It’s another Thursday. Here’s a cat whose best friend is a cardboard cutout of Danny Devito.
Have a nice day, everyone. Here is a video of my cat who sleeps with a cardboard cutout of Danny Devito and gets mad when you try to take it from him. pic.twitter.com/WR3s3WL3Ft
— ghost mom (@radtoria) May 27, 2020
United We Sing: A Grammy Salute To The Unsung Heroes, a special hosted by Harry Connick Jr. will air on CBS on June 21. The special will feature performances by “Connick, Jon Batiste, Andra Day, John Fogerty, Jamie Foxx, Herbie Hancock, Cyndi Lauper, Little Big Town, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Matthews, Tim McGraw, Rockin Dopsie, Irma Thomas and Trombone Shorty,” and messages of thanks from “Sandra Bullock, Drew Brees, Queen Latifah, Brad Pitt, Oprah Winfrey, and Renée Zellweger.”
The majority of CNN’s staff won’t return to the studios and offices until 2021.
English Premier League Soccer is set to return to TV in June and not a moment too soon for the health of my marriage. The NWLS will also return with a tournament that will air on CBS and CBS All Access in June.
ViacomCBS is in the process of firing a bunch of entertainment and news employees.
Hulu is testing a watch party feature, so that you can watch programs with your friends in a responsible fashion.
Reopening America, a weeklong special hosted by Craig Melvin, will air next week on MSNBC.
Lifetime Presents Variety’s Power of Women: Frontline Heroes will air on Lifetime on June 9.
A Life Unexpected reunion will be held during the ATX Festival … from the Couch.
The We’re Here cast will have an interview with Variety’s Streaming Room.
The U.K. is working on an insurance plan that would help cover productions.
Fox News has won a First Amendment lawsuit based on its coverage of the virus.
Netflix is opting out of film festivals this season.
COVID-19 killed Mary-Kate Olsen’s marriage.
Las Vegas is preparing to reopen. Yeah, good luck with all that. (I mean, can you imagine touching a slot machine right now? Or a chip? ~shudder~) (Of course, I say that, but cruise ships are fully booked for their trips in a month or two because PEOPLE ARE INSANE.)
L.A.’s Greek Theatre has canceled its 2020 season.
In yet another break with precedent, President 40 Million Unemployed doesn’t plan on releasing his administration’s economic predictions for the summer, for some mysterious reason.
ARE YOU SITTING DOWN? A new study shows that Fox News viewers take COVID-19 less seriously than people who view their news elsewhere.
President Doesn’t Understand the First Amendment is signing an executive order that will strip social media platforms’ abilities to use their discretion to moderate their own sites and remove users who violate their terms of service. This is all because he’s mad Twitter fact-checked him on mail-in voting. This will ultimately be decided by the courts, but woo-boy, this is bad.
Meanwhile, President Going to Get Someone Killed has been tweeting the handle of a particular Twitter employee in charge of the fact-checking effort, leading to that employee receiving death threats. So that’s super cool. HEY, JACK? HOW ABOUT DELETING HIS ACCOUNT FOR VIOLATING YOUR TERMS OF SERVICE? THERE’S NO LAW THAT SAYS YOU HAVE TO HOST THE PRESIDENT.
This article suggests that President Conspiracy Theory is mad at Morning Joe because they have the ear of moderate Republicans within the Beltway. This is to misunderstand the Narcissistic Personality Disorder-in-Chief ENTIRELY. He genuinely does not think in terms that are that cogent and political. If it were about the show’s ability to reach Never-Trumper Republicans, he would also spend time fuming at Nicole Wallace, which aside from the very occasional Twitter barb, he does not.
No, the reason he remains furious with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski is that he feels betrayed by them: they invited him on their show a bunch of times during the 2016 campaign, and I guarantee you, he takes personal credit for the show’s surge in popularity. He now feels like they owe him blind fealty, which they refuse to give because they have discovered some principles. It’s the exact same reason he has been especially furious with Jeff Zucker and CNN — he thinks Zucker owes him something because Zucker was the head of NBC during The Apprentice‘s run. It is never 4-dimensional chess with President ME ME ME!, it is always about his fucking ego. /rant
Good News:
This:
103-year-old matriarch and avid Red Sox fan recovers from coronavirus, cracks open a Bud Light https://t.co/aBJoLYoBvz
— Ginger Adams Otis (@GingerOtis) May 28, 2020
The Bless the Harts cast is doing a table read to raise money for COVID-19 relief.
The Crown‘s Claire Foy and Matt Smith are performing a “socially-distanced” version of the play Lungs to benefit the Old Vic theater in London.
Alfonso Cuaron is advocating for domestic workers during COVID-19.
Wanda Sykes, Judd Apatow, Ray Romano, Roy Wood Jr., Carl Reiner, Craig Robinson, Dave Attell, Jeff Ross, and Jim Norton are some of the comedians who will perform in Laughter in Lockdown, a streaming comedy special to benefit comedians struggling during the crisis.
All Other TV News
AND SPEAKING OF WANDA SYKES! So, Scott Baio thought he could step to Wanda Sykes and it … it did not go well. Alright, a little background: Joe Biden ruffled some feathers last week when, after a 20-minute interview with Charlemagne, Charlemagne noted he had more questions for the Vice President, and Biden quipped, “Well I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” Biden apologized and said he shouldn’t have been cavalier, but not until after right-wing media tried to make a whole thing out of it.
About the incident, Wanda Sykes tweeted:
Biden feels at home speaking to the Black community. He made a joke. Comedy ain’t easy, but he didn’t say 2 go shoot Clorox in our tits. Now, I wouldn’t make a blanket statement to say that voting for Trump means you’re not Black. I would say that it means you’re not smart.
— Wanda Sykes (@iamwandasykes) May 22, 2020
And then Scott “Chachi” Baio decided he would respond in defense of Roseanne Barr’s racist comments:
Hey @iamwandasykes why is it okay for @JoeBiden to say something clearly racist but @therealroseanne gets kicked off of her own show that YOU are a writer on, for making a mistake? Is it because you're a full of shit, hack liberal?
— Scott Baio (@ScottBaio) May 23, 2020
Wanda thought that was cute:
Oh! Hey Chachi. Apologies, I didn’t see you. I’ll keep it short. Joe Biden didn’t say, “Then you ain’t an ape.”
Well, let me get back to work…I hope you enjoy whatever it is that you do. https://t.co/vqHv7fmqgh
— Wanda Sykes (@iamwandasykes) May 27, 2020
And now Scott Baio and #Chaci are trending on Twitter, and a bunch of people is discovering that he blocked them.
Damn, I didn’t know Chachi blocked me! Well, 🖕🏾you too Scott Baio. 🤷🏾♂️😂 pic.twitter.com/LlLLtTXjDC
— Rashan Reeves (@Babyblack1977) May 28, 2020
All I did was post this picture of Scott Baio and he blocked me. I’m assuming he doesn’t want it shared!! pic.twitter.com/Az1czA61OV
— SAM6 (@travelong6) May 28, 2020
🤷🏻♀️ pic.twitter.com/HbB2zIC5zl
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) May 28, 2020
Listen: the only good thing Scott Baio has ever done was be a guest star on a great comedy series which mocked his Happy Days Baby Fonz persona, and now we can all return to forgetting that Scott Baio exists.
I’m still confused as to why, exactly, Amazon has refused to allow HBO Max to be available on Fire, but they seem to be blaming AT&T for the issue. This will eventually be worked out — there’s too much money on the table for it to not be — but I remain unclear what, exactly, Amazon wants from AT&T.
Speaking of HBO Max, here are a few suggestions of shows and movies you can stream (I didn’t realize the Lord of the Rings movies are all on there …). Also, if you’re a horror fan like me, here’s the full list of 120+ scary movies (and not-so-scary movies, like the Godzilla library) you can now stream. All that said, there are some weird holes in the library: where are the Superman movies? Where is The Hobbit? You have It: Chapter Two, but where is It: Chapter One?
Ruby Rose has posted about leaving Batwoman — sorta:
Ramy Youseff came thisclose to having Lindsay Lohan in the second season of Ramy — she was on the call sheet! — but she didn’t show up because Lindsay is going to Lindsay.
Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande were on The Weather Channel delivering the forecast because we are living in very strange times.
Netflix and the producers of Messiah are being sued for defamation by a prison company that runs immigrant detention centers. LOL, OK.
Yesterday’s big rocket launch had to be postponed because of weather conditions. It’s been rescheduled for Saturday at 2:22 p.m. (Central Standard Time).
Renewals
- Home Town has been renewed at HGTV.
In Development
- Step Up, having been canceled at YouTube, has been picked up at Starz.
- The Forbidden Game trilogy is being developed into a series by Greg Berlanti’s production company.
- The Fear Collection is being developed at Amazon.
- Killers of the Flower Moon will be partially financed by Apple.
Casting News
- Manny Jacinto is joining the cast of Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers.
- Emily O’Brien will appear on Days of Our Lives.
Mark Your Calendars
- Lennox Hill will premiere on Netflix on June 10.
- Secret Society of Second-Born Royals will debut on Disney+ on July 17.
- Black Monday returns on Showtime on June 14.
- Jo Koy: In His Elements will debut on Netflix on June 12.
- The Aquarium will air a special episode about the birth of a Beluga Whale on Animal Planet on May 30.
- Strange Evidence will return on Science Channel on June 11.
- Whispers will debut on Netflix on June 11.
- Reelz has announced a bunch of new shows and specials.
R.I.P.
WATCH THIS
To Tell the Truth: Alfonso Ribeiro; Andrea Savage; D’Arcy Carden; and Tom Lennon. These are all pretty hilarious people! 9 p.m., ABC
Celebrity Watch Party: If you’ve ever wanted to watch Tyra Banks and Joe Buck watch Friends, your dream is about to come true. 7 p.m., Fox
Late Night:
- Jimmy Kimmel Live: Dakota Johnson
| THUR | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
| ABC | Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (new) |
Holey Moley (new) |
To Tell the Truth (new) |
| CBS | Young Sheldon (repeat) |
Man With a Plan (new) |
Mom (repeat) |
Broke (new) |
S.W.A.T. (new) |
| CW | Burden of Truth (new) |
In the Dark (new) |
News/Local |
| FOX | Celebrity Watch Party (new) |
Labor of Love (new) |
News/Local |
| NBC | Council of Dads (new) |
Blindspot (new) |
Law & Order: SVU (repeat) |
Fan of Morning Joe…you are spot on!