Access Hollywood, the entertainment newsmagazine that launched in 1996 as NBC's answer to CBS's Entertainment Tonight, has aired its final episodes, closing a nearly 30-year run. The show concluded with a September 10 retrospective episode featuring the hosts and a September 11 finale covering the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The cancellation was announced on March 13, 2026, as part of NBCUniversal's decision to exit the first-run syndication business entirely, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In a statement to THR, NBCUniversal's Frances Berwick said the company is "making changes to our first-run syndication division to better align with the programming preferences of local stations," while winding down production of first-run shows and continuing to distribute its existing program library and off-network titles.
The exit also claimed Access Daily, Karamo and The Steve Wilkos Show, and followed Kelly Clarkson's February announcement that The Kelly Clarkson Show would end after seven seasons, Parade reports. Scripted casualties in the same overhaul included Law & Order: Organized Crime — prompting Christopher Meloni's emotional farewell to fans — plus Brilliant Minds, Good Cop/Bad Cop and Stumble.
Hosted in recent years by Mario Lopez, Kit Hoover, Zuri Hall and Scott Evans, Access Hollywood was a staple of celebrity interviews and red-carpet coverage for three decades, launching as a direct rival to Entertainment Tonight and outlasting nearly every competitor in the entertainment-newsmagazine format. Its departure marks the end of an era for first-run syndicated entertainment news — a format that once defined daytime television.
What remains is a question of what fills the vacuum: local stations are reprogramming daytime with news, court shows and off-network repeats, while entertainment news itself migrates to social platforms and streaming. The syndication model that sustained Access Hollywood for 30 years is, for NBCUniversal at least, officially over.