the large amount of testing required by sony pictures television. those opposed to new restrictions cited canadian requirements that already mandated 14 days of self-isolation upon entering the country and the relatively lower rate of transmission in the province of british columbia at the time. privacy issues with plans to contract private labs for testing were also cited as a factor. the impasse was resolved in mid-august. on december 28, 2020, filmla published excerpts of a letter recently sent by los angeles county health officials, which recommended a temporary suspension of "higher risk" production activity due to the "catastrophic surge" of covid-19 infections in the area. the surge resulted in a lack of icu capacity, governor newsom referring to la as the "epicenter" of covid-19 in the country at that time, and the introduction of a mandatory 10-day self-isolation period for those returning from outside of los angeles county. on december 29, sag-aftra's president and national executive director issued a statement indicating that the union was "closely monitoring the recent surge". as a result, most major la-based television productions extended their pre-scheduled breaks for the holiday season through at least january 11, 2021, if not later. some productions were reported to have resumed production around january 13, 2021. in may 2022, the alliance of motion picture and television producers (amptp) reached agreements to allow the loosening of covid-19 protocols for transport and masking, for productions taking place in regions in the united states and canada deemed to have a lower risk (including low covid hospital admissions). topical programming the children's program sesame street produced two half-hour specials. the first – sesame street: elmo's playdate – dealt with the pandemic and socializing with others remotely. it premiered on april 14, 2020, and aired in simulcast across multiple warnermedia networks (including hbo, which has served as the current first-run broadcaster of the series since 2016) and the pbs kids channel. the special was underwritten by warnermedia's parent company at&t and aired commercial-free. apple tv+ launched a spin-off of fraggle rock, fraggle rock: rock on!, filmed entirely using iphone smartphones from the performers' homes. nickelodeon ordered two new shows, tentatively titled group chat: the show and game face. the channel ordered an extra episode of danger force, to be web streamed. it also commissioned podcasts based on the loud house, blue's clues & you!, the casagrandes, and are you afraid of the dark?, as well as a podcast about its animation studio. youtube commissioned a mystery series from sinking ship entertainment, locked down, for its youtube originals brand. on april 30, nbc aired a one-off, remotely-produced reunion episode of its sitcom parks and recreation, "a parks and recreation special", in support of feeding america. in may, the cbs legal drama all rise aired a topical episode, "dancing at los angeles", as a replacement season finale. it was filmed from its actors' homes using videoconferencing, and depicted the in-universe version of the los angeles superior court conducting its first virtual bench trial due to the pandemic. on may 22, apple tv+'s mythic quest: raven's banquet released a special episode filmed using iphone smartphones, showing the in-universe impact of the pandemic on its characters. on july 16, nbc broadcast a one-off reunion episode of its sitcom 30 rock; the episode was co-produced by nbcuniversal's creative services department and was intended to serve as its upfronts presentation instead of a physical event. it incorporated product placement and promotions for upcoming series across nbcuniversal properties (including, in particular, its new peacock streaming service) and was remotely screened to advertising partners and the media earlier in the day. due to its promotional nature, many nbc affiliates declined to broadcast the special in primetime. on august 17, the pbs children's series daniel tiger's neighborhood premiered "won't you sing along with me?", an episode dealing with the pandemic. it also produced related episodes revolving around themes such as doctors, separation anxiety, changes at school, and safety. the comedy central animated series south park broadcast a standalone, one-hour special, "the pandemic special", on september 30, satirizing the pandemic and the racial unrest that had emerged in the country over the summer. in march 2021, comedy central premiered a follow-up, "south parq vaccination special", which satirized the distribution of covid-19 vaccines, and the qanon conspiracy theory. later in the year, the series premiered two "movie" specials exclusively for paramount+, south park: post covid and south park: post covid: the return of covid, which feature the main cast as adults, still dealing with the pandemic 40 years later. several networks ordered scripted series set during the pandemic, including joanna johnson's love in the time of corona for freeform, jenji kohan's anthology social distance for netflix, martin gero and brendan gall's connecting for nbc (which was ordered straight-to-series), and a remote workplace comedy being developed by ben silverman and paul lieberstein of the office. several returning programs addressed the pandemic as a plot point in their episodes, including black-ish and the conners, the fourth season premiere of the good doctor, superstore (which satirized safety protocols being taken by retail stores and the branding of their employees as "essential workers"), ncis: new orleans (whose seventh season is set during the initial onset of the pandemic in louisiana), and bull. unscripted programming suspension of production in mid-march 2020, sony pictures suspended production of its game shows wheel of fortune and jeopardy! (jeopardy! host alex trebek had a weakened immune system due to his pancreatic cancer). other postponed productions included american ninja warrior, card sharks, the price is right, and the real housewives of new jersey. the abc reality series the bachelorette delayed filming for its sixteenth season, which was set to premiere on may 18. a retrospective spin-off, the bachelor: the greatest seasons – ever!, premiered on june 8, featuring highlights and behind-the-scenes footage of past seasons of the bachelor and the bachelorette. on april 29, variety reported that the bachelor spin-off series bachelor in paradise had postponed its seventh season to 2021 and that abc was pursuing filming the bachelorette over the summer for a fall premiere. abc had also planned to produce the bachelor summer games but initially shelved the series shortly after the postponement of the 2020 summer olympics to july 2021 (which the series was intended to counterprogram, just as its counterpart the bachelor winter games had for the 2018 winter olympics), the spin-off would eventually be canceled in april 2021 following the decision made by the japanese government, which banned foreign spectators from traveling to japan during the olympics. prometheus entertainment claimed that its productions of the history programs ancient aliens, the curse of oak island, and the unxplained were exempt from los angeles' stay-at-home order, which declared "front line news reporters, studio, and technicians for newsgathering and reporting" to be "essential critical infrastructure workers". president kevin burns, according to the hollywood reporter, told employees that they needed to "get over it" and that they were "hysterical"; the company required staff to attend to work through at least march 20. the cbs reality series the amazing race stopped production on its 33rd season in glasgow, scotland, in late february, after filming three out of 12 episodes less than a week into a three-week scheduled production run, as its route was originally to travel to lapland in sweden, and would continue through austria before passing to northern italy—which would become one of the first major epicenters of the covid-19 pandemic in the western world. the route would cross into nepal, vietnam, thailand, australia, chile, and peru in an eastward direction, which included its final destination city of indianapolis, indiana. the season resumed filming in september 2021, with travel restrictions in place, its course modified to go through european countries with high vaccination rates (including switzerland, france, greece, and portugal) and used a titan airways charter plane for the rest of the production, with the final destination city being changed to los angeles. the preceding 32nd season, filmed in late 2018, was also postponed to a fall premiere. production of the 41st and 42nd seasons of survivor, which were due to film in fiji at the end of the months of march and may, respectively, was postponed to 2021 (fiji had also closed its borders to non-citizens). while the program's producers aimed to potentially begin production of season 41 in may for a fall premiere, that did not come to fruition, and the next season of s.w.a.t. (originally scheduled to be produced for midseason) was moved to cbs's provisional fall schedule in july 2020. fox dancing competition series so you think you can dance was preparing to begin production on its 17th season in mid-march, but it was postponed indefinitely on june 18. on february 16, 2021, tvline reported that fox and the show's producers still had no plans for season 17 to move forward at that time. in march 2022, it was announced that the series would return to fox in the summer of that year. return to production, modifications fremantle initially announced that the fifteenth season of america's got talent (nbc), and season 22 of family feud (syndicated), would film without an audience. starting the week of march 10, fremantle began displaying disclaimers in the end credits for the price is right (cbs) during episodes recorded from late 2019 (season 48) into many 2021 (season 49) episodes, disclosing that producers would arrange substitute prizes for contestants who won trips as prizes for locales impacted by the pandemic. when production resumed in october 2020 for season 49, the disclaimer was changed to note that the traditional rule that trips must be taken within one year of the air date was changed to two years, although with further restrictions prizes could change. abc's primetime reboot of who wants to be a millionaire quickly filmed over eight episodes' worth of material during the weekend of march 14 (they wrapped production one day sooner than scheduled). the program was filmed with no studio audience beyond staff present on-set, which resulted in the replacement of its "ask the audience" lifeline with "ask the host" (a new lifeline that was originally introduced in a recent revival of the british version). the program's new host, jimmy kimmel, credited his early career in radio for helping him adapt to the environment. the second run of episodes was scheduled for a fall premiere, featuring a mixture of celebrity contestants and frontline workers. after filming without an audience for the remainder of its audition rounds, the 15th season of america's got talent suspended production on march 14; filming of the auditions was originally scheduled to conclude on march 20. to help attract additional contestants, nbc announced on april 1 that it would open a new round of online auditions. by april 27, production staff decided that the season would premiere on may 26 as planned. the show ultimately resumed production in june with a streamlined version of its "judge cuts" round, in an outdoor stage setting in simi valley, california, with enhanced safety protocols and remote performances. the live quarter-finals (which, due to the revised judge cuts format, also had a larger field with four heats rather than three, as in past seasons) were held at universal studios hollywood rather than the dolby theatre. there was a mix of pre-recorded remote performances and in-person performances emanating from various locations around the park and the universal studios lot. the 18th season of american idol on abc and the 18th season of nbc's the voice both switched to remote formats, with their contestants and panels conducting the program from their residences. the second season of la voz, a spanish-language adaptation of the voice on nbc's sister network telemundo, was also suspended. the series later resumed studio production in miami, with enhanced safety protocols and no studio audience, and returned to air on july 26, 2020. these changes would later be adopted by season 19 of the voice, which premiered in october 2020. the third season of the masked singer (fox) already had completed filming before pandemic-related restrictions took effect, but post-production was performed remotely, and allusions to the pandemic were added in post-production of its final episodes—such as dialogue by night angel referencing the panic buying of toilet paper. after filming of the competition wrapped, a performance of "what the world