Last night around 5:55, as I turned on MSNBC, I realized I had missed most of The Beat with Ari Melber and that Hardball with Chris Matthews was about to begin and I literally groaned in irritation. I find Matthews loud, yelly, and an obnoxious host, screaming over his guests and often not focusing on the relevant issues. So I was as shocked as anyone when he opened the hour by announcing his retirement immediately, apologizing for being a creep to his female guests and peacing out before cutting to a prolonged commercial break.
When the show returned, a stunned Steve Kornacki was like, “… Umm … Wow … Uh, okay … how about some more commercials while we figure out what just happened?”
Matthews had been getting into a lot of trouble of late: comparing Bernie Sanders’ wins in the primaries to the Nazis (???), and being dismissive and argumentative with Elizabeth Warren over whether or not she believed the woman who accused Bloomberg of ordering her to get an abortion … But then as I noted yesterday, an article came out in GQ over the weekend accusing him of being inappropriately flirty with his guests and making them uncomfortable — and that it was an open secret in the news business. This was clearly the final straw for MSNBC, and he was out, immediately.
But don’t worry, Mika Brzezinski was out here this morning worrying about Matthews, and wondering if there couldn’t be a “better way” of handling this in the future. Hey! No! Sorry, but if old men can’t get it through their thick skulls that they can not objectify their colleagues, they’ve got to go! GOODBYE.
In a completely unrelated story, actor Timothy Hutton was accused of raping a 14-year-old girl back in 1983. The story broke on Monday, and within hours, Fox announced that his series Almost Famous was, in fact, canceled. It had been fairly obvious that the drama series was not going to return for a second season when Fox burned off the final two episodes on a Saturday night, but this rape story clearly gave Fox a reason to pull that trigger.
A Designing Women play written by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason is going to debut this summer at TheaterSquared in Fayetteville, Ark. What I would give to see a righteous Julia Sugarbaker rant about the Chris Matthews and Timothy Huttons of this world right about now.
HBO isn’t going to film the next Game of Thrones installment at Titanic Studios in Belfast. In fact, the production won’t be filming in Belfast or Northern Ireland at all. I wonder how much of this has to do with Brexit, and the instability that it has caused. I was there (literally staying in the hotel across the parking lot from the studio) just this summer, and I intend to do a post about my visit, but the short version is, Game of Thrones TRANSFORMED Northern Ireland’s economy and this will be a body blow to a country that is only now emerging from hard economic times. I just hate to see it.
Will the Olympics happen? And if they happen, will they happen on schedule? WHO KNOWS?
Apparently, Judge Judy‘s cancellation is a direct result of Les Moonves’ ouster from CBS. Fascinating.
William Shatner is not interested in dressing up as Captain Kirk for you nerds. Let it go.
No. I think Kirk’s story is pretty well played out at this point. https://t.co/30qVk9uxKN
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) March 2, 2020
🙄 What was any different about my statement on Kirk that I haven’t said before? 🤷🏼♂️ I don’t do cameos (that one stretches back to 2008 & JJ) Kirk’s story is well told out of any other captain’s story. Kirk died in Generations. What is really left? Adventures in the ribbon?
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) March 2, 2020
Cancellations
- The Magicians is ending after this fifth season on Syfy.
- Marianne will not have a second season on Netflix WHICH IS TOO FUCKING BAD BECAUSE THAT ONE SEASON WAS AWESOME.
In Development
- The Inheritance Games, based on the YA novel, has been set as a series at Amazon.
- How We Met, a documentary series about couples, has been set at Quibi.
- Jeremy O. Harris has signed a two-year deal at HBO.
Casting News
- Kyra Sedgwick has been cast in the lead of My Village, an ABC comedy pilot.
- Jason Isaacs has been cast in the CBS medical drama pilot Good Sam.
- Reid Scott is going to co-star in Echo on NBC.
- Ashley Zukerman has been cast as Langdon in the NBC pilot, Langdon.
- Gina Torres will star in the ABC vampire soap pilot, The Brides.
- Grace Gummer and Molly Griggs have been cast in Dr. Death on Peacock.
- Kether Donahue and Sara Rue have joined the cast of B Positive on CBS.
- Luke Mitchell has been cast in The Republic of Sarah, a CW drama pilot.
- Gary Sinise is joining Fast N’ Loud on Discovery.
- Kendrick Sampson is joining the cast of thirtysomething(else) on ABC.
- Whitney Peak, Eli Brown, Johnathan Fernandez, and Jason Gotay have joined the cast of the Gossip Girl reboot on HBO Max.
- Brian Geraghty is joining The Big Sky drama pilot on ABC.
- Lauren Lapkus is going to appear in Good Girls on NBC.
Mark Your Calendars
- Elite returns on Netflix on March 13.
- The Bachelorette will premiere on May 18 on ABC.
- Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children will premiere on HBO on April 5.
- The West Memphis Three: An ID Murder Mystery will air on ID on April 5.
- Fast N’ Loud returns on Discovery on March 30.
- Street Outlaws: Memphis will return on March 23 on Discovery.
- Dark Side of the Ring will return on Vice on March 24.
R.I.P.
Robert Mitchell, Disney UK distribution veteran
WATCH THIS
Empire: The final episodes begin. 8 p.m., Fox
Super Tuesday coverage: OK ONCE WE GET THROUGH TODAY WILL EVERYONE PLEASE DROP OUT ALREADY? 7 p.m., ABC, NBC & CBS
Portals to Hell: The pair explore the LaLaurie Mansion, and I only mention this episode because I am low-key OBSESSED with the LaLaurie Mansion. 9 p.m., Travel
Late Night:
- Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Kevin Bacon, Tan France, Taylor Tomlinson
- Late Night with Seth Meyers: John Oliver, Elizabeth Debicki, Jenny Offill, Glen Sobel
- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Chris Hayes, David Chang
- The Late Late Show with James Corden: Martin Freeman, Pete Holmes, Bad Bunny
- Jimmy Kimmel Live: Ben Affleck, Justina Machado, Victoria Monet
- The Daily Show: David Plouffe
- Conan: Joel McHale
- Lights Out with David Spade: Zainab Johnson, Randy Sklar, Jason Sklar
- Watch What Happens Live: James Kennedy, Dayna Kathan
- A Little Late with Lily Singh: Erin Moriarty
| TUES. | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
| ABC | Super Tuesday: Your Voice Your Vote 2020 (live) |
| CBS | NCIS (repeat) |
CBS News Election Special Super Tuesday: High Stakes (live) |
| CW | The Flash (new) |
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (repeat) |
Local |
| FOX | The Resident (new) |
Empire (new) |
News/Local |
| NBC | Ellen’s Game of Games (new) |
Ellen’s Game of Games (repeat) |
2020 Super Tuesday Coverage (live) |