Can ‘The Last of Us’ beat The Oscars on Sunday? MAYBE! (Probably not.)

by Therese Odell, posted in watch this

When I tell you the way I laughed at this video, y’all:

@melissa.aka.mimi

I give him a solid 10 for his performance. 😂 #squirrelsoftiktok #animals #fyp #foryou #viral #trending

♬ original sound – Melissa Rosamond

Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News

The Last of Us continues to grow: Sunday’s penultimate episode saw its largest audience yet, with 8.1 million tuning in, a 74% increase from the premiere episode. Those numbers are so good, the A.V. Club points out, that this Sunday’s finale might be able to take on The Oscars, which will be airing at the same time. The Oscar’s lowest-rated broadcast in 2021 only brought in 9.8 million viewers, so mathematically, it’s not impossible. 

And if The Slap hadn’t happened a year ago, I might have thought it possible. (Also, there’s the business of Top Gun: Maverick being nominated for Best Picture this year.) My guess is that there will be a big ratings dropoff for The Oscars when 8/9 p.m. rolls around and people tune into The Last of Us, and that it picks back up again for hour three.

Some aftermath to the Chris Rock Netflix special:

1. It’s already made it into Netflix’s Top 10 after only one day of being available.

2. Smith’s response to the special was to tell People Magazine that he reached out to Rock for forgiveness, but was rebuffed.

3. And Jada’s response was to claim that Chris Rock has been obsessed with her for three decades.

ARE WE DONE YET?

Yes, this is officially going to be the last season of Ted Lasso. Which is a damn shame. But Jason Sudeikis isn’t dismissing the possibility of a spinoff series. Roy Kent, anyone?

Speaking of our beloved Roy Kent, Brett Goldstein has said that he intends to keep his early stand-up unavailable because he wasn’t quite as enlightened as he is today. Self-awareness is possible guys.

Cousin Greg is as sad as you are about Succession ending.

If you’re watching Perry Mason, here’s the real-life case this season is based on and how it connects to “I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!”

I’m not saying that this whole Vanderpump Rules scandal is manufactured to breathe life into a withering show, but …

Jenna Ortega says that she rewrote lines on Wednesday, and gives a decent example:

“I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on ‘Wednesday,’” she continued. “Everything that Wednesday does, everything I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. Her being in a love triangle? It made no sense. There was a line about a dress she has to wear for a school dance and she says, ‘Oh my god I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ I had to go, ‘No.’ There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines. The script supervisor thought I was going with something and then I had to sit down with the writers, and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I’d have to go and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things.”

Y’all got to edit better, guys. People are out here with some eagle eyes and they are going to call you out on TikTok. I’m talking to you, Outer Banks:

@marc.rizzo

Outer Banks editors need to be fired #stuntdoublesbelike #epicfail #obx #fyp #netflix #rafecameron #johnb #kiararafe

♬ Oh my god what is that – Funny memes

How I Met Your Father met Lizzie McGuire.

And while we’re on the subject of Millenial childhood nostalgia: Boy Meets World‘s Ben Savage is running for Congress in a Los Angeles district (that does not include Topanga Canyon, unfortunately).

Tyler Perry and Byron Allen are fighting it out of BET.

Pajiba would like us to remember the time that John Cena, wearing jorts and nothing else, announced that the United States had killed Osama Bin Laden, and honestly, this is something out of Idiocracy:

#MeToo

The upcoming and heavily-hyped HBO series, The Idol, from Sam Levinson and The Weeknd, had some early production issues, with the original series director, Amy Seimetz, leaving over “creative differences.” According to a new report from Rolling Stone, after Seimetz left, Levinson and The Weeknd rewrote much of the script, and what had originally been a series about a female pop star’s empowerment, became “torture porn.”

“At various points, Levinson’s scripts contained disturbing sexual and physically violent scenes between [Lily Rose] Depp and Tesfaye’s characters, three sources familiar with the matter claim. In one draft episode, there allegedly was a scene where Tesfaye bashes in Depp’s face, and her character smiles and asks to be beaten more, giving Tesfaye an erection. (This scene was never shot, the source says.) Another proposed scenario was for Depp to carry an egg in her vagina and if she dropped or cracked the egg, Tesfaye’s character would refuse to “rape” her — which sent Depp’s character into a spiral, begging him to ‘rape’ her because she believed he was the key to her success. (This scene also was not filmed because production couldn’t find a way to realistically shoot the scene without having Depp physically insert the egg, another source explains.)”

“It was like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show — and then the woman comes back for more because it makes her music better,” an anonymous source told Rolling Stone on the show.

OH. COOL. SOUNDS GREAT.

HBO, for the record, has denied the reports of chaos on the set in a firmly worded statement:

“The creators and producers of ‘The Idol’ have been working hard to create one of HBO’s most exciting and provocative original programs,” the network’s statement to TheWrap read. “The initial approach on the show and production of the early episodes, unfortunately, did not meet HBO standards so we chose to make a change. Throughout the process, the creative team has been committed to creating a safe, collaborative, and mutually respectful working environment, and last year, the team made creative changes they felt were in the best interest of both the production and the cast and crew. We look forward to sharing ‘The Idol’ with audiences soon.”

And The Weeknd responded with an Instagram post, featuring a clip from the show in which his character mocks Rolling Stone for being irrelevant, suggesting that this is why they wrote the piece:

Wow. Fierce comeback, bro.

Jena Malone revealed in an Instagram post that she was sexually assaulted by someone she worked with on Hunger Games. People are pressuring her to name names, but HOW ABOUT WE LEAVE HER ALONE. DAMMIT.

Last week news came out that one of Marilyn Manson’s accusers, Ashley Morgan Smithline, had recanted her allegations, and claimed that Evan Rachel Wood pressured her into making them in the first place. Additionally, Manson wanted to use a statement from Smithline in his lawsuit against Wood.

It all felt a little fishy to me, so I sat on it for a few days to see how it would shake out. Sure enough, Wood denied that she pressured anyone to make any false statements, and insisted that Smithline approached her with her story about Manson. Wood also suggested that if anyone was pressuring Smithline to make a false statement, it was Manson. As for including Smithline’s statement against Wood, the judge would not allow it.

The BBC is filming a four-part series about Jimmy Savile, the BBC presenter who allegedly sexually abused hundreds of children and teens. Steve Coogan is starring in the limited series, and BBC invited a number of Savile’s survivors to the set as a means to win over their trust in the project. RYAN MURPHY ARE YOU TAKING NOTES?

Justin Bieber has recently been dragged back into the public consciousness thanks to his wife, Hailey bullying Selena Gomez online. As a result, someone on TikTok compiled a series of clips of Bieber having to field some wholly inappropriate questions and gropings by adults when he was as young as 12 and 14. (I know this Twitter account is sketchy, but it looks like the original TikToker took it down for some reason. The videos are what they are.)

Speaking of the fame machine, at a recent red carpet event, an Access Hollywood reporter approached Pedro Pascal and asked him to read to the camera some “sexy” tweets about himself. He declined.

THIS:

Stephen Bear, a U.K. reality star who starred in Ex on the Beach and Celebrity Big Brother, has been found guilty of sharing private sex videos and photographs of his ex-girlfriend and Love Island star Georgia Harrison on his OnlyFans site.

Karyn Kusama, the director of Yellowjackets, says that intimacy coordinators add “heat” to sex scenes, and make them richer, instead of some old farts’ insistence that they ruin the moment.

Hey! 43 states in this country allow for child marriage! Sorry to ruin your day!

Renewals

  • Full Swing has been renewed for a second season on Netflix.
  • Break Point has been renewed for a second season on Netflix.

Cancellations

In Development

  • Devil in the White City is no longer moving forward at Hulu after Keanu Reeves dropped out of the project.
  • The Mole Agent, a project from Mike Schur starring Ted Danson, has been given an order at Netflix.
  • Motherland, a comedy starring Ellie Kemper and Karan Soni and directed by Michael Showalter, has been given a pilot order at ABC.
  • Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge has been ordered to series at NBC.
  • Da Understudy, a film starring and produced by Jonathan Majors, is in development at Prime Video.
  • A Murder in Hollywood is being adapted into a TV series.
  • Bryan Cogman, one of the co-executive producers of Game of Thrones, is taking over as showrunner, writer, and executive producer of Zorro on Disney.

Casting News

Mark Your Calendars

  • Barry returns on HBO on April 16.
  • Schmigadoon! returns on Apple TV+ on April 5.
  • Tiny Beautiful Things debuts on Hulu on April 7.
  • Ghosted will premiere on Apple TV+ on April 21.
  • I’m a Virgo will debut on Prime Video soon.
  • Rennervations premeires on Disney+ on April 12.
  • The backdoor pilot of The Good Lawyer will air on The Good Doctor on ABC on March 13.
  • On a Wing and a Prayer will premiere on Prime Video on April 7.
  • American Dad! returns on TBS on March 27.
  • Bert Kreischer: Razzle Dazzle debuts on Netflix on March 14.
  • The Real Murders of Atlanta will debut on Oxygen True Crime on March 17.
  • Undercover Underage will return on ID on May 1.
  • Praise This will premiere on Peacock on April 7.
  • AEW: All Access premieres on TBS on March 29.
  • The Nurse will debut on Netflix on April 27.

WATCH THIS

The Winchesters: John receives a message from a mysterious stranger in the season (series?) finale. 7 p.m., The CW

That’s My Jam!: Jason Derulo, Nicole Scherzinger, Kelsea Ballerini, and Julia Michaels compete in the season premiere. 9 p.m., NBC

Who Killed Robert Wone?: This is a really weird true crime case that left investigators completely puzzled. Wone was stabbed to death in his friend’s home, and the initial report was that it was an intruder — except there was no evidence of a break-in or even much blood, and Wone’s friends seem to know more than they are saying. Series premiere. Peacock

Late Night:

  • Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Chance the Rapper, Maude Apatow
  • Late Night with Seth Meyers: Hank Azaria, Diane Morgan, Urian Hackney
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: James Taylor; Eva Longoria
  • The Late Late Show with James Corden: Hong Chau; Stephen Sanchez
  • The Daily Show: Guest host Marlon Wayans
  • Watch What Happens Live: Jerry O’Connell, Margaret Josephs

TUES. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC The Rookie
(repeat)		 Will Trent
(repeat)		 Will Trent
(repeat)
CBS FBI
(repeat)		 FBI: International
(repeat)		 True Lies
(repeat)
CW The Winchesters
(new)		 The Flash
(repeat)		 Local
FOX 9-1-1: Lone Star
(new)		 Accused
(new)		 News/Local
NBC Night Court
(new)		 American Auto
(new)		 The Voice
(new)		 That’s My Jam
(new)

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