes from two daytime dramas to successful game and talk shows while maintaining CBS’s leadership position in the daypart. All of these efforts have positioned CBS very well for the future. Daytime is successful, profitable, refreshed creatively and has more variety of programming for our audience. We wish Barbara tremendous success wherever her talents take her.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Now she’ll have plenty of time to watch daytime TV.
Too bad she managed to mismanage two of the daypart programs and destroy 125 years of television history before someone finally realized she did not have “the skill set” needed for her job.
Having developed a project with Barbara Bloom – I can tell you she has very good writing instincts.
Hope she lands on her feet where she can work with writers.
I was part of the “Talk” development. Julie had it in for Barbara . Julie hates taking notes from anyone and went running to Les the second Barbara made a suggestion.
Perhaps the reason people think Julie Chen is manipulating her husband is because she’s the worst part of every show she’s ever been on.
Hopefully Mr. & Mrs. Julie Chen will be the next to leave CBS and take “The Talk” with them. Maybe the next CBS CEO will bring back our beloved soaps As The World Turns and Guiding Light! I hate “The Talk” and “Let’s Make A Deal”. I refuse to watch CBS during their time slots. CBS needs to listen to their viewers!
Yes, I wish Julie Chen and Les Moonves would both leave CBS, take the Talk with them and bring back our beloved soaps!!!
I don’t know whether the blame is to be placed with Bloom, Chen or the man in the moon, but The Talk is a barely watchable show. Everything from the forced frivolity between the plethora of hosts, to the inability to fully flesh out interviews, to the overall haphazard feel of the production is just plain wrong. It needs a complete re-tooling. And any panel discussions of “cheating husbands” feels thoroughly disingenuous and uncomfortable when Chen is involved, for obvious reasons. On the up side, Brady brings a freah new feel to “Deal.”
I wrote a letter to Barbara Bloom and cc’d a copy to Josie Thomas who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at CBS Diversity. My complaint was about the lack of a story line at The Young & The Restless that feature the African American actor’s who portray the Winters Family. That letter posted today. Looks like Miss Bloom won’t be able to help facilitate what I asked of her. I know that God will make a way somehow, for more people of Color being hired as Writers, Producers, Directors on that daytime drama and others at CBS. That was my personal complaint…the lack thereof.
CEO of Diversity?? Please. Those jobs are a joke. If I recall during the Emmy Awards Ceremony last year. There was ONE person of color — who works behind the scenes — to walk the stage. I think it was that same producer on The Amazing Race, who seems to represent all minority producers in television.
I will never watch the talk because it replaced the best soap on tv ” AS THE WORLD TURNS “.
Barbara made The Talk and Y&R the success they are today. CBS owes her a great deal and I’m positive that wherever she goes and whatever she decides to do she will again put her heart in it and it’ll be just as great.
Good luck!
How can you say Barbara made The Talk and Y&R the success they are today? She has only been with CBS for 8 years and the Y&R has been on for at least 30 years with the Talk being on only a few month’s! I find that to be a hard statement to swallow after she was involved with canceling 2 long running soaps and replacing them with “The Talk” aka The View on CBS and “Let’s Make a Deal” I have to wonder what their rating’s are compared to the show’s they replaced?
Y & R was a major hit before Barbara Bloom was at any network…
Barbara destroyed CBS daytime, fired the best VP Publicity ever had, and had two shows canceled on her watch; not to mention her complete lack to talk show experience and her inability to get along with people.
Good riddance to bad rubbish! She had 2 soaps get the axe while she was in charge. She sux and I’m glad the Chenbot made her go.
Memo to Les Moonves & Nina Tassler
Top 10 Checklist Before You Hire Your Next Daytime Programming Executive
1.) FAILURE BREEDS CONTEMPT — make sure your next programming executive doesn’t come from the most recently canceled soap, (in Ms. Bloom’s case, “Port Charles”) so that he/she doesn’t arrive with an ax to grind and an almost psychotic hate for your #1 rated shows and a desire to slowly and surely sabotage or dismantle each of them;
2.) BRAND AID – Make sure your next programming executive’s first job is not to “fix” what isn’t broken, i.e.,’ your award-winning, #1 daytime lineup; kudos to B&B’s Bradley Bell for resisting “the fix” and condolences to ATWT and GL for their demise under Bloom’s “watchful” (read: “resentful”) eye;
3.) NO GOOD DEED – Ms. Bloom’s first order of business was to fire/dismantle/dispirit CBS’ award-winning, legendary and invaluable PR / Marketing & Promotion Division. Lawsuits should and would have been filed, but weren’t, as happily those creative geniuses found other more receptive outlets for their talents;
4.) BAD NEWS SMELLS – Instruct your next daytime programming executive not to publicly badmouth the legacy of Bill Bell, Sr., the creative genius, at one time or another, behind each one of the CBS soaps, or publicly badmouth B&B after back-to-back Emmy Award wins for “Outstanding Daytime Drama;” (see above #2 kudos to B&B EXP Bradley Bell for resisting Bloom’s attempts to “fix” his show;
5.) SPOUSE MOUSE — Insure that your next programming executive’s spouse has a job or said executive will spend their days looking to insert spouse into the extras department of your daytime soap lineup;
6.) HACK SACK – Instruct your next programming executive that it is not considered good form to submit scripts they have written, for consideration for soap operas they are supposedly hired to oversee;
7.) JOB ROB – Make sure your next daytime [programming executive doesn’t arrive with a rolodex filled with out-of-work, fired, replaced or “never hired” writers/directors/producers/actors (you all know who you are) and replace accomplished industry veterans with these incompetent “friends;”
8.) SHAME GAME – Instruct your next daytime programming executive on the protocols of the position; such practices as pointedly and rudely ignoring your network’s major show talent at CBS network events, awards shows, cast parties, show celebrations and anniversaries, let alone bad mouthing these same stars publicly and calling for their dismissal from their shows leaves a bad taste;
9.) SHOW ROLE – Advise your next programming executive that when they represent you and the network at an event, they are not the show, or the main attraction, or the star and that showing a little charm, politeness, and a modest level of interest in the proceedings makes you look good;
10.) THE TALK WALK — An entire community gives thanks to the fabulous Julie Chen, a star in her own right and a real fan of the CBS daytime lineup long before she was a fixture and wife in Les’ life. No matter what “The Talk” is, Julie smelled a rat and responded accordingly and at the end of the day, that’s a lot for anyone who loves daytime to be grateful for.
These responders have got to get over the loss of their poorly written, poorly acted granny soaps. No one was watching them! The ratings stunk! That’s why they were cancelled. Both LMAD and The Talk are getting better ratings than those terrible shows did, and are less expensive to produce. Television is a business – not about propping up something just for the sake of its age. They don’t make wagon wheels anymore, either. Daytime soaps are doomed – their older audiences are dying off, and young people have better things to do with their time.
I AM ALSO YOUNG. MY COMMENTS ARE MY PERSONAL FEELINGS. JUST BECAUSE YOU DO NOT CARE FOR SOAPS DOES NOT MATTER TO ME. YOU SEEM TO BE VERY ANGRY. I WOULD NOT WASTE MY TIME WATCHING LMAD OR THE TALK CAUSE I HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO.
MAY GOD BLESS YOU.
To Miffy:
Clearly you are a friend of Barbara; either personal or professional. It is EXACTLY the attitude demonstrated by Bloom in action, that is expressed in your words, that led to her non-renewal. “Reality is not subjective.” – Tana French.
Sorry Miffy, but there are complicated reasons the soaps ratings were down, many of them caused by the behind the scenes actions of CBS and P&G. When you fire the headwriter and/or Executive Producer on average every other year over a 10-15 year period the show they are producing lacks in continuity. Imagine a prime time drama getting rid of half their cast every other year. When new headwriters are hired, they shouldn’t be headwriters that have been previously fired from the other CBS/P&G soap or another daytime drama. Unfortunately, when head writers are fired and new writers hired, they seem to recycle the same head writers over and over from show to show.
CBS and P&G also didn’t seem very interested in ways of preserving their soaps and making money. Why are no daytime soaps avaiable “on demand” on cable when so many CBS prime time shows are? I admit committing to an hour a day is a large time committment, so why didn’t they experiment and try reducing one of the soaps to 30 minutes (as they were for the 1960′s and early 70′s), allowing them to reduce costs by downsizing the cast and reducing other expenses.
Sorry, but for you to say no one is watching the soaps is not true. But many of the younger viewers who watch at college in dorms and common areas are not counted by Nielsen, just as people who watch sporting events at bars are not counted in the Nielsen ratings.
Well if these two soaps, “The Guiding Light” and “As The World Turns” were so poorly written as one responder says, why were they on for so long? GL on for 72 years and ATWT on for 54 years? These two soaps were legends and were well written soaps! And, television is not just for young viewers dumb ass! There are a lot of older people out in the world also who happens to love soap operas, especially these two! These two soaps had a huge audience! You don’t know what you are talking about so it is best to be quiet. These game shows and talk shows suck!
Great post. I have no inside information, but anyone with common sense can see that a man who would abuse his position as president of a network by cancelling two classic soaps to give his wife her own talk show would also fire an executive at her command.
I am not old, and I’m certainly not a “granny”, but I was (along with about three million other viewers) a loyal fan of “As The World Turns”. It was a vital part of the current pop culture (they had first gay supercouple on daytime). It was replaced by a vanity project for the wife of the president of the network. Julie Chen and her husband have no shame.
where is david the wether man
Yes, PLEASE CANCEL “The Talk”. I hate it. They ALL act like adolecents. And, Julie Chen’s FAKE LAUGH is too much. CBS daytime is on only for B&B and Y&R!!!