It’s Thursday, and I’m going to teach you something: coyotes and badgers are friends and like to hunt together.
All Other TV News
Colton Underwood just gave an interview to Variety in which he says someone threatened to blackmail him with naked pictures taken at a gay spa, which in part spurred his coming out. He also addresses the Cassie situation, albeit in a limited way because of a joint agreement the two have. He insists he never physically harmed Cassie, and apologizes to her and her family for his behavior, insisting that it stemmed from his need to control a situation he could not and trying to maintain his fantasy of being straight. And here, Colton confronts the culture of toxic masculinity that The Bachelor helped reinforce, a culture that hurts men and women equally.
Both pieces are very honest and forthcoming about Colton’s struggles to come out, and while I understand the anger some still have towards him, especially in the awful way he treated Cassie, I do think his is an important story to hear, and to hear from a place of empathy.
A Million Little Things is pissing off the disability community.
This is why Lisa Vanderpump remains the queen of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. (In part because of the stunt; in part because she obviously was the one who planted this story.)
Amazon is feeling super defensive about spending nearly $500 million on the Lord of the Rings series (but they shouldn’t!).
Scott Bakula was just as surprised as you were that NCIS: New Orleans was canceled after seven seasons (but considering Louisiana capped their generous tax breaks for the TV and film industry a couple of years ago, this is not surprising in the least).
Carole Baskin continues to insert herself into this Houston tiger story.
This is just very cute and weird:
Tiffany Haddish could be your next Ellen. Or, hear The A.V. Club out, they could go in a different direction …
#METOo
Speaking of, Ellen Degeneres is now saying that the reports that her show was a toxic workplace felt “too orchestrated” and “misogynistic,” but insists it’s not the reason she’s ending the show. Or, and hear me out, our culture has undergone a radical shift in the past four years thanks to the #MeToo movement, and abusive workplace situations, particularly in Hollywood, are no longer tolerated the way they used to be. But sure, maybe it was a shadowy anti-woman cabal out to take down America’s Fun Aunt.
Seth Rogen is out there promoting … something … his cannabis brand? I don’t know, but he’s been doing a lot of interviews and media appearances lately. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Rogen was asked about his relationship with James Franco and whether he would work with him again, now that allegations of abusive behavior have come out. Rogen replied that he regrets some of his own enabling behavior, and at this point, “the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now.”
Charlene Yi, who called Rogen out last month for protecting Franco and pressuring her to work with him, was not impressed. She noted on Instagram that despite Rogen saying that he’s not working with Franco, Franco is one of the producers with Rogen on Hulu’s upcoming Pam & Tommy. She then provided a checklist of actions Rogen should take:
Bad news for Roblox character Matt Gaetz: Joel Greenberg has a hearing set on Monday to change his plea to guilty. What this says to folks is that he has cooperated with federal prosecutors — i.e., given up the goods on other, more important people. Additionally, a former Capitol Hill intern and ex-girlfriend of Gaetz’s is said to also be talking to prosecutors, and to have information on a trip to the Bahamas he took with a political donor who might have paid women to travel with them for sex in an effort to illegally influence him on medical marijuana issues. Gaetz has not been charged with any crime.
Yet.
Uh-oh, was Bill Gates hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein? And if so … why?
Gal Gadot (who is a bit in the hot seat herself right now thanks to the current Israeli/Palestinian conflict) explicitly said in an interview that Joss Whedon threatened her career when she disagreed with some dialog he had written for Wonder Woman.
The Noel Clarke story continues to get worse: he’s now been accused of sexual harassment on the set of Doctor Who; more than 800 women signed a letter calling for changes in the UK film and TV industry; and some are looking back on an unfortunate incident with a young actor, Adam Deacon, back in 2015.
— Adam Deacon (@realadamdeacon) May 4, 2021
The Josh Duggar story continues to horrify. A Department of Homeland Security officer testified that the child pornography they found in Duggar’s computer was “in the top five of the worst of the worst that I’ve ever had to examine.” That said, this fucking idiot right here, when the feds raided his business, which is where he had downloaded the porn because his wife had installed tracking software for people with “porn addictions” on their home computer, his response was, and I quote: “What is this about? Has someone been downloading child pornography?” WOW. WAY TO PLAY IT COOL, JOSH.
So, the Chrissy Teigen/Courtney Stodden mess. Courtney Stodden, who became “famous” as a 16-year-old child bride to 50-year-old actor and creep Doug Hutchison 10 years ago, revealed in an interview that Chrissy Teigen, of all people, bullied her back in the day, and DM’d her urging Stodden to kill herself. Teigen remained silent about the story until yesterday when she Tweeted this apology.
is nothing compared to how I made Courtney feel. I have worked so hard to give you guys joy and be beloved and the feeling of letting you down is nearly unbearable, truly. These were not my only mistakes and surely won’t be my last as hard as I try but god I will try!!
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 12, 2021
And I am so sorry I let you guys down. I will forever work on being better than I was 10 years ago, 1 year ago, 6 months ago.
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 12, 2021
Except … according to Stodden, she has not heard from either Chrissy or anyone from her team:
They had to do a study to find out that older actresses are discriminated against?
Please do not dub over trans women’s voices with male actors, thanks.
Going Viral
Cases keep dropping: we had 36,805 new cases yesterday — which, again, too high! But considering we were at over 50,000 two weeks ago, it’s a great sign that the vaccine is working. Experts continue to say that we won’t get back to a real sense of normality until we are somewhere below 10,000 new cases a day, but we’re headed there, guys. We might hit that in early summer. This is good.
Dr. Anthony Fauci confirms, “If you are vaccinated, you don’t have to wear a mask outside.” 😷 pic.twitter.com/Wcy3AsPnnP
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) May 13, 2021
Oregon and some other states are taking a much more sensible tack towards reopening: as soon as 70% of the population has received their jabs, everything will be open again. Go get your shots, Oregon — I’ve got a kid who wants to tour some of your colleges this summer.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon brought back live musical guests to the show with a performance by J. Period last night. It’s the first late-night show to do so.
The Banker’s Wife, an international thriller series, has been scrapped at Amazon thanks to too many COVID-19-related production issues, namely the whole “international” part.
Discovery’s CEO is super-pissed at Nielsen’s under-counting of audiences during the pandemic.
Prince Harry thinks Joe Rogan should shut the fuck up.
COVID has made Pokémon trading cards insanely popular — like INSANELY popular — and now Target won’t sell them in their stores anymore for everyone’s safety. What. Is. Happening.
Hey: COVID-19 will give you erectile dysfunction long after you’ve been infected, guys. Now will you get the vaccine?
Renewals
- American Idol; Celebrity Wheel of Fortune; Supermarket Sweep; Shark Tank; and America’s Funniest Home Videos have all been renewed at ABC.
Cancellations
- This is Us will, in fact, end with the sixth season set to air next fall. It was always Dan Fogelman’s plan to only air for six seasons, and how he pitched the show to NBC.
In Development
- Annie Live! will air on NBC during the holidays.
- Baking It, a spinoff of Making It, has been ordered at Peacock, along with Below Deck Down Under, and Top Chef Family Style.
- Enola Holmes has been given a sequel at Netflix.
- Uncoupled, a comedy from Darren Star, has been picked up by Netflix.
- Gordita Chronicles has been ordered to series at HBO Max.
- West Cork is being adapted into a TV series by the producer of Chernobyl. (Netflix and Sky are also producing their own versions of the true-crime podcast.)
- The Game is being rebooted at Paramount+.
- Pray Away, a documentary from Ryan Murphy, has been bought by Netflix.
- The Tragedy of Macbeth is coming to Apple TV+.
- Valor has been bought by Amazon.
- Icon: Music Through The Lens has been acquired on PBS.
- The Joe Exotic scripted series starring Kate McKinnon is going to stream exclusively on Peacock, instead of being also broadcast on NBC and USA as was first planned.
- Daniel Powell and Alex Bach have signed a multi-year overall deal with Netflix.
Casting News
- Kathryn Hahn is joining the cast of Knives Out 2 on Netflix.
- Kiernan Shipka, Ike Barinholtz, Yul Vazquez, David Krumholtz, Rich Sommer, Kim Coates, and Liam James have been added to the cast of The White House Plumbers on HBO.
- Gillian Jacobs and Wood Harris have joined the cast of the Adam McKay L.A. Lakers series on HBO.
- Billy Porter, Zachary Quinto, and EJ Johnson are joining The Proud Family on The Disney Channel.
- Adam Bartley, Chai Hansen, Julieta Zylberberg, Rocío Hernández, and Kiah McKirnan are joining Lightyears on Amazon.
- Eion Bailey will co-star in From on Epix.
- Devan Chandler Long is joining the cast of Ghosts on CBS.
- James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan will star in the BBC film, Together.
Mark Your Calendars
- Friends: The Reunion will stream on HBO Max on May 27.
- Jungle Cruise will debut on Disney+ and in theaters on June 30.
- Bosch returns on Amazon on June 25.
- Panic will premiere on Amazon on May 28.
- Quibi’s old shows are being rebranded as “Roku Originals” and will debut on the Roku Channel on May 20.
- Sins of the City will premiere on TV One on May 13.
- Carmen Christopher: Street Special will premiere on Peacock on May 20.
- Xtreme will premiere on Netflix on June 4.
- Wish Dragon will debut on Netflix on June 11.
- Eden debuts on Netflix on May 27.
- Intelligence will return on Sky soon.
- The Chair will debut on Netflix on August 27.
- Animal Kingdom will return on TNT on July 11.
- Masters of the Universe: Revelation will premiere on Netflix on July 23.
- The Legacy Of Black Wall Street will air on OWN on June 1.
- The $100,000 Pyramid will return on ABC on May 26.
- Million Dollar Listing: Ryan’s Renovation will premiere on Bravo on June 3.
- Snapped: Killer Couples will premiere on Oxygen on May 23.
- 2021 CMT Music Awards will air on CMT on June 9. Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown will host.
- Muhammad Ali will premiere on PBS on September 19.
- We Are Lady Parts will debut on Peacock on June 3.
- Women in Entertainment: The Next Generation will air on Lifetime on May 24.
- Hunting Atlantis will debut on Discovery on June 2.
- Grill of Victory will premiere on Food Network on June 21.
- Critics Choice Awards will air on The CW on January 9.
- The NFL has released the schedule for the 2021 season.
- The WNBA’s games will begin streaming on Amazon on May 29.
WATCH THIS
Hacks: The supremely wonderful Jean Smart stars as a Vegas comedian who strikes up an unlikely friendship with her young writer in this new series. Premiere. HBO Max
Underground Railroad: Barry Jenkins, the filmmaker behind the beautiful film Moonlight, brings Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to life in this new series. Premiere. Amazon
Castlevania: Fourth and final season of the series based on the popular video game. Netflix
Mom: Bonnie deals with difficult news in the series finale. 8 p.m., CBS
Young Sheldon: Season finale. 7 p.m., CBS
B Positive: Season finale. 8:30 p.m., CBS
Late Night
- Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Keegan-Michael Key, Zoey Deutch, Conway the Machine featuring Ludacris & J.I.D
- Late Night with Seth Meyers: Anthony Mackie, Jean Smart
- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Seth Rogen, Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert, Jon Randall
- The Late Late Show with James Corden: Ben Platt
- Jimmy Kimmel Live: Chris Rock; Samira Wiley; Morray
- The Daily Show: The Daily Social Distancing Show
- Conan: Andy Cohen
- Watch What Happens Live: Busy Philipps, Amber Ruffin
- A Little Late with Lily Singh: Natalie Wynn
THUR | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
ABC | Grey’s Anatomy (repeat) |
Grey’s Anatomy (repeat) |
Rebel (new) |
CBS | Young Sheldon (new) |
United States of Al (new) |
Mom (new) |
B Positive (new) |
Clarice (new) |
CW | Walker (new) |
Legacies (new) |
News/Local |
FOX | Name That Tune (new) |
Last Man Standing (new) |
Let’s Be Real (new) |
News/Local |
NBC | Manifest (new) |
Law & Order Special Victims Unit (new) |
Law & Order: Organized Crime (new) |