I do think poor Drew meant well. At worst I think she was naive and took bad advice. Good on her for walking it back - she’d be under tremendous pressure not to do so as well.
She’s not the only one either - Bill Maher, Jennifer Hudson, The Talk and The View are all going ahead without writers.
You’d think a stand up comedian would write his own material.
I used to enjoy watching Real Time a lot, the jokes were mostly funny and I liked that he always had guests from the whole political spectrum which usually resulted in interesting and heated debates (that is, when the guests weren’t interrupted by Bill). For instance it was nice to see that a few anti-Trump Republicans still exist. It was a great window into the absurdities of American politics.
But it in recent years it’s just become increasingly depressing and predictable. The focus has mostly shifted towards how crazy and unelectable the Democrats have become (like almost every episode), and then more recently with added transphobia and more sucking up to Netanyahu (while completely ignoring the Israeli judicial reforms that Bill would normally be against).