Bell-Phillip Television, the production company behind “The Bold and the Beautiful,” says last week’s sudden production shutdown was the fault of the testing lab, which “produced several false positives” in onsite COVID-19 testing.
They’ve since switched labs and have no legitimate positive cases of the coronavirus, a spokeswoman for Bell-Phillip Television told TheWrap. “The Bold and the Beautiful” plans to reenter production (again) tomorrow.
“The Health Department had some additional questions about the lab TV City provided ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ with last week, which produced several false positives,” the spokeswoman told TheWrap. “Bell-Phillip Television changed labs and resolved all problems.”
“We have not had, nor do we have, any positive COVID-19 cases and are not ‘shut down,’ but we needed an additional day to provide them with requested information,” she continued. “We plan on resuming production tomorrow, Wednesday, June 24.”
These labs do everything from administering the tests onsite at TV City, to testing the kits and providing results, a person with knowledge of the process told TheWrap.
The CBS soap had only been back in production for a matter of hours last week before having to close the TV City set down again. “Bold” was the first U.S. television production to (attempt to) reenter physical production since the coronavirus pandemic shut the industry down in March.
Last Wednesday, a rep for “Bold” said the following: “We have paused very briefly to modify our testing protocol to better accommodate the large volume of testing needed. Safety remains our top priority as we continue to move forward with the production of the show.”
At the time, the series anticipated it would restart production today.
As part of the show’s new safety protocols, the cast and crew are all tested for coronavirus on a daily basis. The show has also hired a COVID-19 director who is on set at all times to make sure proper protocols are followed as set forth by L.A. County, the City of Los Angeles, and each of the Hollywood guilds.
The series also said it would allow fewer cast and crew on set per day than before, with certain people asked to come in shifts. All are required to socially distance themselves and wear face masks at all times, with actors actively filming a scene being the only exception.
Like all soaps not titled “Days of Our Lives,” “The Bold and the Beautiful” has been airing reruns for the last few weeks as the stockpile of pre-taped episodes ran dry in April. The “Bold” plan is for new original episodes to begin airing in early-to-mid July, though no airdate has been set yet.
CBS has already picked up two more seasons of the show, which will take it through Season 35 in 2022.