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Deadline: TNT & TBS Will No Longer Air Screen Actors Guild Awards This looks to be another cost-cutting move by the newly merged owners of TNT/TBS, Warner Bros. Discovery. Last week, it was reported that TNT/TBS halted development on new scripted series (TVLine). At the moment, there's no hint of where the SAG Awards could end up. Statement from SAG-AFTRA: The TVLine write-up has a summary of recent viewership numbers:

ATK is working on a reality competition series that will stream on Freevee (previously IMDb TV) sometime in 2023. From the article on the ATK website announcing the series: A casting call for contestants was announced in late March (Instagram post). The above article also has some news about ATK and Cook's Country. Season 23 of ATK will have 26 episodes and debut in January 2023. For Cook's Country's latest season, 18 episodes will air, beginning this September. For some background on "why" ATK is launching a competition series, this press release from October 2021 is informative:

"First Day" memo from new CNN CEO Chris Licht: Here's the text of the screenshot (converted via OCR):

James Corden Leaving ‘The Late Late Show’ In 2023 (Deadline) Deep in the article it states that Corden informed the show's staff of his decision earlier in the day.

Jared Padalecki (Walker, Supernatural) was a passenger in a serious car accident last week. As of Sunday, he was recuperating at home. The news of the accident was originally shared by Jensen Ackles at a fan convention that Padalecki was scheduled to appear at. Update: On Tuesday afternoon, Padalecki posted a follow-up on Twitter (see end of this post), stating that he is "hoping to return to filming later this week", so it looks like any injuries were minor. From the People.com article (emphasis added): Here's the tweet from Tuesday afternoon:

IMDb TV will be rebranded "Amazon Freevee". According to the quoted press release, the service will be available in Germany later this year and launched in the U.K. last year.

Neither do I. The whole Althea's app plot so far hasn't been a showcase for supposed brilliance, because so far, it's been a case study in how not to develop a commercial app. Plot-wise, a restaurant "point of sale" (POS) company, say specifically targeted for mom-and-pop Asian restaurants would have been easier to tie into (and easier to explain!). As far as drama goes, Dennis' family could have bought a small under-peforming restaurant POS company for Althea to turn around (e.g., conflicts with existing employees, customers, etc.) You're not alone. From an affirmative consent perspective, Sebastian was unambiguous that he did not want an intimate relationship. We'll see if the writer's intend to use the Ryan/Sebastian plot as a cautionary tale or not.

My "English tabloids never learn" comment was referring back to a well-known (at least among USMNT fans) December 2009 cover of "The Sun" (embedded below) from the day after the draw for the 2010 World Cup. The main issue wasn't with whether the draw was 'good' or 'bad', but the choice of words like "easy"*, "lucky", and "dream", especially given the unpredictable aspects of soccer, such as injuries, players making costly gaffes (whether leading to goals or red cards), and questionable officiating. *While searching for an image of that cover to embed, I found a tweet from the Sun that actually used the word "easy" to describe England's 2022 group draw, which I added to my previous post above. Additionally, the use of "lucky" and "dream" both seem extra-hyperbolic as England did not get any of the lower-ranked teams from Pots 3 and 4. To me, either Korea (29) and Ghana (60) -or- Tunisia (35) and Saudia Arabia (49) would have been more favorable. Instead, England will face Iran and the UEFA play-off winner, both of which will have strong motivations to overperform against England: Iran (politicized nationalism with a bonus of playing in the Middle East), Wales (Home Nations rivalry), Scotland (same), and Ukraine (national pride with a bonus of being a sentimental underdog). The USMNT will also have a strong motivation as an underdog that has never lost to England in a World Cup. (alternate link if embedded Flickr image doesn't show up) But, the group didn't end up being "easy" for England, as they only had 2 points after two matches -- a 1:1 draw with the USA (due in part to Green's infamous howler on Dempsey's goal) and a scoreless draw with Algeria -- and needed a win against Slovenia to ensure advancement if the USA won their match against Algeria. The USA did win that match (thanks to a now-legendary second-half stoppage time goal from Landon Donovan), thus forcing England to play Germany in the first knockout round, rather than Ghana. (2010 World Cup Group C - Wikipedia)

More character videos: Pike, Number One, and Spock

Conventional (Twitter) wisdom is that this bombshell -- if true and if Snyder was involved -- could finally get the other NFL owners to kick Snyder out of their club. From the above article:

The preliminary match schedule for the men's World Cup is now available: FWC-2022-Match-Schedule.pdf. All of the USMNT's group matches will be at 22:00 local time, which I guess translates to 2:00 pm Eastern time (using this time calculator). USMNT / England Monday, November 21st: USA vs. EUR winner (WAL/SCO/UKR); England vs. Iran (16:00) Friday, November 25th: USA vs. England Tuesday, November 29th: USA vs. Iran; England vs. EUR winner (22:00) Canada Wednesday, November 23rd: Canada vs. Belgium (22:00) Sunday, November 27th: Canada vs. Croatia (19:00) Thursday, December 1st: Canada vs, Morocco (18:00) Mexico Tuesday, November 22nd: Mexico vs. Poland (19:00) Saturday, November 26th: Mexico vs. Argentina (22:00) Wednesday, November 30th: Mexico vs. Saudi Arabia (22:00) Other notable matches: Wednesday, November 23rd: Germany vs. Japan (16:00) Thanksgiving Thursday, November 24th: Brazil vs. Serbia (22:00) Sunday, November 27th: Germany vs. Spain (22:00) Monday, November 28th: Brazil vs. Switzerland (19:00); Portugal vs. Uruguay (22:00) Wednesday, November 30th: Tunisia vs. France (18:00) Friday, December 2nd: Ghana vs. Uruguay (18:00) All knock-out matches have kick-offs at 18:00 and 22:00 local time.

English tabloids never learn... Edit: And the pièce de résistance...

Hope Solo was arrested on Thursday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for operating a vehicle while impaired in a Walmart parking lot. Her 2-year-old twins were inside the vehicle. Here's the local NBC affiliate's article: Excerpt from the local FOX affiliate's write-up: Here's a law firm's explanatory article on North Carolina's DWI law, which covers a range of impaired offenses, rather than just the common understanding of "driving". Edit: The AP now has a polished write-up. A preliminary court date is set for June 28. Here are the specific offenses Solo is charged with, per her court date entries on a state judicial website: Offense Code / Description / Statute 3834 Misdemeanor-MISDEMEANOR CHILD ABUSE 14-318.2 5310 Misdemeanor-RESISTING PUBLIC OFFICER 14-223 5405 Traffic-DRIVING WHILE IMPAIRED 20-138.1 9955 Traffic-CIVIL REVOCATION DR LIC (30) 20-16.5 Links to the specific statutes have been added.

So, the USMNT is back and they get England again (2010, 1950) and Iran again (1998), but narrowly missed out on the LOL trifecta by getting a UEFA play-off team instead of Ghana. The USA-ENG match will be on Black Friday (November 25th)! I'm not looking forward to the domestic political circus surrounding USA-Iran. Group B will likely be the toughest on paper, based on FIFA rankings, with England at #5 and the other three teams between 15 and 21 (USA and Iran, respectively), if #18 Wales gets in. MEX-ARG (Group C) looks to be the highest ranked match-up at the moment (#4 vs #9). Ghana gets a potential rematch against Suarez (2010 QF handball) with a group match against Uruguay. Edit: I'm choosing to interpret "established place in soccer" as shade.

For those of us in the USA, the CW has acquired broadcast rights for this series (press release). No details yet about when the series will debut on the CW... ...But, June would be my best guess. (Previously, the CW used Kristin Kreuk's CBC legal drama, Burden of Truth, as summer filler.)

It's not the focus of the article, but I'm now very curious about Willis' "handler". The saddest anecdote (emphasis added):

The family of Bruce Willis has sadly confirmed that he has aphasia, a cognitive disorder. There had been some rumors / tabloid articles about him having dementia since at least January 2021 (OK! article). Via People: Bruce Willis Has Aphasia and Is 'Stepping Away' from Acting, Family Reveals Here's the direct link to Emma Heming Willis's Instagram post (quoted in full below): https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbu-T0VAukL/ Explanatory pages about aphasia: National Institute of Health (nih.gov) and Johns Hopkins

Regarding Paramount+ There is a way around completing that annoying "Pick at least 3 shows" screen: If you're using the app, either on a device (smart TV, Roku, Fire Stick, etc.) or a smartphone/tablet, once you get to the "Pick..." screen, just close the app. The next time the app is opened, the new profile will be the default. Similarly, if you set up a profile through the P+ website, once you get to the "Pick..." screen, just go back to the address "paramountplus.com"

Here's another of the 30-second character videos. This one's for La'an Noonien Singh. Looks like P+ is only posting them on Twitter for the moment, as they're not on P+'s YouTube channel (yet).

Paramount+'s YouTube channel will have the first episode available for free, starting on March 31st (3:00 am Eastern).

This behind-the-scenes video includes explanations from co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman and actress Ito Aghayere regarding Guinan's personality in 2024. Below the video is my transcription of a couple of key quotes. Star Trek: Picard | Adapting Guinan For The 21st Century

Yeah, there is a sign titled "Sanctuary District Regulations" as DWMARCH noted (in the above screenshot, the sign is in the bottom corner, next to Raffi's left shoulder), but there was no real clear attempt to honor DS9's canon regarding Sanctuary Districts. One way that scene could have worked better was if there were a pair of guards on patrol with some sort of exposition about how the area is in the process of being converted into or being annexed to a Sanctuary District (which would explain how Seven and Raffi could just walk into and out of the area). Edit: In a Reddit thread (r/DaystromInstitute), it was noted that I've added an annotated screenshot below: Given that the sign is facing the camera, I'm guessing that the area inside the fence is part of the official area of Sanctuary District "C" and that the scene takes place in some sort of overflow area. Also, during the ICE raid at the clinic, one of the officers mentioned Rios not having a "UHC card" (Memory Alpha), which is a reference to DS9's "Past Tense" two-parter. ("UHC cards" are assumed to be some sort of identity card for universal health care.) So, it does seem that the show is incorporating DS9's Sanctuary District canon, but it's being fairly subtle, so far.

In its second week (and first full week), Reacher had nearly 1.6 billion minutes, giving Amazon Prime it's first #1 spot in Nielsen's weekly streaming ratings. (Deadline)

Not sure about when, but this is from the end of the most recent posts about the show on StarTrek.com (emphasis added):

Obi-Wan Kenobi | Teaser Trailer | Disney+