The new year has been much more of a solo endeavor for Hayley Williams compared to her usual group efforts with Paramore. Williams has relentlessly shared music with fans, releasing it at an almost weekly rate since announcing her solo venture. After six months of these weekly releases, she finally unveiled her debut album Petals For Armor, a 15-track effort combining her previously-released EPs, Petals For Armor I and Petals For Armor II. While the album is here for our listening pleasure, Williams continues to deliver new content thanks to her latest cover.

Also posting the track on Instagram, Williams delivered a laid back cover of SZA’s 2017 track, “Drew Barrymore.” In the caption of the video, Williams revealed that the cover was originally recorded on April 11. “this was weeks ago… April 11th, to be exact. have a few saved up. guess i’ve been holding out on yall. the only constant for me (besides limp ass, unwashed, unfixed hair) in the age of covid, is a guitar and free reign to mess up all my favorite songs.”

Her cover of SZA’s “Drew Barrymore” stands as her third in recent months as she covered Tegan And Sara’s “Call It Off” and Phoebe Bridges’ “Smoke Signals.” Petals For Armor is out now via Atlantic. Get it here.

Hayley Williams is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Rob McEhlenney has already explained how It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia often had a blind eye to different perspectives and issues over the course of its run. The show’s co-creator has been one of the rare creatives to reflect on his earlier works and acknowledge the growth he’s had in recent years and not shied away from criticism of aspects of the show.

The latest example of that came this week when he explained why Sweet Dee changed so much from the initial version the Sunny gang had written. McElhenney spoke to The Independent about a variety of things amid the release of a quarantine episode of Mythic Quest, which has already had its strong first season wrapped up on Apple TV+. Among them is how Mythic Quest is decidedly different from Sunny, a show that started with a much smaller budget, writing crew and — by extension — perspective on people.

Part of it, MCElhenney says, is that the things he’s interested in writing about as he’s aged fit more with what Mythic Quest deals in than the characters on Sunny. But that doesn’t mean he can do it alone.

“We’re not pandering to the audience – they’re gonna call bulls*** when they see it,” says McElhenney, who is as sweary as he is switched on. “I mean look, there are certain experiences that we all share as human beings, and there are certain experiences that I have as a white dude
…

I can write a lot of characters, but I don’t know s*** about the specifics of being a young, African-American, gay, female gamer. So how else can we get that without bringing writers in who have those experiences?”

McElhenney pointed to the first scenes for Dee, the lone woman in the main Sunny gang, and how much the character changed because of notes from his future wife, Kaitlin Olson, gave to make her more real. As the story goes, Olson actually read a scene between Charlie and Dennis for her audition and thought the role wouldn’t have the typical finger-wagging of male characters while they continued to get laughs and cause trouble. Looking back, McElhenney put the blame on himself for how early on her character often had to play that part.

“I had a very different worldview than I do at 43,” he says – which was a blessing and a curse. For one thing, neither he, Day nor Howerton quite knew how to write a funny woman. Even Dee, who by season three is as fantastically awful as the rest of them, started out much flimsier than her male counterparts. “We weren’t writing that character twiddling our moustaches and saying, ‘Ooh, we need to keep our foot on the throat of female comedians,’” says McElhenney. “We were just ignorant.”

It’s an interesting reflection, especially considering that Olson’s notes amounted to letting Dee be as deranged and horrible as the rest of the characters.

It took Olson stepping in for things to change. After being sent yet another script in which Dee wagged her finger at the men’s wacky antics, she asked if she could have a word. “This is obviously well before we were dating,” says McElhenney, who’s now married to Olson with two sons. “She said, ‘I don’t understand why I’m in the show if my job is to come in and tell the boys to stop having fun.’ And I did not resist that. I listened to it and realised she was dead right. I brought it up to Glenn and Charlie and they said, ‘Absolutely, let’s figure this out. Let’s make her just as terrible as us.’”

But it’s another example of McElhenny constructively critiquing his past work and explaining how he’s learned to make better shows in the process. Mythic Quest isn’t better at being what Sunny is, but it’s clear the show is different not only because it has to be, but also because McElhenney and the other people working on it want the show to address very different things with a different perspective. And has the writers behind it to make fully fleshed out characters of all kind right off the bat.

While some artists have decided to tackle the coronavirus hurdle and share their latest body of works, Cardi B was one of the few who decided it was best to push their album back to plan for a better rollout. Back in March, Cardi B revealed that the lead single of her upcoming album was delayed due to the virus. In the following two months, Cardi has spent her time speaking on the coronavirus and the government’s approach to protecting the general public against it. With things seemingly falling into place, though, Cardi is almost ready to share new music with fans.

Hopping on Instagram Live to entertain her fans as she enjoyed her Friday night, Cardi B revealed that her upcoming album’s lead single would arrive in the near future. “My single’s coming when I lose weight…never!” she joked before getting serious with the more than 80,000 viewers watching. “No, it’s coming real soon, I swear. Y’all gon’ love it.”

The upcoming single would be her first single last March’s “Press.” Weeks before announcing her lead single was delayed, Cardi teased a new song at an Atlanta strip club, reportedly titled “Respect,” but she confirmed during the livestream that it would not be the next single.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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I mean, I’m feeling pretty satisfied right now.

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“Everyone’s into barely wearing clothes these days huh? Not my style.”

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The network upfront presentations, which used to be the cornerstone of every television season, have fallen out of favor in recent years. However, with the pandemic and upfronts being conducted virtually, the news about them have been virtually nonexistent, especially with so much still up in the air regarding the fall season and when production can even start.

The CW has seemingly resolved part of their problem by deciding not to return any of their regular shows until 2021. They will fill the fall schedule with repurposed shows, like DC’s Swamp Thing, Whose Line Is It Anyway? episodes, and the final seven episodes of Supernatural, which ends its 15-season run in the fall. Nothing on the network has yet been cancelled, although Katy Keane is still on the bubble.

CBS is operating under completely different assumptions. As of now, its fall schedule is business as usual, although obviously that may change, depending on events in the world. CBS has bumped Amazing Race, which was supposed to begin this month, into the fall, but Jeff Probst also says that he’s committed to having a 41st season of Survivor on in the fall, as well. Most of CBS’s line-up will return, as is, although there have been a few cancelations: Broke, Patricia Heaton’s Carol’s Second Act, God Friended Me, Matt LeBlanc’s Man With a Plan, and Edie Falco’s Tommy.

NBC, meanwhile, has delayed its upfront presentations, and at the moment, only two shows have officially been cancelled, The InBetween and Sunnyside. However, there are still a number of shows on the bubble — some of which may not return — including Bluff City Law, Council of Dads, Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector, Manifest and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. NBC will also be rolling out its streaming service, The Peacock, in July, where the third season of A.P. Bio will debut.

Fox is not returning its scripted, live-action staples in the fall, holding those back until 2021. Their fall is what they call a pandemic-proof schedule, with its animated shows, L.A.’s Finest (repurposed from Spectrum), The Masked Singer, several midseason replacement series they bumped to the fall, and a lot of NFL, meaning it is only pandemic-proof if the NFL can return in the fall. Fox has canceled four series, mostly midseason replacements, including Almost Family, BH90210, Deputy, and Outmatched. Meanwhile, The Orville has moved to Hulu.

Finally, over on ABC, there have been a few painful cancellations. Bless this Mess with Dax Shepard and Lake Bell has been canned, along with The Goldbergs spin-off, Schooled and Single Parents after their respective second seasons. All three of those were well-liked. Emergence with Alison Tolman, Grand Hotel, Kids Say the Darndest Things, and Reef Break have also been canceled.

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Formula E isn’t an eSports circuit by nature, but an electric car racing outfit that’s gone online in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just like NASCAR, which ran a series of iRacing events before returning to action last weekend, the series has had to deal with some big adjustments in competing from home. But now we know that a driver didn’t compete in at least one event he claimed to run.

The Race reported on Sunday that driver Daniel Abt was fined by Formula E and retroactively disqualified for an event in which he “officially” placed third. That’s because after an investigation the sport’s governing body declared that he didn’t actually drive in his “home” race, instead employing a ringer to run the event as Abt while he presumably did something else.

Formula E announced Sunday that Abt was disqualified and professional simracer Lorenz Hoerzing banned from racing in future virtual events following the Formula E Race At Home Challenge, which took place on Saturday. Abt finished third, but controversy started immediately when other drivers — Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne both accused Abt of using a different driver in his place. That happened after a controversial finish in which race winner Oliver Rowland passed both Vandoorne and Abt’s No. 66 car in a turn, which you can see for yourself here.

Afterward, several drivers openly accused Abt of not actually racing in his car. His camera wasn’t working during the event, leading to direct questions about whether he was actually at the wheel.

[via The Race]

“Really not happy here because that was not Daniel driving the car himself, and he messed up everything. Really ridiculous,” he said on his Twitch stream.

Abt’s feed showed his cockpit prior to the race but his face appeared obscured by equipment. He did not appear for post-race interviews after finishing in third place.

Formula E champion Vergne also questioned whether Abt took part in the event saying: “Please ask Daniel Abt to put his Zoom next time he’s driving, because like Stoffel said I’m pretty sure he wasn’t in.”

An investigation soon followed, and Abt was swiftly disqualified and ordered to make a “compulsory donation” of 10,000 euros to a charity because it was revealed that Hoerzing was actually behind the wheel of the virtual Audi. According to The Race, organizers “cross-referenced IP addresses” and found it was impossible that Abt actually drove his car in the event on Saturday. There was plenty of anecdotal evidence that something was amiss on Saturday, as Abt didn’t do any of the virtual tie-ins that have become common with these events.

A feed of Abt on a 20-driver view Zoom page during the live broadcast showed a figure in a sim rig but his face was constantly obscured by a piece of equipment which is believed to have been a microphone.

Additionally, Abt’s twitch stream stopped functioning yesterday afternoon and after the race he was also unable to converse with TV presenters after apparent connection issues. No footage of Abt racing at Berlin is currently available on his Twitch stream.

As the site noted, it had been his best finish since the series had began running virtual races, which map the traditional Formula E courses but require a significant amount of practice to translate traditional racing skills to the virtual circuit. Apparently, Abt was frustrated with his less than stellar finishes and had a more seasoned virtual racing pro step in to boost his results in an event organized to raise funds for UNICEF.

“I would like to apologize to Formula E, all of the fans, my team and my fellow drivers for having called in outside help during the race on Saturday,” Abt said in a statement to The Race. “I didn’t take it as seriously as I should have. I’m especially sorry about this, because I know how much work has gone into this project on the part of the Formula E organization.”

Abt had tweeted and retweeted about competing in the Race At Home series as recently as Friday, though considering the ruling that seems pretty silly now. It’s unclear if he will still participate in the Race At Home Challenge though, in a way, it seems that ship had already sailed.

[via The Race]

As has become almost routine on AMC’s delightful weekly chat show, Friday Night in the with Morgans, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and his wife Hilarie Burton always bring in someone from the AMC family. A few weeks ago, it was Michael Cudlitz and Sarah Wayne Callies — who revealed the one thing that Andrew Lincoln could not do well — and last week, it was Rhea Seehorn, who talked about the evolution of fan theories on Better Call Saul.

On this week’s episode of Friday Night in with the Morgans, they brought on Samantha Morton, who played Alpha on The Walking Dead. Recall that Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Samantha Morton not only shared a lot of scenes together in season ten, but had a disturbing sex scene that prompted a rare sexual content rating for the episode.

Morton is quarantining with her family in Northern England in the “middle of nowhere. Bronte country.” During the episode, a popular topic during quarantine-times came up, specifically how partners across the world now have to cut the hair of their children and significant others. Burton has cut Morgan’s hair, for instance, and Meredith Salenger — who was also in the episode with husband Patton Oswalt — also had to cut his hair. Samantha Morton — who was completely bald as Alpha — hasn’t had to worry about cutting her hair. She’s more concerned with growing her hair out post-The Walking Dead, where they even shaved off her eyebrows.

“I haven’t seen hair on you in two years,” Morgan said to Morton.

“I look like an extra on Falcon Crest, Morton says. “When they shaved my eyebrows off, I thought, ‘Oh, it’s fine. Whoopi Goldberg looks amazing. I do not look fine with no bloody eyebrows at all!”

“Can I say this,” she continued, as she tried to shape her hair. “My hair doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s sticking up like Elvis, and it doesn’t know if it wants to be curly. I’m just in trouble. If anyone is watching out there has some ideas for Sammy Morton’s hair,” she added. “Please let me know.”

It doesn’t look bad at all!

As for The Walking Dead, Morton misses it. “I miss Georgia. I miss the people. I miss the crew, the cast. I miss my job!” Morton, however, singled out Morgan. “I miss you. Without being rude, there are a lot of male actors I have worked with that have real odd egos, you know? And that are not really there for other people. So, I want to say thank you to you for being so cool and kind and brilliant.”

Friday Night in with the Morgans airs on AMC on Friday nights during the quarantine.