Category: News

CNN has fallen on hard times. Their ratings have been dwindling and their attempt at a streamer was an instant disaster. They also have a new boss, Chris Licht, who has already implemented big changes, including trying to tone down what he sees as a leftist bent. Now he’s thinking of doing something arguably even more seismic: spicing up its primetime line-up with some jokes.

A new report from Radar Online claims that Chris Licht, the 24-hour news network’s new honcho, is thinking of doing the unthinkable and axing its current, underperforming primetime lineup. He’s specifically looking to shake up the 9pm to 11pm slots, which are currently filled by the second hour of Anderson Cooper 360 and the first hour of CNN Tonight. Instead of straight, sober news, he wants to bring in a comedian.

“They’re looking for their own version of John Oliver,” a source says, alluding to the comic’s popular HBO show.

CNN may wind up going with another Daily Show alum. The report claims they’ve been in talks with Jon Stewart to fill those two hours on a weeknightly basis. Stewart, of course, already has his own show: Apple TV+’s The Problem with Jon Stewart. But there are alternatives: CNN has also reportedly been speaking with Stewart’s Daily Show host replacement, Trevor Noah, who recently left the show, as well as Bill Maher and Arsenio Hall.

Having a comedy show on a news network isn’t a new idea. Since 2021, Fox News has the most watched late night show on television with Gutfeld!, hosted by the network’s biggest indie rock and Gwar fan, Greg Gutfeld, and which airs live starting at 11pm on weeknights. CNN seems to only make the news when it’s being funny anyway. Witness Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper’s New Year’s Eve shenanigans, which draw attention even when they’re not boozing it up on air.

(Via Radar Online)

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are (to put it mildly) overexposed in the U.S. at this point, but that hasn’t stopped Harry’s book sales from reaching record-setting heights. That’s only bound to upset their critics even more, including Piers Morgan, who was so excited to trash their Netflix show that he spent his wife’s birthday hate-watching and tweeting about the bland production. In fact, that show was so uneventful that it’s remarkable how much vitriol it inspires, and that’s where former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson comes into this story.

Recently, Clarkson penned a column for The Sun, in which he confessed, “I hate her on a cellular level.” He was also “dreaming” of a scenario when Meghan would be stripped naked and forced to walk through the streets (as people toss excrement) like Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones Season 5. Naturally, this did not go over well with readers describing the column as “vile” in the course of 6,000 complaints to England’s press regulator.

Prince Harry quickly spoke out against the column, and Clarkson has insisted that he sent a Christmas Day letter to the Sussexes, to whom he is “profoundly sorry.” That hasn’t stopped the tide against Clarkson. On Monday, Variety reported that two of Clarkson’s Amazon shows were about to receive the ax:

Sources tell Variety that the streaming service won’t be working with Clarkson beyond seasons of “The Grand Tour” and “Clarkson’s Farm” that have already been commissioned. This means that the notorious “Top Gear” presenter likely won’t be appearing in any new shows on Prime Video beyond 2024 (though there’s every chance a final “Grand Tour” episode could carry over into 2025).

Variety notes that Amazon/Prime Video declined to speak on the subject, although a previously scheduled Clarkson’s Farm press conference has been shelved as of Monday evening. That event was due to happen on Tuesday and had been on the books prior to the GoT reference, although it remains to be seen whether the show cancellations do in fact occur. Following Variety‘s initial report, Clarkson did make another public apology, “a mea culpa with bells on.”

Read his Instagram post below.

(Via Variety)

Monday’s edition of First Take came live from Tampa, as ESPN sent its shows on the road ahead of their Monday Night broadcast of the final Wild Card game between the Cowboys and Buccaneers.

Being a Monday, ESPN had Michael Irvin joining Stephen A. Smith, which is the ideal desk to get two people yelling at each other about the Dallas Cowboys. Not only did they have a live audience of fans of both teams, but they invited out the fathers of Cowboys players, including Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott’s dads, so Stephen A. Smith could look them directly in the eyes and tell them their sons were garbage. The result is some incredible television, as Stephen A. stands up to deliver his prediction of two interceptions from Prescott and a Cowboys loss on a Tom Brady-led touchdown drive at the end of the game.

The best part of this is that it’s shot like an episode of Maury, with the fathers of the Cowboys players roped off on the side while Stephen A. tells them how their sons stink and they in turn just get to boo and make hand gestures to show their disapproval. I hope this is the future of First Take, having Stephen A. yelling about how someone stinks and then have whoever’s hosting that day to just yell “COME ON OUT” and either that player or a family member comes barging onto the set, furious with SAS.

Justin Quiles is stepping in 2023 with new music. On Friday (January 13), the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter teamed up with Myke Towers for his intoxicating love song “Whiskey y Coco.” Women of all shapes and sizes star in Quiles’ music video.

Quiles is a star in reggaeton music both as an artist and a songwriter. He has co-penned hits like Becky G and Karol G’s “Mamiii” and Rosalía’s “Saoko.” Quiles has also scored global hits under his own name with “Loco” and “Colorín Colorado.” For his first taste of new music this year, he is now joining forces with Puerto Rican rapper Towers in “Whiskey y Coco.”

“For me, doing this track with Justin was an honor because he is one of the most respected songwriters in the game, as well as being an artist,” Towers said in a statement. “It is the first time that El Young King (Towers) and La Nueva Promesa (Quiles) get together and in the song you can feel the essence of Puerto Rico very strongly!”

“Whiskey y Coco” is Quiles’ ode to the popular drink combination in Puerto Rico. In the reggaeton romp with an electronic touch, Quiles sings about an empowered woman that’s got him love drunk. Towers comes through with a fiery guest verse that turns up the heat of their feel-good track. In the video, a diverse cast of women are shown vibing to the song throughout Puerto Rico. Their beauty is highlighted as Quiles and Towers sweetly serenade them.

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

Anitta has new music on the way this week. Last night (January 15), Brazilian drag pop star Gloria Groove performed her upcoming single “Proibidona” with Anitta and Valesca Popozuda in São Paulo.

Yesterday in São Paulo, Anitta hosted her event Ensaios Da Anitta. For this year’s festival, she chose to honor the women that she admires with the theme of “Warriors.” During a special performance, Anitta brought out Groove for the live debut of her single “Proibidona.” Popozuda, who is also featured on the song, joined the two artists onstage. While dressed like warrior goddesses, the three artists sang the fierce track together as the crowd went wild.

After the concert, Anitta and Groove were spotted dancing to “Proibidona” backstage. The song will be released on Wednesday, January 18. The track will mark another high-profile collaboration for Groove following her epic banger “Ameianoite” featuring Pabllo Vittar, which released in October.

Earlier this month, Anitta announced that she was hard at work on her next album, which will be a return to her funk carioca, or Brazilian funk, roots. 2022 proved to be a breakthrough year for the Brazilian superstar thanks to the success of her single “Envolver” from the Versions Of Me album. Anitta is nominated for Best New Artist at next month’s Grammy Awards.

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

Avatar: The Way of Water is a massive, massive hit, which is a big relief: It means James Cameron will follow through and give it a whole mess of sequels. That means he’ll be able to show more sides of Pandora. We already know the next one will feature “Ash People” — a race of Na’vi who aren’t very nice. Where else could he go? Will we see ice Na’vi? City Na’vi? Spellunking Na’vi? Casino Na’vi? Maybe they could even leave Pandora and go to space. If you like that idea, you were almost in luck.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Way of Water co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver revealed some of the ideas that almost but not quite found their way into the series’ first sequel. One of them found them heading into the cosmos.

“There was one idea of a space battle with Navi,” Jaffa told EW. “That idea got a lot of traction, and we talked a lot about it. We were struggling, though. How would that work with the story that we’re telling? Jim said, ‘Well, give me a few weeks.’ He went off and he wrote an entire script. And, by the way, a brilliant script.”

Alas, the idea was too much for the writers room. “At the end of the day, the whole script got thrown out because it just didn’t really work with the story we were telling,” Jaffa revealed.

That said, it’s cool idea. It’s easy to think of the Avatar franchise as space movies because it finds humans traveling to another planet. But the Na’vi are always Pandora-bound. Since there are going to be a bunch more Avatar sequels, surely one of them can send those giant blue creatures to space for wicked some laser battles or whatever. Maybe even have them head to Earth to stomp all around New York City or go see some jazz at The Village Vanguard. Now that Cameron’s no longer worried people had gotten over Avatar, the sky’s the limit.

(Via EW)

Lewis Capaldi is the people’s champion. The Scottish pop hitmaker (and funnyman) never misses an opportunity for disarming relatability. Don’t forget that Capaldi was mistaken for a seat-filler at the 2020 Grammys, where he was nominated for Song Of The Year for “Someone You Loved.” He lost that night but won in the same category at the following month’s BRIT Awards.

The 2023 BRIT Awards are scheduled for Saturday, February 11 at London’s O2 Arena. Capaldi is nominated for Song Of The Year (again) for his September single “Forget Me,” but he has zero expectations. He joined BBC Radio 1 and was asked about going up against LF System (“Afraid To Feel”) for the honor.

“To be honest, I don’t think either of us have to worry ’cause ‘As It Was,’ Mr. Harry Styles, is in the same category,” Capaldi said. “So, I’m just looking forward to going along and seeing what regalia he turns up in and accepts the award in. I’m very excited, and hopefully, I’ll get close enough to him that I can smell him.”

Along Capaldi, Styles, and LF System, the Song Of The Year candidates are Aitch and Ashanti’s “Baby,” Cat Burns’ “Go,” Dave’s “Starlight,” Ed Sheeran and Elton John’s “Merry Christmas,” Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal’s “BOTA (Baddest Of Them All), George Ezra’s “Green Green Grass,” and Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” (as noted by BBC).

To Capaldi’s point, “As It Was” has enjoyed record-breaking success atop Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart since its release last spring. But we shouldn’t overlook “Unholy,” which made Smith and Petras the first publicly non-binary solo artist and first publicly transgender solo artist, respectively, to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 in October. It’s also worth noting that Capaldi’s “Forget Me” peaked at No. 74 on the Hot 100 last week and has been charting for eight total weeks.

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

The Brooklyn Nets are once again trying to navigate life without Kevin Durant after the star suffered a sprained MCL last week in what became a win over the Miami Heat.

Since then, the Nets have dropped back-to-back games, first an understandable 109-98 loss to the East-leading Celtics followed by a more concerning 112-102 loss to the Thunder at home. The offense dropping off without KD isn’t a surprise, but it is notable for a team that is best known for its scoring output. Replacing a 30-point scorer is never easy, but with Kyrie Irving still on what most consider an upgraded roster, the hope in Brooklyn was they could at least tread water until Durant gets back in, hopefully, not much more than another week.

After the loss to OKC, Irving was asked about why this year can be different without Durant and he said that their struggles without Durant wasn’t on the mind of the players in the locker room.

He would also take a crack at James Harden, noting that while having him play every day will help, so will having someone who isn’t “halfway in” in the locker room.

Harden rather famously wasn’t happy with the Nets situation last year, pushing his way to Philadelphia in a trade, which was reportedly largely due to Irving‘s absence from home games for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. That disdain is apparently mutual, but Irving will have to back up these comments on the court by leading Brooklyn to some wins with four games coming up this week — starting with the actively tanking Spurs, which should provide a bounceback point for the Nets.

After getting roasted online last week following the release of Shakira’s “BZRP Music Sessions #53,” Gerard Piqué has responded to the diss track. The Spanish soccer player made some alliances with two brands that also got burned in Shakira’s song.

In two of the most viral lyrics from her Bizarrap music session, Shakira compared Piqué’s relationship with his current girlfriend Clara Chía Marti as downgrading to a Twingo car and a Casio watch. “You traded in a Ferrari for a Twingo / You traded in a Rolex for a Casio,” Shakira sang in Spanish. Piqué joined forces with both brands as his response to Shakira.

During a Twitch live-stream with Kings League on Friday, Piqué announced that the group received a sponsorship from Casio. “Casio has sent us wrist watches,” he said in Spanish. “We reached a sponsorship agreement with Casio, the Kings League struck a deal with Casio.” When asked if he was joking, Piqué responded, “No, I’m being serious.”

Over the weekend, while driving to Kings League, Piqué arrived to work in a Twingo car. When he stepped out of the car, he was photographed once again wearing a Casio watch.

“BZRP Music Sessions #53” debuted at No. 1 on Spotify’s Global 50 chart on Friday. About the song’s success, Shakira wrote, “This goes out to all the women who taught me that when life throws you sour lemons, there’s no other choice but to make lemonade.”

If you missed out on seeing BTS’ Yet To Come In Busan, you’ll be able to see it in theaters soon.

First announced last month, ARMY and followers of BTS are now able to grab a sneak peak of what went down on one of the most historic nights in K-pop concert history with BTS Yet To Come In Cinemas.

Though it may not be the same as attending in person, the trailer released today (January 16) may ensue chills down your spine as the teaser shows the iconic septet take the stage in the middle of 55,000 attendees at the in Busan. In a mix of aerial shots of the crowd, or closeups of members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook performing or running around the stage, to a sea of Army bong lighsticks swaying in unison, BTS’ Yet To Come in Cinema may trigger emotions and, perhaps, tears with the final speeches by the members.

The cinematic cut of BTS’ Yet To Come concert in Busan will be available on the big screen beginning February 1 worldwide. The concert movie will be available to view in, not only 2D, but also ScreenX and 4DX as well. Those wanting to check it out can reserve tickets on the movie’s official website.