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Barrel proof bourbon whiskey tends to be big and bold. But with that said, “barrel proof” or “cask strength” isn’t a single designation like “bottled in bond” (which has to be 100 proof 50 percent ABV), it can be anything from 40 percent ABV — alcohol by volume — to well over 70 percent ABV (that’s 80 proof to 140 proof and above). It’s simply the proof that the whiskey came out of the barrel (assuming it was then bottled without any cutting with water to lower that proof).

So while “barrel proof” may elicit thoughts of ABV heat bombs that burn out your palate, that’s really not what this style of whiskey is at all. It’s far more nuanced and diverse.

To dive deeper into the variation at play with barrel proof bourbon whiskeys, I’m lining up a dozen new bottles and blind tasting them. I chose bottles that hit in the middle of the barrel proof range — spanning from 52 to 62 percent ABV. For my money, that’s the prime spot as it eliminates the lower-proof selections and the hazmat (70+ percent ABV) bombs from the mix. The bottles below are also generally easy-to-find with a few rare ones thrown in for good measure.

Our lineup today is:

• Kentucky Peerless Double Oak
• Rabbit Hole Nevallier
• William Larue Weller
• Woodford Reserve Batch Proof
• Barrell Craft Spirits Bourbon 15-Year
• Larceny Barrel Proof B522
• Stellum Bourbon Equinox Blend #1
• Blue Note Juke Joint Whiskey Uncut
• Broken Barrel Cask Strength
• Penelope Bourbon Barrel Strength Four Grain
• Samuel Maverick Barrel Proof
• Booker’s 2022-02 “The Lumberyard Batch”

As you read the tasting notes, you’ll see that I’m looking for a balance between that barrel strength and a truly nuanced flavor profile. Spoiler alert, it turned out to be a hard task as a lot of these bourbons were stellar — so let’s jump right in.

Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months

• We Blind Tasted A Whole Bunch Of $30-60 Bourbons To See If Any Could Beat Weller
• We Blind Tasted Classic Bourbons And Were Shocked By The Winner
• The Best Ten-Year-Old Bourbon Whiskeys, Tasted Blind And Ranked
• We Tasted Bourbon Whiskeys ‘Double-Blind’ And Tried To Guess Each Bottle
• All The Double Gold-Winning Straight Bourbons From This Year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition

Part 1: The Tasting

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a creamy buttery nature with vanilla, nuts, and a hint of popcorn leading to a twinge of woody chili pepper. The taste is classic with spicy berry compote next to cherry tobacco with a good dose of winter spice, salted caramel sauce, and maybe a whisper of smoked plum. The end touches on woody spices and creamed honey as a hint of cellar floor dirt and menthol tobacco round things out.

What a great place to start. This is delicious.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

There’s a tannic oak note on the nose with a touch of powdery white pepper countered by burnt orange and salty vanilla cream. The palate is bold but not hot as tart dark berries mix with vanilla tobacco leaves, savory fruit, and woody winter spices. The end sweetens with more vanilla as sour cherry and sweet nutmeg blends with soft suede and chewy tobacco.

We’re starting off strong. This is another excellent dram.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

The nose on this is great with deep creamy vanilla next to salted caramel, lush eggnog, and fresh sourdough doughnuts dusted with burnt sugars. The palate leans into a buttery cream-filled doughnut vibe with plenty of dusty cinnamon, chewy cherry tobacco, and smoked apricot jam with a hint of clove and cardamon. The end takes its time as that salted caramel returns with a hint of chili-spiced dark chocolate, old cedar bark — though minty tobacco lingers the longest.

These first three pours have been stellar. I don’t even know how anything will beat them from here on out. We’ll see…

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

A whisper of old grains and chocolate powder mingle on the nose with creamy vanilla ice cream cut with winter spices (especially allspice and cola berries) as a touch of dry orchard fruit sneaks in late. The palate marries the dried fruit with the spices as an apple tobacco vibe arrives and counters a very creamy vanilla feel with a dash more of those chocolate malts. The end leans into the chocolate malts as sour spiced red wine with a sweet edge leads to soft and worn leather.

This was slightly grainy but in a nice way, thanks to that chocolate feel. It’s definitely not top tier like the last few pours but very good.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

This feels like a Tennessee whiskey immediately with a grainy nose leading to a cherry multivitamin that eventually gives way to pear, toffee, and some salted pasta water(?). The palate leans into the cherry while layering in tart red berries, more chalky vitamins, dark winter spices, and wet brown sugar with a hint of Earl Grey tea lurking in the background. The end has a hint of bitterness thanks to that tea that leads to soft cedar and dry cherry tobacco.

This was nice but felt a little out of place with that huge Tennessee note on the nose and palate.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

The nose draws you in a mix of tart berries and savory melon next to classic bourbon notes — think rich caramel, leather, vanilla, and some pancake batter. The taste has a hint of that high proof with soft buzzing on the senses that gives way to a moist Christmas cake full of dark spices, candied fruits and citrus, and nuts with a good dose of oily vanilla. The end is lush but warm with a mix of old wicker porch furniture and cherry tobacco with a good level of spice to it.

This was a pretty easy drinker with a spicy/hot end. Overall, good but I don’t think it’s quite as top-tier as the first few.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

Fresh chili peppers greet you with a sense of soft malted grains, old leather gloves, dried braids for sweetgrass, and a flourish of creamy toffee underneath it all. The palate leans into leathery stone fruit with fresh and floral honey, sharp woody cinnamon, burnt orange rinds, and bright clove berries. The end created an orange creamed pudding with a hint of green tea, black dirt, chocolate-covered espresso beans, and old oak staves from a cellar.

We’re right back in the great territory with this pour. This is going to rank high.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

The nose is pretty rote with caramel leading to vanilla, a hint of oak, and some maple syrup over pancakes. The taste leans into winter spices with an eggnog vibe while vanilla tobacco leaves hint at cedar. The end is spicy and warm with a Red Hot vibe and a hint of old wicker.

This was fine but kind of one-note in that it was “bourbon” but didn’t really take me anywhere.

Taste 9

Tasting Notes:

A light sense of old firewood leads to dark chocolate, vanilla pods, white sugar, and a hint of orange rind. The palate layers in dried red berries with a grainy oatmeal cookie feel with plenty of cinnamon, walnuts, and raisins. The cookie vibe lingers through the end as an eggnog creaminess leads back to the dark chocolate.

This was fine overall. Again, it didn’t jump out at me but was perfectly okay.

Taste 10

Tasting Notes:

The nose on this is easy with a balance of mulled wine spices and sourness next to wet cornmeal, brown sugar, and a twinge of cedar. The palate is rich with brandy-soaked sour cherries touched by salt with buttery chocolate sauce, stewed plums, and plenty of winter spice. The end leans into rich toffee with hints of dry wicker next to sour cherry tobacco and chili-infused chocolate bars.

This is another really nice whiskey that didn’t quite blow up on this panel. It’s really good and nuanced but didn’t “wow!” me.

Taste 11

Tasting Notes:

The nose on this is steely and savory to the point of almost hitting cucumber in the melon category with a whisper of dark chocolate and maybe some leather sneaking in. The palate was super grainy with a wet feel to it as soggy apple pie mingles with cinnamon and nutmeg and more of that steeliness. The end is largely the same with hints of mint, tobacco, and leather overpowered by wet grains and savory melon.

I wrote “Nope.” in my notes. I think you know where this one land in that case.

Taste 12

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a rush of dry nutshells next to old cellar beams, soft old boot leather, salted caramel sauce, sweet black cherries, and dry tobacco leaves and cedar bark braided together. The palate has a creamy and lush vanilla underbelly that supports a hint of chocolate chip cookie next to fresh broom bristles, caramel apple from the state fair, and a whisper of freshly cracked black peppercorn with a dash of dried ancho underneath it all. The end is all about salted peanuts covered in dark yet creamy chocolate with beautiful lush vanilla tobacco chewiness wrapped in that old leather and cedar.

Well, that’s an ending! This was spectacular!

Part 2: The Ranking

12. Samuel Maverick Barrel Proof — Taste 11

ABV: 57%

Average Price: $65

The Whiskey:

This Texas craft whiskey is made from 72 percent Texas-grown corn, 18 percent rye, and ten percent malted barley. That spirit ages for two short years before it’s bottled at barrel proof without any fussing.

Bottom Line:

Well, that makes sense, this being two years old and still very steely and grainy. There was potential here but it needs a few years to find it. For now, this is a hard pass.

11. Blue Note Juke Joint Whiskey Uncut — Taste 8

ABV: 60.75%

Average Price: $40

The Whiskey:

This sourced whiskey comes from Kentucky. The juice is a blend of 70 percent corn, 21 percent rye, and nine percent malted barley whiskey that’s aged for up to four years before bottling as-is.

Bottom Line:

This is fine. It faltered on this panel since it was standard and not mind-blowing. I can see using this for cocktails going forward.

10. Broken Barrel Cask Strength — Taste 9

ABV: 57.5%

Average Price: $43

The Whiskey:

This whiskey, from Owensboro Distilling Co., is all about the finish. The whiskey is finished in casks with staves from ex-bourbon, sherry, and French oak barrels. Once that whiskey hits the right point, it’s vatted and bottled as-is.

Bottom Line:

I kind of liked the woodiness on this since it was more sweet than tannic or overly dry. Still, this felt like something you build a cocktail on more than anything else.

9. Barrell Craft Spirits Bourbon 15-Year — Taste 5

ABV: 52.5%

Average Price: $270

The Whiskey:

Barrell Craft Spirits is another craft blendery that’s sourcing some of the best barrels in the game and expertly marrying those barrels. This expression blends 15-year-old bourbon from Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennesse into a final product that reaches new heights for blended bourbon.

Bottom Line:

Okay, we’re at ninth place and we’re already into the really good stuff. Seriously, this is where this ranking got hard until the top three or four. This whole section is stellar whiskey with nuance but I couldn’t have a five-way tie either so these are ranked by splitting hairs.

8. Penelope Bourbon Barrel Strength Four Grain — Taste 10

ABV: 57%

Average Price: $60

The Whiskey:

This whiskey from Penelope really helps solidify the brand as a powerhouse in blending. The whiskey in the bottle is a blend of three bourbon mash bills (one is 21 percent rye, another 90 percent corn, and a 45 percent wheated bourbon — all from MGP), which create a four-grain (corn, wheat, rye, and barley) bourbon. All of this is to say that this is a masterful blend of four to five-year-old barrels into something bigger than the individual parts.

Bottom Line:

This is a really solid sip that’s killer in a cocktail (try it in your next Manhattan).

7. Larceny Barrel Proof B522 — Taste 6

ABV: 61.9%

Average Price: $90

The Whiskey:

The second batch of Larceny Barrel Proof of 2022 is batched from barrels of Heaven Hill’s iconic wheated bourbon (68 percent corn, 20 percent wheat, and 12 percent malted barley). Those barrels are chosen for their specific flavor profile and blended as-is and bottled at barrel proof.

Bottom Line:

This has the perfect mix of fresh, funky, and classic. It’s also really easy to drink for a barrel proof on the higher end. Still, you might want to pour it over a rock if you’re not used to the big ABVs.

6. Woodford Reserve Batch Proof — Taste 4

ABV: 59.2%

Average Price: $299

The Whiskey:

This year’s new Batch Proof from Woodford Reserve’s Master’s Collection leans into high ABVs straight from the barrel. The whiskey is hewn from a few barrels that worked wonders at their barrel proof. Those barrels were batched and then bottled at the ABVs they evened out to meet.

Bottom Line:

This is just nice all around. In this test, that places it in the middle.

5. Rabbit Hole Nevallier — Taste 2

ABV: 57.9%

Average Price: $895

The Whiskey:

The latest Founder’s Collection from Rabbit Hole is a pricey masterpiece. The juice in the bottle is made from a few hand-selected barrels of 15-year-old bourbon that was then finished in new French oak before bottling as-is in only 1,155 bottles.

Bottom Line:

This is interesting in that it’s tannic but not overly so. It’s also super subtle with it comes to ABVs. There are no rough edges and it goes down very easily.

4. Stellum Bourbon Equinox Blend #1 — Taste 7

ABV: 58.63%

Average Price: $99

The Whiskey:

This expression is made from instant-classic Stellum Bourbon barrels. The ripple here is that the blend of this bourbon was created from specific rare barrels used for Stelllum that were blended until the exact moment of the vernal equinox. That whiskey was then bottled as-is.

Bottom Line:

I really like this whiskey. This is a big contender for the best of 2022 already, and where this list hits the big time with amazing whiskeys.

3. Kentucky Peerless Double Oak — Taste 1

ABV: 53.55%

Average Price: $134

The Whiskey:

The whiskey is around five to six years old and comes from one barrel that lets the grains shine through before it goes into another barrel that lets the oak shine through. That final barrel is bottled at cask strength, as is.

Bottom Line:

I never get tired of this pour. It’s fresh yet classic with a real depth that’s never too hot. This is the epitome of balance in the glass.

2. William Larue Weller — Taste 3

ABV: 62.65%

Average Price: $2,692

The Whiskey:

Distilled back in the fall of 2009, this barrel-strength bourbon skips the Minnesota rye and instead uses North Dakota wheat with that NoDak barley and Kentucky corn. The juice spent 12-and-a-half years mellowing in warehouses C, D, K, L, and Q on floors one through three. While maturing, 64 percent of the whiskey was lost to the angels before it was small-batched and bottled as is.

Bottom Line:

Damn! I would have bet real money on me picking this as my number one. I love this pour. Yet while this is delicious from top to bottom it didn’t excite me quite like the next pour.

1. Booker’s 2022-02 “The Lumberyard Batch” — Taste 12

ABV: 62.4%

Average Price: $200

The Whiskey:

The second Booker’s release of 2022 is a masterful blend of barrels from seven locations around Jim Beam’s rickhouses. Those barrels are mostly from the seventh floor of those rickhouses, with one coming from the ninth floor. All of them averaged out to this whiskey being seven years, one month, and seven days old before it was batched and bottled as-is.

Bottom Line:

This truly wowed me today. Was that because it was the last dram after a few mediocre pours? Possibly. But I went back and this still stood out. It’s complex, delicious, fresh, and nostalgic all in one sip.

Incidentally, both this and the Weller above have the same $90-odd MSRP. So there’s a bit of traction to them being so closely ranked in this blind.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

This was a great panel. The dregs were all fine (for the most part) and the majority of the pours were very solid. Overall, the top four whiskeys on this ranking are worth tracking down — even if just as a sipper at your local whiskey bar. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a bottle either if you can find them at MSRP though. Definitely grab the latest Booker’s — it’s a damn fine pour of bourbon whiskey.

As training camps begin around the NFL, the 2022 season starts to shift into focus. In the NFC South, there is a runaway favorite to win the division in the Tom Brady-led Buccaneers, but every team is dealing with some serious turnover.

The Bucs and Saints have new head coaches, with Todd Bowles and Dennis Allen each being promoted internally after Bruce Arians and Sean Payton stepped down. The Falcons and Panthers don’t have new head coaches (at least not yet), but both have quarterback questions and, just generally, face uncertainty in the immediate as they try to figure out the long-term direction of their franchises. Here, we’re going to take a look at the biggest question facing each team in the NFC South and how that will determine how successful each team is this season — with the understanding that they aren’t all chasing the same goals.

Atlanta Falcons: Is Desmond Ridder “the guy”?

The Falcons are going to start the season with Marcus Mariota under center after trading Matt Ryan to the Colts, but for a team that won’t be favored in more than one or two games this season, Atlanta’s firmly in the “planning for the future” category of NFL teams. As such, at some point they are going to put third-round draft pick Desmond Ridder out there to figure out if he’s even a possible future starter, or if their focus next offseason is going to be on bringing in someone else to be the franchise QB. The Falcons have plenty of things to figure out with their roster going forward and this season will be more about evaluation than anything else, but it’s hard to go anywhere in the league if you don’t have the QB situation figured out, and when you take one in the third round you have at least a lingering hope he might develop into “the guy.” Atlanta will want to see if that’s the case at some point this year.

Carolina Panthers: Do they finally have a QB to build around?

The Panthers have been in the wilderness for a few years with their quarterback situation. Last year they traded three picks (a sixth rounder, second rounder, and fourth rounder) for Sam Darnold, which didn’t pan out as they hoped, and so this offseason they shipped a fifth rounder to Cleveland for another former first round pick, Baker Mayfield. As mentioned above, you don’t go very far as a franchise without a franchise QB, and they’ve now invested four draft picks in two reclamation projects, hoping one of them will work out. They have, by far, the most interesting quarterback battle and one would anticipate based on how the two have played when healthy in their careers that Mayfield is the favorite to win the job. Still, he’s trying to prove himself as a guy you want running your team, with some incredible highs but painful lows throughout his career as a starter. If he can find that consistent level, maybe Carolina got a steal (after an overpay on Darnold), but if he doesn’t pan out they’ll have to go back to the drawing board on a lot of things — with Matt Rhule entering this season on the hot seat as well.

New Orleans Saints: What does the offense look like without Sean Payton calling plays?

The Saints are the team I can see the widest variance of potential outcomes this season. They have a truly elite defense returning (which is why Dennis Allen got promoted from DC to head coach), but have plenty of questions on offense. Jameis Winston is back under center and looked pretty good last year before his season-ending injury. Michael Thomas is also set to be back, alongside a star rookie receiver in Chris Olave out of Ohio State to give Jameis some real weapons on the outside. Alvin Kamara is facing battery charges in Las Vegas and it’s unclear if he’ll miss any time stemming from that, but if he’s available, you can see the potential in New Orleans. However, Sean Payton was always in control of his offense and although longtime OC Pete Carmichael is staying around to provide some continuity, he’s never been the one calling the plays. There’s a chance this offense could be good if the line holds up and Winston returns to the form he showed early last year, but there’s a lot of moving parts and uncertainty about how exactly all of it will look. If anyone’s going to threaten the Bucs’ superiority in the division, it’ll require a leap forward from this offense to help out what was a top-5 defense last year in the NFL.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: How does the OL hold up without Ryan Jensen?

The Bucs are the heavy favorites in the division for good reason now that Tom Brady is back, and even with Bruce Arians leaving, you have to believe that Todd Bowles and Byron Leftwich (and Brady) will keep things humming along. However, while I have fewer concerns about the Bucs offense transitioning away from an influential head coach than the Saints, the training camp injury to center Ryan Jensen is a real worry. Jensen was beloved by Brady and Tampa is now having to almost completely rework the interior of its offensive line from last year (as last year’s starting guards Ali Marpet and Alex Cappa are both gone). They still have a stud at left tackle in Tristan Wirfs, but Brady isn’t the most fleet of foot anymore and likes to stride forward in the pocket, meaning any uncertainty from guard to guard provides some reason to be uneasy. It might not be catastrophic in the regular season, as Brady’s as good as there is at getting rid of the ball quickly and matriculating the ball down the field on short passes, but in the postseason the best defenses will sit on that and dare the Bucs to push the ball down the field, which is harder to do if you can’t protect as well up the middle.

When you work with Kanye West, you have to take the bad with the good. Sure, the mercurial producer’s co-sign brings with it a legion of loyal (perhaps even lemming-like) fans who would spend a week’s lunch money on one of the man’s toenail clippings, but those guaranteed profits come with the probability that, at some point, you’re going to get on his bad side and wind up on the receiving end of one of his occasional reactionary rants.

Adidas has learned as much the hard way after Kanye accused the company of ripping off his Yeezy slide design for the Adilette 22 slides on Instagram (the post in question has since been deleted). Now, Adidas has apparently incurred his wrath yet again with its Yeezy Day promotion which is celebrated annually on August 2. This time, though, Kanye directed his comments to the Complex Instagram profile‘s DMs, accusing the company of greenlighting the unofficial holiday without his approval, in addition to bypassing him on colorways, employee hires, and re-issuing older Yeezy styles. He also accused Adidas of sabotaging his partnerships with Gap and Balenciaga. You can see his full statement below.

It should be noted that Kanye had similar complaints about Nike, and has an established history of … well, not reading his contracts thoroughly to know what rights and controls he actually has. He’s also been known to change his mind at the drop of a hat and he’s got a lot of plates spinning, so any company working with him probably isn’t exactly waiting on tenterhooks for his every dictate with deadlines to hit — something he’s also kind of notoriously bad at keeping up with.

Coming to New York City’s Forest Hills Stadium this September, the inaugural 3-day The Big Climate Thing Festival was already sporting a packed lineup. The Roots, Khruangbin, The Flaming Lips, and Haim were already gracing the upper tiers of the music festival’s lineup. But when it comes to raising awareness and taking action against the growing climate crisis, the good folks behind Climate Control Projects and Brian Eno’s EarthPercent decided that they needed MORE talent on their already stellar bill, and have added The War On Drugs as a headliner to the music festival.

The War On Drugs will now be be performing on Saturday night’s slate, along with Sheryl Crow, Courtney Barnett, and others. Friday’s slate will kick off the weekend with Khruangbin, The Flaming Lips and Gary Clark Jr leading the way, while Princess Nokia and Haim, join The Roots and others on Sunday.

Taking place from September 16th – 18th, a release for The Big Climate Thing says the goal of the festival, “Is to raise awareness, accountability, action, and inspire real-time solutions surrounding the global climate crisis by connecting to concertgoers through the transformative power of music.” They’ll have a lot of firepower in tow to help with that cause, as the lineup also includes performances from
The Weather Station, Guster, Sunflower Bean, Pom Pom Squad, Mykki Blanco, Valerie Jun, Antibalas, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, and more.

Tickets are available here.

The War On Drugs is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The 2022-23 Champions League isn’t quite sorted out yet. While a number of teams secured spots in Europe’s top continental club tournament based on where they finished in their leagues, we’re still waiting for another six teams to get the full list of squads that will compete for the chance to lift the European Cup in Istanbul next year.

Two of those clubs are French side Monaco and Dutch runners-up PSV Eindhoven, which squared off on Tuesday in Monaco. The referee was Italy’s Davide Massa, and while you normally only learn the name of a referee because they made a horrible decision, that was not the case here.

Instead, you are learning Massa’s name because a soccer ball got kicked real hard at his crotch and he was unable to avoid it. Monaco’s Axel Disasi intercepted a pass and tried to play a through ball to one of his forwards. Instead, the ball hit Massa right in the nuts and the referee blew his whistle, presumably because he couldn’t move for a little.

Disasi seemed a little annoyed he couldn’t drive towards PSV’s goal and try to tie things up, but this is as good a reason as any for a game to immediately stop. And besides, things worked out for Disasi a little later in the game, when he scored the equalizer to tie things up at one before the second leg in Eindhoven.

Ahh, the 1990s. That’s probably not something that Monica Lewinsky says to herself very often. And she may have consulted on the scripts for America Crime Story: Impeachment (another Ryan Murphy production), but that doesn’t mean that she enjoys constant references to the most infamous occurrence within her time in the public sphere. You know what I’m talking about, of course.

The infamous Bill Clinton dress regularly gets shouted out by pop culture, and Beyonce went there with 2013’s “Partition,” which specifically contained these lyrics: “He Monica Lewinsky-ed all on my gown.” After that: “Oh, there daddy, daddy didn’t bring the towel.”

That’s quite the visual, obviously. Since Beyonce’s new Renaissance album has been catching some scattered heat from various places (including Fox News, which called the singer “vile”), and Beyonce has apparently removed an ableist term from her lyrics, Monica caught wind and decided to mention those decade-old lyrics that still cause her to take umbrage: “[U]hmm, while we’re at it… #Partition,” Lewinsky tweeted.

There’s been no word from camp Bey on this issue, although it’s safe to say that Beyonce’s probably pretty busy at the moment. She currently appears to be updating the album to delete a contested Kelis sample, but hang tight. If Beyonce decides to move on Monica’s request, we’ll surely hear about it.

While it might seem like all the good television shows have come and gone (besides Better Call Saul…for now), we actually might not even have reached the full potential of “peak TV” yet.

While The Golden Era has had some ups and downs, the number of scripted series from this year is very high, leading FX’s John Landgraf to believe that TV hasn’t fully peaked yet. “My original prediction that we would see maximum in 2018 or 2019 was obviously way, way off,” Landgraf said this week during a virtual TCA press event. The exec attributes COVID delays as a reason for a lull in TV from 2020 to early 2022, but says that the drought is finally coming to an end.

“I’m going to foolishly make another prediction, which is that 2022 will be the high watermark [of scripted TV],” he boldly claimed via Variety. “In other words, it will mark the peak of the peak TV era. It will take a year and a half to find out if I’m right this time, or we’ll have to eat crow yet again.” Hear that, HBO? You only have 18 months to fill the Soprano-less void that has been sitting there since 2007.

Landgraf predicts that the influx of scripts from earlier this year will bring TV to its peak. “This year, we’ve seen a tidal wave of scripted programming thanks to the bottleneck of COVID delay production finally clearing up from January 1 through the end of June,” Landgraf continued. “The number of scripted series has set a record for the first half of the year.”

Between January and June of this year, there were 357 scripted originals across broadcast, cable, and streaming, which is up 16% from 2021. 2021’s final count of 559 scripted shows brought TV to an all-time high, and Landgraf thinks that things will only go up from here! He added, “I think it’s obvious that this year will bring a new record.”

Only time (and the subsequent Lord Of The Rings and Game Of Thrones spinoffs) will tell.

(Via Variety)

Working through a pandemic is just something we’re all expected to do despite, well, that whole pandemic thing still happening two-plus years and counting. Inflation, supply chain issues, the Great Resignation and all kinds of things have become commonplace in recent months.

Some employers have responded with better incentives for workers, higher wages and even begrudgingly accepting unionization efforts from their staff. And some, like a North Carolina Chick-fil-A, just asked people to work for free.

According to reports, the fast food franchise found itself in hot water when a social media post offering “volunteers” free food in exchange for working their “drive thru express” at a location in Hendersonville, North Carolina.

Mary Meisenzahl of Business Insider reported last week that the program lasted about a day following extreme backlash from people who know that labor is usually compensated by legal tender, not chicken tenders.

“We are looking for volunteers for our new Drive Thru Express! Earn 5 free entrees per shift (1 hr) worked,” the post read. “Message us for details.”

By the afternoon of July 27, the post was apparently deleted.

Chick-fil-A, of course, is not exactly known for its track record of positive human rights. And as the Washington Post pointed out, there’s a whole slew of things wrong with asking people to work for food. Such as, well, federal labor laws.

The store has been met with backlash for appearing to ignore the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the long-standing federal law that states how employers must pay their employees for all of the hours they work. The Hendersonville location, which is run by a franchisee, responded to the online blowback by saying the “volunteer-based opportunity” was intended for people who “think it’s a good fit for them,” and argued it was different from full- or part-time employment.

If you put aside the not making any money for labor thing, the deal — five entrees for one hour worked — doesn’t really make any sense on several other levels. First of all, that’s a lot of food for an hour worked. Does it multiply if you work two hours? Do you have to eat all the meals at once or do you get coupons like a child entered in a McDonalds summer bowling league, to be redeemed later?

Anyway, the program is dead now and Chick-fil-A is distancing it from its franchisee because it was probably extremely against the law, as Business Insider notes.

A Chick-Fil-A spokesperson told Insider the company did not endorse the program and that the restaurant has decided to end it.

“Most restaurants are individually owned and operated, and it was a program at an individually owned restaurant,” the spokesperson said.

Until fried chicken NFTs become legal currency in America, the rest of us will just have to go back to making money for their labor and using it to buy food instead.

[via Business Insider]

Despite logging an insane amount of hours for Netflix, Stranger Things 4 still couldn’t beat Squid Game as the most popular series on the streaming platform. According to new data that examines the first 28 days of a show’s availability (in this case, Stranger Things 4: Volume 2, which capped off the latest season), the supernatural series fell just shy of the viewing time that Squid Game racked up as it became a global phenomenon.

It’s an impressive victory for the South Korean series, especially when you factor in Stranger Things 4‘s massive episode lengths, which if you haven’t heard, were crazy long. The fourth season had almost double the runtime of Squid Games, but that wasn’t enough to take out the competition. Via Variety:

Ultimately, “Stranger Things” Season 4 ended its run with 1.4 billion hours viewed, compared to “Squid Game’s” 1.7 billion. Important to note is the running time of both seasons: “Squid Game” is approximately 8 hours long in total, while “Stranger Things” Season 4 is approximately 13 hours long, but the 5-hour advantage of the Duffer brothers’ sci-fi hit was still not enough to match Hwang Dong-hyuk’s South Korean drama.

While Stranger Things might not be the reigning champ of Netflix this time around, the fan anticipation for Stranger Things 5 is through the freaking roof. Thanks to the fourth season’s epic story, killer soundtrack via Kate Bush and Metallica, and something called a… Vecnussy (?), the show is more popular than ever. If it brings that momentum into the final season, it could be enough to take out Squid Game, provided that show’s second season doesn’t shatter even more records, which is definitely in the cards.

(Via Variety)

Following the release of his excellent sophomore record last month, Gemini Rights, Steve Lacy has announced the Give You The World Tour. The 27 headlining dates will see Lacy — who Kanye West called “one of the most inspiring people on the planet” — performing at a slew of mid-sized venues across North America. The tour begins on October 2nd at Denver’s Gothic Theatre, before the “Dark Red” singer moves across the midwest onto the East Coast. He’ll then swing back across the country to end the tour with a run of West Coast dates that conclude on November 11th with a hometown show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

Check out the full list of Steve Lacy’s tour dates below. Tickets go on sale Friday, 08/05 at 10 am local time here.

10/02 — Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
10/04 — Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
10/05 — Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theatre
10/06 — Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall
10/09 — Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
10/10 — Boston, MA @ Royale
10/11 — Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
10/13 — Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
10/15 — Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore
10/17 — New York, NY @ Terminal 5
10/19 — Richmond, VA @ The National
10/20 — Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
10/21 — Nashville, TN @ Eastside Bowl
10/23 — Atlanta, GA @ Center Stage Theater
10/24 — New Orleans, LA @ Republic
10/25 — Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
10/27 — Austin, TX @ Emo’s
10/28 — Dallas, TX @ The Studio at the Factory
10/30 — Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre
10/31 — Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues
11/02 — San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
11/04 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
11/06 — Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
11/07 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
11/08 — Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
11/10 — Anaheim, CA @ House of Blue
11/11 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre