Rachael Ray's Crew Members Are Furious With Her. Here's Why
The Rachael Ray Show isn't coming back to it's Manhattan studio in November 2020, like originally planned. On October 28, 2020, Variety reported that this decision means that 20 of the show's crew members are being let go. It's bad news for, especially, the show's freelance crew, whose commitment to The Rachael Ray Show prevents them from doing serious work with other series.
If you watch her show, you know that Rachael Ray has been shooting her show at her home since March 2020 because COVID-19 hit. Until recently, affected crew members had expected their work to pick back up at the end of the year. "It's hard when you work for a show for 14 years and they say, 'We're going to take care of you and we're all family. We're going to pay you guys for September and October,' so you expect the show is going to come back to the studio or they're going to keep paying you because of our contracts," a crew member told Buzzfeed, "But now we're left with nothing." Another seconded the sentiments, "There's so much job insecurity in this industry to begin with," they said, "and for this kind of nonsense to go on in such dangerous, unprecedented times makes it impossible to be able to find work."
Here is Rachael Ray's response to her employee's allegations
As International Business Times points out, Rachael Ray has thus far donated 4 million dollars to Covid-19 relief efforts, making her apparent disregard for her crew members' well-being all the more poignant. Ray, however, has a different story to tell.
Less than 24 hours after Variety broke its story, she took to Twitter. "There's news in the media today that is disturbing to me, and I do not think is accurate. My partners at CBS Television Distribution are currently in an active conversation about how to provide for our show's format change after November 1st," she wrote. She further insisted that "It has been my utmost priority that we keep the full contribution to their healthcare plan during this pandemic. I care about my colleagues as family, and as we approach the holidays, we want to keep everyone safe. While everyone is continuing to be paid through October, we will continue to work this out."
The celebrity chef's version of events is undeniably rosier than Variety's. According to Variety, the network's negotiations with the Union have "thus far led nowhere," and will likely lead to arbitration. If this happens, says the magazine, affected members of Rachael Ray's crew would lose out on two-thirds of this season's workdays.