Access Hollywood and Access Daily were canceled on Friday (March 13) as part of NBCUniversal’s decision to end all first-run syndication programs produced by the network. The programs will continue to produce new episodes until September.
Access Hollywood was launched by NBC in 1996 as a competitor to CBS Media Ventures’ Entertainment Tonight, which debuted in 1981. Access Hollywood was created by former ET executive producer Jim Van Messel.
Access Hollywood gained infamy in the 2016 election cycle. On Oct. 7, 2016, one month before that year’s presidential election, The Washington Post published a video and article about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and TV host Billy Bush having a lewd conversation about women. In the video, which was recorded in September 2015, Trump and Bush were on a bus on their way to film an episode of Access Hollywood.
News of the recording broke two days before the second presidential debate between Trump, the Republican nominee, and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. For his part in the conversation, Bush was fired from his position as a host on Today, another show owned by NBCUniversal. Trump was not similarly penalized. On Nov. 8, he won the 2016 election.
NBCUniversal is also cutting several of its other daytime talk shows, effectively ending its first run syndication business. Talk shows Karamo and The Steve Wilkos Show, produced out of NBC’s facility in Stamford, Conn., are shutting down. The programs have already completed their production for the season and will run through the summer.The Steve Wilkos Show ran for 19 seasons.
NBC previously announced that The Kelly Clarkson Show is ending later this year after seven highly successful seasons.
Francis Berwick, chairman of Bravo and Peacock unscripted, said in a statement that the company will continue to distribute library episodes of its talk programs and network shows such as Law & Order. But NBCU’s days of launching series for daytime and the hour before prime time have come to an end.
“NBCUniversal is making changes to our first-run syndication division to better align with the programming preferences of local stations,” Berwick said. “The company will remain active in the distribution of our existing program library and other off-network titles, while winding down production of our first-run shows.”
Access Hollywood, and its counterpart Access Daily, are both produced in Los Angeles. They are currently hosted by Mario Lopez, Kit Hoover and Scott Evans. Correspondents are Zuri Hall, Jason Kennedy and Tim Vincent.
Former on-air staff, besides Billy Bush, includes such notable TV personalities as Michelle Beadle, Steven “Cojo” Cojocaru, Giselle Fernández, Liz Hernandez, Jill Martin, Larry Mendte, Maria Menounos, Natalie Morales, Nancy O’Dell, Pat O’Brien, Amy Powell, Jeff Probst, Tony Potts, Shaun Robinson, Sibley Scoles and Liliana Vazquez.
Access Live officially debuted under that name on Dec. 11, 2017. The show has undergone several name changes and refreshes throughout its history. Since 2019, it has been called Access Daily. A spinoff show, Access Daily with Mario & Kit, debuted in 2022.
In April 2021, Access Hollywood and Access Daily were both renewed for four additional seasons through 2025. In 2024, they were renewed, though this time only for two years, through 2026.
