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The Chi in the Media

Meredith Quill

By Meredith Quill
in The Chi

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formerlyfreedom

formerlyfreedom

Series premiere is January 7.

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The drama from Lena Waithe (Master of None), Common (Selma, Hell on Wheels) and Elwood Reid (The Bridge) is a coming-of-age tale that follows a group of South Side residents “who become linked by coincidence but bonded by the need for connection and redemption,” according to the official logline. The ensemble cast includes Alex Hibbert (Moonlight), Tiffany Boone (The Following), Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton), Armando Riesco (Bull), Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (The Knick), Jacob Latimore (The Maze Runner) and Yolonda Ross (Treme).

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paulvdb

paulvdb

Showtime(R) Releases New Drama "The Chi" for Early Sampling
 

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SHOWTIME is releasing THE CHI ahead of its on-air debut Sunday, January 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Consumers can watch THE CHI series premiere for free now on YouTube, Facebook and SHO.com, as well as across multiple television and streaming providers' devices, websites, applications and authenticated online services and their free On Demand channels. In addition, the episode is available for free on computers through the SHOWTIME stand-alone service's website www.showtime.com.

SHOWTIME subscribers can also watch the premiere of THE CHI now on streaming, authenticated and on-demand platforms including SHOWTIME ON DEMAND(R) and SHOWTIME ANYTIME(R). Subscribers can also watch on the SHOWTIME stand-alone streaming service through Apple(R), Roku(R), Amazon, Google, Xbox One and Samsung as well as via Hulu, YouTube TV, Sling TV, DirecTV Now, Sony PlayStation(R) Vue and Amazon Channels.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

(edited)

S2.E1: Eruptions

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Brandon deals with an unfortunate turn of events that takes him back to Reg; Jada makes a decision that forces Emmett to grow up; Kevin, Jake and Papa hatch a plan to do a project for school; Ronnie takes an inmate under his wing.

S2 promo:

S2.E1 promo:

S2.E1 clips:

I'll be the judge of that

Fight it out:

Original air date: 4/7/19

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

Lena Waithe talks about Jason Mitchell's behavior and firing from 'The Chi'

Some excerpts:

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Though an executive producer on “The Chi,” Waithe is not the showrunner — meaning, the person in charge of the show’s day-to-day operation — and wasn’t on set in Chicago on a daily basis. Because she was not given the showrunner job (which is a managerial position as much as a creative one), Waithe has talked obliquely over the past two years about how this stymied her ability to call the shots. “I don’t have the power to fire anybody,” she said during the interview. “I wish I did. I do not. I don't own ‘The Chi.’ I created it, I sold it — I could be fired off the ‘The Chi.’”

“And there conversations that were had, HR was made aware and all the parties involved were like, ‘This thing has been resolved enough that both parties were willing to return to the show. So I was like, ‘OK, if you want to come back, I want to make sure that the environment is different. I made sure that when she came back to set, it was a whole different crew. And there were huge precautions that we took: The writers had extensive sexual harassment training. There was extensive harassment training on set. … And I also said, I’m going to put women in positions of power on the show, because I think if that’s the case, it will be less likely that we will have issues like this again.”

Waithe said things were running “smoothly” in Season 2: “I’m hearing that the set is completely different … and then I get a call from Ayanna saying that things are persisting, not a lot has changed in that area, but you can’t reach out, you’ve gotta sit tight, HR has to handle it. And my biggest regret is that I should have just said, ‘Forget that,’ and not trusted anybody to do my job and just reached out to Tiffany on my own, like, ‘Yo, what’s going on? What can I do? What can Lena do?’ And instead, I trusted someone else to do my job.”

Season 2 showrunner Ayanna Floyd Davis said: “When I took the helm in season two, it was Lena (Waithe) who informed me of the issues between Jason Mitchell and Tiffany Boone (who plays Brandon’s girlfriend Jerrika) from season one, and that Tiffany was thinking of leaving the show because of it. … As a result of this information, I discussed Tiffany’s claims with the studio’s HR department and set up HR presentations for the writers, cast and crew. Ultimately, everyone was well aware of Jason’s behavior and his multiple HR cases, including Lena, the creator and an executive producer of the show, who is very involved at the studio and network level.”

Davis also said that she “became a “target of his rage and inappropriateness and had to report him to HR, as well.”

There are three episodes left in Season 2 and it is not yet clear how Brandon will be written out of the show but Waithe did say that the role will not be recast with a different actor. She also confirmed that Boone asked to be let out of her contract and will not be returning for Season 3.

Re: the Netflix allegations:

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Multiple sources say Mitchell made what one described as highly inappropriate remarks to two actresses in the film while lingering close to their quarters. “There were two incidents in four days,” says an insider. Netflix did a “quick but thorough” investigation by phone and the producers were given the green light to do what they thought necessary.

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MelloYellow

MelloYellow

Former ‘The Chi’ Star Jason Mitchell’s Character to Be Killed Off on Season 3

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“There is a lot of great life in ‘The Chi’ and there’s also death in ‘The Chi’ and that’s how we’ll be dealing with it,” Showtime Networks co-president of entertainment Gary Levine told reporters during the Television Critics Association press tour on Friday.

When a reporter followed up with the question, “So he’ll be killed off?” — referring to Mitchell’s character, Brandon Johnson — Levine responded with a nod.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

Jason Mitchell denies sexual assault allegations 

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The situation related to his dismissal from the film Desperados:

  • “To be honest I’m not 100 percent sure what the allegations themselves were. But I can tell you what happened. I went out with a co-worker of mine and she got drunk. I made sure she got home and the next day it all kind of slapped me in my face, I’m not sure if her and her significant other had a situation…. I actually had a girlfriend at the time too as well, and I felt like I was doing the right thing. The next day they canceled the rehearsal, I told them my side of the story and I don’t know if there was something that I missed.”

The allegations related to costar Tiffany Boone and S2 showrunner Ayanna Floyd of The Chi:

  • About Boone :“If you try her, she will get you together right then and there, you know what I mean? She not takin’ nothin,’ at all. I encourage people to be more like that, because had me and Tiffany ever had a situation where I don’t know, she might have felt sexually harassed, I can bet my bottom dollar, she would have told me about myself in that moment.”
  • About Floyd : "I'm all for the #MeToo movement, but I think in this situation Ayanna tried to use it as a really, really ugly weapon. I might have unintentionally sort of intimidated her and I can take that L. For me I can definitely take my L and say, I could have handled that better. There was a time where I could have just walked off. I didn’t have to say anything to her, I didn’t have to respond.”

He was let go from The Chi due to his behavior on Desperados. 

  • "The actual reason that I got let go was because Disney saw what was going on with Desperados and they just bought Showtime, so they decided not to pick up my option. I've been on the show for what was about to be three seasons. I was nominated for an award, so you know, I was asking for money and all these different sorts of things and they just weren't down to do it." 

In the comments section, there are mentions of some other issues he had besides the ones he addresses (including a 2016 incident in Boston where he got banned from the Ritz for throwing an 18 year old woman on the ground by her hair and calling her a bitch).

You can watch the full interview:

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