The Talk will remain silent for another week.

After going dark on Monday and Tuesday, CBS’ panel series is extending its brief hiatus from live shows until Tuesday, March 23, as the network continues a review stemming from March 10’s heated debate between Sharon Osbourne and Sheryl Underwood. Initially planning to return to live episodes on Wednesday, March 17, the show will stay dark as Osbourne’s defense of Piers Morgan and comments on racism — particularly her confrontation with Underwood, her Black colleague — go under the microscope internally.

A CBS spokesperson sent The Hollywood Reporter the following comment about the extended hiatus Tuesday: “CBS is committed to a diverse, inclusive and respectful workplace across all of our productions. We’re also very mindful of the important concerns expressed and discussions taking place regarding events on The Talk. This includes a process where all voices are heard, claims are investigated and appropriate action is taken where necessary. The show will extend its production hiatus until next Tuesday as we continue to review these issues.”

Fallout for Osbourne (and the show) was swift following the longtime panelist’s teary defense of friend and fellow Brit, Morgan, who stormed off the set of (and ultimately quit) ITV’s Good Morning Britain — which he’d co-hosted since 2015 — after his vitriolic criticism of Meghan Markle was read by most as racist. At one point in her defense of Morgan, Osbourne went on the offense and demanded that Underwood tell her what Morgan had done wrong. “Educate me, tell me when you have heard him say racist things,” Osbourne said. “I very much feel like I’m about to be put in the electric chair because I have a friend, who many people think is a racist, so that makes me a racist?”

Since then, scrutiny has only increased. Original castmember Holly Robinson Peete tweeted that Osbourne had made racist comments about her before her firing, a fact Osbourne disputed in her own Twitter post. On Tuesday, more damningly, journalist Yashar Ali posted a Substack detailing more claims of Osbourne’s racist language on the set of The Talk — including comments from original panelist Leah Remini.

Osbourne is the only original castmember of The Talk to make it to the current 11th season. Peete and Remini both left after the first season. Series creator Sara Gilbert departed at the end of the ninth season, and Julie Chen left during the eighth — as husband and former CBS boss Les Moonves saw his career implode amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.

Osbourne’s new publicist, Howard Bragman, issued the following statement Tuesday: “The only thing worse than a disgruntled former employee is a disgruntled former talk show host. For 11 years Sharon has been kind, collegial and friendly with her hosts as evidenced by throwing them parties, inviting them to her home in the U.K. and other gestures of kindness too many to name. Sharon is disappointed but unfazed and hardly surprised by the lies, the recasting of history and the bitterness coming out at this moment. She will survive this, as she always has, and her heart will remain open and good because she refuses to let others take her down. She thanks her family, friends and fans for standing by her and knowing her true nature.”

This article originally appeared in THR.com.

Demi Lovato is no stranger to, in her own words, “dancing with the devil.” She’s been a longtime open book, sharing her struggles with addiction, mental health issues, eating disorders and familial difficulties, walking the fine line between life and death all the way up to her near-fatal July 2018 overdose.

Now, the singer is opening up more than ever, sharing intimate details of her hospitalization and the months of strength since then in her YouTube Originals documentary series, Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil, premiering March 23. To tell a story as heart-wrenching and ultimately inspiring as hers, Lovato called on her friend and director Michael D. Ratner.

“I was humbled to be able to give her a platform to tell her story,” Ratner tells Billboard of the opportunity to work with Lovato on the four-part series, which first debuted at SXSW on Tuesday (March 16). “My responsibility is to give her the space to tell as much of her story and experience as she wants to tell. Ultimately, I found her opening up more and more as the process went on, and the trust was earned. It was in some of those later sit-downs where some of the heavier traumas were unveiled. I think that sometimes I would find those things out before we were rolling, and sometimes I think she actually made the decision to share that stuff because she did feel so comfortable while she was speaking and in the environment we put her in.

“In Demi’s story, her story — it’s all intrinsically tied,” he continues. “Many of the different moments in her life lead to other moments and it’s hard to tell her story completely without sharing all that we did. I think a lot of holes or misinformation is cleared up in this project because she decided to go there. She told me that she was pretty prepared to go deep in 2018 and break the record on a lot that happened there, but I think that she even surprised herself with how comfortable she felt with the process and the way the project was turning out that she wanted to use it as the ultimate catharsis. She wanted to tell the story of her trials and tribulations since that time in 2018, 2019 and all the way up to 2021.”

Ratner, who previously teamed up with YouTube Originals and Justin Bieber for the “Love Yourself” star’s Seasons and Next Chapter docuseries, continually stressed the importance of trust in sharing these vulnerable moments. “It’s just transparency from the get-go, and being really upfront about the goal of trying to share these artists’ truths, and being a really good listener and providing the safe space and platform for them to tell their story,” Ratner suggests as the reason why a number of high-profile artists turn to him to direct their documentaries. “I take pride in the fact that they do trust me with their most intimate moments and ultimately getting their perspective out into the world — and I think that comes through time and transparency and work ethic.

“I try to really study and understand, and put in the time to get to know these people so I can help ultimately share their story with the world,” he adds.

The director certainly accomplished his goal with Lovato, who revealed everything from her brief engagement to Max Ehrich in 2020 and embracing her queer identity, to the sexual abuse she claims she suffered as she was overdosing, and the medical issues she still struggles with as a result of the OD. “I was left with brain damage and I still deal with the effects of that today,” she says at one point in the doc. “I don’t drive a car because of blind spots in my vision. … I had a lot of trouble reading.”

And while seeing someone as outwardly confident as Lovato be so unarmed can be heartbreaking, that’s what makes this docuseries so much more compelling. “My job also, from what I know from [Demi] and what she wanted to get out of this, was not just to make a softball documentary and not just make it a puff piece, but to really ask the hard questions,” Ratner says. “It was her prerogative to share as much of it as she wanted, but that was her goal and her decision and I was there to listen and give her a safe space to talk about that information.”

That “safe space” allowed Lovato to shed the often toxic expectation to be a “role model,” which adds an unnatural amount of pressure to a 28-year-old who has been in the spotlight since she was a teenager — and neglects the more realistic aspects of the human experience.

“Demi and I talked a lot about ‘role model’ and being the poster child for things,” Ratner explains. “I think what we have effectively done here versus previous times in her life — when she made [2017’s] Simply Complicated, she was the poster child for sobriety. And I think that here, while many people are going to talk about her bravery and how many people she’s helping as a result of this documentary and saying that it’s OK to not be OK and you’re not defined by your lowest moments, she’s not saying, ‘I’m the poster child’ for anything. She’s saying, ‘I’m a wildly flawed human being, as we all are. Here is my unique journey and my struggles, and it’s OK for you to talk about your unique journey and struggles.’

“She’s not necessarily claiming to be anything,” he adds. “So nobody after this can be like, ‘Wait, you said you were XYZ!’ She’s not setting herself up for failure. She’s saying, ‘Here I am in my very human capacity’ and hoping that her story helps other people.”

The down-to-earth and honest nature of the series, to Ratner, is what sets it apart from musician-focused films of the past. “When talking about the documentary, people say, ‘I’ve never seen a music documentary like this,’ and I say, ‘That’s right, because it isn’t a music documentary.’ This is a human documentary about a musician and about a musician who’s also a multi-hyphenate and a person,” Ratner shares.

Without giving too much away before more of the public can view it, Ratner reveals that the most moving part of Dancing With the Devil is “the way history has repeated itself, and the way she shares how history repeated itself in her life and in episodes three and four. She talks about some of the repeated trauma that she’s been through and the time and reflection has led her to really have more clarity on how these things impacted her. I think that was a pretty big revelation.”

With a deep breath, Ratner adds, “I direct and produce lots of different types of shows and films — I can juggle a lot at once, but I can say that this project specifically was very hard to think about anything other than Demi and this project because of how heavy it was. Normally after a day on set, I can go meet up for a work dinner or something, but my mind was racing on whatever happened that day because of how heavy it was and it was pretty intense.”

As for why more and more artists are choosing to share their lives through documentaries, Ratner believes it’s all about connection. “It’s very different than being on tour or [releasing an album]. This is a way to really go in and allow the people who think they know you to get to know you a little bit better,” he shares.

Ratner also executive produced the documentary. Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil was produced by Ratner’s OBB Pictures and SB Projects. Scott Ratner, Kfir Goldberg and Miranda Sherman also serve as executive producers for OBB Pictures. Scooter Braun, Allison Kaye and Scott Manson executive produce for SB Projects. Co-executive producers on the project are Andy Mininger and Arlen Konopaki for OBB Pictures, Jen McDaniels, Scott Marcus and James Shin for SB Projects, and Hannah Lux Davis. Marc Ambrose serves as producer.

Watch the trailer below.