In which I invite Aaron Sorkin to sit all the way down.

You know who is an asshole — and who I’ve always said was an asshole? Aaron Sorkin is an asshole.

Look, I’m not here to debate the policy positions of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow freshmen Democrats like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar — which is definitely whom he is talking about here, and with whom I don’t necessarily agree 100%. But what I do know is that they do not require lecturing from a profoundly sexist 57-year-old white dude who believes that female roles in movies don’t rise to the level of difficulty of male roles; who, when told by a female reporter that she read the script for The Newsroom twice, asked, “Because you liked it so much the first time, or because you didn’t understand it the first time?” before calling her “Internet Girl” (she was writing for a newspaper) and sneering at her, “It wouldn’t kill you to watch a film or pick up a newspaper once in a while;” who was shocked at the concept that Hollywood might have a diversity problem, asking in a panel: “Are you saying that women and minorities have a more difficult time getting their stuff read than white men and you’re also saying that [white men] get to make mediocre movies and can continue on?” before insisting that ~stifles laugh~ Hollywood is a genuine meritocracy; and who despite lecturing these freshmen Democrats that they need to “grow up,” he himself not even twenty years ago — WHEN HE WAS NEARLY 40 AND KNEW BETTER — was arrested for possession of a ton of drugs including crack cocaine. And I’m not saying that drug addiction is something that you can mature your way out of, I’m just saying that these young and apparently too idealistic Democrats ran for and won national office in their twenties and thirties. And while Aaron Sorkin was in his thirties, all he was doing was writing fiction about politics and doing mountains of drugs. SO WHO, EXACTLY, KNOWS MORE ABOUT POLITICS AND GRAVITAS, MOTHERSORKER?

Get out of here with your condescension and your rejection of equal rights, you misogynistic shitbird. Stick to writing overrated scripts about Great (White) Men Who Do the Good and Right Thing While Talking Fast and Defeating Facile Strawmen Arguments With Their Superior Intellects and stay the hell out of politics.

And, P.S., The West Wing wasn’t a good show. YEAH, I SAID IT.

The one thing Sophie Turner kept from Game of Thrones — and it’s not the ending of the series because apparently she’s been blabbing that to people close to her.

Conan returns tonight with the new, shortened version of his late night show. This headline claims to tell the story of how his girlfriend at the time, Lisa Kudrow, helped him get hired as the host of Late Night, but unless you think “being an encouraging friend” is the same thing as helping someone land a job, it’s a bit misleading.

Apparently, Tig Notaro is guest starring in this season of Star Trek: Discovery? How did I miss this news? And while we’re talking about Star Trek, here’s a quick guide to all the current and upcoming Star Trek series CBS is working on.

What we know about the 300th Supernatural episode so far. It airs on February 7.

Hey, you can watch Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television for free on YouTube through February 13.

Have you ever wondered why TV shows use such obviously fake search engines instead of just using a screenshot of Google? Wonder no more.

Heads up: the Academy Award nominations are going to be announced tomorrow morning at 7:20 a.m. by Kumail Nanjiani and Tracee Ellis Ross.

The story behind John Mulaney’s appearance on Saturday Night Live this weekend.

Fox & Friends continues to be the fucking worst.

Get better soon, Wendy Williams.

#MeToo

The R. Kelly story keeps happening. Updates:

• Sony is dropping Kelly from their label.
• Kelly’s manager turned himself over to cops for threatening the father of one woman Kelly has been accused of holding captive.
• Dateline did an episode this weekend about Kelly with new accusers coming forward.
• Erykah Badu and Da Brat have come out in support of Kelly. Oh, ladies, no.

The state of Massachusetts is investigating SMILF over civil rights violations.

Anthony Rapp, the first Kevin Spacey accuser, explained that he felt he had to come forward because he was afraid the abuse would continue if he didn’t.

Oh, lord, local news anchors. Y’all got to stop calling Martin Luther King that. How did this happen AGAIN?

Judd Apatow has some thoughts on comedy and political correctness and Louis C.K. and Kevin Hart and it’s nuanced and interesting so expect it all to be taken wildly out of context. The bottom line: “it’s fair to criticize anybody who’s on a public stage.” AMEN, APATOW. PREACH:

When you’re down, you’re not supposed to hit other people who are down. That’s not how you get up. To me, it’s as simple as that. Now, I think he [Louis C.K.] should continue working and whatever his path is is his path, but it doesn’t mean we all have to pretend everything he’s doing is great. Maybe he needs the criticism to figure out what he wants to talk about. Maybe if no one comments, he’ll have these weird crowds that direct him in the wrong direction with their laughter at bad jokes. Maybe he does need a little input from the world to say, “I think you’re out of tune on that one. Maybe you should think about it some more.” It takes a lot of courage to look inward and go, “Why did I behave that way? How did it affect those people? How did it affect me? What do I need to do to evolve? Is there anything I could do to make it up to them?”

That’s a hard piece of comedy to write, and I believe that one day we will see his attempt to do it. And we hope that he gets it and has grown and does the most brilliant thing about what brought him to this place. Because we all love what he was doing creatively. And he’s important to people. People look up to him. He changed comedy. He made everyone work harder. He made everybody do more sets. He made everybody think differently. His show was innovative. He’s not just a person, he’s a symbol to people. So we want the symbol to be kind. We want the symbol to grow and to learn and be a positive force. That’s why people talk about it, because it’s not just some comic.

Renewals

Cancellations

• The First has been canceled at Hulu after one season.

In Development

• Saving Kenan, a comedy starring Saturday Night Live‘s Kenan Thompson, has been ordered to pilot at NBC. It likely means the end of Kenan’s record 16-year run at SNL.
• Like Magic, a comedy from the creators of Superstore, has also been ordered to pilot at NBC.
• Unsolved Mysteries is being brought back to life at Netflix.
• Wu-Tang: Of Mics and Men is coming to Showtime.

Casting News

• Gillian Anderson will join Netflix’s The Crown as Margaret Thatcher.
• Leila George is joining Animal Kingdom on TNT.
• Rick Gomez and Ashley Thomas have been cast in the NYPD Blue reboot.
• Matthew Wilkas is joining the cast of AJ and the Queen on Netflix.
• Christopher Naoki is joining the cast of The Terror on AMC.
• The Fiji Water Girl has landed a role on The Bold and the Beautiful.
• The Game of Thrones prequel has put out more casting notices.
• Aubrey Plaza will be the host for the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
• Michael Rooker, Charlotte McKinney, Parisa Fitz-Henley, and Austin Stowell have all been cast in the Fantasy Island movie.

Mark Your Calendar

• American Gods returns on March 10. Crap. I have to finish season one.

• Veep returns to HBO sometime this spring. I’m going to need a full marathon before then.

• Pen15 debuts on Hulu on February 8 and it looks amazing. Like a female live-action Big Mouth.

• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver returns on HBO on February 17.

• At Home with Amy Sedaris returns on TruTV on February 19.

• O.G. will air on HBO on February 23.

• Jesus: His Life will debut on History on March 25.

R.I.P.

Andrew Vajna, Producer of many films, most notably the Rambo series, but also of the underappreciated Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles series (although if it hadn’t been prematurely canceled, we might not have Lena Hadley’s amazing Cersei, so)

Andrew Gruenberg, Film distributor and overseer of theatrical distribution for Netflix

Leonard Klady, Film critic

John Coughlin, Former champion ice skater

WATCH THIS

The Bachelor: THE PAGEANT QUEEN FIGHT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR. 7 p.m., ABC

Manifest: We finally meet “The Major.” Brace yourself for this being another dumb macguffin. 9 p.m., NBC

Big Brother: Celebrity Edition: The Mooch and Kato Kaelin together at last. Season premiere. 7 p.m., CBS

King in the Wilderness: This documentary examines the final years of Martin Luther King’s life. 3:30 p.m., HBO

Arrow: Oliver is tasked with tracking the new Green Arrow in the mid-season premiere. 7 p.m., The CW

Black Lightning: Jennifer and Khalil are still on the run in the mid-season premiere. 8 p.m., The CW

Late Night:

• Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Kerry Washington, JoJo Siwa, Joe Jackson
• Late Night with Seth Meyers: Colin Jost, Michael Che, Andrea Savage, Death Cab for Cutie, Venzella Joy
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Method Man
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Intermission Accomplished: A Halftime Tribute to Trump, featuring Will Arnett, Alyssa Milano, Fred Willard, Jake Johnson, Fred Armisen, Anthony Atamanuik
• The Daily Show: TBA
• Conan: Tig Notaro
• Busy Tonight: Terry Crews
• Watch What Happens Live: Jimmy Kimmel

 

MON.

7:00

7:30

8:00

8:30

9:00

9:30

ABC

The Bachelor (new)

The Good Doctor (new)

CBS

Celebrity Big Brother (new)

Magnum P.I. (new)

Bull (new)

CW

Arrow (new)

Black Lightning (new)

Local

FOX

The Resident (new)

The Passage (new)

News/Local

NBC

America’s Got Talent: The Champions (new)

Manifest (new)