‘Bold and the Beautiful’ Production Was Paused Due to COVID-19 ‘False Positives’

Meredith Jacobs June 24, 2020, 11:15 am

Comments

The Bold and the Beautiful Cast Production Delay COVID19 Testing

The Bold and the Beautiful briefly resumed production last week but hit the pause button due to coronavirus testing.

Initially, a statement said they’d “paused” production “to modify our testing protocol to better accommodate the large volume of testing needed,” but now, new details have emerged about why they stopped filming after the first day. The lab provided by TV City “produced several false positives,” a spokesperson for Bell-Phillip Television told Variety.

How 'Bold and the Beautiful' Will Handle Love Scenes & When New Episodes Will Air

After questions from the Health Department, they switched labs. “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,” the statement concluded. Filming was originally scheduled to resume Tuesday but was pushed back to Wednesday.

New protocols have been put in place for TV and film productions due to the pandemic, and The Bold and the Beautiful has its own in place, including scheduled testing, changes to the set and studio, and adjustments to scenes requiring close contact. For example, more work will be done in editing to ensure actors can remain eight feet apart and real-life partners will be “love-scene doubles.”

Bold and the Beautiful Katherine Kelly Lang Jennifer Gareis Heather Tom

(Cliff Lipson/CBS)

The last new Bold and the Beautiful episode aired on Thursday, April 23. Since then, CBS started showing “theme weeks” of its soaps (B&B and Young and the Restless).

The good news is that fans may get to see new stories of their favorite characters soon. Depending on production, the next new episode of the most-watched U.S. produced daytime drama in the world could be ready in July.