Drew Barrymore recalls fighting to do her talk show live and in a studio

Variety

Thanks to Barrymore's carefree wackiness, The Drew Barrymore Show has become a buzzworthy sensation. "I am lucky that my insane desire was to be the antidote, because I think I would have tried to do something different at different intervals of my life," says Barrymore in an interview with Variety. "And it seems like this year, there was a part of me that was very nervous it could be the biggest failure." Part of the show's success, she says, is going live each day. "I fought really hard to be live," she says. I thought it’s an appropriate to be doing this where I can speak to the moment. I just didn’t want to risk being a day or two old because that type of energy when the show came out could be totally unattached. I’m so glad my bosses trusted me with a live show because I think when you go live, there is a lot of desire to be political and newsy." Barrymore also argued against doing a home-based show amid the pandemic. "I basically kicked and screamed and said, 'I will do this show on a street corner with a camera and me and one person," she said. 'I’m not doing a home show. I don’t want to do it. I don’t like watching them.' I love what Jimmy Fallon did with his, and I thought a lot of people really rose to the occasion and did some extraordinary things. But the reason a lot of the home shows were so exciting to watch is because they were well-established. I was scared that if I started a home show, I would stay stuck there. It terrified me."