Month: August 2021

Following accusations of discrimination and resurfaced offensive comments, Mike Richards has stepped down as the host of Jeopardy!.

“It pains me that these past incidents and comments have cast such a shadow on Jeopardy! as we look to start a new chapter,” Richards wrote in a statement. “As I mentioned last week, I was deeply honored to be asked to host the syndicated show and was thrilled by the opportunity to expand my role. However, over the last several days it has become clear that moving forward as host would be too much of a distraction for our fans and not the right move for the show. As such, I will be stepping down as host effective immediately. As a result, we will be canceling production today.” He added, “I want to apologize to each of you for the unwanted negative attention that has come to Jeopardy! over the last few weeks and for the confusion and delays this is now causing. I know I have a lot of work to do to regain your trust and confidence.”

Richards, who will keep his role as executive producer, was considered by Sony Pictures Television to be the “safe” pick to replace Alex Trebek. But he was involved in multiple lawsuits alleging workplace discrimination during his time on The Price is Right and, as reported by The Ringer‘s Clair McNear, he made made disparaging remarks about Jews and women on now-deleted episodes of The Randumb Show podcast.

The search for a new full-time host begins again. Maybe Mayim Bialik is interested?

(Via Variety)

Ladies and gentlemen, we’re officially in Young Thug season. The rapper’s last album came in the summer of 2019 with So Much Fun and since then, the rapper teamed with his YSL label for Slime Language 2, joined Chris Brown for Slime & B, and worked with countless other artists on various other songs. However, now it’s time for Young Thug to shine and the new era for the rapper comes with a new sound as well, one that’s easily heard on his new single “Tick Tock.”

The Atlanta rapper’s newest release takes heavy influence from the rock and pop world while keeping his trademark raps intact for what results in a riotous clash of genres. “Tick Tock” is a record Thug originally premiered at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival at the end of July. It’s there that he announced that his next album would arrive in the near future. “Yo so listen,” Thug said onstage. “I’m about to put this album out, right? It’s called Punk. Days later, he would perform the song as well as other new records from Punk during his NPR Tiny Desk. His set, which also featured an appearance from Travis Barker, is where the rapper revealed Punk is set to arive on October 15.

Young Thug first announced Punk during a profile with Fader, and in it, the rapper revealed what listeners can expect on the new project. “It’s most definitely touching music,” he said. “It’s music that the world is going to embrace. […] [Punk] means brave, not self-centered, conscious. Very, very neglected, very misunderstood. Very patient, very authentic.”

You can listen to “Tick Tock” in the video above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Despite a significant amount of controversy that has already required new Jeopardy! host Mike Richards to apologize several times for his past actions, Sony Pictures Television has started filming with the embattled and self-appointed successor to Alex Trebek. According to TODAY, new episodes of Jeopardy! went into production on Thursday, less than 24 hours after the latest damaging report on Richards in The Ringer.

However, keeping Richards as the permanent host is becoming an increasingly untenable situation for Jeopardy! producers and Sony Pictures. Following The Ringer controversy, which unearthed sexist and racist remarks made by Richards on his now-deleted podcast, the Anti-Defamation League demanded a thorough investigation on Twitter:

The ADL published the following statement today on Twitter: “New Jeopardy! host Mike Richards’ disparaging remarks about Jews, women & Asians are no laughing matter. Stereotyping is an entry point to hate and his apology lacks acknowledgment of its harm. This reported pattern warrants an investigation.”

Sony Pictures has declined to comment on Richards’ podcast remarks reported by The Ringer, and there are no signs that filming has been suspended after it went into motion on Thursday. However, Variety reports that “multiple sources” have said the situation has caused “grave concern” and there is “little doubt that Sony Pictures is starting to consider alternative scenarios for the host slot.”

(Via TODAY, Deadline)

Gutfeld!, the angriest late-night show on TV, is also the most popular.

The Wrap reports that Tuesday’s episode of host Greg Gutfeld’s punishingly unfunny “comedy” program “beat every other late-night show… in total viewership and the advertiser-coveted age demographic of 25 to 54.” The episode was seen by 2.120 million viewers, including 434,000 in the 25-to-54 demo, topping The Late Show with Stephen Colbert‘s 1.896 million total viewers and 423,000 demo viewers.

Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show came next with 1.216 million total viewers, on average, and 354,000 in the demo… Gutfeld! has routinely beaten Fallon’s program, as well as Jimmy Kimmel’s Live! on ABC in the past. Live! garnered an average of 1.978 million total viewers on Tuesday, of whom 301,000 were between 25 and 54 and 198,000 were between 18 and 49.

Colbert is still tops in the 18-to-49 demo with 322,000 viewers to Gutfeld’s 281,000.

Fox News has been targeting Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel, etc. since Gutfeld! launched in March. The right-wing network bought a billboard near the studio where the Jimmy Kimmel Live! is filmed (it read, “Cancel Culture Just Got Canceled!”) and placed ads during The Late Show, The Tonight Show, The Late Late Show, and so on. I guess the marketing blitz worked — Gutfeld! is number one among uncles who still use Facebook.

All of those endless Oreo cookie flavors don’t happen on their own, and the Nabisco workers who bring us those tweets have been fighting for fair treatment, involving working hours, pay, and health benefits. In multiple factories, hundreds of workers have gone on strike over the past few weeks during ongoing contract negotiations. Nabisco’s parent company, Mondelez International (which reportedly saw record profits during the pandemic), wishes to nix the employees’ eight-hour/five-day-per-week schedule in favor of a twelve-hour/three-or-four-day schedule, but without overtime pay.

As a result, factories in Oregon, Virginia, and Colorado, are all in various shutdown states with fewer snacks forthcoming. That’s sad news for people who want to enjoy candy-corn-flavored monstrosities (as well as the good stuff) without worrying about the workers who produce them. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia actor Danny DeVito noticed and spoke out on the issue. “Support Nabisco workers striking for humane working hours, fair pay, outsourcing jobs,” he tweeted. “NO CONTRACTS NO SNACKS.”

Well, the great Danny DeVito simply wanted to express his support for fair pay as well as “SNACKS,” which is understandable. Everyone loves SNACKS! However, DeVito soon saw some drama come his way. Although he didn’t appear to run afoul of any Twitter rules, his 4 million+ strong account soon mysteriously lost its verification check.

Could this have been an accident or a sheer coincidence? If the un-verification was purposeful, this seems harsh, given that Marjorie Taylor Greene’s been suspended at least four times and still continues her abhorrent behavior with a checkmark intact. The More Perfect Union account tweeted that DeVito confirmed his stripped status to them.

And then, the disbelief began to pour forth on Thursday night.

Also mysteriously, though, Friday morning saw DeVito’s verification checkmark return.

So, what happened? No one knows for sure, but hopefully, Mondelez International will work things out with Nabisco workers, and we’ll all have more SNACKS, too.

Recently, the Destiny’s Child social media pages made some aesthetic changes, which had fans excitedly theorizing that the trio was planning some sort of reunion, whether that meant new music, some tour dates, or something else. However, now, Mathew Knowles, Beyonce’s father and the group’s manager, has put those rumors to rest.

TMZ reports that Knowles told them that there are currently no plans for Destiny’s Child to reunite, make new music, go on tour or do anything like that. As for the social media updates, those were apparently just some routine changes made be the group’s record label, which Knowles did not requested. Knowles notes, though, that the response to the Destiny’s Child rumors is “great” and shows that there’s demand for a comeback, which is something they will take into account going forward.

This all comes shortly after Beyonce offered an update on her music, saying in an interview, “I’ve been in the studio for a year and a half. Sometimes it takes a year for me to personally search through thousands of sounds to find just the right kick or snare. One chorus can have up to 200 stacked harmonies. Still, there’s nothing like the amount of love, passion, and healing that I feel in the recording studio. After 31 years, it feels just as exciting as it did when I was nine years old. Yes, the music is coming!”

No one ever thought it would be easy to replace beloved Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, who passed away in late 2020 after a protracted battle with pancreatic cancer. But few people likely expected the process of selecting a new host for the long-running game show would turn into the omnishambles it has become. On Thursday night, Stephen Colbert weighed in on the now-controversial decision to name Mike “Who?” Richards as Trebek’s successor—and seemed particularly suspicious of the fact that Richards has spent the past year working as Jeopardy!’s executive producer and, according to The New York Times, “initially led the hunt for Mr. Trebek’s replacement.”

“During their search, the show tried out everyone from friend of the show Anderson Cooper to friend of the show LeVar Burton to friend of the show Katie Couric to Dr. Oz. Which is why people were a bit surprised when, in the end, as their permanent weeknight host, the executive producers of Jeopardy! selected executive producer Mike Richards. Wow! What are the odds? Exactly the same as me getting named Stephen Colbert Magazine’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive.’”

As if the professional nepotism wasn’t enough, it didn’t take long for the media to dig up a string of troubling remarks made by Richards over the years, with Colbert noting that “women, Jews, and Haiti” have been among the targets of Richards’ not-so-funny humor (if it can be called that). Colbert pointed to one specific incident where Richards, while co-hosting a podcast with two younger women, asked the women if they had ever taken nude photos of themselves and actually said: “Like boobie pictures?” Which is where Colbert lost it:

“Boobie pictures?’ Is this the man about to become the host of America’s most beloved quiz show or a 12-year-old boy trying to sneak into an R-rated movie?”

Enough examples of bad behavior have been dragged up that some insiders are claiming Sony is allegedly having second thoughts about moving ahead with Richards’ new role. Or, as Colbert put it: “Looks like Richards’ job might be in jeopardy!”

You can watch the full clip above.

(Via Daily Beast)

Yesterday, OnlyFans announced that the platform will begin prohibiting sexually explicit content on its site, starting in October. According to Bloomberg, creators will still be allowed to post nude photos and videos, so long as they meet OnlyFans’ new policy guidelines (whatever that means, it is still all very unclear). In short, the platform is making a hard pivot toward supporting mainstream creators like musicians, chefs, influencers, and fitness instructors, and moving away from the type of creators who inarguably are responsible for people even knowing what OnlyFans is in the first place — sex workers.

The changes are apparently being made because of policy changes from credit card payment processors and the hurdles that the platform is facing in attracting new investors and banking partners to raise funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Of course, that valuation also came because they provided a safe haven for sex work — they certainly didn’t blow up because of chefs teaching people how to cook steak. Still, big brands being paranoid about partnering with a platform that traffics in any sort of clear pornography is clearly still a thing in 2021, regardless of how accepted sex work seems.

According to Fast Company, to date OnlyFans currently has over 120 million users and 1 million creators who have collectively earned more than $3 billion. Forbes puts the company’s revenue $375 million in 2020, thanks to a 20% revenue share with creators. Naturally, people had some thoughts

OnlyFans’ recent decision came as news to the many million sex workers on the platform, and sex workers are currently in a scramble figuring out what to do next and where to go from here. In an emailed press release, Dominic Ford, the founder of JustForFans, one of OnlyFans’ competitors, was quick to assure sex workers that there was still a platform willing to offer them support.

The adult industry is sadly used to companies cutting their teeth on the adult market and then abandoning them once they reach critical mass. JustFor.fans was founded and built by and for sex workers and its staff is 100% comprised of sex workers and people who have been in the porn industry for many, many years. We are a porn site. That will never change and we have no interest in “mainstreaming.”

With OnlyFans turning into more of a… well, traditional fan site, it won’t be a shock if JustForFans and others race to pick up the slack.

Summertime somehow keeps getting hotter throughout the United States, and the good news is that you don’t have to go outside to have a fantastic time. Actually, it’s best that you stay inside as much as possible with the whole Delta-variant factor at work, and Netflix is here to help you make the best of things. There’s so much on tap this week to entertain you, including new selections from two powerhouse stars. First up would be Jason Momoa in an action-thriller-vengeance picture that’s unlike anything you’ve seen him do so far. Next, Sandra Oh sets aside drama for comedy in a charming little comedy series. True crime fans will enjoy a new documentary, and there’s something to entertain the kids too. Don’t worry because we’ve picked the most bingeworthy options on the streaming service this weekend.

Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) the streaming platform this week.

Sweet Girl (Netflix film streaming 8/20)

More Jason Momoa in this world is always a wonderful thing. In this movie, however, the man who portrays Aquaman gets very serious after the death of his character’s wife. He sets out for justice against those who he believes are responsible, and he must also protect his daughter, who’s in harm’s way due to his mission. So, justice turns into vengeance, and the enemy is Big Pharma, apparently. Justin Bartha, Amy Brenneman, and Isabela Merced co-star, along with Momoa’s hair.

The Chair (Netflix series streaming 8/20)

Sandra Freaking Oh headlines this show about the first woman of color to become chair at a prominent university. In the process of adjusting to her job, she confronts dizzyingly high expectations while one of the university’s cornerstone programs is tanking. Jay Duplass co-stars (his character is a complete and delightful mess), and are we ready for Sandra Oh supremacy yet? This show is breezy and immensely charming effort from all parties, and Sandra Oh tells off everyone who pushes back against her bossdom. The trailer also features the latest song (aptly titled, “Oh!”) from viral punk teen stars The Linda Lindas.

Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes (Netflix film streaming 8/18)

This documentary shines a light on the Dennis Nilsen, who became one of Britain’s most infamous serial killers in the mid 1980s. The project gathers up over 250 hours of previously undisclosed private recordings from Nilsen himself, all found within his own personal archive. He chose his victims (young men) carefully, yet he was able to easily hide his murders for five years due to mass unemployment that sent many to London, where they found themselves without money or recourse. Not only does the film dive into the voice of Nilsen himself but also survivors, law enforcement, and bereaved families.

The Loud House Movie (Netflix film streaming 8/20)

This Nickelodeon production hops onto a voyage with the Loud family (who is clearly the biggest and the loudest family that you’ll find on TV, despite the efforts of Succession to be the baddest). Together, they’ll travel to Scotland and apparently realize that they’re actually sort-of Scottish royalty. This leads to plenty of wish fulfillment, which sounds like a wonderful escape in 2021.

Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:

Avail. 8/15
Mother Goose Club: Seasons 3-4
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai: Season 1
Winx Club: Season 6

Avail. 8/16
Walk of Shame

Avail. 8/17
Go! Go! Cory Carson: Season 5
Untold: Deal with the Devil

Avail. 8/18
The Defeated
Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes
Out of my league
The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student

Avail. 8/19
Like Crazy

Avail. 8/20
The Chair
Everything Will Be Fine
The Loud House Movie
Sweet Girl

And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:

Leaving 8/22
1BR

Leaving 8/26
The Angry Birds Movie 2

Leaving 8/27
A Princess for Christmas

Leaving 8/29
Strange but True

Leaving 8/30
Casino Royale
The Eichmann Show
Full Out
Quantum of Solace
Stranger than Fiction

Leaving 8/31
Adrift
Angel Eyes
The Big Lebowski
Chinatown
The Departed
Election
The Girl Next Door
Hey Arnold! The Movie
Hot Rod
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Love Actually
Love Happens
The Manchurian Candidate
Monsters vs. Aliens
The Muppets
Muppets Most Wanted
Nacho Libre
Moon Kingdom
Pootie Tang
The Prince & Me
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Resident Evil: Extinction
The Ring
Road to Perdition
The Social Network
Superbad
The Time Traveler’s Wife

Over four years after 2017’s Melodrama, Lorde has finally returned with a new album, Solar Power. The New Zealander’s latest project is out today, and on it is a collaboration with Robyn, titled “Secrets From A Girl (Who’s Seen It All).” The song sees Lorde addressing her younger self, followed by a spoken outro from Robyn.

Lorde told Apple Music of the song, “This is me talking to my younger self trying to impart some of the things that I learned. It was a fun place to write from. To me it’s very Eurythmics meets Robyn. And then we got Robyn to do the incredible spoken part. She’s someone I have learned a huge amount from, through song. She really completed the experience.”

This is surely a big moment for Lorde, as she’s long been a huge Robyn fan. In 2015, she chose “Dancing On My Own” as a song she wants to live forever, writing in a Tumblr post, “This song, to me, is perfect. It’s happy and sad, fiery and independent but vulnerable and small, joyous even when a heart is breaking. Every line is perfect, how that second verse (‘stilettos and broken bottles / I’m spinning around in circles’) stumbles perfectly into that bridge (‘the lights go on, the music dies / …I just came to say goodbye’), and final chorus. It’s just perfect. We put it on right there in the studio, and I was up out of my seat dancing with my eyes screwed shut, and my hands up around my ears, and we looked into each other’s eyes and sang the words, and I could feel something hot and teary in the back of my throat just from FEELING so much at once. And I think it was then when I realized I’m going to be in love with music for the rest of my life.”

Listen to “Secrets From A Girl (Who’s Seen It All)” above.

Solar Power is out now via Republic. Get it here.