
Social distancing continues this weekend amid the global pandemic, and several new TV seasons are here for the binging. If nothing here suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.
The King Of Staten Island (VOD) — Judd Apatow’s upcoming comedy starring Pete Davidson (in a role that takes inspiration from his pre-SNL life) comes straight to your living from from Universal Pictures. Both Davidson and Bill Burr are fantastic in this movie that also stars Marisa Tomei and Steve Buscemi.
Da 5 Bloods (Netflix film) — The New Joint from Spike Lee can be found nowhere else but the streaming giant. The movie looks to put an unusual twist on the standard war epic movie in a few ways. We’ve got a split timeline that flashes between the past with Chadwick Boseman’s character, a fallen squad leader, and the present, which sees four of his charges go back to Vietnam, where buried treasure taunts them, along with a quest for their leader’s remains.
Knives Out (Streaming on Amazon Prime) — Not only is Rian Johnson’s stellar, star-studded whodunnit streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime this month, but it’s also free to Prime users. This gem’s got Smug Chris Evans and many more delightfully eccentric players, and it builds to a masterful crescendo, so do pencil it into your schedule.
Artemis Fowl (Disney+ film) — Five years after Disney announced plans to adapt the Artemis Fowl book series, the 12-year-old genius comes to life, even if the film might be a muddled mess. Fowl descends from a family of criminal masterminds, and he must battle a fairy race that may have engineered the kidnapping of his father. Kenneth Branagh directs and Judy Dench narrates.
Crossing Swords (Hulu series) — This adult-oriented animal series (from Robot Chicken producers John Harvatine IV and Tom Root) pulls out the visual stops with some of the finest stop-motion animation techniques. Sadly, those beautifully crafted visuals get lost in a sea of gratuitous vulgarity.
F is for Family: Season 4 (Netflix series) — Comedian Bill Burr is having quite a weekend, and the latest season of his latest animated comedy series continues in the 1970s with the voices of Burr, Laura Dern, Justin Long, Sam Rockwell and more.
Jo Koy: In His Elements: (Netflix comedy special) — Koy heads to the Philippines in this special that celebrates his heritage with jokes about Manila’s culture and his experience as a Filipino-American.
Here’s the rest of this weekend’s notable programming:
Friday Night In with The Morgans (Friday, AMC 10:00 p.m.) — Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton are back, hopefully with more insight into The Walking Dead.
Billions (Sunday, Showtime 9:00 p.m.) — Axe finds inspiration in unlikely sources while Wendy attempts to maneuver through some rocky situations, one involving Niko the artist, as Chuck’s attempting to exploit someone again for his own ends.
Quiz (Sunday, AMC 9:00 p.m.) — Part three puts a bow on this limited series, in which the Ingrams have been accused of a million-pound game show heist. As the jury learns, everything is not cut and dried.
Snowpiercer (Sunday, TNT 9:00 p.m.) — Melanie stages a trial for the train’s murderer while class tensions continue to come to a boil.
I Know This Much Is True (Sunday, HBO 9:00 p.m.) — Finally, Mark Ruffalo’s (well-acted) portrayal of two identical twins with a troubled, miserable relationship (between themselves and to the world) comes to an end.
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (Sunday, Showtime 10:00 p.m.) — Linda receives an asylum visit, a dangerous outing goes down for Townsend and Kurt, and Frank gets down the business of terror.
Insecure (Sunday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — Issa’s still searching for happiness in the season finale, and a distressing phone call arrives while Molly and Andrew have issues.
I May Destroy You (Sunday, HBO 10:30 p.m.) — Michaela Coel’s newest series is a fiery and fearless exploration of sexual consent. This week, Arabella starts to mull over that fateful night’s hazy events and pieces moments together with help from friends.

Along with visuals, audio, hardware, controllers, and literally every other attribute, a pivotal way video games have improved over the decades is in terms of accessibility and ease of use. The first home consoles took games out of arcades and brought them to people’s living rooms. Eventually, online shopping (and later digital downloads) made it so gamers didn’t even have to leave their homes to add new games to their libraries, a necessary luxury these days.
Now, it’s 2020, and Spotify and Apple Music have made streaming music easily the most convenient way to access your favorite songs. Netflix, Hulu, and similar platforms have done the same for TV and movies. It only makes sense to call for access to top-rate games to be as instant and effortless as this. While one can argue that video games do not fit into the streaming picture the same way as music and film, but at the moment, the answer to that question is still being written.
The idea behind playing a streaming game is easy to understand: In essence, instead of owning a beefy console or PC, players see live video of the game they’re playing over the cloud and send inputs in real time. The burden of processing power is placed on some server somewhere else, not the player’s hardware. In this reality, players don’t have to play at arcades, leave the house to buy new games, or even wait for downloads.
In the abstract, this is an alluring idea. With streaming video games, there’s no need to have up-to-date and potentially expensive technology in your home. As long as you have some sort of screen with a machine that can handle streaming video, you can play the latest big-time games and still achieve the best possible quality, both in terms of visuals and gameplay.
At least, this was what Google Stadia promised, but the platform hasn’t exactly made streaming video games the new way to play. Why not? Well, for starters, there’s Google’s flawed rollout strategy. The idea behind the platform, or at least one of its primary appeals, is to make streaming gaming accessible with tech people already had in their homes. Yet, when Stadia launched in November of 2019, it was only available via the $130 “Premiere” and “Founder’s Edition,” which came with a Stadia controller and a Chromecast Ultra. They only just made their free tier available in April, nearly five months after its launch.
So, instead of instant and convenient gameplay on equipment you already have, Stadia launched with a paywall and the need for proprietary equipment. That hasn’t exactly torn gamers away from the PS4 and Xbox One (more on consoles in a moment) they didn’t have any real issues with in the first place. Stadia didn’t offer a better experience, so why bother with it?
Additionally, Stadia is not a Netflix-style subscription service that gives players access to a huge library of games without an additional charge. That sort of thing is what consumers have come to expect now when they hear something called a “streaming” service. Players still have to buy individual games, and on launch, only a dozen games that many gamers already owned on other platforms were available. One only needs so many copies of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
While most reviewers have praised the overall quality of Stadia games played through an ethernet connection, most players will likely default to a less cumbersome Wi-Fi setup. At least in the near future, this is a problem: Ars Technica noted that when playing over Wi-Fi, they found the experience to be “inconsistent to the point of aggravation.” Home Wi-Fi speeds are already prone to dragging with phones, laptops, smart TVs, smart watches, door bells, refrigerators, blenders, juicers, and other devices hogging bandwidth. Imagine adding streaming games to that already-crowded internet usage environment, especially when many of us already struggle playing YouTube videos without buffering sometimes.
And for the most part for most folks, that’s just at 1080p: Stadia promises gameplay in 4K.The internet speeds and bandwidth people have in their homes now are only just starting to catch up to its gluttonous technological needs, and 4K video is a relatively new concept in terms of widespread adoption at a user level. It doesn’t feel like the platform is there yet for 4K video plus the real-time interactivity cloud gaming requires, a sentiment to which critics can attest.
Ultimately, Google failed to make their experimental new service easily accessible, immediately attractive, and properly functional. They introduced it poorly, and the tech isn’t ready. Therefore, Stadia has yet to become a household name. The same goes for its competitors, like GeForce Now, Shadow, and others you probably haven’t heard of.
That doesn’t mean they won’t ever be, though. After all, Nintendo was a company for 94 years before they released their first Mario game. Patience is, has often been noted, a virtue.
One competitor in this space that hasn’t been mentioned yet, though, is one that everybody knows: Sony. Their PlayStation 5 is set to launch in time for the holiday season, and it looks like the PS4 successor could radically change streaming gaming. Thursday’s PS5 reveal event didn’t address this, but in a report from last year, Sony CEO Jim Ryan described “a massively enhanced PlayStation community where enriched and shared PlayStation experiences can be seamlessly enjoyed independent of time and place — with or without a console.”

Additionally, Microsoft’s xCloud is on the way, so the cloud gaming platform could bring similar functionality and flexibility to the upcoming Xbox Series X and/or the Xbox ecosystem more broadly.
If these visions end up implemented as stated (or rather, as I’m interpreting them) in the new PlayStation and Xbox consoles, the next generation of gaming could offer the best of both the console and cloud-based worlds. Are you at home? Just play on your PlayStation/Xbox and don’t fret about the potential connectivity pitfalls of streaming. Elsewhere? Access your games library in a way that — in ideal conditions, at least — mirrors the experience of playing on console.
As Stadia has proven, though, big promises are easy to make. Similarly to the famous Seinfeld car rental incident, making a claim is effortless. It’s the keeping of the promise that’s the important part. So, how can Sony and Microsoft avoid the problems Google has faced?
I have a non-expert idea: Maybe a small portion of essential and regularly accessed game data is hosted locally, while the rest is delivered over the cloud, as a way of limiting what users need to store themselves. For the tech-aware, try thinking about it like the solid-state hybrid drives (SSHDs) that were popular a few years ago. Mechanical hard drives had big storage capacities, but were slow and on the way out. Meanwhile, solid-state drives (SSDs) were fast, but it cost multiple arms and legs to get one with any serious amount of storage. So, the SSHD was, as is obvious based on the name, a hybrid of the old and the new, and they were a wonderful resource to have during that transitional period.
Even if that idea doesn’t actually make sense on a technical level or isn’t applicable to streaming games, it illustrates the core of what I’m getting at: Maybe we’re diving straight into cloud gaming too quickly. Maybe console gaming and cloud gaming are two islands, and what we need now is a bridge. If that’s not the case, we don’t know everything about Sony and Microsoft’s cloud gaming solutions yet, so maybe they’ve figured something out that Google hasn’t, something they’ll be ready to show the world soon.
Regardless of which of these possible futures will be the one, for now, they are all just that: the future. That said, consumer technology feels really close to being ready for streaming gaming. At the very least, it appears to be a few months away, assuming that all the promises that have been made are fulfilled.
Until then, though, it seems Stadia, PS5, Xbox Series X, and the rest may be more of a preview of our gaming future than its arrival. Regardless, we’ve come a long way from the arcade.

While news coverage has been saturated with stories of protests and pandemics, some of the Trump administration’s recent actions have gone under the radar. At the beginning of Pride Month, the Trump administration effectively pushed to allow religious adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples and deny them permission to adopt. Openly queer indie rocker Lucy Dacus fought back against the news by sharing her own adoption story.
The Department of Justice recently filed a briefing in the Supreme Court case Fulton v. City of Philadelphia that dates back to 2018, in which the City of Philadelphia ended a contract with Catholic Social Services upon learning they had discriminated against LGBTQ folks and refused to allow same-sex couples to adopt children. According to NBC News, the DOJ’s brief argued that “Philadelphia has impermissibly discriminated against religious exercise,” and that the city’s actions “reflect unconstitutional hostility toward Catholic Social Services’ religious beliefs.” The brief was also completely voluntary, as the federal government is not a party in the case.
Dacus spoke out against news of the briefing. Retweeting a pair of screenshots from an article that covered Trump’s attempted ban, Dacus said it’s not the first time he has tried to do this. “I’m adopted, my mom was adopted, & if I ever have a kid I’ll probably adopt them,” Dacus wrote. “My experience has been marked by love, generosity, & respect. Ofc gay people should be able to adopt.”
He’s tried to do this before (during pride no less) & again I want to say: I’m adopted, my mom was adopted, & if I ever have a kid I’ll probably adopt them. My experience has been marked by love, generosity, & respect. Ofc gay people should be able to adopt. https://t.co/48ryjdArX0
— Lucy Dacus (@lucydacus) June 12, 2020
Check out Dacus’ statement above.

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm and blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B music that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.
This week, R&B sisters Chloe x Halle released their sophomore debut Ungodly Hour, Partynextdoor dropped a visual for his Partymobile track “Savage Anthem” and Jorja Smith emerged with her jazzy cut “Rose Rouge.” Check out the rest of the best new R&B this week below.
Chloe x Halle — Ungodly Hour
R&B duo Chloe and Halle Bailey, known worldwide as Chloe x Halle, are coming full-force with their second studio album Ungodly Hour, the follow-up to 2018’s The Kids Are Alright. The sisters have quite a few triumphs under their belt (besides being mentored by the one and only Beyoncé since teenagers), and among them include a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist and a performance of “America The Beautiful” at the 2019 Super Bowl. Chloe and Halle’s dualistic energy is mesmerizing on the supremely polished Ungodly Hour and their voices are a smooth blend of captivating high-note sorcery. The 13-song album includes “Forgive Me” and their viral TikTok hit “Do It.”
PartyNextDoor — “Savage Anthem”
PartyNextDoor‘s music is vulnerable on the surface but his recently released album Partymobile goes even deeper into the psyche of the OVO Sound singer. His track “Savage Anthem” is pure evidence of this as he shares his side of what happened in a past relationship with an animated visual. “Me being faithful is the issue,” he croons. Some fans have long suspected the song is about his ex-girlfriend Kehlani, however, she has denied that there’s any truth to that sentiment.
Jorja Smith — “Rose Rouge”
Jorja Smith‘s reimagination of St Germaine’s “Rose Rouge” is insanely beautiful. The song is expected to live on Blue Note Records’ Blue Note Re:imagined, a compilation album of Jazz covers from contemporary acts. Helmed by softened high-hats and brass instruments, Jorja’s take on “Rose Rouge” is just as calming as it is smooth. The project is slated for release on September 25.
RMR — Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art
Melodic outlaw RMR is redefining the musical matrix with his debut project Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art. The project is an exploration of emotions and has a lot more to offer than the mysterious singer’s viral cut “Rascal.” He taps Future and Lil Baby for the remix to his track “Dealer,” Westside Gunn is perfectly placed on the album’s opening cut “Welfare,” and he links with the legendary Timbaland for “I’m Not Over You.” RMR’s Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art effectively shows there’s more to him than what’s on the surface.
TeaMarrr — Before I Spill Myself
Raedio artist TeaMarrr has delivered her debut project Before I Spill Myself and it includes features from SiR, D. Smoke, and Rapsody. “Before I Spill Myself is a bawdy of work that touches the beginning, middle, and end of what sharing yourself with someone NEW romantically feels like,” the “Kinda Love” singer wrote on Instagram about the collection of 10 songs. TeaMarrr’s Before I Spill Myself is truly a sonic healing brew of vibes.
Leon Bridges — “Sweeter” Feat. Terrace Martin
Grammy Award-winning musicians Leon Bridges and Terrace Martin came together for the dulcet “Sweeter.” Filled with the rich sounds of Martin’s expertise, Leon vocalizes what it feels like to be Black in America and the pain he feels following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. “The death of George Floyd was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me,” he said in press release. “It was the first time I wept for a man I never met. I am George Floyd, my brothers are George Floyd, and my sisters are George Floyd. I cannot and will not be silent any longer.”
Pink Sweats — “Cadillac Drive” Feat. Price
Off the Insecure Soundtrack from season four, Pink Sweats blesses fans with the romantic visual “Cadillac Drive” featuring Price. Though his forthcoming album Pink Planet is currently still in the works, the rising R&B singer continues to consistently release quality love songs such as the nostaligic “17.”
Baby Rose — “Show You (Remix)” Feat. Q
Baby Rose‘s “Show You” featuring Q landed on season four of Insecure and is a modern jazz dream. Rose’s contralto reverberates amongst the various brass instruments, sketching out her vulnerability and emotions. Nevertheless, the 25-year-old DC native continues to impress and her debut album To Myself is a hypnotizing showcase of her unique sound that should be heard by everyone.
Pierre Da Silva — “Tell Me”
London-based R&B singer Pierre Da Silva‘s “Tell Me” is an introspective, uptempo ballad that is a complete mood. In a world where love is more ego-driven and inundated with exhausting mind games, Pierre sings of letting go of all inhibitions simply by communicating all thoughts, feelings, and insecurities. “Tell Me” is the follow-up to his previously released single, “Never Again.”
Malachiae — “Get To The Bag”
Burgeoning Motown singer Malachiae upholds traditional R&B values with his latest release “Get To The Bag.” Produced by Sangria, “Get to the bag is an inspirational love song about leveling up in life and sharing the experience and everything with the people who love and support you,” the Atlanta-based artist expressed in a press release. Malachiae is just getting started so there’s more to come from her.
Kaash Paige — “Jaded”
Dallas’ own R&B topliner Kaash Paige is getting ready to follow-up 2019’s Parked Car Convo‘s with her debut album Teenage Fever. Her recent sultry release “Jaded” is just a taste of what’s to come. This follows a string of drops Kaash has blessed fans with this year including “Frank Ocean” and “Sobriety.”
Check out this week’s R&B picks, plus more on Uproxx’s Spotify playlist below.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Eleven-time Grammy winner and EGOT recipient John Legend is unfolding a new era of music. After sharing his powerful track “Bigger Love” back in April, Legend shares his eponymous album’s cover art, tracklist, and release date.
Based on his tracklist, the singer’s upcoming album boasts features from big-name artists like Jhene Aiko and Gary Clark Jr. In a statement alongside his Bigger Love announcement, Legend detailed his album’s inspirations:
“The songs are inspired by the loves of my life: my wife, my family and the rich tradition of black music that has made me the artist I am.
All of these songs were created prior to the world being rocked by a pandemic, prior to the latest police killings in the U.S. that sent so many to the streets in protest. During these painful times, some of us may wonder if it’s ok to laugh or dance or be romantic. Lately, the images of black people in the media have been showing us with knees on our necks, in mourning, or expressing our collective outrage. We feel all those emotions.
But It’s important for us to continue to show the world the fullness of what it is to be black and human. Through our art, we are able to do that. This album is a celebration of love, joy, sensuality, hope, and resilience, the things that make our culture so beautiful and influential.
I’m under no illusion that music can save the world or solve the world’s problems, but I’ve always turned to music to help me through tough times and I know many of you have done the same. That’s why I couldn’t wait to release this album to the world. I debuted in 2004 with an album called Get Lifted. And now, as we enter the summer of 2020, I hope this new album can get you lifted again, fill your hearts with love and inspiration, give you something to dance to, something to hold hands to, something to make love to.”
Check out Legend’s Bigger Love cover art and tracklist below.

1. “Ooh Laa”
2. “Actions”
3. “I Do”
4. “One Life”
5. “Wild” Feat. Gary Clark Jr.
6. “Bigger Love”
7. “U Move, I Move” Feat. Jhene Aiko
8. “Favorite Place”
9. “Slow Cooker”
10. “Focused”
11. “Conversations In The Dark”
12. “Don’t Walk Away” Feat. Coffee
13. “Remember Us” Feat. Rapsody
14. “I’m Ready” Feat. Camper
15. “Always”
16. “Never Break”
Bigger Love is out 6/19 via Columbia. Pre-order it here.

The Premier League is set to return to action in the UK next week and the jerseys — along with the empty stadiums and socially distanced substitute players — will look a little different. During the first 12 games of the restarted 2019-20 season, players will wear jerseys that feature the words “Black Lives Matter” on the back instead of their surnames, the league confirmed Friday.
After the first round of matches, the jerseys will have an embroidered BLM logo for the rest of the season. Additionally, a heart-shaped patch honoring the National Health Service for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic will also feature on the front of the shirts and teams will have a moment of silence before kick-off to remember those who died due to COVID-19.
In a statement, players from all 20 clubs wrote:
“We, the Players, stand together with the singular objective of eradicating racial prejudice wherever it exists, to bring about a global society of inclusion, respect, and equal opportunities for All, regardless of their colour or creed. This symbol is a sign of unity from all Players, all Staff, all Clubs, all Match Officials and the Premier League #blacklivesmatter #playerstogether.”
Premier League confirms Black Lives Matter to replace player names on the back of shirts for the first 12 matches of the restart.#BlackLivesMatter logo will then feature on shirts for the rest of the season along with a badge thanking the NHS for their coronavirus work pic.twitter.com/Qst5J08Twm
— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) June 12, 2020
According to ESPN, Everton captain Seamus Coleman, Watford’s Troy Deeney and Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin led the decision to have the Black Lives Matter slogan above players’ numbers on the back of their jerseys. The League also wrote that it will “support players who ‘take a knee’ before or during matches,” and referees have been told to use their discretion when considering cautioning players who remove their shirt to reveal a slogan in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, according to The Guardian. While there have been calls to implement a similar rule to the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview ethnic minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operation roles, the League confirmed it will not enforce an analogous rule at this time.
all we’re asking is we are seen as equal, as more than 3/5 of a man, as humans. My heart goes out in solidarity to George Floyd, his family, and all of the countless number of victims that have had their lives taken at the hands of meaningless police brutality.
— DeAndre Yedlin (@yedlinny) June 2, 2020
Soccer players all over the world have spoken out in support of the BLM movement and against police violence against black people, and ESPN reported that several teams plan to take a knee before matches. Last month, England forward Jadon Sancho dedicated his goal to George Floyd in a 6-1 victory for Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. U.S. international and Newcastle defender spoke with Bellerin on a recent episode of his podcast about Floyd’s death and the protests that have taken place in the U.S. Watford’s Andre Gray opened up about his own experiences with racial profiling and racism in the UK, telling The Guardian, “It’s not just about George Floyd and the brutality that is going on in America. It is about what is going on in England and the rest of the world.”
While players are still fighting for social change both on and off the pitch, the games will surely look a bit different due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — no fans or ball kids will be allowed at matches, players have been encouraged not to break social distancing rules when celebrating goals and every player and coach will have their temperature checked before entering stadiums. Premier League action is set to resume on June 17 when Aston Villa and Sheffield United kick off against each other, and Liverpool can clinch their first league title in 30 years if they defeat Everton on June 21.

Tenet isn’t the first wide-release title during the summer movie season — the Russell Crowe-starring Unhinged and Selena Gomez-produced The Broken Hearts Gallery are — but it’s certainly the most anticipated. Even if no one knows what the heck it’s about. Something about inversions, I dunno? To keep Tenet‘s plot a secret, director Christopher Nolan hand-delivered the script to some of his actors, including Kenneth Branagh.
“I’ll tell you how I got the script. The door knocked, I opened the door and standing at the door was an international film director called Chris Nolan. He had an envelope under his arm… ‘I’ve come to deliver the script to you.’ It doesn’t get more personal then that,” Branagh told Collider. “[I asked], ‘How will we talk about this?’ [Nolan said], “24 hours from now, sir, I will give you a telephone call and we will discuss it.” It’s [that] simple.”
It’s fun to imagine that, upon receiving the phone call 24 hours later, Branagh told Nolan, “Boy, this thing is a steaming pile of dung. Yeesh.” Seems unlikely, though.
Anyway, just remember, the next time you hear a knock on door, it could be “international film director” Christopher Nolan on the other side. Or more likely it’s Amazon dropping off the socks you ordered. But they’re Batman socks, so it’s kind of the same thing.
(Via Collider)

The Wednesday Night Wars continue to be tilted in AEW’s favor, although this week’s battle proved to be one of the closest in recent memory.
As reported by Showbuzz Daily, AEW Dynamite came out on top this week, with a total of 677,000 viewers — down 53,000 viewers from last week. In the 18-49 key demographic, AEW’s ratings continued to slide, down to a .23 from last week’s .29 (and .32 two weeks ago). This week’s Dynamite featured Orange Cassidy being beaten with a bag of his namesake, as well as Jon Moxley doing his best Adam Cole impersonation with a car windshield. The show was the 14th highest rated cable show on Wednesday.
Coming off TakeOver: In Your House, complete with a main event title change, this week’s episode of NXT still lost against Dynamite, however the margin was razor thin — the yellow ropes scored 673,000 viewers this week, down from 715,000 last week, putting the two shows within 4,000 viewers of each other. NXT’s 18-49 demo number was .19, down .01 from last week and equal to two weeks ago. This week’s NXT featured a dramatic unmasking of the (interim) cruiserweight champion, Robert Stone being thrown into a trash can and William Regal live via Zoom. NXT was the 39th most-watched show on cable Wednesday night.

After Showtime submitted their name for Emmy consideration in 2017, nonbinary Billions actor Asia Kate Dillon made headlines by challenging binary-gender conventions and asking to be nominated under the supporting actor category as the term “actor” is a gender-neutral description for theater players. This move led to Dillon gratefully having their identity recognized by the Critics Choice Awards who included them in the supporting actor that same year without requiring a formal request.
However, Dillon’s activism is far from over. After being selected to serve on the 27th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Motion Picture Nominating Committee, they wrote an open letter in Variety asking the SAG Awards to end the practice of separating actors into binary-gender categories. According to Dillon, the notion behind the categories is antiquated and fails to prevent discrimination.
The distinction between male and female acting categories was implemented as a means of combating the chronic and systemic overlooking of cis-women, particulary white cis-women, when it came to acting awards. This was despite the fact that there were no other categories similarly revised (as in directoress, best female or best male director/cinematographer/sound designer, etc.) I say “particularly white cis-women” because it’s important to note how dangerous it has been to defend the separation of male and female acting categories, as well as other awards shows’ use of the actress category, as being motivated by wanting representation for all womxn (cis and trans alike). In fact, Black, POC, indigenous, trans, and disabled womxn are still the most underrepresented groups at any awards show.
As Dillon notes, gender-neutral categories have already been implemented at the MTV Movie & TV Awards where the actor had the honor of presenting the first gender-neutral acting award to Emma Watson. If SAG were to make a similar move by abolishing binary categories, it would send a powerful message to “non-binary and gender non-conforming members.” But until that decision is made, Dillon will not be participating in the nominating committee. As of this writing, the Screen Actors Guild has yet to comment.
(Via Variety)