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We are now over a month into there being no live sports to watch in the United States, and as such, fans are flocking to anything new in droves. The Last Dance on ESPN smashed previous documentary ratings on the four-letter, drawing over 6 million viewers to the premiere of the first two episodes, and the WNBA Draft from two Fridays ago drew its highest audience since 2004.

As such, the expectation was that this past weekend’s NFL Draft would do big, record-setting numbers. The NFL Draft has become a huge event even in non-pandemic times, but with everyone at home and sports fans craving live broadcasts, the virtual draft figured to be a huge draw. Sure enough, all three days of the Draft set new record-highs in viewership for ESPN, as their co-broadcast with the NFL Network was a huge success — with major props deserved by the production crew, host Trey Wingo, and all analysts involved in what was an incredibly smooth weekend of remote broadcasts.

The first round averaged 15.6 million viewers, a new record and 37 percent increase from last year’s draft, and viewers kept tuning in for the next two days, with 55 million total viewers across all the various platforms.

It’s a huge number and the Saturday 4.2 million for the fourth through seventh rounds might be the most ridiculous one. It’s not exactly a surprise, but it still shows just how desperate folks are for something to watch that’s new — or at least has some new information in it.

The NFL Draft-A-Thon was also a success and helped raise $6.6 million for COVID-19 relief programs.

DaBaby‘s release of Blame It On Baby on April 17 came with reactions that were not entirely favorable, but sales of the album have surged in the weeks since it hit stores. So much so that it actually came in at No. 1 on the Billboard album charts. With the feat, the album becomes DaBaby’s second No. 1 album following 2019’s Kirk.

DaBaby’s No. 1 positioning comes as a result of a first-week sales total of 124,000 equivalent album units, with 110,000 being streaming equivalent albums units and 12,000 being album sales. The first-week sales total of 124,000 is also the second-highest in DaBaby’s career, coming behind the 146,000 equivalent album units Kirk put up in its first week. Lastly, DaBaby helped extend the streak of consecutive weeks with a hip-hop/R&B album at No. 1 to eight weeks, the longest since the nine-week run between Dec. 2, 2018 and Feb. 2, 2019.

Looking at the rest of the chart, The Weeknd’s 4-week streak at No. 1 came to an end as After Hours landed at No. 2 with 55,000 equivalent album units. Staying at No. 3 for another week, Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake posted a total of 54,000 units. Rounding out the top five is Fiona Apple at No. 4 with Fetch the Bolt Cutters — an album that marked her first appearance on the Billboard 200 in eight years — and Lil Baby’s My Turn drops down a spot to No. 5.

Other notable placements on the Billboard album charts include Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding at No. 6, Roddy Ricch’s Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial at No. 8, and Tory Lanez’s The New Toronto 3 at No. 10.

Read our review of DaBaby’s Blame It On Baby here.

[via Billboard]

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In late March, Scarface revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by novel coronavirus. A Houston legend and a member of the Geto Boyz, Scarface revealed the news during a zoom chat with fellow Geto Boys member Willie D on his YouTube channel.

“This whole three weeks have been an ordeal,” he said.” I’ve been to the point where I just felt like I was going to die, bro. I threw up so much until it was just hot sauce. Like your gasses and the sh*t in your stomach, your acids. I didn’t have no food in my stomach.”

In the month following, not much was said about Scarface’s condition until this past Wednesday night. Joining Willie D on his YouTube channel for another conversation, Scarface shared an update on his health.

“I fought COVID, double bilateral pneumonia — both lungs — and kidney failure in my house,” he said. “I went back to the hospital. I just got out of the hospital [on April 20].” He later revealed how his body felt through the ordeal, “I couldn’t keep food down, I couldn’t get comfortable, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t stay woke, I could not breathe. It was the worst time of my life.” He later revealed that her most likely “30 pounds” by the end of it all.

Pointing to his dialysis port, he continued by explaining how the circumstances have changed his lifestyle. “That’s my new lifeline, I gotta change my entire diet, I gotta do dialysis four days a week, three hours a day. That’s taking all my blood out, cleaning it and putting it back in my body.”

As for the rest of the conversation, Scarface also opened up about Georgia’s controversial reopening of nonessential businesses, calling it “stupid” and a way for the government to have black people “pass that shit out amongst ourselves and kill ourselves.”

Jeff Gordon made his iRacing debut at virtual Talladega on Sunday afternoon, but the retired NASCAR driver didn’t get off to the start he hoped. Gordon was the latest racing pro to try his hand at the video game version of America’s most popular stock car series, as the shutdown of the actual NASCAR circuit has put drivers in their homes giving virtual racing a go.

It was a cool moment in what’s been a growing event for the iRacing series, which has allowed drivers to distract fans from a bleak sports-less reality with some fun and plenty of controversy since the series began in mid-March. And Gordon got in on the fun with his paint scheme as well, an homage to an infamous win he had at Talladega in 2004 that literally re-wrote the NASCAR rulebook.

Gordon’s first pixelated event, however, quickly got into trouble at virtual Talladega Superspeedway. At one point, he nearly flew off the track and actually got his car stuck in the virtual catch fence.

The crash is one of the many joys of iRacing and why it works so well as a televised event. A crash this severe in real life would be harrowing and potentially dangerous for the drivers. As visually stunning as it is to see a high-powered stock car go airborne and see the physics at work, it could be deadly.

In iRacing, however, it’s actually kind of hilarious that Gordon found trouble at a track in which he had so much history. And though racers get a second chance after crashes — it’s not like there’s any need for a pit crew to try and salvage digitally wrecked cars — Gordon crashed twice on Sunday and saw himself get an early exit from the race. He really seemed to take it in stride, though, and like many drivers he enjoyed the virtual racing experience.

It’s tough out there on Talladega with no spotters. Even in the digital world.

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Who’s ready to make all of our hair problems go *poof*?

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