Marlon Wayans starring in the Jordan Peele-produced football thriller “Him” and the iHeartRadio Z100’s Jingle Ball 2025 featuring Conan Gray, Ed Sheeran, Jelly Roll and Olivia Dean are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: A second season of “Fallout” arrives on Prime Video, Season 5 of “Emily in Paris” drops on Netflix and Peter Criss — Kiss’ original drummer — will release a brand new, self-titled album.
— The Jordan Peele-produced “Him” (Dec. 19 on Peacock) takes the hard knocks of the gridiron to bloody extremes. It stars Tyriq Withers as an up-and-coming quarterback whose mentorship with the veteran champ (Marlon Wayans) grows increasingly dark and surreal. In my review, I wrote that “Him” has a decent point to make about QB hero worship, “the problem is that has exactly one thing to say, which it does again and again.”
— In David Mackenzie’s “Relay,” Riz Ahmed plays a fixer who runs a covert service that brokers deals between corrupt companies and potential threats. To preserve anonymity, he uses a “relay” telephone service, usually for deaf or speech-impaired people, to disguise identities. This nifty thriller streams Friday, Dec. 12 on Netflix after a late-summer theatrical release. Co-starring Lily James and Sam Worthington.
— For a particularly seductive December, you can spend your holidays with Wong Kar-wai. The Criterion Channel is hosting many of the Hong Kong filmmaker’s finest films, including “Chungking Express,” “Fallen Angels” and “In the Mood for Love,” as well as his first TV series, “Blossoms Shanghai.” A hit in China, the 30-part series is set amid the 1990s opening of the Chinese economy and the relaunch of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. New episodes debut every Monday.
— Alex Warren. BigXthaPlug. Conan Gray.Ed Sheeran.Jelly Roll. Jessie Murph. The Kid LAROI. Laufey. Mgk. Monsta X. Myles Smith. Nelly. Olivia Dean. Ravyn Lenae. Reneé Rapp. Shinedown. Zara Larsson. What do all these popular artists have in common? They’re performing at the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour! On Wednesday, ABC will air the iHeartRadio Z100’s Jingle Ball 2025 holiday special — made up of a few tour stops — to become available to stream on Hulu the next day. It’s all the fun of a star-studded pop concert from the comfort of your couch.
— In 2023, glam rockers Kiss said its goodbyes for one final performance at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden. But that doesn’t mean their musical story ended there. On Friday, Peter Criss — Kiss’ original drummer and founding member who left and rejoined the group on a number of occasions — will release a brand new, self-titled album.
— A second season of “Fallout” arrives on Prime Video Wednesday. Based on a hugely popular video game, it’s a postapocalyptic series set two centuries after a nuclear war destroyed modern civilization. In Season 2, Justin Theroux, Macaulay Culkin, and Kumail Nanjiani join the cast which includes Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins.
— Emily, of “Emily in Paris,” is still living la dolce vita in Rome when Season 5 drops Thursday. The Darren Starr-created show follows the adventures of an American expat played by Lily Collins.
— A new documentary series called “Born to be Wild” follows six endangered baby animals that were orphaned or born as part of conservation programs. Narrated by Hugh Bonneville, it streams on Apple TV beginning Friday, Dec. 19.
— The video game business has wrapped up its big-release schedule for the holidays, so now is a good time to catch up on titles you may have missed — or started and didn’t have time to finish. It has been a solid year for role-playing games, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and The Outer Worlds 2 leading The Associated Press’ top 10 list. If you’re in the mood for a trip to Japan, Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Ghost of Yōtei both offer sprawling open-world journeys with RPG elements. Check out the rest of our top 10 for more ways to keep your game device of choice humming past New Year’s Day.
NEW YORK (AP) — You don’t need to major in astrophysics at Harvard to become an actor — but it doesn’t necessarily hurt, either.
“I thought that’s what you go there to do. It’s like why are you paying all this money to go to this fancy school if you’re not going to study a hard science to try to save the world? … But I was quickly humbled,” chuckled Chase Sui Wonders, who began failing classes within her first few weeks. Her college application essay had been about making movies, so she decided she “might as well just pivot back to what I know best.”
That calculated redirection paid off for the magna cum laude graduate who’s now a standout cast member of the Emmy-winning comedy “The Studio,” a cynical and satirical take on the film industry.
Chase Sui Wonders always thought she was “kind of funny,” but it was confirmed when she booked “The Studio” after just one audition. It’s been an eventful year for the AP Breakthrough Entertainer who plays the ambitious assistant-turned-creative executive Quinn Hackett on the Emmy-winning comedy. (Dec. 10)
“The attention’s definitely weird, but can feel good,” said the 29-year-old, flashing her warm smile throughout the interview. “The most energizing thing about the whole thing is when you get recognition, the phone starts ringing more, and these other avenues are opening up that I always kind of dreamed about.”
“The Studio” amassed an astounding 23 Emmy nominations in its debut season, taking home a record-breaking 13 wins. But Wonders may not have seemed like an obvious choice for comedy with her past roles, including the 2022 film “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and her breakout role, the teen-themed series “Genera+ion,” which was canceled by HBO Max after one season. But all it took was one virtual video audition to land the role of Quinn Hackett, the hyper-ambitious, cutthroat assistant-turned-creative executive under studio head Matt Remick, played by the show’s co-creator and co-executive producer Seth Rogen.
“I had always … felt like, ‘I think I’m kind of funny,’” she laughed, acknowledging feeling she had to prove herself working alongside comedic heavyweights like Rogen, Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn and Ike Barinholtz. “That pressure felt really daunting and scary. But I think, hopefully, I rose to the occasion.”
This image released by Apple TV shows Chase Sui Wonders in a scene from “The Studio.” (Apple TV via AP)
This image released by Apple TV shows Chase Sui Wonders in a scene from “The Studio.” (Apple TV via AP)
Despite mere degrees of separation from Hollywood as the niece of fashion designer Anna Sui, an acting career seemed unattainable growing up in Bloomfield Township, a Detroit suburb. Born to a father of Chinese descent and a white mother, Wonders and her siblings were primarily raised by their mom after their parents divorced.
GET TO KNOW CHASE SUI WONDERS
AGE: 29
HOMETOWN: Detroit suburbs
FIRST ROLE: Technically, 2009’s “A Trivial Exclusion,” a feature-length film made with her family. Otherwise, let’s go with the 2019 horror film “Daniel Isn’t Real.”
YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” “Genera+ion” and her character’s climactic love of quesaritos in “The Studio”
2025 IN REVIEW: The “I Know What You Did Last Summer” reboot and “The Studio”
WHAT’S NEXT: The films “I Want Your Sex” and “October,” as well as a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot series
HER HARVARD MAJOR: Film studies and production. In the end, she did graduate magna cum laude.
Want to know more about Chase and our other Breakthrough Entertainers of 2025? Read our survey.
An extremely shy child and self-described tomboy, she developed a love for sports — she won high school state championships in both ice hockey and golf — and spent much of her childhood making videos with her siblings. Thanks to her mother encouraging her to take performance arts classes, she was able to break out of her shell. But coming from an achievement-driven family, all signs pointed to a career in business.
A corporate track nearly began after struggling to break into the industry, and she even considered taking a job in Beijing to begin her adult life in the business world. But with only a week to decide on the job offer, she decided to give Hollywood one more shot. Three months later, she booked “Genera+ion.”
Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP
Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP
“There have been different moments in my life where I’ve been seriously humbled,” said Wonders, who has aspirations of directing. “It just has taught me just not to take it all too seriously. … I do feel absurdly lucky that I get to be on set with all my friends and telling a bunch of jokes and being a weirdo on screen.”
Next up for Wonders is the Gregg Araki-directed “I Want Your Sex,” starring Olivia Wilde, and she’ll star in A24’s horror thriller “October.” She’ll also appear in the upcoming “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot, with Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao directing the pilot. And of course, a second season for “The Studio” is in the works.
Gary Gerard Hamilton’s previous Breakthrough Entertainer profiles include Megan Thee Stallion, Sadie Sink, Simu Liu, Tobe Nwigwe and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. His own media breakthrough came in third grade, after recording a PSA about endangered animals for a Houston TV station.
Red carpets and magazine covers couldn’t be a more antithetical life for the girl who assumed she’d climb the executive ranks at one of the major car companies headquartered in Detroit. Instead, she’s climbing the Hollywood ladder — and she wouldn’t tell her younger self to speed up the process.
“It’s so fun how life surprises you,” said Wonders. “I wouldn’t tell her anything. I would tell her it’s all going to make sense in the rearview mirror — but no spoilers.”
NEW YORK (AP) — You don’t need to major in astrophysics at Harvard to become an actor — but it doesn’t necessarily hurt, either.
“I thought that’s what you go there to do. It’s like why are you paying all this money to go to this fancy school if you’re not going to study a hard science to try to save the world? … But I was quickly humbled,” chuckled Chase Sui Wonders, who began failing classes within her first few weeks. Her college application essay had been about making movies, so she decided she “might as well just pivot back to what I know best.”
“The attention’s definitely weird, but can feel good,” said the 29-year-old, flashing her warm smile throughout the interview. “The most energizing thing about the whole thing is when you get recognition, the phone starts ringing more, and these other avenues are opening up that I always kind of dreamed about.”
“The Studio” amassed an astounding 23 Emmy nominations in its debut season, taking home a record-breaking 13 wins. But Wonders may not have seemed like an obvious choice for comedy with her past roles, including the 2022 film “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and her breakout role, the teen-themed series “Genera+ion,” which was canceled by HBO Max after one season. But all it took was one virtual video audition to land the role of Quinn Hackett, the hyper-ambitious, cutthroat assistant-turned-creative executive under studio head Matt Remick, played by the show’s co-creator and co-executive producer Seth Rogen.
“I had always … felt like, ‘I think I’m kind of funny,’” she laughed, acknowledging feeling she had to prove herself working alongside comedic heavyweights like Rogen, Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn and Ike Barinholtz. “That pressure felt really daunting and scary. But I think, hopefully, I rose to the occasion.”
Despite mere degrees of separation from Hollywood as the niece of fashion designer Anna Sui, an acting career seemed unattainable growing up in Bloomfield Township, a Detroit suburb. Born to a father of Chinese descent and a white mother, Wonders and her siblings were primarily raised by their mom after their parents divorced.
An extremely shy child and self-described tomboy, she developed a love for sports — she won high school state championships in both ice hockey and golf — and spent much of her childhood making videos with her siblings. Thanks to her mother encouraging her to take performance arts classes, she was able to break out of her shell. But coming from an achievement-driven family, all signs pointed to a career in business.
A corporate track nearly began after struggling to break into the industry, and she even considered taking a job in Beijing to begin her adult life in the business world. But with only a week to decide on the job offer, she decided to give Hollywood one more shot. Three months later, she booked “Genera+ion.”
“There have been different moments in my life where I’ve been seriously humbled,” said Wonders, who has aspirations of directing. “It just has taught me just not to take it all too seriously. … I do feel absurdly lucky that I get to be on set with all my friends and telling a bunch of jokes and being a weirdo on screen.”
Next up for Wonders is the Gregg Araki-directed “I Want Your Sex,” starring Olivia Wilde, and she’ll star in A24’s horror thriller “October.” She’ll also appear in the upcoming “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot, with Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao directing the pilot. And of course, a second season for “The Studio” is in the works.
Red carpets and magazine covers couldn’t be a more antithetical life for the girl who assumed she’d climb the executive ranks at one of the major car companies headquartered in Detroit. Instead, she’s climbing the Hollywood ladder — and she wouldn’t tell her younger self to speed up the process.
“It’s so fun how life surprises you,” said Wonders. “I wouldn’t tell her anything. I would tell her it’s all going to make sense in the rearview mirror — but no spoilers.”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday presented the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals during a ceremony in the Oval Office, hailing the slate of artists he was deeply involved in choosing as “perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class” ever assembled.
This year’s recipients are actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, the rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford.
Trump said they are a group of “incredible people” who represent the “very best in American arts and culture” and that, “I know most of them and I’ve been a fan of all of them.”
“This is a group of icons whose work and accomplishments have inspired, uplifted and unified millions and millions of Americans,” said a tuxedo-clad Trump. “This is perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class of Kennedy Center Honorees ever assembled.”
Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center
Trump ignored the Kennedy Center and its premier awards program during his first term as president. But the Republican has instituted a series of changes since returning to office in January, most notably ousting its board of trustees and replacing them with GOP supporters who voted him in as chairman of the board.
Trump also has criticized the center’s programming and its physical appearance, and has vowed to overhaul both.
The president placed around each honoree’s neck a new medal that was designed, created and donated by jeweler Tiffany & Co., according to the Kennedy Center and Trump.
It’s a gold disc etched on one side with the Kennedy Center’s image and rainbow colors. The honoree’s name appears on the reverse side with the date of the ceremony. The medallion hangs from a navy blue ribbon and replaces a large rainbow ribbon decorated with three gold plates that rested on the honoree’s shoulders and chest and had been used since the first honors program in 1978.
Trump honors the honorees
Strait, wearing a cowboy hat, was first to receive his medal. When the country singer started to take off the hat, Trump said, “If you want to leave it on, you can. I think we can get it through.” But Strait took it off.
The president said Crawford was a “great star of Broadway” for his lead role in the long-running “Phantom of the Opera.” Of Gaynor, he said, “We have the disco queen, and she was indeed, and nobody did it like Gloria Gaynor.”
Trump was effusive about his friend Stallone, calling him a “wonderful” and “spectacular” person and “one of the true, great movie stars” and “one of the great legends.”
Kiss is an “incredible rock band,” he said.
Songs by honorees Gaynor and Kiss played in the Rose Garden just outside the Oval Office as members of the White House press corps waited nearby for Trump to begin the ceremony.
The president said in August that he was “about 98% involved” in choosing the 2025 honorees when he personally announced them at the Kennedy Center, the first slate chosen under his leadership. The honorees traditionally had been announced by press release.
It was unclear how they were chosen. Before Trump, it fell to a bipartisan selection committee.
“These are among the greatest artists, actors and performers of their generation. The greatest that we’ve seen,” Trump said. “We can hardly imagine the country music phenomena without its king of country, or American disco without its first lady, or Broadway without its phantom — and that was a phantom, let me tell you — or rock and roll without its hottest band in the world, and that’s what they are, or Hollywood without one of its greatest visionaries.”
“Each of you has made an indelible mark on American life and together you have defined entire genres and set new standards for the performing arts,” Trump said.
Trump also attended an annual State Department dinner for the honorees on Saturday. In years past, the honorees received their medallions there but Trump moved that to the White House.
Trump said during pre-dinner remarks that the honorees are more than celebrities.
“It gives me tremendous pleasure to congratulate them once again and say thank you for your incredible career,” he said. “Thank you for gracing us with this wisdom and just genius that you have.”
Trump to host the Kennedy Center Honors
Meanwhile, the glitzy Kennedy Center Honors program and its series of tribute speeches and performances for each recipient is set to be taped on Sunday at the performing arts center for broadcast later in December on CBS and Paramount+. Trump is to attend the program for the first time as president, accompanied by his wife, first lady Melania Trump.
The president said in August that he had agreed to host the show. At dinner Saturday, he said he was doing so “at the request of a certain television network.” Trump predicted that the broadcast would garner its highest ratings ever as a result. No president has ever been the host.
At the White House, Trump said he looked forward to Sunday’s celebration.
“It’s going to be something that I believe, and I’m going to make a prediction: This will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s going to happen tomorrow night,” Trump said.
The president also swiped at late-night TV show host Jimmy Kimmel, whose program was briefly suspended earlier this year by ABC following criticism of his comments related to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September.
Kimmel and Trump are sharp critics of each other, with the president regularly deriding Kimmel’s talent as a host. Kimmel has hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Academy Award multiple times.
Trump said he should be able to outdo Kimmel.
“I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible,” Trump said. “If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”
Even though Joe Buck is more widely known these days as the voice of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” his broadcast career is rooted in baseball, including calling the most World Series games on television.
On Wednesday, Buck received a call that he thought was at least a few years down the line when he found out he received the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting by baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Buck is not only the 50th winner of the Frick Award, he joins his father, Jack, to become the only father-son duo to win the honor. Jack Buck — who broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games from 1954 until 2021 and was the lead announcer on CBS’ baseball package in 1990 and ’91 — received the award in 1987.
“I am shocked in many ways. I didn’t think this was coming right now,” Buck said. “I was saying to the group that called to tell me that my best memory of my father as a major league baseball broadcaster was in 1987 in Cooperstown, New York, and what it meant to him, what it meant to our family to see him get the award. To see the joy and the pride that he had for what he had done.”
Joe Buck will receive the award during the Hall’s July 25, 2026, awards presentation in Cooperstown, a day ahead of induction ceremonies. At 56, Buck becomes the second-youngest Frick Award winner, trailing only Vin Scully, who was 54 when he was named the 1982 winner.
Buck grew up in St. Louis and called games for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds in 1989 and ’90 after graduating from Indiana University. He joined his father for Cardinals broadcasts in 1991, a job Joe held through 2007. Jack Buck died in June 2002 at age 77.
“I was lucky to call Jack Buck my dad and my best friend. I’m lucky that I’m Carol Buck’s son. I tend to downplay awards and what have you because of always feeling like I had a leg up at the start of my career and I did. I’m the first to admit it. But I am happy that when I was a kid I paid attention and I wanted to be with him. I think the greatest gift my dad gave me was allowing me to be in the room with him. I’d like to think there’s still some stuff out in front of me, but this is the greatest honor I could receive. And to know what he would be thinking and feeling on this day, that’s the part what makes it special.
“I recall him saying (during his speech) that he was honored to be the eyes and the ears for Cardinal fans, wherever the Cardinals went, and he was very proud of being the conduit between wherever the Cardinals were playing and those fans that were listening. That always resonated with me.”
Buck joined Fox Sports when it started doing NFL games in 1994. Two years later, it got the rights to Major League Baseball and Buck was made the lead announcer with Tim McCarver as the analyst. McCarver retired from broadcasting after the 2013 season and received the Frick Award in 2021.
Buck was 27 when he called his first World Series in 1996. He would go on to do the Fall Classic in 1998 and then annually from 2000-21. His 135 World Series games makes him one of six U.S. play-by-play announcers to reach the century mark calling either the Fall Classic, NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Finals. Scully had 126 World Series games on radio and television.
Buck also worked 21 All-Star Games and 26 League Championship Series for Fox before joining ESPN in 2022 as the voice of “Monday Night Football.”
Since going to ESPN, Buck called a game on Opening Day last year and worked a Cardinals game with Chip Caray in 2023. Buck said there is the possibility of doing a couple more games for ESPN in the future.
“I think of myself as a baseball announcer probably first because that’s what I was around the most. I love the game. I’m a fan of the game,” he said. “I still dream as a baseball announcer at night. I think all announcers have the same nightmare where you show up at a game and you can’t see anybody on the field, you don’t know anybody’s name and you’re trying to fake your way through a broadcast. Those are all baseball games in my dreams. So it’s in my genetics, it’s in my DNA. I grew up at Bush Stadium as a kid and yeah, baseball is always kind of first and foremost in my heart.”
Buck also becomes the sixth broadcaster to win both the Frick Award and the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, joining Jack Buck, Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy, Al Michaels and Lindsey Nelson.
A broadcaster must have 10 continuous years of experience with a network or team to be considered, and the ballot was picked by a subcommittee of past winners that includes Marty Brennaman, Joe Castiglione and Bob Costas, along with broadcast historians David J. Halberstam and Curt Smith. At least one candidate must be a foreign-language broadcaster.
Voters are 13 past winners — Brennaman, Castiglione, Costas, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Jaime Jarrín, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Michaels, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Dave Van Horne and Tom Hamilton — plus historians Halberstam, Smith and former Dallas Morning News writer Barry Horn.
John Rooney of the St. Louis Cardinals and Brian Anderson of the Milwaukee Brewers were ballot newcomers this year, joining returnees Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Duane Kuiper and John Sterling. Buck was on the ballot after being dropped last year, and Dan Shulman was on for the third time in four years.
AP Baseball writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
As the producer of Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels brings serious leadership skills to a deeply unserious business. It’s how he’s kept SNL running for 50 years, through countless competitive threats, technological and cultural shifts, and bodily injuries.
As the CEO of a successful software development and consulting firm, I’ve spent my career building creative, high-performing teams, not unlike the ones Lorne assembles every season. His philosophies have helped shape how I lead at Sketch Development: balancing structure and spontaneity, nurturing talent, and finding the funny (or at least the human) in the chaos of business.
Here are 12 Lorneisms you can take from him to help your business survive your greatest challenge, whether it’s AI, looming tariffs, or the next unknown concern.
1. “We don’t go on because it’s perfect. We go on because it’s 11:30.”
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
Over each season,SNL releases a brand-new hour of never-before-seen television every single week. You can achieve something similar at your business. We prefer two-week iterations.
Ship regularly, without waiting until it’s polished. Don’t build your processes around achieving perfection, or even around efficiency. Build workflows that prioritize regular checkpoints for value inspection.
2. “Organize loosely. You never know what will come up.”
Any time you document something so thoroughly that you create rigidity around it, you’re boxing yourself into a corner. Look at what’s protected in your organization, especially if it’s limiting you. Slaughter any sacred cows that are standing in the way of opportunity or productivity.
3. “Do it in sunshine.”
When Lorne catches a whiff of negativity or hatred in a writer’s sketch, he tells the writer to imagine they’re working in perfect sunshine.
The same goes for your team. Operating from a place of joy and enthusiasm will shine through in your service quality. Instead of assuming your users are idiots, assume the best of your customers, and choose to make things easier for them anyway.
4. “Sunshine is the best disinfectant.”
The second sunshine-related lesson from the Tao of Lorne is all about transparency. To solve a problem, expose it to the light of day and get a proper look at it. You won’t fix it in secret.
5. “The dress rehearsal has to be bad before the show can be good.”
As crazy as it sounds, give your people room not to shine. People need permission to be bad before they can become good. Having room to experience failure, to learn what it feels like and to learn from it, helps people understand what they need to change.
The same goes for your products. Launch fast, then iterate often.
6. Avoid “premise overload.”
The writers at SNL are talented, creative people. They have big ideas, but sometimes they try to disguise a saga as a comedy sketch. But you can’t cram 18 different things into a single sketch.
Learn to slice vertically, make small releases, and maximize the amount of work not done. Releasing 18 simple product enhancements is easier, faster, and better than trying to do them all at once.
7. “Listen for when the music changes.”
This is one of Lorne’s pet expressions. He’s constantly attuned to the voice of his customers and the cultural zeitgeist. In late night comedy, David Letterman’s Midwestern, “aw shucks” charm changed the music after the counterculture mentality that prevailed in the ‘70s. It changed again in the ‘00s with the proliferation of social networking platforms, and in the ‘10s and ‘20s as social justice movements took the spotlight.
If you’re guiding a product or a business, you have to keep your finger on the pulse, too. When the music changes, don’t keep pulling the same dance moves. For example, our music changed when AI started solving productivity problems and the Agile Manifesto fell out of vogue.
8. “If I have to read It, the answer Is no.”
One of Lorne’s colleagues asked him to read a script for a movie he was planning to direct. Lorne refused, repeatedly. If the writer couldn’t make his case without Lorne diving into the full script, the idea wasn’t ready for the big screen.
As a leader, don’t get mired in the details too early in the process. The case should be obvious when an idea is good.
9. “Producers should be invisible.”
As Harry S. Truman said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
Lorne lives by this axiom. Tina Fey tells a story about Lorne pulling an Inception-level mind trick on her when she had the Weekend Update desk to herself after Jimmy Fallon left the show. Lorne didn’t mandate another co-anchor, he simply suggested that Amy Poehler would be an interesting choice, then reassured Fey that the decision was all hers. The rest is SNL history.
10. “You’re not given the job. You take the job.”
It’s not a leader’s place to lay everything out for their employees. The leader sets an intention or a desired outcome, but isn’t necessarily responsible for defining how to get there.
Get the right people involved, give them the support they need, and remove obstacles from their path. Then trust them to get the job done as they see fit, and don’t punish them for veering outside of their lanes along the way.
11. “Remember Podunk!”
Celebrities can become so deeply entrenched in the cultures of New York and Los Angeles that they forget their shows air in all 50 states. When they do, Lorne reminds them to remember Podunk. It’s a backhanded way to point out there’s a broad range of tastes – and audience needs – across the whole country. The same goes for your customer base.
This curse of knowledge can plague leaders and product managers in any industry. You might become so insulated in the community around you that you forget about the broader ecosystem. Don’t lose your connection to the diverse array of experiences and responsibilities for which you’re responsible.
12 – Overproduce to be ready.
Come up with more ideas than you need. At SNL, this means pitching 100 fresh ideas every week, even though only 10 might make it to air. Ideas are tested, and more get weeded out at various stages throughout the week.
Overproduction and an experimental mindset will always yield better outcomes than assuming you know exactly which ideas are best. This means reframing how we think about waste. It’s not a bad thing to be avoided. It’s a byproduct you can mine for value.
Leading Like Lorne
Under Lorne’s guidance, SNL has survived cable, the internet, and streaming services, not to mention Mad TV, SCTV, and In Living Color. If you take a page from his book, your business can become just as nimble and resilient.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
Whether you prefer something naughty, like the animated movie “Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer” or nice, like classics “The Sound of Music” and “Home Alone,” streamers, cable and broadcast networks offer up festive choices in December.
Highlights this year include music specials with Derek Hough and Jimmy Fallon, the Rockefeller Tree lighting hosted by Reba McEntire, Lacey Chabert’s latest Hallmark Channel movie, NFL games and even cozy mysteries with a Christmas theme.
Here are some highlights.
Dec. 1
— “Dancing with the Stars” judge Derek Hough hosts the annual “The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” on ABC. Popular recording artists including Nicole Scherzinger, Gwen Stefani, Trisha Yearwood and Mariah the Scientist put their own spin on Christmas classics. Streams next day on Hulu and Disney+.
Dec. 3
— Reba McEntire hosts NBC’s annual “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” which culminates in the lighting of the giant Christmas tree in New York’s Rockefeller Center. This year’s tree is a Norway spruce from Greenbush, New York. It has more than 50,000 colored lights and is topped with a Swarovski star that weighs 900 pounds. The special will also stream live on Peacock.
(Jake Rosenberg/Netflix via AP)
(Jake Rosenberg/Netflix via AP)
— Some people find holiday prep daunting. It comes naturally to Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, whose life seems to be a Pinterest page. She’s got ideas to share in a special episode of Netflix’s “With Love, Meghan” lifestyle series. In “With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration,” Meghan taps guests including Naomi Osaka and Tom Colicchio to bake, make treats with holiday flair and craft. “Being a hostess or a host, it’s about making people feel comfortable,” the royal says.
Dec. 5
— In the new Apple TV special, “The First Snow of Fraggle Rock,” the Fraggles are anxiously waiting for snow to kick off their festive season. Instead, a single snowflake falls, leaving Gobo, feeling uninspired to write an annual holiday song. For the first time, he ventures into the human world to seek out ideas. The special is a reminder that unplanned moments can also come with their own magic.
— Roku Channel has a follow-up to the holiday romance “Jingle Bell Love” starring Joey McIntyre of New Kids on the Block and Michelle Morgan. In “Jingle Bell Wedding,” Jack and Jessica are engaged and looking forward to a New Year’s Eve wedding. They’re also in charge of organizing an annual Christmas concert. Will all the planning derail their relationship?
Dec. 6
(Roku/OWN/Hallmark Channel via AP)
(Roku/OWN/Hallmark Channel via AP)
— Lacey Chabert works for Santa Claus in the new Hallmark Channel movie “She’s Making a List.” Chabert plays Isabel, whose job is to track kids’ behavior throughout the year. Isabel’s strict rules lighten up a bit when she’s assigned to report on an 11-year-old whose father Jason (Andrew Walker) is a widower. Chabert and Walker previously co-starred in a Valentine’s Day movie for Hallmark in 2018. “She’s Making a List” also streams on Hallmark+.
— The OWN original, “The Christmas Showdown,” reunites Amber Stevens West and Corbin Reid from the acclaimed Starz comedy “Run the World.” They play former besties competing for the same job who learn it’s better to work as a team. Loretta Devine also stars.
Dec. 7
— How about a cozy mystery this Christmas? UPtv offers the new film “A Christmas Murder Mystery.” Vera Vexley is a puzzle editor for her local newspaper who also has a side-gig as a detective. When Vera’s invited to spend the holidays with family friends, a murder launches her into investigative-mode and everyone is a suspect.
Dec. 9
— A new two-hour, faith-based special tells the story of Mary, Joseph and the birth of Jesus in “Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas” for ABC. The Oscar winner serves as host and narrator.
Dec. 10
— Zooey Deschanel and Charlie Cox co-star in a new holiday rom-com called “Merv” for Prime Video. The pair play exes who share joint custody of their dog Merv. When Merv is visibly depressed because his human parents are no longer together, they take him on a trip to cheer him up.
Zooey Deschanel, left, and Charlie Cox in a scene from “Merv.” (Wilson Webb/Amazon Content Services via AP)
Zooey Deschanel, left, and Charlie Cox in a scene from “Merv.” (Wilson Webb/Amazon Content Services via AP)
— The animated movie “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” is an adaptation on the farcical song of the same name. In the special, airing on The CW Network, a boy sets out to find his missing grandmother on Christmas Eve.
Dec. 11
— The Dolly Parton song, “Coat of Many Colors” comes to life in a TV movie airing for the first time on the CW. Set against the Smoky Mountains in the 1950s, it’s about the Parton family and how their love, faith — and a patchwork coat — help them to move past tragedy. Alyvia Alyn Lind plays young Dolly and Jennifer Nettles and Rick Schroeder portray her mom and dad. “Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors” originally debuted in 2015.
Alyvia Alyn Lind in a scene from “Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors.” (The CW Network via AP)
Alyvia Alyn Lind in a scene from “Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors.” (The CW Network via AP)
— Jimmy Fallon’s musical comedy special from last year gets a repeat. In “Jimmy Fallon’s Holiday Seasoning Spectacular,” the “Tonight Show” host searches a New York apartment building for the holiday spirit and encounters different celebrity guests behind each door. Jonas Brothers, Justin Timberlake, LL Cool J, the Roots and “Weird Al” Yankovic all appear.
Dec. 12
— AMC’s annual holiday programming includes a marathon of Will Ferrell’s “Elf” beginning at 6 p.m. It broadcasts back-to-back for eight-hours.
— In “A Suite Holiday Romance” for Hallmark Channel, Jessy Schram stars a ghostwriter who checks-in to a fancy New York hotel for a job writing a memoir. She meets a handsome Brit (Dominic Sherwood) and the two experience a series of misunderstandings until they realize they’re meant to be.
Dec. 14
— HGTV returns to the White House at Christmas for a one-hour special that goes behind-the-scenes of its decorating transformation at the holidays. It also streams next day on HBO Max and Discovery+.
— On the first night of Hanukkah, Hallmark Channel premieres the new movie “Oy to the World!” When the pipes burst at a local synagogue, a church opens its doors for an interfaith service. Brooke D’Orsay and Jake Epstein play choir directors who were also rivals in high school that must work together to put on a successful event for all.
Dec. 15
— Acorn TV has a two-part Christmas special of “The Madame Blanc Mysteries” airing Dec. 15 and Dec. 22. British actor Sally Lindsay plays antique dealer Jean White, who visits the France museum Maison Sainte-Victoire on Christmas Eve to authenticate an Ormolu box once owned by Marie Antoinette. It’s discovered that the box contains a ticking time bomb and Jean and her team have just 90 minutes to diffuse it.
Dec. 16
(Johan Persson/PBS via AP)
(Johan Persson/PBS via AP)
— “The Nutcracker” ballet is a Christmas classic, and PBS is offering a reimagined version taped at the London Coliseum. Still set to Tchaikovsky’s score, this version centralizes Clara’s story and is set in Edwardian London where a street scene has dancing chimney sweeps and suffragettes. “Great Performances: Nutcracker from English National Ballet” will also be available for streaming on PBS.org and the PBS app.
Dec. 20
— Lifetime is jumping on the pickleball popularity bandwagon with the new movie “A Pickleball Christmas.” It stars James Lafferty as a tennis pro whose family’s racquet club is on the brink of closing its doors. He and a tennis instructor take part in a holiday tournament to save the day.
Dec. 21
— Tate Donovan and Jillian Murphy star in a new Christmas movie for Great American Family called “Mario Lopez Presents: Chasing Christmas.” In the film, Donovan plays a morning show host and Murphy a designer who team up to make a child’s Christmas wish come true. Lopez’s son Dominic also has a role.
— The Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer classic “The Sound of Music” airs on ABC.
Dec. 24
— “Home Alone” airs on ABC. The film made Macaulay Culkin a child star for playing a boy whose parents accidentally leave him home when their large family hurries off on a Christmas vacation. He’s left to defend his house against two clumsy burglars.
Dec. 25
— Netflix is gifting us with football on Christmas again this year. The Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Commanders game is at 1 p.m. Eastern followed by the Detroit Lions vs. Minnesota Vikings at 4:30 p.m. Eastern.
NEW YORK — The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade kicked off Thursday in New York City, with new balloons depicting Buzz Lightyear and Pac-Man taking to the skies and floats featuring Labubu and Lego gracing the streets.
The parade started on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and will end at Macy’s Herald Square flagship store on 34th Street.
It’s a chilly day in the city, with temperatures in the 40s, but wind gusts between 25 mph (40 kph) and 30 mph (48 kph) will make it feel colder, according to David Stark, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in New York.
Officials have watched the forecast closely, since city law prohibits Macy’s from flying full-size balloons if sustained winds exceed 23 mph (37 kph) or wind gusts are over 35 mph (56 kph). Weather has grounded the balloons only once, in 1971, but they also sometimes have soared lower than usual because of wind.
Megan Christy, who traveled to the city from Greensboro, North Carolina, for the parade, donned a warm onesie and staked out a spot early Thursday to watch the parade route, adding that she was excited to see the new Pac-Man balloon.
“It’s not raining. We’re very excited about that. And it’s not too bad. Not too cold,” she said. “It’s just a great day for a parade.”
A star-studded lineup of performances will be sprinkled throughout the show, along with a slew of marching bands, dancers and cheerleaders.
All told, the parade will feature dozens of balloons, floats, clown groups and marching bands — all leading the way for Santa Claus. Among the new balloons being featured is a large onion carriage featuring eight characters from the world of “ Shrek.” “KPop Demon Hunters” will also be represented in the sky with the characters Derpy Tiger and Sussie.
The event is airing on NBC, hosted by Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker from “Today” and their former colleague Hoda Kotb. On Telemundo, the hosts will be Andrea Meza, Aleyda Ortiz and Clovis Nienow.
The parade is also being simulcast on NBC’s Peacock streaming service.
“I feel so sad,” says one studio executive. They’re not alone: All of Hollywood is currently bracing to hear which of three media corporations will change the landscape of movies and television forever. On Thursday, November 20, Paramount, Netflix, and Comcast each submitted a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery—the company that owns the Warner Bros. film studio, HBO, and cable networks CNN, TNT, and Discovery, among others.
Each of the three companies comes into the potential deal with different ambitions. Paramount Skydance, which was created from an $8 billion merger by David Ellison earlier this year, wants to acquire all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets, while streaming giant Netflix and Comcast—NBCUniversal’s corporate parent—have bid only for the company’s studio and streaming business.
The swallowing up of another legacy Hollywood studio, just a few years after Disney bought the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox in a $71.3 billion deal, feels like yet another seismic shift for an industry that has recently faced setback after setback. “It’s not just Warner Bros. theatrical, which is a mainstream studio and all the IP that goes with it, but it’s also HBO—they’re both these storied homes,” the exec says. “I don’t see a path where those things [still] exist with any of these buyers, because I think they just get folded into the existing structures, even if that isn’t the intention going in.”
Employees working under the Warner Bros. Discovery umbrella—who are still recovering from WarnerMedia’s merger with Discovery, which happened less than four years ago—are battling anxiety about more upheaval and jobs that will likely be eliminated. “There’s a lot of tenured employees at Warner Bros. that have been there for 20 and 30 years,” a Warner Bros. insider says. “This is not their first rodeo. But I think, ultimately, everyone recognizes that this is different—that consolidation is happening, and it’s a little scary.”
Insiders beyond those employed by Warner are also concerned about what the sale will mean for the industry’s greater infrastructure—and as of right now, there are more questions than answers. “Warner Bros. has been at the red-hot center as this constant target, and I just wonder, when has a Warner Bros. merger gone well?” says one top movie producer. “It’s hard to even know who’s the best. It feels like it shouldn’t be happening.”
Many believe the best buyer would be the one that keeps Warner Bros.’ theatrical output most intact, though it’s not clear which of the three bidders fits that bill. “We just don’t know yet,” one top manager says. “It all depends on what [they] are going to allow output-wise.” In August, Warner Bros. Discovery stated that its goal was to have 12–14 theatrical releases per year. If the new buyer were to cut that output by half or more, it would be devastating for the market. “[Warner] is on a generational run this year”—thanks to hits like Sinners, Weapons, and One Battle After Another—“and you don’t want to lose that,” the manager says. “You don’t [want to] lose the leaders there that are willing to take shots on directors and stars that want to go after original thought.”
Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17,” a new batch of “Stranger Things’” final season and Kevin Hart debuting a new comedy special on Netflix are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: “Everybody Loves Raymond” gets a 30th anniversary special on CBS, the Hallmark’s special “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas” with Brad Paisley and Mickey Guyton, and a new Beatles documentary series hits Disney+.
New movies to stream from Nov. 24-30
—Taiwanese filmmaker Shih-Ching Tsou, known for collaborating with and producing several Sean Baker films including “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project,” makes her solo directorial debut with “Left-Handed Girl,” about a single mother and her two daughters who return to Taipei to open a stand at a night market. Netflix acquired the film after it was warmly received during the Cannes Film Festival and Taiwan has already selected the film as its Oscar submission. It begins streaming on Netflix on Nov. 28.
—Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” arrives on Prime Video on Thursday, Nov. 26, for some dystopian holiday viewing. In her review for The Associated Press, Jocelyn Noveck praised Robert Pattinson’s performance (or, rather, performances) as an expendable who is constantly being reprinted anew. She writes, “It’s his movie, and he saves it from Bong’s tendencies to overstuff the proceedings. In an extremely physical, committed, even exhausting performance, Pattinson takes what could have been an unwieldy mess and makes it much less, well, expendable.”
—OK, “The Last Duel,” streaming on Hulu on Sunday, Nov. 30 might be four years old but it’s a far better option than, say, “Flight Risk” (on HBO Max on Wednesday). Ridley Scott’s medieval tale, written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener, is a brilliant spin on the historical epic told from three different perspectives, Damon’s Jean de Carrouges, Adam Driver’s Jacques Le Gris and Jodie Comer’s Marguerite. In his review for the AP, film writer Jake Coyle wrote that it “is more like a medieval tale deconstructed, piece by piece, until its heavily armored male characters and the genre’s mythologized nobility are unmasked.”
— In 2021, over Thanksgiving, Disney+ released Peter Jackson’s six-hour “The Beatles: Get Back” to its streaming platform. The gargantuan project provided fans with a deep-dive into the band’s “Let It Be” sessions – including footage of their entire rooftop concert, shared in full for the first time. It was an ideal release date, to say the least. After all that delicious food, who doesn’t want to settle in for a lengthy journey into one of the greatest musical acts of all time? Well, in 2025, there’s yet another reason to be grateful: Starting Wednesday, “The Beatles Anthology” documentary series hits Disney+. That’s nine episodes tracing their journey. Lock in.
— ’Tis the season for Hallmark holiday films. And for the country music fanatic, that means “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas.” The film follows a woman forced to confront her musical past and heritage in the esteemed venue – and there may or may not be some time travel and Christmas magic involved. Stay tuned for the all-star cameos: Brad Paisley, Megan Moroney, Mickey Guyton, Rhett Akins, Tigirlily Gold and more make an appearance. It starts streaming on Hallmark+ Sunday.
— It’s hard to believe that “Everybody Loves Raymond” has been off the air for two decades. The multicamera sitcom starred Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton as Ray and Debra Barone, a young married couple whose daily lives are interrupted regularly by Ray’s meddling parents, played by Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts, who live across the street. CBS recently taped a 30th anniversary special to air Monday which will also stream on Paramount+. Hosted by Romano and creator, Phil Rosenthal, it recreates the set of the Barone living room and features interviews with cast members including Romano, Heaton, Brad Garrett and Monica Horan. There will also be a tribute to Boyle and Roberts who died in 2006 and 2016, respectively. It’s fitting for the special to come out around the holidays because its Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes were top-notch. All nine seasons stream on both Paramount+ and Peacock.
— ” Stranger Things” is finally back with its fifth and final season. Netflix is releasing the sci-fi series in three parts and the first four episodes drop Wednesday. Millie Bobby Brown says fans will “lose their damn minds” with how it ends.
— Also Monday, Kevin Hart debuts a new comedy special on Netflix. It’s called “Kevin Hart: Acting My Age.” The jokes center around, you guessed it, aging.
— A new “Family Guy” special on Hulu pokes fun at those holiday movies we all know, love and watch. It’s called “Disney’s Hulu’s Family Guy’s Hallmark Channel’s Lifetime’s Familiar Holiday Movie” and pokes fun at the commonly-used trope of a big city gal who ends up in a small town at Christmas and falls in love. It drops Friday, Nov. 28 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
— Artificial intelligence: friend to all humanity or existential threat to the planet? In A.I.L.A, Brazilian studio Pulsatrix leans toward the latter. You play as a game tester who’s asked to try out an AI-created horror story. But while you’re busy fighting off ghosts, zombies and ax murderers, the AI may be up to something more nefarious in the background — which could be bad news if you own a smart refrigerator. It all has the potential to be very meta, whether or not you welcome our new robot overlords. It arrives Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military government has begun broadcasting extensive video on state television of its crackdown on online scam centers, showing buildings being bulldozed and over 1,000 foreigners detained.
Myanmar is notorious for hosting cyberscam operations that target people all over the world. They usually involve gaining a person’s confidence with romantic ploys and luring them into bogus investment schemes. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime has estimated that such activities generate just under $40 billion in annual revenue for criminal gangs.
The unusual length and detail of the reports beginning late last week on MRTV television appear to reflect the military government’s desire to publicize its efforts after months of bad publicity and international pressure. It is already ostracized by many nations for seizing power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in 2021 and brutally fighting opponents.
The authorities recently raided two major scam centers, KK Park and Shwe Kokko, on the outskirts of Myawaddy, a trading town on the border with Thailand.
The latest operation, which began on Nov. 18 in Shwe Kokko, resulted in the arrest of 1,746 foreigners in six days, according to a report on Monday in Myanma Alinn and other state-run newspapers.
There were other crackdowns earlier this year. Monday’s reports said a total of 12,586 foreigners have been detained since the end of January and 9,978 of them were deported to their home countries through Thailand. Some foreigners, from African nations and elsewhere, have reported being tricked into working at the centers and being blocked from leaving them.
The reports said authorities confiscated 2,893 computers, 21,750 mobile phones, 101 Starlink satellite communications devices, 21 internet routers and a large quantity of other equipment used to carry out online fraud and gambling activities at Shwe Kokko.
MRTV television has been broadcasting daily videos of security forces sweeping through buildings without resistance, as well as footage of foreign detainees in Shwe Kokko being made to squat in line.
The videos also showed buildings in KK Park, raided in mid-October, being demolished by explosives and bulldozed, with hundreds of computers crushed under a steamroller.
The military government says it began its crackdown on online scams and illegal gambling in early September. However, critics charge that the masterminds of the scam operations continue to operate in other locations.
Ethnic minority militias also exercise strong influence in the Myawaddy area. Several ethnic Karen militias are active, including the military-backed Border Guard Force, which has signed a ceasefire with the army, and the Karen National Union, which is part of the nationwide resistance fight against military rule.
The Border Guard Force has claimed credit for taking part in the crackdown, though it is widely believed to have provided protection for scam operators in the past. The military government has claimed the KNU is linked to the scam centers on the basis of reported real estate deals.
Both groups have denied involvement in the scam operations.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17,” a new batch of “Stranger Things’” final season and Kevin Hart debuting a new comedy special on Netflix are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: “Everybody Loves Raymond” gets a 30th anniversary special on CBS, the Hallmark’s special “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas” with Brad Paisley and Mickey Guyton, and a new Beatles documentary series hits Disney+.
—Taiwanese filmmaker Shih-Ching Tsou, known for collaborating with and producing several Sean Baker films including “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project,” makes her solo directorial debut with “Left-Handed Girl,” about a single mother and her two daughters who return to Taipei to open a stand at a night market. Netflix acquired the film after it was warmly received during the Cannes Film Festival and Taiwan has already selected the film as its Oscar submission. It begins streaming on Netflix on Nov. 28.
—Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” arrives on Prime Video on Thursday, Nov. 26, for some dystopian holiday viewing. In her review for The Associated Press, Jocelyn Noveck praised Robert Pattinson’s performance (or, rather, performances) as an expendable who is constantly being reprinted anew. She writes, “It’s his movie, and he saves it from Bong’s tendencies to overstuff the proceedings. In an extremely physical, committed, even exhausting performance, Pattinson takes what could have been an unwieldy mess and makes it much less, well, expendable.”
—OK, “The Last Duel,” streaming on Hulu on Sunday, Nov. 30 might be four years old but it’s a far better option than, say, “Flight Risk” (on HBO Max on Wednesday). Ridley Scott’s medieval tale, written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener, is a brilliant spin on the historical epic told from three different perspectives, Damon’s Jean de Carrouges, Adam Driver’s Jacques Le Gris and Jodie Comer’s Marguerite. In his review for the AP, film writer Jake Coyle wrote that it “is more like a medieval tale deconstructed, piece by piece, until its heavily armored male characters and the genre’s mythologized nobility are unmasked.”
— In 2021, over Thanksgiving, Disney+ released Peter Jackson’s six-hour “The Beatles: Get Back” to its streaming platform. The gargantuan project provided fans with a deep-dive into the band’s “Let It Be” sessions – including footage of their entire rooftop concert, shared in full for the first time. It was an ideal release date, to say the least. After all that delicious food, who doesn’t want to settle in for a lengthy journey into one of the greatest musical acts of all time? Well, in 2025, there’s yet another reason to be grateful: Starting Wednesday, “The Beatles Anthology” documentary series hits Disney+. That’s nine episodes tracing their journey. Lock in.
— ’Tis the season for Hallmark holiday films. And for the country music fanatic, that means “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas.” The film follows a woman forced to confront her musical past and heritage in the esteemed venue – and there may or may not be some time travel and Christmas magic involved. Stay tuned for the all-star cameos: Brad Paisley, Megan Moroney, Mickey Guyton, Rhett Akins, Tigirlily Gold and more make an appearance. It starts streaming on Hallmark+ Sunday.
— It’s hard to believe that “Everybody Loves Raymond” has been off the air for two decades. The multicamera sitcom starred Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton as Ray and Debra Barone, a young married couple whose daily lives are interrupted regularly by Ray’s meddling parents, played by Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts, who live across the street. CBS recently taped a 30th anniversary special to air Monday which will also stream on Paramount+. Hosted by Romano and creator, Phil Rosenthal, it recreates the set of the Barone living room and features interviews with cast members including Romano, Heaton, Brad Garrett and Monica Horan. There will also be a tribute to Boyle and Roberts who died in 2006 and 2016, respectively. It’s fitting for the special to come out around the holidays because its Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes were top-notch. All nine seasons stream on both Paramount+ and Peacock.
— ” Stranger Things” is finally back with its fifth and final season. Netflix is releasing the sci-fi series in three parts and the first four episodes drop Wednesday. Millie Bobby Brown says fans will “lose their damn minds” with how it ends.
— Also Monday, Kevin Hart debuts a new comedy special on Netflix. It’s called “Kevin Hart: Acting My Age.” The jokes center around, you guessed it, aging.
— A new “Family Guy” special on Hulu pokes fun at those holiday movies we all know, love and watch. It’s called “Disney’s Hulu’s Family Guy’s Hallmark Channel’s Lifetime’s Familiar Holiday Movie” and pokes fun at the commonly-used trope of a big city gal who ends up in a small town at Christmas and falls in love. It drops Friday, Nov. 28 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
— Artificial intelligence: friend to all humanity or existential threat to the planet? In A.I.L.A, Brazilian studio Pulsatrix leans toward the latter. You play as a game tester who’s asked to try out an AI-created horror story. But while you’re busy fighting off ghosts, zombies and ax murderers, the AI may be up to something more nefarious in the background — which could be bad news if you own a smart refrigerator. It all has the potential to be very meta, whether or not you welcome our new robot overlords. It arrives Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that calls by President Donald Trump to urge the agency to rescind licenses held by ABC stations would fail in court.
Trump said Tuesday that broadcasting licenses used by affiliates of Walt Disney’s ABC should be “taken away” after he disagreed with a question posed by a reporter for the network. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said any effort to revoke licenses over a reporter’s question would not pass legal muster.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul)
If you’re looking to make the move to an OLED screen, but don’t feel like stomaching the high price tag usually associated with the tech, you might consider the LG B5 OLED. It’s already a great screen at the full price, but Best Buy currently has it marked down to just $600. That’s a significant markdown for this TV, which can typically be found between $1,000 and $1,200.
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
The star of the show is LG’s OLED panel, the type typically found on TVs twice the price. If you’re curious why that’s so important, we have a great explainer that breaks down the difference between all the different panel types. The important takeaway here is that the pixels emit their own light, allowing individual spots of the screen to be perfectly black. The result is impressive, with incredible contrast between the brightest and darkest spots that’s best understood by seeing it in person.
The other areas of the screen are excellent as well. Our reviewer Ryan Waniata opined that “there’s a sumptuous touch to images of all sorts,” and liked the colors as well, which were accurate and sharp without any adjustment. The screen has a natural and vivid performance to it that feels all the more impressive when you consider the price point.
It has the chops for some gaming too, with feature support that meets or beats higher-end screens. With four proper HDMI 2.1 inputs, your consoles won’t need to fight for the good ports, which is a nice surprise for the price point. It can reach a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, which is just fine for most console gamers, and has both AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync to make sure everything is smooth, plus Auto Low Latency Mode for quick response times.
Overall, the LG B5 OLED is a solid value at its full price, but the steep discount here makes this a really sweet upgrade or first OLED. If you’re still not sold, make sure to swing by our roundup of all the best TVs available, including the B5 and other OLEDs.
It’s no magic trick: The third installment in the thieving magician “Now You See Me” series beat the high-profile action pic “The Running Man” at the North American box office this weekend. Lionsgate’s “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” pulled in $21.3 million, while Paramount’s “The Running Man” made $17 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
“Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” which cost a reported $90 million to produce, comes almost 10 years after the second film. Including ticket sales from 64 international territories, its worldwide opening is estimated to be around $75.5 million. Going into the weekend, it was expected to be a closer race between the two newcomers.
The first two movies in the “Now You See Me” series, released in 2013 and 2016, earned over $686 million worldwide. This installment, directed by Ruben Fleischer, sees the return of the original “Four Horsemen,” Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco, and introduces three younger magicians into the mix: Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt and Justice Smith. A fourth film is already in the works.
Reviews were mixed on Rotten Tomatoes, coming in at 59%. According to PostTrak polling, audiences were a bit more positive, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend.
Audience scores were slightly less for “The Running Man,” which had a 58% “definitely recommend.” Both earned a B+ CinemaScore, but more people chose the franchise. One key difference is that women made up more of the “Now You See Me” audience (54%). They only accounted for 37% of “The Running Man” ticket buyers.
Edgar Wright directed and co-wrote “The Running Man,” the second adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, first published in 1982. The first film starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and was released in 1987 to mixed reviews and a tepid box office, earning only $38 million against a $27 million budget. The new version stars Glen Powell, who has had a good track record starring in box office hits, from the romantic comedy “Anyone But You” to “Twisters.”
Paramount Pictures released “The Running Man” in 3,400 domestic locations and 58 international markets. Worldwide, it earned $28.2 million against a reported $110 million budget.
The weekend’s other new opener, “Keeper,” the third feature from “Longlegs” filmmaker Oz Perkins, cratered with $2.6 million and a D+ CinemaScore. But as an acquisition title for Neon, it’s also not a disaster.
Third place went to “Predator: Badlands” with $13 million in its second weekend, followed by “Regretting You” in fourth with $4 million. “Black Phone 2” rounded out the top five with $2.7 million, bringing its domestic total to $74.7 million after five weeks in theaters.
In anticipation of the big budget musical “Wicked: For Good,” which opens next week, Universal Pictures put “Wicked” back in 2,195 theaters, where it made $1.2 million — barely missing a spot in the top 10.
The box office should pick up considerably when “Wicked 2” blows into theaters, followed by “Zootopia 2” before the Thanksgiving holiday. Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian said it could be one of the highest grossing five-day Thanksgiving frames of all time.
It’s no magic trick: The third installment in the thieving magician “Now You See Me” series beat the high-profile action pic “The Running Man” at the North American box office this weekend. Lionsgate’s “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” pulled in $21.3 million, while Paramount’s “The Running Man” made $17 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
“Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” which cost a reported $90 million to produce, comes almost 10 years after the second film. Including ticket sales from 64 international territories, its worldwide opening is estimated to be around $75.5 million. Going into the weekend, it was expected to be a closer race between the two newcomers.
The first two movies in the “Now You See Me” series, released in 2013 and 2016, earned over $686 million worldwide. This installment, directed by Ruben Fleischer, sees the return of the original “Four Horsemen,” Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco, and introduces three younger magicians into the mix: Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt and Justice Smith. A fourth film is already in the works.
Reviews were mixed on Rotten Tomatoes, coming in at 59%. According to PostTrak polling, audiences were a bit more positive, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend.
Audience scores were slightly less for “The Running Man,” which had a 58% “definitely recommend.” Both earned a B+ CinemaScore, but more people chose the franchise. One key difference is that women made up more of the “Now You See Me” audience (54%). They only accounted for 37% of “The Running Man” ticket buyers.
Edgar Wright directed and co-wrote “The Running Man,” the second adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, first published in 1982. The first film starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and was released in 1987 to mixed reviews and a tepid box office, earning only $38 million against a $27 million budget. The new version stars Glen Powell, who has had a good track record starring in box office hits, from the romantic comedy “Anyone But You” to “Twisters.”
Paramount Pictures released “The Running Man” in 3,400 domestic locations and 58 international markets. Worldwide, it earned $28.2 million against a reported $110 million budget.
The weekend’s other new opener, “Keeper,” the third feature from “Longlegs” filmmaker Oz Perkins, cratered with $2.6 million and a D+ CinemaScore. But as an acquisition title for Neon, it’s also not a disaster.
Third place went to “Predator: Badlands” with $13 million in its second weekend, followed by “Regretting You” in fourth with $4 million. “Black Phone 2” rounded out the top five with $2.7 million, bringing its domestic total to $74.7 million after five weeks in theaters.
In anticipation of the big budget musical “Wicked: For Good,” which opens next week, Universal Pictures put “Wicked” back in 2,195 theaters, where it made $1.2 million — barely missing a spot in the top 10.
The box office should pick up considerably when “Wicked 2” blows into theaters, followed by “Zootopia 2” before the Thanksgiving holiday. Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian said it could be one of the highest grossing five-day Thanksgiving frames of all time.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Disney and YouTube TV reached a new deal to bring channels like ABC and ESPN back to the Google-owned live streaming platform Friday, ending a blackout for customers that dragged on for about two weeks.
“As part of the new deal, Disney’s full suite of networks and stations – including ESPN and ABC – have already begun to be restored to YouTube TV subscribers,” The Walt Disney Co. said in a statement.
“We are pleased that our networks have been restored in time for fans to enjoy the many great programming options this weekend, including college football.”
Disney content had gone dark on YouTube TV the night of Oct. 30, after two sides failed to reach a new licensing deal. In the days that followed, YouTube TV subscribers were left without Disney channels on the platform — notably disrupting coverage of top U.S. college football matchups and professional sports games, among other news and entertainment offerings.
Beyond ESPN and ABC, other Disney-owned content removed from YouTube TV during the impasse included channels like NatGeo, FX, Freeform, SEC Network, ACC Network and more.
At the time the carriage dispute reached its boiling point, YouTube TV said that Disney was proposing terms that would be too costly, resulting in higher prices and fewer choices for its subscribers. And the platform accused Disney of using the blackout “as a negotiating tactic” — claiming that the move also benefited Disney’s own streaming products like Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.
Disney, meanwhile, said that YouTube TV had refused to pay fair rates for its channels. The California entertainment giant also accused Google of “using its market dominance to eliminate competition.” And executives blasted the platform for pulling content “prior to the midnight expiration” of their deal last month.
On Nov. 3, Disney also asked YouTube TV to restore ABC programming for Election Day on Nov. 4 to put “the public interest first.” But YouTube TV said this temporary reprieve would confuse customers — and instead proposed that the entertainment giant agree to restore both its ABC and ESPN channels while the two sides continue negotiations.
The blackout marked the latest in growing list of licensing disputes in today’s streaming world. And consumers often pay the price.
From sports events to awards shows, live programming that was once reserved for broadcast has increasingly made its way into the streaming world over the years as more and more consumers ditch traditional cable or satellite TV subscriptions for content they can get online. But amid growing competition, renewing carriage agreements can also mean tense contract negotiations — and at times service disruptions.
YouTube TV and Disney have been down this road before. In 2021, YouTube TV subscribers also briefly lost access to all Disney content on the platform after a similar contract breakdown between the two companies. That outage lasted less than two days, with the companies eventually reaching an agreement.
Meanwhile, YouTube TV has removed other networks from its platform after expired agreements. Spanish-language broadcaster Univision has been unavailable on YouTube TV since Sept. 30, for example. At the time, its parent company TelevisaUnivision decried Google’s move — noting it would strip “millions of Hispanic viewers of the Spanish-language news, sports, and entertainment they rely on every day” and called on the platform to reverse course.
YouTube TV’s base subscription plan costs $82.99 per month — which, beyond Disney content, currently includes live TV offerings from networks like NBC, CBS, Fox, PBS and more. The platform previously said it would give subscribers a $20 credit its dispute with Disney lasted “an extended period of time” — which it reportedly allowed customers to start claiming on Nov. 9.
Disney also doles out live TV through both traditional broadcasting and its own lineup of streaming platforms. ESPN launched its own streamer earlier this year, starting at $29.99 a month. And other Disney content can be found on platforms like Hulu, Disney+ and Fubo. Disney currently allows people to bundle ESPN along with Hulu and Disney+ for $35.99 a month — or $29.99 a month for the first year.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
When prestige TV was first thought to be eclipsing movies, with quality scripts and meaty acting roles, two shows frequently bandied about were “Homeland” with Claire Danes and “The Americans” starring Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell.
Danes acknowledges other parallels with Rhys.
“I mean, you married an American lady, I married a British gentleman,” she said, referring to her marriage to Hugh Dancy and Rhys’ partner, Russell.
“We’ve just been mirroring each other’s lives,” added Rhys, noting that they also had children around the same time.
Danes and Rhys had never worked together, until now. They co-star in the new cat-and-mouse limited series, “The Beast in Me,” streaming on Netflix.
Danes plays Aggie, a prickly Pulitzer prize-winning author who has a looming deadline for her second book and a major case of writers’ block. She’s also grieving the death of her young son and dissolution of her marriage soon after. When Rhys’ Nile, a real estate tycoon, moves in next door, his reputation precedes him because he was a suspect in his ex-wife’s disappearance. Nile’s aggressive dogs and loud security alarm unnerves Aggie. He and his new wife try to charm the neighbors but she’s a tough nut to crack and returns their gifted bottle of wine.
“You’re not how I pictured you…at all,” Nile says to Aggie in an early encounter. “On the page you’re a lot more self-assured.” Somehow he entices Aggie to have lunch and the ice between them begins to thaw.
“I think they’re both crazy smart and rarely encounter another person who thinks as quickly as they do. They’re kind of hyper-perceptive. And they kind of enjoy challenging each other,” said Danes.
Although she doesn’t completely trust Nile, Aggie proposes she write a book about him to get his narrative out there.
“He goes, ‘Hang on, I can undo this kind of, you know, a societal scar that I’ve been living with, and I can possibly clear my name,” said Rhys. “He foolishly thinks he could use Aggie in that sense.”
“The Beast in Me” reunites Danes with some of the team who worked on “Homeland,” including showrunner Howard Gordon.
When filming began, only three scripts had been written so no one really knew what was going to happen. “We were all discovering the evolution of the story in real time,” said Danes, who adds her history with the production team made her “trust them implicitly.” Even Rhys was OK with the unknown because it served his portrayal of Nile.
“In a way it’s kind of liberating because then you’re only playing the present and what’s on the page in that moment,” he said. “Sometimes I think when you do know the outcome, I have a tendency sometimes to kind of play into that or to do something ridiculous that flags it. So there’s freedom in the fact that you don’t know.”
What they knew for sure was to lean into their character’s unlikely chemistry.
“The pyrotechnics were pretty much contained within these sparring sessions. There is a little murder in there, but that’s not where the tension really lies. They are hiding a lot from each other. They’re playing each other but they also are forging a genuine intimacy and connection that unnerves both of them.”
“I mean there’s actually nothing I enjoy more than that,” she said.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NEW YORK (AP) — Asked what viewers should expect when television’s MSNBC makes its corporate divorce from NBC News official this weekend, network president Rebecca Kutler points to a poster on the wall of a conference room at its new offices off Times Square.
Its message reads: “Same Mission. New Name.”
“To me, that encapsulates exactly what we need to be saying,” Kutler said. “Our job in the next few weeks is to flood the zone … and make sure they know the thing that they love will be the exact same thing on Nov. 15.”
Saturday is when MSNBC officially becomes MS NOW, standing for My Source for News, Opinion and the World. That’s the most visible manifestation of parent company Comcast’s decision to spin off most of its cable networks into a new company known as Versant.
It’s tough enough when one partner tells another that they’re leaving for someone new. In this case, they’re just leaving the partner behind; a cable television network is considered such a diminishing asset in today’s media world that giant companies would rather be free of them.
“A lot of us really didn’t know what it meant,” said prime-time host Jen Psaki, “and it didn’t feel great initially.”
Embracing the ethos of a startup
Left on its own, MS NOW is embracing the ethos of a startup, suggesting it will be better positioned to experiment without ties to the more corporate NBC News. “Morning Joe” is starting its own newsletter. Podcast ideas are encouraged. The network is expanding live events, letting its television stars interact with the audience; Rachel Maddow has one in Chicago later this month.
“I didn’t see this as a divorce,” said nighttime host Michael Steele. “I see this as the kid growing up and leaving home. We all know what that’s like.”
As Kutler says, the network’s focus on news and commentary with a liberal perspective remains intact. So does its lineup of stars — Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber and the like. MS NOW has built its own reporting and support staff, and is moving into a new headquarters west of Broadway in Manhattan that is, not incidentally, the former longtime headquarters of The New York Times.
The new office, tricked out with the latest electronics, ends one geographical oddity: No longer are the political polar opposites MSNBC and Fox News Channel located across Sixth Avenue from one another.
The MS NOW news staff has about three dozen reporters, among them Washington Post alums Jackie Alemany and Carol Leonnig. It has signed partnerships with Sky News for international reporting and AccuWeather for forecasting.
“Being divorced from NBC News gives it the opportunity to make deals on its own to supplement its cable existence,” said longtime broadcast and cable news executive Kate O’Brian, who spent several years at ABC. They have a strong identity and a built-in audience of people who oppose President Donald Trump, she said.
“They’re lean, nimble and niche, putting them in a better position to adapt to any emergent platforms,” O’Brian said.
MS NOW is leaner in audience than MSNBC was a year ago. The network’s prime-time weekday average of 1.17 million viewers this year is down 29% from 2024 — a number linked in large part to its viewers’ disappointment at the presidential election results. Fox News Channel, popular with Trump supporters, is up 14% to 3.11 million viewers.
Yet MSNBC has roughly twice the audience of CNN, which saw an identical 29% decrease in viewers over the first nine months of 2025. MSNBC was also buoyed by a strong election night performance where it ran neck-and-neck with Fox, even while missing the khaki-clad numbers nerd, Steve Kornacki, who chose to remain with NBC News.
MS NOW’s freedom appealed to reporters Jacob Soboroff, who chose it over NBC News, and Rosa Flores, who said she is joining the newly-named network from CNN primarily because she sees the opportunity to do a greater variety of things beyond the immigration beat she’d been covering.
“All the legacy news organizations are trying to make their way,” Flores said. “I felt like being part of a news organization that was building solutions from the ground up was so unique that I wanted to be a part of it.”
Being part of a news operation with a clear political identity was not a barrier for Soboroff. “It’s about the people for me, always, it’s not about the politics,” he said. “I feel like I do what I’ve always done, which is report the facts on the ground, turn them around to our audience and let the audience make up their own minds about what they think.”
Cleaning out the office at Rockefeller Center
The company is spending a reported $20 million on a marketing campaign designed to publicize the changeover, which will include billboards in Times Square, the Grove in Los Angeles and the South Capitol Digital Experience Wall in Washington, D.C.
Far cheaper is the mug with MSNBC crossed out and replaced by MS NOW on the set of “Morning Joe.” Co-host Mika Brzezinski recently cleared out her Rockefeller Center office and reminisced about times that NBC’s Richard Engel and Keir Simmons appeared on their show. “We’re going to miss some reporters,” she said, “and they’re going to miss us.”
With a rapidly evolving media landscape, success or failure will ultimately be decided by who has the content people most want to see, said her co-host and husband, Joe Scarborough.
“If this were five years ago, I would have been, ‘Oh, my God, how are we going to do this?’” he said. “Everything is so fluid now.”
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan re-teaming as the body-swapping mother and daughter duo in “Freakier Friday” and albums from 5 Seconds of Summer and the rapper NF are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys team up for the new limited-series thriller “The Beast in Me,” gamers get Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Apple TV’s star-studded “Palm Royale” is back.
New movies to stream from Nov. 10-16
— Richard Linklater’s love letter to the French New Wave and the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless,” “Nouvelle Vague,” will be streaming on Netflix on Friday, Nov. 14. In his review, Associated Press Film Writer Jake Coyle writes that, “To a remarkable degree, Linklater’s film, in French and boxed into the Academy ratio, black-and-white style of ‘Breathless,’ has fully imbibed that spirit, resurrecting one of the most hallowed eras of movies to capture an iconoclast in the making. The result is something endlessly stylish and almost absurdly uncanny.”
— Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan re-team as the body-swapping mother and daughter duo in “Freakier Friday,” a sequel to their 2003 movie, streaming on Disney+ on Wednesday. In her review, Jocelyn Noveck writes, “The chief weakness of ‘Freakier Friday’ — an amiable, often joyful and certainly chaotic reunion — is that while it hews overly closely to the structure, storyline and even dialogue of the original, it tries too hard to up the ante. The comedy is thus a bit more manic, and the plot machinations more overwrought (or sometimes distractingly silly).”
— Ari Aster’s latest nightmare “Eddington” is set in a small, fictional New Mexico town during the coronavirus pandemic, which becomes a kind of microcosm for our polarized society at large with Joaquin Phoenix as the sheriff and Pedro Pascal as its mayor. In my review, I wrote that, “it is an anti-escapist symphony of masking debates, conspiracy theories, YouTube prophets, TikTok trends and third-rail topics in which no side is spared.”
— An incurable cancer diagnoses might not be the most obvious starting place for a funny and affirming film, but that is the magic of Ryan White’s documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light,” about two poets, Andrea Gibson, who died in July, and Megan Falley, facing a difficult reality together. It will be on Apple TV on Friday, Nov. 14.
— There’s nothing worse than a band without a sense of humor. Thankfully 5 Seconds of Summer are in on the joke. Their sixth studio album, “Everyone’s a Star!,” sounds like the Australian pop-rock band are having fun again, from The Prodigy-esq. “Not OK” to the self-referential and effacing “Boy Band.” Candor is their provocation now, and it sounds good — particularly after the band has spent the last few years exploring solo projects.
— The R&B and neo soul powerhouse Summer Walker has returned with her third studio album and first in four years. “Finally Over It,” out Friday, Nov. 14, is the final chapter of her “Over It” trilogy; a release centered on transformation and autonomy. That’s evident from the dreamy throwback single, “Heart of A Woman,” in which the song’s protagonist is disappointed with her partner — but with striking self-awareness. “In love with you but can’t stand your ways,” she sings. “And I try to be strong/But how much can I take?”
— Consider him one of the biggest artists on the planet that you may not be familiar with. NF, the musical moniker of Nate Feuerstein, emerged from the Christian rap world a modern answer to Eminem only to top the mainstream, all-genre Billboard 200 chart twice, with 2017’s “Perception” and 2019’s “The Search.” On Friday, Nov. 14, he’ll release “Fear,” a new six-track EP featuring mgk (formerly Machine Gun Kelly) and the English singer James Arthur.
— Apple TV’s star-studded “Palm Royale” is back just in time for a new social season. Starring Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb, Kaia Gerber, Ricky Martin AND Carol Burnett, the show is campy, colorful and fun, plus it has great costumes. Wiig plays Maxine, a woman desperate to be accepted into high society in Palm Beach, Florida, in the late 1960s. The first episode streams Wednesday and one will follow weekly into January.
— “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” cast member Heather Gay has written a book called “Bad Mormon” about how she went from a devout Mormon to leaving the church. Next, she’s fronting a new docuseries that delves into that too called “Surviving Mormonism with Heather Gay.” The reality TV star also speaks to others who have left the religion. All three episodes drop Wednesday on Peacock.
— Thanks to “Homeland” and “The Americans,” Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys helped put the prestige in the term prestige TV. They grace the screen together in a new limited-series for Netflix called “The Beast in Me.” Danes plays a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who finds a new subject in her next door neighbor, a real estate tycoon who also may or may not have killed his first wife. Howard Gordon, who worked with Danes on “Homeland,” is also the showrunner and an executive producer of “The Beast in Me.” It premieres Thursday.
— David Duchovny and Jack Whitehall star in a new thriller on Prime Video called “Malice.” Duchovny plays Jamie, a wealthy man vacationing with his family in Greece. He hires a tutor (played by Whitehall) named Adam to work with the kids who seems likable, personable and they invite him into their world. Soon it becomes apparent that Adam’s charm is actually creepy. Something is up. As these stories go, getting rid of an interloper is never easy. All six episodes drop Friday, Nov. 14.
— “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” returns to Fox Nation on Sunday, Nov. 16 for a second season. The premiere details the story of Saint Patrick. The show is a passion project for Scorsese who executive produces, hosts, and narrates the episodes.
— Billy Bob Thornton has struck oil in the second season of “Landman” on Paramount+. Created by Taylor Sheridan, the show is set in modern day Texas in the world of Big Oil. Sam Elliott and Andy Garcia have joined the cast and Demi Moore also returns. The show returns Sunday, Nov. 16.
— The Call of Duty team behind the Black Ops subseries delivered a chapter last year — but they’re already back with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The new installment of the bestselling first-person shooter franchise moves to 2035 and a world “on the brink of chaos.” (What else is new?) Publisher Activision is promising a “reality-shattering” experience that dives into “into the deepest corners of the human psyche.” Beyond that storyline there are also 16 multiplayer maps and the ever-popular zombie mode, in which you and your friends get to blast away at relentless hordes of the undead. Lock and load Friday, Nov. 14, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S or PC.
— Lumines Arise is the latest head trip from Enhance Games, the studio behind puzzlers like Tetris Effect, Rez Infinite and Humanity. The basic challenge is simple enough: Multicolored 2×2 blocks drift down the screen, and you need to arrange them to form single-color squares. Completed squares vanish unless you apply the “burst” mechanic, which lets you build ever-larger squares and rack up bigger scores. It’s all accompanied by hallucinatory graphics and thumping electronic music, and you can plug in a virtual reality headset if you really want to feel like you’re at a rave. Pick up the groove Tuesday on PlayStation 5 or PC.
