God of War: Ragnarök is going to be the conclusion of its norse story arc fans are eagerly anticipating what this means for Kratos and his son Atreus. While it’s only going to be a two game story, the upcoming Ragnarök is sure to be full of incredible and emotional moments as the two characters that everyone fell in love with complete this journey together.
On Tuesday, during a State of Play event, PlayStation unveiled a new story trailer for the new game, and let’s just say it’s an intense one. It features all the character growth we saw from the first game in Atreus, but more excitedly we get to see a different side of Kratos. One that is being forced to rely on his son in ways that he is maybe not ready for yet.
Will Kratos and Atreus be bound by fate, or take control of their destiny? Watch the new God of War Ragnarök story trailer, revealed during State of Play: https://t.co/lGja5hDdntpic.twitter.com/vdMUSrkjFq
Ragnarök being the conclusion of this story is going to create an odd feeling for fans that have known Kratos ever since his PS2 days. It’s not that those early games didn’t have stories, but they were more well known for their gameplay than for their story arcs. Ragnarök and the previous God of War (2018) on the other hand had us watch Kratos go through an emotional journey. They explore the character and gave him depth in a way that none of the other games attempted to. It’s been a rewarding change though and one we are excited to see the ending of come November.
Cave opened up in a new interview with The New York Times about the role his fans’ support plays in his grief, especially at live concerts. “When Arthur died, I was thrust into the darkest place imaginable, where it was almost impossible to be able to see outside of despair,” he said. “Susie and I somehow managed to pull ourselves out of that, and — I know this sounds corny — that did have something to do with the response I started to get from people who kept writing to me and saying, mostly, This happened to me, and this is what’s happening to you, and this is what can happen. This was extremely affecting for me.”
He added, “The concerts that I did following that, too — the care from the audience saved me. I was helped hugely by my audience, and when I play now, I feel like that’s giving something back. What I’m doing artistically is entirely repaying a debt. It’s — my other son has died. It’s difficult to talk about, but the concerts themselves and this act of mutual support saves me. People say, How can you go on tour? But for me it’s the other way around. How could I not?”
There are a lot of really great fighting games out there, but few compare to the craziness that is the Tekken franchise. What other game franchise, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, lets its main character fight a bear in hand-to-hand combat?
During a PlayStation State of Play event on Tuesday, a new trailer for Tekken 8 was shown to everyone featuring main characters Kazuya and Jin fighting it out in a destroyed landscape. The cinematic was gorgeous and the gameplay portions of it looked fast and fun. It’s obviously very scripted and in development, but we still loved getting a small taste of what the final product may look like.
If Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat are the fighting game versions of mainstream popularity, then Tekken is the alternative to those two that your friend growing up always argued was better. While that is obviously subjective, it’s exciting to see so many great fighting games coming out and Tekken is always going to be a must play of the genre.
Unfortunately, with no release date or anything like that the only thing we can do at this moment is speculate, but there is still plenty here to be excited about for the near future.
This year’s Emmys were a mildly chaotic affair, far as awards shows go. No celebrity hit another celebrity on stage on live television, but one celebrity did pretend to play dead while another delivered an acceptance speech. One of the more low-key out-there bits didn’t really come to light till the day after: Elle Fanning sure seems convinced she looks like Bill Hader.
“There is something on Twitter that I saw that I look like him,” Fanning revealed. “And I love it! And so Nicholas Hoult — who is in the show with me — all we want to do tonight is I have to get a photo.”
She seemed to agree with the claim, exclaiming, “We have the same nose!” She even did her best impersonation of Hader on Barry, staring into the camera with a knowing look, daring people to see the similarities. She then went off in pursuit of Hader. “I would die,” she said. “I’ve gotta reel him in!”
Did they wind up taking a picture together? If so, one has not yet been made public. Had she tracked him down, she would have had to convince him to lower his KN95 mask, as he seemed to be the only celebrity at the ceremony wearing one.
Anyway, is she right? Wrong? You can watch Fanning make her arguably dubious claim below.
Ten years ago, giant television screens, surround sound systems, and cool mood lighting were all novelties. Now they’ve become staples of most people’s living rooms. With some of the year’s biggest movies hitting streaming sites and the theater simultaneously, watching movies and peak TV at home feels more like an event now than it ever has. While home viewing will never truly match the communal experience of hitting a packed movie theater, it’s getting pretty damn close.
If you want your home viewing experience to fully capture the magic of going to the cinema, you’re going to need to make sure you have the best popcorn on hand. So who is making the best? We bought all the microwave popcorns we could find to get an answer!
To get more in line with the sort of stuff you’d find in the theater we defaulted to “Movie Theater Style Butter” or “Butter Lover’s” variations from every brand we could. If a brand didn’t have an extra butter style, we just went with the default butter flavor — making a small exception for one health-conscious brand because, well, some people want to stay away from butter and we can respect that. While we gravitated toward heavy-butter styles, this isn’t a ranking that is interested in finding the most buttery popcorn, that’s far too easy. Instead, we’re looking for the full experience: the texture of popcorn, the smell, and the overall balance of flavors.
Here’s our class:
Act II — Butter Lover’s
Cousin Willie’s — Movie Theater Butter
Jolly Time — Blast O Butter Ultimate Theatre Style Butter
Kroger — Movie Theater Butter
Market Pantry — Butter
Orville Redenbacher’s — Movie Theater Butter
Pop Secret — Movie Theater Butter
Simple Truth — Organic Butter Flavor
Skinny Pop — Butter
Trader Joe’s — Movie Theater Butter
Whole Foods 365 — Organic Buttery Flavor
Part 1: The Tasting
Taste 1:
Dane Rivera
Seriously lacking in butter but the corn itself has a very pleasant sweet and delicate flavor. The texture of this popcorn is very fluffy, with a soft mouthfeel that has a satisfying amount of snap before melting in your mouth.
With some added butter this could be a real contender for the top spot, but as it stands out of the bag, it’s just a bit too boring.
Taste 2:
Dane Rivera
Really sweet and buttery on the nose. The smell is very close to what you’d find at the movie theater, it jumps out at in a very appetizing way. The flavor is nothing to celebrate though, it’s very salty and each popcorn is small in size and full of kernel shards.
I’m not sure if sharp kernels are a marker of low quality, but this comes across as some low-quality popcorn to me.
Taste 3:
Dane Rivera
Almost wet with butter! This popcorn has that oily movie theater flavor with big fluffy bites. Very salt-forward with a pleasant subtly sweet finish.
Taste 4:
Dane Rivera
Big fluffy popcorn pieces with a real butter-forward flavor. This doesn’t taste like some overly salted oil, I’m getting the sense of real butter here. On the aftertaste, you get a lot of natural corn flavor with some interesting toasted notes.
This is the closest microwave popcorn has ever tasted to something prepared stovetop.
Taste 5:
Dane Rivera
This has a sort of stale vibe to it. Something about the texture seems old but the flavor really delivers. The initial flavor is buttery sweet with some salty notes coming out as you chew through it. This also has a toasted quality to it like the last taste, but it’s less pronounced.
Pretty good but it’s missing something to make it great.
Taste 6:
Dane Rivera
Something about this popcorn tastes old. It has a very stale texture and the butter, while I can see it, doesn’t really give off a lot of flavor. This popcorn is more texture than anything else.
Taste 7:
Dane Rivera
This one tastes pretty middling. It’s buttery, but not exceptionally so, and you don’t really get any sense of actual corn flavor as you bite into it. It’ll satisfy your craving for popcorn, but it pales in comparison to what you’d find at a movie theater.
Taste 8:
Dane Rivera
Once I tried Taste 8 I was beginning to think I was just tired of popcorn because of how many of these tastings were consecutively bland (I wasn’t, see Taste 9). I wouldn’t ever describe eating popcorn as “exciting” but this is by far the most boring popcorn I’ve ever tasted. Aside from a very lightly salted flavor, this is flavorless. You don’t get any sense of butter on this one at all.
Stay away from this brand, this is easily our bottom pick.
Taste 9:
Dane Rivera
This one was dripping in oily butter with a very artificial smell. Despite its wet appearance and off-putting smell, the flavor is great! It’s very indulgent, salty, buttery, and incredibly satisfying. Eating this popcorn doesn’t leave you wanting more butter, and that’s always a good thing.
If you can get past the smell and the radioactive-looking butter, this is a real winner.
Taste 10:
Dane Rivera
Another incredibly stale popcorn. The texture here is all off, it’s too soft and doesn’t have any snap. It gets stuck in your teeth like if you’re chewing on styrofoam or something.
There is also not nearly enough butter, despite the color.
Taste 11:
Dane Rivera
A lot of sharp kernel shards but a great flavor. It’s nicely balanced between salty, sweet, and buttery notes. It’s not quite as buttery as we’d want it to be to really capture that movie theater vibe, but that’s easily remedied by melting some of your own and pouring it on top.
I’m sorry to the health nuts out there but this brand is the worst. Skinny Pop is made with sunflower oil and sea salt, and the box even proclaims that it’s ‘chemical free’ which is sort of meaningless, but sure does sound great. But this brand also flavors this popcorn with something called “Natural non-dairy butter flavor” which isn’t at all the sort of thing you want if you love buttery popcorn. Skinny Pop calls itself “non GMO, gluten free, dairy free, peanut free, tree nut free, preservative free, no artificial flavors, and delicious” but that last part is an outright lie.
If you’ve eaten popcorn and ever thought it was bad, you were probably eating Skinny Pop.
The Bottom Line:
Don’t let the “Natural” marketing fool you, this is the worst popcorn you’ll ever eat.
10. Simple Truth Organic — Butter Flavor (Taste 10)
I don’t really understand healthy popcorn brands, popcorn is a relatively healthy snack. It’s full of fiber, and low in calories, even when it’s doused in butter. So who is buying this stuff? Simple Truth features organic yellow corn with “butter flavor” and organic annatto. I’m not sure where the annatto comes into play (I can’t taste it at all) but for whatever reason, it’s in there.
The flavor is okay here, but overall it’s just too stale for us to recommend.
The Bottom Line:
Beware of health brand popcorn. It’s a red flag for staleness.
This one was a major surprise to me. Pop Secret is one of my go-to brands, I’ve always just thought of it as being pretty solid and it is, but it doesn’t stand out as being particularly great. This is another brand that uses annatto seed as a flavoring as well as paprika, but again, you don’t really get a sense of that in the popcorn. Not sure what those ingredients are for, but they don’t do a lot to make this particular brand stand out.
The Bottom Line:
I know, it’s a shock to me too! Pop Secret has always been a go-to brand for me but in a blind taste test it just didn’t stand out.
Act II landed pretty much where I expected it to land. Butter Lover’s was the brand most present in my household as I grew up so I know this flavor pretty well. Ultimately this is a very middling brand that tastes fine enough, but won’t jump out at you as exceptionally delicious. Despite its name, there is no actual butter anywhere to be found in this popcorn, it’s instead flavored with “natural flavors” and doesn’t come across as particularly buttery in the first place.
The Bottom Line:
If you love butter, Butter Lover’s isn’t for you. This is mostly salty and little else.
Market Pantry is Target’s in-house brand and for the most part, the label does every food it attempts justice. But we’re not looking for justice, we’re looking for exceptionalism, and this popcorn, as good as it is, isn’t exceptional. It has a very balanced sweet and salty flavor, but we’d like more butter here.
Target has an Extra Butter variation of this brand, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find it at either of the two Targets I went to.
Before embarking on this blind taste test, I had no idea so few popcorn brands use actual butter in their recipe, so I was shocked to find out that even Whole Foods uses “Organic Natural Flavor” instead of good ‘ol butter. This makes sense as microwave popcorn needs to be shelf stable, but it’s still a bit of a shock to me. Whole Foods popcorn doesn’t really deliver on the promise of butter, but what this lacks in sweet-salty goodness it makes up for in natural flavor.
You can really taste the corn here, each popper kernel tastes great, but to take it to the next level you need to add your own butter.
The Bottom Line:
Add your own butter and it’ll be some of the best popcorn you ever eat. As it stands, there are better brands out there that deliver more flavor.
Trader Joe’s is too snobby to have microwave popcorn, so instead, they have this pre-packaged form that honestly should’ve been disqualified, but we know people ride hard for Trader Joe’s so we had to give TJ’s some love. And we’re glad we did because despite this not being microwaveable, it’s actually pretty damn tasty. It does suffer from a staleness, but the flavor really delivers. That’s probably because unlike most of the popcorn brands on this list, Trader Joe’s uses clarified butter in its recipe, allowing for a very satisfying salty and sweet flavor.
It’s just not buttery enough.
The Bottom Line:
It’s not microwave popcorn and as such, it suffers from staleness. If you can get past the soft texture, the flavor is great!
We know, this looks and sounds really gross, but Jolly Time has actually managed to capture a lot of the magic of actual movie theater popcorn. This is intensely buttery and salty, with a noticeably wet appearance that looks like you just had that movie theater butter oil poured on your bowl. The result, while kind of stinky, is a salty, sweet, and buttery-tasting popcorn that’ll have you feeling like you just picked up a fresh batch from the theater. Albeit a cheap theater where the floors are sticky and the seats don’t recline.
The Bottom Line:
It’s a bit trashy and artificial but it tastes delicious and delivers on the promise of extra butter.
Kroger products aren’t supposed to top rankings — they look cheap, are cheap and generally taste cheap — so we’re happy to see that our blind taste test had this brand punching well above its weight. This popcorn is great, it has a perfect balance of salty and sweet flavors with a great fluffy texture. The only downside here is that for whatever reason, this popcorn has a lot of kernel shards.
Eating a bag of this will require some after-movie flossing.
The Bottom Line:
Don’t sleep on Kroger just because it’s a generic store brand, this is simply one of the best-tasting microwave popcorns you’ll find for a price this low.
Cousin Willie’s looks like a disaster, it has probably the worst box art of all the microwave popcorn brands (or the best depending on whether you’re high or not) and it’s dirt cheap but goddamn is it delicious. If you like your popcorn practically dripping with butter, this is your brand.
It’s very salty and butter-forward and actually has that movie theater popcorn smell. While the flavor is good, it’s not made using the purest of ingredients, instead, its seasoned with ‘”artificial flavors” with added beta-carotene for color.
The Bottom Line:
If all you care about is flavor, this is your brand, if you want something better sourced, hit our number one pick.
Orville Redenbacher’s Movie Theater Butter is hands down the best microwave popcorn brand on the market and the only one that deserves permanent shelf space in your pantry. In researching the brand, I found out that Orville is actually the brand of popcorn that most big movie chains carry — so it’s no surprise that this one capture that movie theater magic so closely.
It’s not just the appetizing smell and heavy butter-forward flavor that makes Orville our number one choice, it’s the kernels themselves, which pop up nice and big — offering a fluffy bite with a great texture and mouthfeel that tastes akin to stove-top popcorn. There is enough buttery flavor here to satisfy even the biggest butter lovers and it tastes even better when you melt your own over it and toss it in a bowl.
The Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for the best popcorn to stock on your movie nights, Orville Redenbacher is the way to go. In addition to the great buttery flavor, the fluffy texture and consistent popping make it so that your first handful of popcorn is as good as what’s at the bottom of the bag.
Writing a book is no easy task, even for adult professional writers. Many would-be authors dream of a day when their work can be found on library shelves, unsure if it will ever come.
But for 8-year-old Dillon Helbig, that day has already arrived—in truly unconventional fashion—thanks to his own determination to make it happen.
Dillon wrote his 81-page graphic novel, “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis” (written by “Dillon His Self”) in a hardcover journal with colored pencils over the course of a few days. He even put a label on the back of the book that reads “Made in Idho” [sic] and put an illustrated spine label on it as well. Then, without telling anyone, he brought it to his local library in Boise, Idaho, and slipped it in among the books in the children’s section.
The library Facebook page shared that it had officially added the book to the collection at the branch, writing, “Imagine our surprise yesterday when Dillon’s mom called to tell us that her son had authored an entire book, shelved it at the Lake Hazel Branch, then announced to his family later that he had written a book and it could be checked out at the library.”
The library also announced that Dillon’s book had won the first-ever Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist—an award created in his honor.
Dillon told local news station KTVB that the book features him, his mom, Santa, a bomb, a portal and a giant carnivorous turkey. Because of course.
“I’ve been wanting to put a book in the library since I was five,” Dillon told the station. Nearly half his life, in other words.
Dillon said there were a lot of librarians he had to sneak past with his book to surreptitiously put it on the shelf, but he did it.
“I’ll always be sneaky, like how I get chocolate,” he explained. Classic.
The adults on every front handled this kid’s creativity and determination the best possible way. His mom called the library to let them know the book was there so it wouldn’t get lost or taken. And rather than just returning the book, the librarians actually put it into circulation.
“His parents were worried we would find his book and we would get rid of it,” Lake Hazel Branch Library manager Alex Hartman told KTVB. “Which was an unfounded fear because if there’s ever a place a book would be safe, it would be here.”
The librarians loved Dillon’s book.
“It deserves a spot on our library shelves,” said Hartman. “It’s a good story.”
At the time of this local news report, the book had a handful of people in line to check it out. But The New York Times reports that as of the end of January, the waiting list has grown to a whopping 56 people. If each person kept the book for the maximum four-week checkout period it would take four years to get to the people at the bottom of the list.
The experience has made Dillon decide to become an author, his mom said, and he even has some career goals laid out.
“I’m going to stop writing when I’m 40,” Dillon said. After that, he will switch to game creation. In the meantime, he has a sequel to his first novel in the works.
“My next book is going to be called ‘The Jacket-Eating Closet,’” he said, “based on actual events.”
Amazing. Kudos to Dillon for following his dream and making it happen, kudos to his mom for encouraging him and kudos to the librarians who saw an opportunity to support a child’s creativity and ran with it.
Becca Moore is a popular TikToker with over 800,000 followers who’s known for her funny, laid-back takes on dating. Like any influencer-type she was at the Coachella music and arts festival in Indio, California recently. While she was at Coachella, she was robbed of her phone, rental car keys and wallet.
“I went to Coachella this weekend and I thought this guy was kinda hitting on me but then he just robbed me,” Becca says at the beginning of her three-minute TikTok video with over 3 million views. After the festival, she was left with no ride, money, or means to get in contact with friends and family. She was stranded in the desert.
Becca’s friend’s hotel called her an Uber so she could get to a local store to buy a new phone. The driver she was incredibly lucky to be connected with was a lot more than a guy with a car in a time of need, he was a guardian angel named Raul Torres from Fresno, California, six hours north of Indio.
the uber driver that saved me from going missing is @buds4u559!! 😭 after spending the day w him he told me his daughter is a senior in high school & is having a hard time going through chemo. i made a gofundme, he could’ve left me and didn’t have to help me the way he did! I’d love to help his fam give his daughter a normal end to her senior year of high school this year (prom!!) i’m putting it in my bio!!
“A normal Uber driver takes you to a place and then drops you off. He insisted on coming in with me and making sure that I was going to have a ride after that,” Becca said.
The store wasn’t able to get her a new phone because she didn’t have access to her current plan. But Raul wouldn’t give up, so he took her to the local police station where they were able to locate the Airbnb where the thief was staying. The police let them into the room and they searched it but couldn’t find the phone.
After the big let-down, Becca and Raul decided to take a break from their quest and refresh their spirits with some margaritas, on Raul. “Just because he’s an angel on this Earth,” Becca said in her TikTok video.
While the two bonded over drinks, Raul told Becca his daughter had been battling cancer and that’s why he’s been working as an Uber driver. “He told me all he wants is for his daughter to have a normal end to her senior year, and to be able to go to big events like prom and graduation,” Becca said.
Raul also revealed that his father had cancer as well.
His revelations put Becca’s troubles in perspective and made his decision to drop his driving for the day to help Becca all the more incredible.
thank god he refused to leave me 😭 raul’s tiktok is @buds4u559. also you can donate to the fam in my bio!! thank you all for your donations and generosity. you today, me tomorrow!! #TipsForRaul
After the final slurps of their margaritas, Becca still wasn’t sure how she’d get home. But Raul wouldn’t give up. “We’re getting your phone,” he exclaimed. He drove her back to the thief’s Airbnb where she found the phone sitting on top of the outside gate. Becca believes the robber abandoned the phone after realizing the police were involved. Then, Raul helped Becca get a rental car so she could get home. Before saying their goodbyes, the two had spent eight hours together.
“Raul ended his Uber shift that morning to spend his day helping me, expecting nothing in return,” she said in her TikTok video. So she used her considerable audience to ask followers to help contribute to a GoFundMe page for Raul and his family. Over the first 4 days, the campaign has raised over $144,000.
“When I was in the car with him it seemed like we were both so focused on my situation. We were only talking about me getting a phone and like things that did not matter. And he completely glazed over the fact that his daughter and his dad were the ones that needed help,” she admitted.
On Friday, April 29, Raul’s dad passed away from cancer.
The story of Becca and Raul is a great reminder that no matter how big our troubles seem, it’s always important to put them in perspective.
Since Trump’s right-leaning Supreme Court nuked Roe v. Wade, much of the country has been up in arms. Turns out destroying the right to safe and legal abortions is incredibly unpopular! It might have even torpedoed the GOP’s attempt to flip the House and/or Senate. But Lindsey Graham — who as recently as last month vowed to leave the matter to individual states — came up with a cunning plan: double-down by threatening to ban abortions at the federal level. Alas, it looks like he might not have run this one by any other party leaders.
Graham’s proposal isn’t a total abortion ban; it “only” prohibits them after 15 weeks, just barely into the second trimester. On Tuesday, he held a press conference about it, where he vowed to hold a vote for the abortion plan should Republicans reclaim the Senate. He seemed confident that the plan, when fully revealed, would do “really well” with the American public.
Thing is, others in his party not only didn’t seem to agree; they didn’t seem to have any idea what he was talking about. Take Mitch McConnell, who squirmed when asked about Graham’s abortion ban plan, then said, “I think most of the members of my conference prefer that this be dealt with at the state level.”
Texas Senator John Cornyn — hardly a fount of progressive politics — tried to distance himself and other GOP members from the high-ranking Graham. “That wasn’t a conference decision. It was an individual senator’s decision,” he said. “There’s obviously a split of opinion in terms of whether abortion law should be decided by the states, which is my preference … and those who want to set some sort of minimum standard.” Still, he concluded, “I would keep an open mind on this but my preference would be for those decisions to be made on a state-by-state basis.”
West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito was also baffled. “I don’t think there’s an appetite for a national platform here. My state, today, is working on this,” she said, as per Politico. “I’m not sure what he’s thinking here. But I don’t think there will be a rallying around that concept,” she said concluding, “I don’t think there’s much of an appetite to go that direction.”
Politico also reported that Joe O’Dea, Senate candidate for Colorado, outright torched, while trying to slam the sitting president in the same breath, of course. “I don’t support Senator Graham’s bill,” he said. “A Republican ban is as reckless and tone deaf as is Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer’s hostility to compromise.”
At least Graham had one semi-defender: controversial Georgia Senate candidate Herchel Walker. He offered a predictably sloppy take, saying, “I believe the issue should be decided at the state level, but I would support this policy.”
While formally presenting his instantly divisive federal abortion ban plan, Graham got really testy, complaining about Democrats who’ve pointed out Republicans’ draconian plan to destroy abortion. “You’re going around calling all of us every name you can think of — we’re a bunch of wackos,” he said. “Your idea’s wacko, not ours.”
Lindsey Graham’s abortion ban news conference ended with a devastating question from a woman who experienced complications during pregnancy pic.twitter.com/UHi0XtmA2R
It’s official: Giannis Antetokounmpo will not at “EuroBasket winner” to his lengthy list of accomplishments. Antetokounmpo and Greece took on Germany on Tuesday, and despite the team holding onto the lead at halftime, the Greeks were unable to fend off the Germans during a torrid second half that saw the tournament’s host nation pick up a 107-96 victory in Berlin.
Unsurprisingly, Antetokounmpo had a monster game, which has been par for the course for him during the tournament. But he was unable to see out the final five minutes or so of action, as the former NBA MVP was ejected from the game in the fourth quarter for a hard foul on Germany’s Johannes Thiemann following a rebound — Antetokounmpo swung his arm across the face of the Alba Berlin player.
Giannis was ejected from Greece’s quarterfinal game against Germany following this unsportsmanlike foul call. pic.twitter.com/kW9K2P6V2V
This marked the second unsportsmanlike foul of the game for Antetokounmpo, which meant he was automatically ejected from the game. It was an abrupt end to the evening for the Milwaukee Bucks star, who scored 31 points on 13-for-22 shooting with eight assists, seven rebounds, and three steals before he made his way into the locker room.
As for the Germans, the win means they move on to the semifinals to take on Spain, which beat Finland, 100-90, earlier in the day. On the other side of the bracket, Slovenia will play Poland and France will play Italy on Wednesday to determine the other two semifinalists in the tournament.
If there is a single takeaway from These Times, it’s that nothing is certain when it comes to streaming sites. Netflix used to be the pioneer in streaming, and even they are struggling. HBO Max is undergoing major changes and cancellations, meanwhile, Hulu is still raising its prices while hoping to get new viewers on board. Overall, it’s tough times for the big guys, and it’s even tougher for the smaller streaming services, like Showtime. It seems like this has become a problem for the service, who might be looking to migrate over to the other side of that snowy Paramount mountain.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Paramount is considering shutting down Showtime’s service and merging its content to Paramount+. The move is not official yet, though WSJ claims that they are in the “early discussion” phase of the merger, which would bring Showtime originals like Billions and Yellowjackets over to Paramount’s service, which includes everything from Star Trek to South Park.
Showtime launched its streaming service in 2015 before bigger sites like Disney+ and HBO Max were even available. Last month, Paramount+ announced that they had reached 43.3 million subscribers after launching in March 2020. The company does not disclose how many subscribers use Showtime, but Paramount has been bundling the two streamers as of this summer at a discounted rate, so merging the two would be a no-brainer. But, if it does happen, they would have to decide on a fun name, like ParamountTime or ShowMount. Just some ideas.
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