The Talk has established itself as a daytime TV staple for more than two million Americans,
so when co-host Sara Gilbert announced her exit in April 2019, the impact was deeply
felt.
Let's take a closer look at the real reasons she's leaving the hit show she helped create.
A work-life balance
Sara Gilbert earned two Emmy awards for her work on The Talk, and for the majority of
the nine seasons that she worked on the show, the star pulled double duty, serving as both
a host and executive producer for more than 1,100 episodes.
Gilbert gave up the producing gig in 2016, but the show has obviously remained a major
part of her life.
It's clear that she didn't take the decision to leave lightly.
Gilbert explained her motivations by saying that the workload had left her life feeling,
quote, "slightly out of balance," with not as much time to spend with her three children
as she would otherwise have liked.
She made the impending departure official with a tearful on-air announcement.
"It's difficult because this is a place that I love and a place that I'm extremely happy."
Bringing back Roseanne
Remember the Roseanne reboot?
That was a fun couple of months.
And reportedly, Gilbert's work on The Talk is the reason the classic sitcom was revived
in the first place.
A comedy skit on the program in 2017 saw the actress reprise her role as Darlene alongside
John Goodman, and their reunion was wildly well-received.
"God, I dunno how to say this.
...I'm a talk show host."
The short skit led to more serious discussions about bringing back the sitcom, with Gilbert
playing a major role in bringing the rest of the cast back to the table.
When it returned in 2018, it quickly became the most-watched TV show in America by an
incredible margin, at times drawing 25 million viewers per episode.
But the joy was short-lived.
Just months after its March debut, Roseanne was cancelled in May, after the show's star,
Roseanne Barr, took to Twitter with one ill-advised remark too many.
After Barr was fired for some especially inflammatory remarks, the remaining creative team was left
scrambling to figure out a way to try and save the show.
But how do you make Roseanne without Roseanne?
As Gilbert told New York Times, "It felt like people weren't done watching the show and
we didn't want to take it away from them.
We just didn't want to end on that note.
We wanted to try to preserve the legacy."
The solution was to kill off Barr's character and relaunch the program as a sequel series
called The Conners, with Gilbert taking the helm.
This meant she basically had to fill Roseanne's shoes — a much larger commitment than she'd
initially signed up for.
Suddenly, Darlene wasn't just a side character — she was a family matriarch, and the reluctant
main character of one of the most popular shows on TV.
Producing The Conners
Unsurprisingly, The Conners debuted to poorer ratings than Roseanne, with viewership reportedly
declining by about 35 percent between premieres.
But despite the natural drop-off, the show remained wildly popular.
For Gilbert, the workload was demanding both in front of and behind the camera.
Like she'd previously done on The Talk and Roseanne, Gilbert started pulling double duty
on the set of The Conners, working as both a performer and a producer.
She also sometimes works behind-the-scenes with the writing staff — an unusual arrangement
for the typical sitcom actor.
After its first season, The Conners was consistently ABC's most-watched sitcom, earning far more
viewers than a typical episode of The Talk.
Julie Chen's difficult departure
Sara Gilbert inadvertently found herself in the middle of two of TV's biggest scandals
of 2018: Roseanne's self-inflicted fall from grace, and the multiple sexual assault allegations
leveled at CBS network chief Les Moonves.
The Moonves scandal prompted The Talk co-host Julie Chen Moonves, the accused executive's
wife, to abruptly quit the show in solidarity with her husband, whom she publicly supported
— a position which may have put her at odds with the rest of The Talk's panel.
The circumstances of Chen's departure from The Talk was undeniably hard on the rest of
the panel.
The TV personality spent nearly a decade on the show alongside Gilbert, who described
Chen's exit as being difficult for her.
Speaking in an interview with The New York Times, Gilbert said,
"All of it, the circumstances around it, were something that none of us wanted to have happen
or to find out about.
I know that she felt it was time to go be with her family."
For Gilbert, the high-profile personnel shakeup, along with her rising responsibilities with
The Conners, may have signaled to her that it was time to go.
Out of time
In addition to her day-to-day responsibilities on the jobs she already has, Gilbert has kept
busy expanding her world outside of the Roseanne universe.
While her time always looked packed before, now she's receiving more career opportunities
both in front of and behind the camera than she knows what to do with.
"As I've continued on, I'm starting to develop more things to produce, and I'm having opportunities
to act."
"I was looking at the next six months and just thinking, 'There's not time.'"
In short, the roller coaster of 2018 left her with more options than ever.
Outside of The Talk and The Conners, she's been featured in six episodes of the CBS series
Living Biblically, and also made appearances in a handful of other series.
So while Sara Gilbert may be leaving The Talk, she's definitely not leaving the airwaves.
After nearly ten years of talking, Hollywood has come knocking, and she's seizing the opportunity
for success.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Nicki Swift videos about your favorite celebs are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.