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In the world of cinema — bear with me for a second — the best movies always come out at the end of the year. From October to December, the silver screen is hit with “serious” films, Oscar-bait, and artistic statements. It’s a season that belongs less to blockbusters and more to the auteurs. In 2024, fast food is doing the same thing, only instead of giving us great films, fast food is giving us what we all truly want: more chicken sandwiches (though we wouldn’t be surprised if we one day get a film about chicken sandwiches, stranger things have happened).

It’s no secret that this decade is all about the chicken sandwich. We’ve turned our back on the mighty beef patty and opened our hearts — our, you know, mouths — to fried fillets of chicken breast.

This year, we’ve already ranked 25 different chicken sandwiches. So what are we to do when this month we’re hit with not one, not two, but three brand new chicken sandwiches? Put ‘em to the mighty blind taste test to see which is most worth your money, of course!

Methodology

For this blind taste test, we’ve rounded up all the newest chicken sandwiches, including the McDonald’s Chicken Big Mac, the Popeyes Ghost Pepper Chicken Sandwich, and the Burger King Fiery Royal Crispy Chicken Sandwich. Luckily, I live in close proximity to all three restaurants, so I can scoop up each sandwich quickly, allowing me to eat each sandwich while they are still hot and fresh. I’d say that makes for a fair-blind taste test.

After I picked up all three sandwiches, I returned home, took photos of each, and had my girlfriend shuffle them up and serve each one to me at random while I wore a blindfold. I took exactly three bites of each, recorded my initial impressions, and ranked each from worst to best.

Here are the results.

Part 1: The Blind Chicken Sandwich Taste Test

Taste 1:

Right off the bat, I’m getting an intense surge of cayenne pepper heat. It’s nice and spicy and kicks the salivary glands into action. The tomatoes and lettuce provide a bit of reprieve from the heat, but the finish is still pretty spicy, and the heat intensifies between bites. The chicken has a crispy and airy breading, and the meat is tender but a bit bland outside of all the spice.

Taste 2:

With just one bite, I can already tell there is so much wrong with this chicken sandwich. It’s bland, the meat is spongey and heavily processed, and its way too bready. I’m going to guess this is the Chicken Big Mac because I can taste so much bread that I can’t imagine this being any of the other sandwiches.

While I don’t like the taste of the chicken, the breading is nice, airy, and very crispy. It provides a nice audible crunch but I can’t seem myself returning to this one. I begrudgingly took a few more bites to see if the flavor would grow on me. It didn’t.

Taste 3:

After a big, pleasing crunch, I’m getting juicy and tender chicken gently seasoned with a mix of garlic, onion, and spices, with a slightly fruity, buttery finish. The sauce used here helps to accentuate and elevate the wonderful seasoning blend. Here is what I love about this sandwich: it feels like the chicken is the star and that’s the sign of a great chicken sandwich.

Part 2: The Blind Chicken Sandwich Ranking

3. McDonald’s — Chicken Big Mac

McDonald’s still hasn’t perfected the chicken sandwich. It’s the McDonald’s menu’s one true weak point. I love a chicken nugget as much as the next person, but I don’t need one in sandwich form, and this sandwich comes across like that.

It’s too heavily processed, too bland in flavor, and has way too much bread. If McDonald’s truly wants to be a contender in the chicken sandwich wars, it’s going to need to raise the quality of its chicken filet to be a true contender.

The Bottom Line:

If you already like chicken sandwiches from McDonald’s, this might be worth experiencing, but if you don’t, this won’t win you over.

2. Burger King — Fiery Royal Chicken Sandwich

I’m really surprised by this one! Burger King’s “fiery” blend of spices is unique and really delivers on the heat. It doesn’t come close to being as good as our top pick from this blind taste test, but it’s easily the best chicken sandwich Burger King has dropped since the beloved but discontinued Ch’King.

I’m interested in trying the bacon and Swiss cheese version of this sandwich, I imagine that’ll add a lot to what this sandwich offers.

The Bottom Line:

Easily Burger King’s best chicken sandwich right now.

1. Popeyes — Ghost Pepper Chicken Sandwich

Popeyes’ Ghost Pepper Chicken Sandwich is so far ahead of the other two we tasted, that I almost feel bad for the competition. This takes an already great chicken sandwich and dials up the heat a bit, which results in an even better chicken sandwich.

What won us over with this one is how much focus was put on the chicken filet itself. It’s juicy, tender, crunchy, and well-seasoned. The pickles and sauce aren’t doing any of the heavy lifting here, which is the way it should be.

The Bottom Line:

The Ghost Pepper Chicken Sandwich isn’t just the best new chicken sandwich dropped this month, it’s also the best new chicken sandwich dropped all year.

Happy belated birthday to Cardi B, who celebrated turning 32 on October 11. It was actually Cardi who gave a gift to her fans, though, by revealing what her stage name used to be back when she worked as a stripper, before her current music stardom.

In an Instagram post from yesterday (October 13) featuring multiple photos and videos showing off a dress, Cardi wrote:

“So let me tell ya about my little thotty dress.. the dress I was gonna wear for my birthday was a little too small and there wasn’t enough fabric… so I got my ass in a truck and went to Staten dolls gentlemen’s club where I worked at for four years and bought this little dress because baby NOTHING was gonna stop this night… I love the fact that they don’t see me like CARDI B.. they still treat me like CAMILLA (Fun fact.. that was my stripper name [laughing emojis]).”

Cardi and her dress apparently had quite the evening: In a video shared on her Instagram Story the day after (archived by Hollywood Unlocked), a disheveled-looking Cardi declares, “I will never, ever drink again. I will never pray for me… wait [laughs]… I’m still drunk. I will never drink again.”

Sydney Sweeney is happily engaged. No one is going to come between her and fiancé Jonathan Davino. Not Glen Powell and certainly not a human-sized duck. During ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday, the mascot for the University of Oregon Ducks appeared behind the hosts and guest / It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Kaitlin Olson — feel free to make a bird joke later, this is not the time — with a sign. It read, “Sydney Sweeney call me back.”

The duck shot his shot, and was turned down in front of millions of people.

Sweeney responded to the Carly Rae Jepsen-like request on Instagram. “Sorry. Changed my number haha,” the Euphoria actress wrote in a Story to her 22.4 million followers. Ouch. At least Oregon won their game against Ohio State. Otherwise, it would be all-time bad day for the Duck.

As for Sweeney, she’s used to this. While promoting Anyone But You on an Australian talk show last year, the actress shared that she went to her first Australian Football League game and “got to meet everybody. I want to go back.” Co-star Powell chimed in, “Well, they had a good time meeting Sydney as well. The whole team slid into her DMs afterward. It was… Australia wanted to welcome her to town fast.” Sweeney joked, “Yeah… in a very big way.”

Hopefully the Oregon mascot didn’t send her a duck pic.

WBD is betting big on James Gunn’s retooling of the DCU, and he has been taking his time to get things right, which is just fine because he’s not taking the simplest path to reinventing DC superheroes onscreen. Nor is he taking the safest route, given his Peacemaker revelations the most minute details, including naming The Suicide Squad and running with that irreverent yet twisted attitude.

Gunn and Peter Safran are executive producing the HBO drama series Lanterns with Chris Mundy set as showrunner and details beginning to come together. As comic book fans know the Green Lantern Corps. contains 7,000+ members, and at least a few of them will surface in this show. Let’s put on our nerd caps and mull over what to expect from this series.

Cast

The two leads of the series are set in small-screen stone. Kyle Chandler (of the upcoming Back In Action and of Friday Night Lights fame) will star as the older version of Hal Jordan, the same Lantern that Ryan Reynolds once disastrously (and he knows it) portrayed on the big screen. As for his co-lead, his star is currently on the rise, which makes this tidbit ultra satisfying.

Aaron Pierre, who earned Bond comparisons in Netflix and Jeremy Saulnier’s, will Rebel Ridge and will soon be heard in Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa: The Lion King, will step up as Lantern John Stewart.

As the casting trickle usually goes, we should hear more names soon.

Plot

Gunn and WBD have kept a tight lid on plot details, but the Guardians of the Galaxy helmer did share that the series “is putting together a crack team of writers, based on a wonderful pilot script and bible by Chris Mundy, Tom King, and Damon Lindelof.” King, of course, is infamous in DC comic book circles as a prolific writer, and Lindelof is no stranger to DC after reinterpreting Alan Moore’s Watchmen for HBO.

Do we want a logline while we wait for more specifics? Why not:

The series follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.

Release Date

Don’t expect this series to pop right into existence. 2026 looks like the most likely bet, which is fine because Gunn surely does not want to flub the DCU’s debut.

Trailer

No way, man. However, this seems like an optimal time to remind everyone that Ryan Reynolds realized that his Hal Jordan run was never meant to be.

The main ingredient found in all of chef Wes Avila’s cooking is his restless, creative spirit. In just over a decade, the Pico Rivera-born chef (just one town over from where I grew up) has transformed all notions of what a taco could be at Guerilla Tacos, combining ingredients like fried oysters, sweet potatoes, sushi-grade yellowtail, and other meats and veggies generally unfamiliar to the tortilla, explored the rich and ancient flavors of the Yucatan at his restaurant Ka’teen, took his unique approach to Mexican-influenced food to Kyoto, Japan with Piopiko, and created my personal favorite, the Angry Egrete Dinette, a Chinatown Los Angeles based culinary playground where the James Beard nominated chef made whatever the hell he felt like making with whatever ingredients were on hand.

Chef Avila has a habit of making an impact and then stepping away from his work to explore new passions. In 2020 he stepped down as Executive Chef at Guerilla, leaving the Arts District taqueria in the skillful hands of Chef Jason Beberman and Chef Steven Londono, and although the Angry Egrete Dinette was beloved and earned Avila a James Beard nomination for “Best New Restaurant,” the restaurant was supposed to be a three-month pop-up but ended up extending itself to a three-year project.

Avila closed AED’s doors on New Year’s Eve of last year. It’s Avila’s ability to step away and reimagine his cooking that makes him such a vital, beloved, and inspiring chef and although we miss AED, we knew it was only a matter of time before he brought us something new.

And that new something is the West Hollywood-based MXO Steakhouse, a contemporary Mexican wood-fire steakhouse inspired by the cuisine of Monterrey and infused with Avila’s own unique approach to flavor.

We caught up with the chef to talk MXO, his plans for the future, the evolution of Mexican cuisine in America, and why he’ll (probably) never create another food truck concept again.

What can you tell me about this new West Hollywood joint, MXO? What was the plan going in and what has you excited about it?

The plan going in was to do something a little bit different. I had done the taqueria thing, we had done the Tulum thing, and so after visiting Monterey and some of the other northern cities, I found that there was a lack of a Mexican steakhouse in the United States and specifically in Los Angeles.

I couldn’t think of a steakhouse where you can get a good cut of steak and Mexican sides and tortillas. So I talked to my business partners about this and they were like, “let’s do it.” So we found this space with some other partners and started finishing out the build. The whole thing was to do wood fire cooking, a big focus on different steak cuts and just a good quality steakhouse with a Mexican twist, Northern Mexican twist specifically.

This is your first restaurant in West Hollywood, what made that location ideal for you?

It’s kind of two things. It fell into our perimeter that this location was available, and it was halfway built already because it had been getting built during the pandemic and then, like a lot of places, it just kind of changed. So I think ownership there had changed hands a little bit and the space was available about halfway built out, so when we jumped on it the kitchen plan was already there. Some of the infrastructure was already there, and so we took over.

And then the location is great, it being on La Cienega, it’s real central to that area. When I had my food truck, I had a stop right there off of Beverly, at the Blue Bottle. I knew the kind of clientele that would eat there and I was like, “it’d be really cool to do a space on this side of town and make it accessible to that side of town.” Because most of my other shops were on the south side, so I was really stoked to do that.

I want to talk a little bit about your restaurant Ka-Teen. The focus is on dishes from the Yucatan. What do you think people need to know about that type of cuisine and how did you get into it personally?

Just from visiting honestly, within the last, I guess, four to five years, I had been going to Tulum and Merida more than a couple of times, and it’s just something that kind of stuck with me and stood out that there hadn’t been — there’s been comida Yucateca, for sure in Los Angeles. You have every region already, but you didn’t get something specifically Tulum, like the vibes, like when you went to the beach and you’re walking and you can smell the copal and you hear the music and the jungle and along with that really good food. So that’s what got me inspired with Ka-Teen, that whole vibe.

The last two places, Ka’Teen and MXO — I mean you’ve always done very elevated food, but these are very high end spaces. Do you think you’ll ever do another street food concept?

Not specifically street food, not necessarily where I have a truck again, but I mean never say never. Never’s a long time. But I will probably be working on a fast casual concept next. Not something where it’s hardcore street style, but more kind of Egret-ish like I was doing there. It was a little bit more casual between street food and not so elevated, a little bit more approachable.

Speaking of Angry Egret, that was initially supposed to be a pop-up, if I understand that correctly, and it kind of just took off. It got a James Beard nomination. How often are people asking you to reopen it or do something similar to that?

I get emails to do ghost kitchen stuff with it pretty often actually where it’s like “Chef, you just come in, you do your couple of burritos, like the bangers.” But right now my focus is MXO, getting that locked in, dialed in. The crew’s doing a really great job already, but getting that really dialed in and getting all the bolts tightened.

After that, what I’m thinking is something kind of Egret-ish, but scalable where we can do multiple units. The thing with Egret was that it was so unique and we changed the menu so much, there’s no fucking way that I’d be able to do one here, one there, one over there with it being consistent. So I would probably distill my best ideas from Egret and distill some of my favorite stuff from Ka-Teen, more from MXO and do something a little bit more casual.

Which I can’t talk too much about the casual, the new one that I’m doing because it’s not really fleshed out quite yet.

That’s exciting either way! You have a lot of restaurants in L.A., you have the Kyoto restaurant, I know you do a lot of pop-ups worldwide. What country or city’s food space is really exciting you right now?

I mean Japan’s always number one for me, Japan’s always really exciting. I mean, Mexican food is my favorite, but vibes and energy and just where it’s like, fuck dude, there’s so much delicious food. Japan specifically in Osaka and Kyoto are popping… It’s their independent little places. It’s the mom and pop. There’s so many mom and pops there, it’s incredible.

I’m talking places that are the size of three, four seats. The restaurant is like a little bar and it’ll be packed with multiple different restaurants where you won’t even know how to get to it after you find it. It’s just so interesting to me and fascinating the amount of care that Japanese chefs and Japanese cooks put into their food that even in those little shops, you can get a really, really good meal that isn’t on anybody’s radar. You just have them find them by happenstance, just by walking.

Are you familiar with the artist Estevan Oriol?

Sure!

I was just talking to him a couple of weeks ago and we were talking about low rider culture and he brought up how the Japanese are killing it in low rider culture

For sure. They take it to the next level. I was actually speaking to a painter that I met through Instagram. I have a food truck. Funny thing, I bought it to do a food truck, but then I was like, “I don’t ever want to do a food truck again.” But it’s a really cool 1959 Dodge P300, so it’s a mail delivery van from the fifties. It doesn’t look like your typical square international food truck, those standard ones, it’s round. It’s got the flat front end, these really interesting lights, crazy bumper, and I called this painter in Salinas in northern California that does low rider, old school low rider paint, and so I’m probably going to turn into a giant low rider van.

He was telling me he’s visiting Nagoya in the winter to go paint cars because the low rider culture is so strong.

How come you don’t want to do another food truck? You feel like you’ve spent enough time in a tiny, cramped space with no air conditioning?

It’s not even the tiny space, bro. Honestly, it’s just the same amount of headache as opening a restaurant except on top of a 6,000 pound moving vehicle. It’s dangerous, there are accidents. One thing that happens with food trucks is you have the same problems you have have with a restaurant, you get floods, you have robberies, on top of that you get flat tires, you get fender benders, you get propane accidents, you get no power in your generator.

You name it, it’s multiplied. I’d say by at least five-fold the problems of a restaurant you have in a food truck. I mean the benefit there is you always have the prime location. If you’re not doing good business, a lot of times the answer is to just move. You can move two blocks. I remember when I was in the arts district and I moved two blocks over, I had guests that were like, “where’d you go? We haven’t seen you in a year.” And I was like, “dude, I’m two blocks over.” They’re like, “oh, it’s the art district. Nobody goes further than a block here, a block there.” He was right. A lot of times people just do not walk in L.A.

The good thing about the food truck is that you can move, but for me it’s so much more pressure running a food truck and unless you build out brand new ones, it’s very expensive. It’s as expensive as a restaurant. A build out on just your truck is close to $300K. Well, it was close to $300K three years ago when I was looking at it, so it might be more like $325, $350 now, it’s expensive, bro. And it takes a while to make that money back. You got to sell a lot of fucking tacos to make that kind of money. So that’s why it’s not as appealing to me.

You’re one of the first people in L.A. who started to transform the idea of what a taco could be at Guerrilla Tacos. You did all kinds of crazy stuff putting all kinds of foods on tortillas that most people wouldn’t expect. What made you want to challenge the preconception of what a taco could be in America?

Honestly, it was set and setting, bro. It was something that nobody was doing on the market when I was doing it. So I kind of struck at the right time with that idea and a lot of that stuff was instilled in me as a cook and as a chef, this idea of using seasonality.

And on the street, you’re dealing directly with customers. You don’t have your chef that’s running your place. You don’t have a GM that’s running your place. You are cooking, you are serving, people are eating, they’re talking to you. So I ask, I’m like, “Hey, if I added a couple of extra ingredients from the farmer’s market, would you guys be okay if I charge the dollar or two more for the taco?” And they’re like, “fuck yeah.” So it opened up my mind. I was like, all right, fuck it.

I’m going to do pork belly, I’m going to do pig head, I’m going to do cocktails of camaron with blood clams and surf clams and all this other shit on the street and just kind of pushing myself. It honestly was kind of a guilty thing, pushing it myself. It wasn’t that I’m doing this to impress people. It was like, this is fucking good. And then after by default people were like, “this is fucking good.” So it kind worked out like that. I also think I was fortunate to be in that really early cusp of street food.

The second or third wave of food trucks had died, by that time. It was kind of like the taper end of that real second huge pop of people kind trying to copy what Kogi did years ago, years before me, so it was kind of the tail end of that.

But there was a lot of food trucks on the market and they weren’t street carts, they were pop-ups. The only pop-ups that were doing stuff like that was Ludo Bites. And it wasn’t like it is now where people set up a street cart. That just wasn’t happening. The only people doing street carts were Rasa and they were doing them for years. They’ve doing the little hot dog carts, the little dirt dogs and taquerias that you’d see. But as far as being an American born Mexican, Chicano, you didn’t see that. You didn’t see chefs doing that. You didn’t see them setting up like that. So I was, if they can do it, why can’t I? So when I got shut down by the police, they said, “where’s your permit?” I have it, but I didn’t bring it with me. They kind of rolled their eyes and they’re like, “you need to shut it down”. They know that it wasn’t legal then. This was 2012, 12 years ago. It’s a while back.

Were the tacos you were making kind of a hard sell for people just walking on the streets who maybe weren’t familiar with what you were trying to do?

Not where I was at. I was in the art district and the art district had a pretty Bohemian crowd. So you had artists, you had people who were car dudes and you had some people come through that were like truck drivers or whatever who would be doing deliveries and stop by. And they’re like, “what do you got? Do you have a thigh, you have chicken?” I was like, “nope, I got pork belly, I have short rib.” And they’re like, “that’s all right, cool. Fucking pork belly, short rib.” As long as its meat it works for most people.

And then if you can tell them what kind of cut of meat it is, they’re okay with it. It starts getting ridiculous when you start getting an $8 taco or a $9 taco or a $10 taco. At the time I’d get some pushback and I get the occasional fucking idiot. That’d be like, “I can get this for $2 up the street.” And my and my wife’s reaction would be like, “then go up the street! I don’t need your energy bro. Fuck off. There’s La Reynas up the street. Go to La Reynas. You want those ones that are like all meat, you don’t even know where comes from. Go be my guest. So they’re a dollar, two dollars. Go ahead. I have no problem losing a customer if they were being negative and weird like that.”

How do you feel about the way that Mexican food in America is undervalued?

I think honestly a lot of that’s shifting. I think it’s very true in some markets, but Los Angeles, it’s changed a lot. I mean, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a dollar taco stand. Even La Raza you won’t find it, not for a good one. You ain’t going to get no fucking dollar taco. You get places that are good Street Mexican owned, Mexican ran tacos. They’re running three bucks, four bucks now.

There’s no front end where you can find one for like a dollar now, no fuck you, where are they a dollar where are they 50 cents? You could not survive. You couldn’t make that. It doesn’t exist anymore. So I think that’s changed a lot. And the Tex-Mex thing with the rice and beans and combo it’s not really as popular anymore. That was true 15 years ago. Now it’s not as popular. You get more regionality. You get what Oaxacan restaurants, you get Teco restaurants, you get Sonoran restaurants, etc. You pick what kind of Mexican food you want now. So if somebody’s going to a Cevicheria and complain about food, that’s the one that Mexicans don’t complain about. If you’re doing raw or you’re doing seafood, they won’t complain about the price because seafood is fucking expensive and they know it.

Another thing I was talking with Estevan about a lot was Chicano culture and how Chicano culture for him specifically in the nineties, was very resonant. It was very much a part of his personality. And now with the younger generations, that identity is starting to wane a little bit, starting to shift and change into something new. Do you ever feel a need to represent Chicano culture through cuisine? Or are you already doing that just by being Chicano?

I think I’m already doing that by it being a mix. My food is not straight-up Mexican, it isn’t. And I’ve never said it is. People get huffy about this, “this isn’t Sonora, this isn’t Monterey.” I never said it was, I said I was inspired by Monterey. I said I was inspired by the Yucatan. I never said this is Comida Yucateca. I never said, this is Comida teconas, I’ve never said that. I’ve always said my food is my food through my eyes being born and raised in LA of Mexican descent. You know what I mean? And that’s straight-up Chicano right there, as much as it could be.

You’ve pushed the taco, you’ve even pushed the torta. Is there any other Mexican food staple you think is due for transformation? An elevation or something you’d like to see? Not even necessarily something you want to do yourself?

I don’t know. That’s a good question. I think it’d be really cool to see a little bit more Afro Mexican cuisine. I know they exist. I know that there’s paisa out there that are half black, half brown. I think it’d be interesting to see some more representation of that kind of food. You don’t see too much of it in the United States at all, and I know it exists. I imagine it being very good. I talked to Bill Sparsan and he’s mentioned some places in Oaxaca, specifically these beach towns where there’s a much bigger population of Afro Mexicanos. And he said the food is really fucking interesting there. That’s the kind of food I want to taste next. That’s something I’d be really interested in seeing and trying, that hybrid of both cultures, especially through that eye of Southern Mexico.

Billie Eilish is touring in support of her latest album, Hit Me Hard And Soft, at the moment. Notably, Finneas, Eilish’s brother and creative partner who has performed with her since the beginning, has been missing from some shows, as he’s touring behind his own album, For Cryin’ Out Loud!. Some might wonder if this means the end of an era for the two, but Eilish insists it doesn’t.

When Eilish was asked in a recent Los Angeles Times interview “if any conclusions should be drawn” about the current situation, Eilish responded, “It’s really not the end of anything. You can’t be in two places at once.”

Eilish has been setting herself up to be more autonomous when it comes to making music, though: In an interview last month, Finneas said, “I’ve been setting up Billie’s recording studio for her so she can do home production without me, because she’s very good at it! And it’s funny, I’ve been giving her, like, the bare minimum of stuff, just so that she learns it all… I’m like ‘Listen, I could give you all the stuff that I use now, but it took me years to even have a use for it. And, if I give you this basic thing, it’ll make sense to you right away.”

Chappell Roan‘s The Midwest Princess Tour kicked off in September 2023 at a venue (Springfield, Missouri’s Gillioz Theatre) with a capacity of 1,300. It came to an end 13 months later in front of approximately 75,000 people.

For the second weekend in a row, Roan performed a headliner-worthy set at ACL Fest. The setlist was essentially the same, minus her cover of “Barracuda” by Heart; she was apparently sick and on the verge of losing her voice. Luckily, Roan will have time to recover, as she’s finished with touring for the year and has only one more “show” on the schedule: SNL. Roan is the musical guest for a November 2 episode with host John Mulaney, and during her ACL performance, she may have revealed one of the songs she’s going to sing.

“Right before pink pony club she said ‘this is the last time I’m playing this in 2024 … (looks back at her band) oh wait. Just kidding no it’s not. Oops my bad!’ While laughing it off,” according to Reddit user jacoblindner. So, it sounds like “Pink Pony Club” will be one of her SNL songs. It’s likely the other will be her biggest Hot 100 hit, “Good Luck, Babe!”

Other highlights of the ACL show included a rare comet in the sky, which you can see here, and Chappell Roan becoming “Strappell Roan.” Or as one fan account put it,” chappell roan wearing a strap on stage. that’s it. that’s the tweet.”

Being a Dutton sounds stressful, given the amount of time spent worrying about losing the ranch, but Taylor Sheridan knows how to wield that worry to keep Yellowstone audience viewers coming back for more drama. Additionally, the former Sons Of Anarchy cop also appears to know when to pull the plug on a prequel series. 1883 limited itself for a single season with 1923 preparing for a second and final outing to tie up Jacob and Cara Dutton’s story. The saga might or might not be bidding farewell to present-time Yellowstone (reports of a possible continuation persist) with that series’ fifth season.

Then there’s The Madison sitting on the horizon for more present-day Yellowstone stories, but first, let’s roll out where 1923 could go before sauntering into the sunset.

Cast

A trio of prominent new cast members will surface. Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter, Dexter: New Blood, and maybe Dexter: Resurrection) will portray Mamie Fossett, a Deputy U.S. Marshall who just might have as much swagger as Raylan Givens from Justified. Janet Montgomery (This Is Us, New Amsterdam) will portray Hillary, “a thoughtful woman who does not want to see injustice go unpunished,” according to Deadline, which further reported that Augustus Prew (The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, Players) is onboard as Paul, “a dapper, bookish, well-to-do young British man on a passenger ship.”

More good news: The Mosquito Coast co-stars still have chemistry decades later. That is to say, Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren made the trek back for this second season. Brandon Sklenar wouldn’t miss this reunion either, and we can certainly expect more elbowing by Timothy Dalton after Whitfield’s tax maneuver, as well as the return of Michelle Randolph, although actual confirmation doesn’t exist there or with Robert Patrick, Jerome Flynn, Brian Geraghty, Aminah Nieves, and/or Julia Schlaepfer.

Plot

As opposed to the overwhelmingly positive cast news above, the filming schedule has had some lingering setbacks from those Hollywood strikes. Ford and Mirren were hard at work earlier this summer, and production will carry on through the fall with the City of San Antonio revealed filming took place not only there but also throughout Texas. Don’t expect first-season locations like Malta or Africa to show up this time, but there will be portions of the series filming this fall in Butte, Montana throughout the rest of October.

The ongoing story, however, sounds more positive than news about those pesky delays. Brandon Sklenar, who portrays Spencer Dutton, has revealed how thrilled he was to resume filming after having “had all the scripts for six months.” He specified that this season’s “tone shifts a lot and it’s definitely a bit darker” but “very beautiful,” and “the finale of the series is probably one of the best things I’ve read in my life.” Can we guess that this bodes well for Spencer and Alexandra both both presumably heading to the ranch (post-duel), perhaps to help launch future Yellowstone spinoff 1944? Sklenar isn’t telling, but he sounds pumped for an inarticulate reason.

Whichever show that Spencer appears on next, however, he should figure in prominently. As the son of 1883‘s James and Margaret, Spencer occupies a particularly messy branch of the Dutton family tree that will hopefully gain more clarity before 1923 ends. Meanwhile, previous speculation that Elizabeth is Jack Dutton III’s grandmother might be dead in the water following her miscarriage, but never say never. One thing that is certain is that Whitfield will remain a pain in the Duttons’ asses after stepping up to pay those property taxes and salivating over the prospect of seizing the ranch.

Release Date

1923 won’t return until mid-2025 at the earliest. That will be more than two years after the renewal landed, but this slow return can largely be blamed on the 2023 Hollywood strikes. Additionally, Taylor Sheridan has so many other TV shows in the works and more to come, so staggered release dates are to be expected to keep the Paramount+ slate humming along nicely.

Trailer

In lieu of a trailer or released footage, we will reflect upon Taylor Sheridan discussing how he writes a zillion shows in a seemingly effortless fashion.

Kendrick Lamar has had a massive 2024 thanks to his feud with Drake, especially his No. 1 hit diss track “Not Like Us.” Naturally, the situation has fans wondering if Lamar has a new album on the way, to follow 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Well, some people close to him might just be indicating that he indeed does have a project in the queue.

On October 7, Devin Malik, a Top Dawg Entertainment-affiliated producer who has worked with Lamar, tweeted a celebratory clip of Lamar rapping “Not Like Us” and wrote, “mood cause new k dot album otwwww.” Yesterday (October 13), SZA shared the tweet on her Instagram Story, seemingly indicating she either also knows of a forthcoming Lamar album or is just excited about the prospect.

Adding credence to the rumor is a report from last week, which indicated Lamar is currently organizing a “tour of major stadiums,” which would suggest he’d be touring in support of a new project. The same report claimed Lamar turned down an invitation to headline Coachella in 2025.

Meanwhile, J. Cole recently addressed dipping out of his beef with Lamar on the new song “Port Antonio,” rapping in part, I pulled the plug because I’ve seen where that was ’bout to go / They wanted blood, they wanted clicks to make they pockets grow.”

Max doesn’t have a Netflix-style “most popular” ranking, but if it did, The Big Bang Theory would probably place very high on the all-time TV list. The sitcom, created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, was a huge hit over the course of its 12-season run on CBS, and based on the impressive ratings of prequel series Young Sheldon, it remains massively popular. So would you be surprised to learn that Max is working on a new The Big Bang Theory show? Bazinga!

Here’s everything we know about The Big Bang Theory spinoff, including plot details and returning cast members.

Plot

In April 2023, we learned that The Big Bang Theory creator Chuck Lorre is “developing a new comedy series” in The Big Bang Theory universe. “It is believed to be an hour-long series featuring a mostly new cast with potential for known Big Bang stars to appear in guest spots,” Variety reported at the time. Well, it’s over a year and a half later, and that’s still all we know (with the exception of some casting developments, as seen below).

If the spinoff (The Bigger Bang Theory?) ends up making it to Max, it will be the fourth show in the franchise after the original series, Young Sheldon, and the upcoming Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage.

The Big Bang Theory ended in 2019 after Jim Parsons, who played Sheldon Cooper, decided it was time to retire The Flash shirt. “There was no factor; there was no situation that I was like, ‘Well, I’ve had enough of that.’ No. There was nothing like that. It was just… when you know, you know,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “And you’re susceptible and thrown around by the whims of your own existence and getting to a certain age and your life changes and suddenly you just think different.”

Lorre had no interest in continuing the show without Parsons — or anyone in the main cast (including a future Jeopardy! host). “I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of going on without the whole ensemble — and the whole ensemble is why we succeeded,” he said. “In pulling it apart and re-approaching it as a fraction of what it was just never felt right to me. I’ve seen other shows try and fail to take a character out of their realm and carry on.”

Cast

The Big Bang Theory starred Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Sara Gilbert, Mayim Bialik, and Melissa Rauch. As of this moment, none of those highly-paid actors are returning for the spinoff.

But there will be some familiar faces: Kevin Sussman (who played The Comic Center of Pasadena owner Stuart Bloom), the lovable Brian Posehn (Caltech professor Bert Kibbler), and Comedy Bang Bang legend Lauren Lapkus (comic book store assistant manager and Stuart’s love interest, Denise) will all reprise their roles. More names should be announced soon.

Release Date

The Big Bang Theory offshoot doesn’t have a release date, but the Young Sheldon spinoff (yes, it’s a spinoff of a prequel), Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage, debuts on Thursday, October 17, on CBS. Here’s a trailer.

Trailer

Once more, with feeling: bazinga.