Fetch the fainting couch: the Duke of Hastings will not be in the next season of ‘Bridgerton.’

by Therese Odell, posted in Uncategorized

Welcome to Friday, lovelies!

I mean who among us:

All Other TV News

Wheel of Fortune has this rule where you can’t add the word “and” when answering a puzzle, which I kinda get — you’re reading out what the answer is, and you shouldn’t add extraneous words. But … it’s also perfectly natural to use the word “and” when reading off a list of words, which is what happened to this poor guy who lost everything. And now people are REALLY MAD ABOUT IT.

MTV is launching a multi-year initiative “to normalize discussions and accurate portrayals of mental health conditions.” Good. We need to destigmatize the conversation for our young people so that they don’t feel marginalized for wanting or seeking help.

Hunter Biden is doing a press tour for his upcoming book. Brace for conservative outrage.

Aimiable docuseries host Mike Rowe is an unapologetic conservative — which is fine, everyone is entitled to their own political beliefs without getting “CANCELLED” or whatever. However, his new show on Discovery+, Six Degrees, is so shamelessly Big Oil propaganda as to be almost funny. It’s one thing to have Big Oil fund a series, it’s another to literally shout out the industry in every episode with lines like, “Six Degrees is sponsored by the oil and natural gas industry. Why? Because oil and natural gas connects everything.”

In an email, a spokesperson for Discovery+ said that Six Degrees is the only program on the network that is funded by advocacy or trade groups. Though he said he could not disclose exactly how much money the American Petroleum Institute or Distribution Contractors Association contributed to the production of Six Degrees, he said that the groups didn’t influence the show’s content.

“This sponsorship was simply to get production started,” he said. “There was no creative input or influence on the series.”

LOL, OK.

But it’s clear why the industry itself would want to sponsor this kind of endeavor now. Public concern about the climate crisis is growing. The Biden administration has imposed new regulations limiting extraction, and organizers who correctly state these moves are insufficient are pressuring officials to do far more. There’s also the reality that climate change poses an existential threat if left unchecked. And the fastest way to reduce carbon emissions is to wind down the fossil fuel industry while simultaneously protecting the workers Rowe says he stands in support of. From Six Degrees, though, you’d never know that phasing out fossil fuels is a necessary step to securing working people a livable future.

“As the stakes around climate change continue to get higher—and more people point toward fossil fuels as the main culprit to the warming of our planet—Big Oil’s sponsorship of Mike Rowe’s new show on Discovery+ is concerning,” said Allison Fisher, climate and energy program director at Media Matters for America. “Unlike the conservative audience that tunes in when Rowe talks about the oil and gas industry on Fox News and Fox Business News, Discovery+ is reaching a new and unwitting audience who may not have an opinion on Big Oil one way or another, but could be persuaded by Rowe.”

Six Degrees is right—currently, fossil fuels do provide the foundation of society and are connected to nearly everything. But that’s not an immutable truth, it’s a problem to be solved by creating a just, green economy. It’s precisely because of the interconnectivity of everything, the premise on which the show is built, that we need to forge that new world. Rowe’s new show is a roadblock to do just that, and that’s exactly the way the Six Degrees’ sponsors want it.

Great job, everyone.

This isn’t breaking news, but Rep. Paul Gosar’s (R- AZ) siblings REALLY hate him. They are going to run this on Fox News next week. 🔥

Why corporations are being weirdly muted on the terrible Georgia voter suppression bill (because they want those sweet, sweet tax breaks). One Georgia representative tried to punish Delta after they criticized the bill, and the media moguls surely took notice. Here in Texas, they are trying to shove through a similar terrible bill (despite there being essentially ZERO cases of voter fraud here, and despite our dumb state having voted Republicans back into power pretty much across the board), but fortunately, some businesses are speaking out ahead of passage: Southwest, Dell, and American Airlines have issued statements, pissing off some Republican wingnuts.

Sounds like somebody’s scared.

In fact, a group of big companies just put out a blanket statement about any of these voter suppression bills in any state. It’s a start. Now let’s pledge to not donate to campaigns who push such bills.

Going Viral

Things continue to get better: As people continue to be vaccinated at a rate of nearly 3 million a day, and 30% of us have received at least one shot, the economy is going to be restored, too. Last month we added 916,000 jobs, far more than the 675,000 projected. While we are still 8 million jobs short of where we were a little over a year ago, it’s feeling optimistic out there.

That said, we’re still on an upswing in cases: a 20% increase over the past two weeks. Though the cases have come down in recent months, it’s not down to where it was at the beginning of the pandemic, we’re at about the place we were last summer — WHICH WAS NOT A GOOD PLACE. And an increase in cases is bad news for all of us, vaccinated or not, because the more virus that is out there, the more opportunity there is for the virus to replicate and mutate and possibly become resistant to the vaccine. Epidemiologists are worried. Really worried.

Do you hear that dumbass Republican governors busily throwing everything open and removing mask mandates? He’s talking to y’all.

We have to do a better job of vaccinating our minority populations. 

Some good, but kinda obvious news: the CDC has announced that people who have been fully vaccinated are safe to travel both domestically and internationally. Additionally, you don’t have to be tested before traveling internationally, unless that country requires it, and those who have been vaccinated don’t have to quarantine when they return from overseas. Y’all still gotta wear those masks out in public, though.

That self-congratulatory memoir he wrote about tackling the COVID crisis in New York might come back to bite Governor Cuomo in the ass.

Cancellations

In Development

Casting News

  • Pray for the spoons: Regé-Jean Page will not be appearing in season two of Bridgerton. However, it’s unclear if he will return in future seasons (though the language of the tweet below would suggest that he will now). It’s not entirely shocking that Page would not appear as each season is conceived as focusing on one Bridgerton child: season one about Daphne and her marriage to the Duke; season two will be about Anthony. That said, it is curious that Phoebe Dynevor, who played Daphne, will be in season two, but sans her husband. This is pure speculation, but it makes me wonder if a contract dispute wasn’t at issue with Page, who was unquestionably the breakout star of season one. Did the maybe-future James Bond simply ask too much to appear? AGAIN, PURE SPECULATION HERE, PEOPLE.

Mark Your Calendar

  • The Suicide Squad will debut on HBO Max and in theaters on August 6.
  • Things Heard & Seen will premiere on Netflix on April 29.
  • Big Sky will return on ABC on April 13.
  • Zero will debut on Netflix on April 21.
  • Yasuke will premiere on Netflix on April 29.
  • Big Trick Energy will debut on truTV on April 22.

R.I.P.

Don Farmer, Original CNN anchor

Cleve Hall, Makeup effects artist who had his own reality show on Syfy, Monster Man

WATCH THIS

FRIDAY

WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn: this documentary explores the rise and fall of WeWork, and its hippie-messianic leader Adam Neumann. Premiere. Hulu

Concrete Cowboy: Idris Elba stars in this film about the Black urban cowboy culture in Philadelphia. Netflix

The Serpent: A series about the serial killer, Charles Sobhraj, who preyed on Western tourists on the “Hippie Trail” of Southeast Asia in the 1970s. Premiere. Netflix

SATURDAY

Saturday Night Live: Daniel Kaluuya & St. Vincent 10:30 p.m., NBC

Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia: A biopic about the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson who sang in multiple civil rights events, including the 1963 March on Washington. 7 p.m., Lifetime

The Ten Commandments: I suggest you let his people go. 6 p.m., ABC

SUNDAY

Malika the Lion Queen: Angela Bassett narrates this wildlife special that follows a pride of lions in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. Premiere. 7 p.m., Fox

The Walking Dead: Negan reflects on his wife Lucille in the season finale. 8 p.m., AMC

The Wizard of Oz: SEND IN THE FLYING MONKEYS. 5:45 p.m., TNT

FRI. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Shark Tank
(new)		 20/20
CBS MacGyver
(new)		 Magnum P.I.
(new)		 Blue Bloods
(new)
CW Whose Line Is It Anyway?
(new)		 Whose Line Is It Anyway?
(repeat)		 Penn & Teller: Fool Us
(new)		 Local
FOX Friday Night Smackdown Local
NBC The Blacklist
(new)		 Dateline

—

SAT. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30
ABC The Ten Commandments News/Local
CBS NCAA Basketball
(live)		 News/Local
FOX The Masked Singer
(repeat)		 Game of Talents
(repeat)		 News/Local
NBC Law and Order: Organized Crime
(repeat)		 Law and Order: SVU
(repeat)		 Saturday Night Live
(repeat)		 News/
Local		 Saturday Night Live
(Daniel Kaluuya & St. Vincent)

—

SUN. 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC America’s Funniest Home Videos
(new)		 American Idol
(new)		 The Rookie
(new)
CBS 60 Minutes NCIS: Los Angeles
(new)		 NCIS: New Orleans
(new)
The CW Local World’s Funniest Animals
(repeat)		 World’s Funniest Animals
(repeat)		 Masters of Illusion
(repeat)		 Masters of Illusion
(repeat)		 Local
FOX Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade Bless the Harts
(new)		 Malika the Lion Queen
(new)		 Local/News
NBC Ellen’s Game of Games
(repeat)		 Ellen’s Game of Games
(new)		 Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
(new)		 Good Girls
(repeat)

2 thoughts on “Fetch the fainting couch: the Duke of Hastings will not be in the next season of ‘Bridgerton.’”

  1. So I am an engineer doing R&D for a company that sells equipment to oil companies. I have been following this transition from fossils fuel very closely and I am very concerned for my future. I have looked into jobs outside of Oil and Gas but there are not many in this state. There are literally none in town. In fact most of the engineering groups in town laid off about 50% due to the pandemic spring of 2020 so there are still lots of out of work engineers around. My bigger concern is ill be lost in the transition because most other companies won’t see my current experience as a plus and if they are willing to hire me it will be at much much less pay. You just have to look at what Ford did, when they decided to only develop electric vehicles they laid off their entire engine development team and hired people that know electric motors. They didn’t retrain or transfer, straight up told them they were dinosaurs and cut them to the wind. There was a sobering CNN article about it. Im hoping more tech jobs will come to town that need mechanical engineers, because there is a wealth of them here and I dont want to have to uproot my family. Sorry for the rant but this subject is personal to me.

    Reply

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