This creature can’t possibly be real.
@lpqkdnemd
Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News
BUSY WEEKEND. But before we get to all that — The Bachelorette will not return this summer.
I KNOW. The show isn’t canceled — just paused. Whyfor? Well, it’s unclear. Insiders are saying that it might come back this year, just not this summer when it usually airs. There are a couple things that could be happening here, maybe both:
1. There are just too many Bachelor shows in the works: Bachelor in Paradise is returning (and to a new location which might also be a complication, depending on where they are filming this season), and I assume there will be another Golden season in the fall, and ABC might just feel like they might burn off the enthusiasm for the Bachelor universe if they flood us with All Bachelor All The Time.
2. There was A GREAT DEAL of criticism of the casting in Jenn Tran’s season, ultimately leading to one of the worst (the worst?) final choices in the show’s history. Not only was Devin a manipulative loser who broke Tran’s heart, he had a history of bad behavior and a full restraining order against him. How this man made it onto the show is a question many fans were left asking. This question was only amplified when TWO contestants on the Golden Bachelorette proved to have questionable backgrounds and legal actions taken out against them. So maybe they are overhauling their casting process or taking more time to actually investigate the contestants before putting them in the McMANsion? We can certainly hope.
The Super Bowl. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this because this is not a sports blog, but the right team won, Go Birds. What I do want to spend a little time on are all the wonderful performances before and during the game, performances that celebrated New Orleans and the Louisiana of it all:
Before the game began, Lady Gaga performed on Bourbon Street a moving tribute to the people of New Orleans following the New Year’s Day terrorist attack:
Harry Connick Jr., Terence Blanchard, Southern University, Soul Rebels, the Original Pinettes, and the Spirit of New Orleans Gospel Choir (and I heard Big Freedia in there) welcomed everyone to the game with some real New Orleans love:
Welcome to #SuperBowlLIX
Tonight, we celebrate New Orleans’ music and culture ⚜️ pic.twitter.com/jSFtcR0OG8
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) February 9, 2025
Trombone Shorty and Lauren Daigle gave a wonderfully jazzy rendition of “America the Beautiful”:
Ledisi, a New Orleans native, and a 125 youth choir members from the Greater New Orleans High School Chorale Collective, performed “Lift Every Voice,” known as the “Black National Anthem” to celebrate its 125th anniversary:
performed a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem:
As for the halftime show … yes, the Pulitzer Prize and multiple Grammy-winning Kendrick Lamar performed “Not Like Us” and EXPLICITLY called Drake out by name (while cutting out one particularly tricky word), after making fun of Drake suing him over the song:
@nfl Replying to @NFL THEY NOT LIKE US (part 2) #KendrickLamar #AppleMusicHalftime #superbowl @Apple Music @Roc Nation
SAY DRAKE-
— Mr. 🅿️asquale (@themrpasquale.bsky.social) 2025-02-10T01:39:16.207Z
drake: oh good, the lawsuits workedkendrick:
Kendrick: “Say Drake”Drake:
— ⚜️New Logic (@freshlogic.bsky.social) 2025-02-10T02:10:48.753Z
— OH AND … Drake’s ex-girlfriend and one of the greatest athletes on earth, Serena Williams, danced along.
GIIIIRRRRRRRRLLLLLL — DRAG HIM.
Serena Williams!
— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) 2025-02-10T01:49:21.401Z
Serena Williams was on the field longer today than Harrison Butker.
— Chris Jackson (@chriscjackson.bsky.social) 2025-02-10T03:00:43.285Z
Lamar also performed with SZA, who is another of Drake’s exes, somehow.
The performance, which came one week after Lamar won five Grammys, was truly something.
Snoop and Tom Brady: say no to hateKendrick: actually
— Sam Adams (@samadams.bsky.social) 2025-02-10T01:51:11.648Z
(And if you’re unsure what this whole Kendrick Lamar/Drake beef is all about, just holler: I can explain it if you want or are curious.)
Oh, and hey Kendrick? Elon’s trying to start some shit with you. Ahem.
This is a fantastic idea. White conservatives should definitely pick a fight with Kendrick Lamar
— Ian Coldwater 📦💥 (@lookitup.baby) 2025-02-10T04:07:11.860Z
But why was Elon and every other white supremacist upset about Lamar’s halftime performance? Because it was INCREDIBLY political: Everything from Samuel Jackson dressed as “Uncle Sam” who criticized Lamar’s performance as being “too ghetto” to Lamar telling the audience that “The revolution will be televised. You picked the right time, but the wrong guy” to an entirely Black dance crew dressed in the colors of the American flag to the American experience being turned into a video game/prison metaphor to Lamar referencing “40 acres and a mule,” — the entire performance was a protest — and a brilliant one at that.
The NFL wanted entertainment. Kendrick Lamar gave them accountability.
And I have one more Super Bowl moment that you may not have caught. So, Jon Hamm and Bradley Cooper introduced the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles respectively (Hamm is from St. Louis, but I guess he is a Chiefs fan now that his hometown no longer has a team). Cooper brought a kid along with him to introduce the Eagles:
@nflonfox Eagles fans showed up 😤 #eagles #philadelphiaeagles #bradleycooper #nfl #superbowl #superbowllix
That little boy is Declan, and you should watch this video:
@mdmotivator “We’re going to the Super Bowl!” 🥹💚 #eagles #football #nfl #dream #money #kindness #surprise #hospital
Go Birds!
This weekend also saw a number of awards ceremonies over in Hollywood, including the Producers Guild Awards, Directors Guild Awards, and the Critics Choice Awards. I won’t bore you with the details (you can find the entire list of winnners at each of the links above), but the big takeaway is that there is a new Oscars frontrunner: Anora, which took Best Picture at all three ceremonies. Sorry, Emilia Perez.
No, the Traitors cast do not actually sleep in that castle. They stay in an airport hotel near the Inverness Airport, lol.
Sally Struthers revealed that Bea Arthur was a shit-talker and I love it.
“I would run into her at the supermarket and she would trash everyone we ever knew,” Struthers recalled. “We would stand in the aisle and she’d say, ‘What do you think about so-and-so?’”
The Gilmore Girls star explained that when she tried to say a few kind words about the person, Arthur would often interrupt her by exclaiming, “‘Oh, she can’t be, because she’s a f—ing a–hole!’”
The production designer on Mo talks about what she did to capture the “vibes” of different parts of Houston, including visiting the rodeo.
If you have $13.5 million lying around, you can live like a Kardashian.
Lists like this one of the 25 best book to TV series adaptations are always silly subjective things, but putting Dexter above Slow Horses is genuinely insulting. Stop.
Yikes, Christy Carlson Romano!
PolUGHtics
Another weekend, another flood of outrages. I can’t possibly cover every single awful thing these assholes are doing, but I will touch upon the ones that intersect with this blog.
That said, I feel like I’m letting down the side by not screaming about the cutting of funding to the NIH, to the gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to the firings at the Labor Board, to the messaging all weekend long that the judicial branch does not have the power to restrain the executive branch. We’re in the middle of a Constitutional crisis — judges are ruling against the administration’s overreach, but at some point, someone has to stop the administration — Elon Musk — from doing the things that judges have told them to stop doing. And who is that? The United States Marshal Service which falls under the Justice Department which is … part of the executive branch. We’re fucked.
BUT ANYWAY.
Former President Petty Bitch spent yesterday trolling Taylor Swift for being booed by Philadelphia Eagles fans because that is how small he is.
President Velveeta has doubled down on his CBS lawsuit — literally — he’s upped the damages to $20 billion for editing that interview with Kamala Harris, and removing a single sentence.
The Pentagon has removed more legacy media from the building, including The Washington Post, CNN, The Hill and The War Zone. So great job licking those boots, guys, it really paid off.
In an interview on Fox News that aired ahead of the Super Bowl, President Figurehead is threatening to send Elon into the Department of Education and Department of Defense next. Sure that will go over well. President Invader also said he’s serious about Canada becoming the 51st state. This explains Canada’s Justin Trudeau revealing on a hot mike that the threat is real: “They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have, and they very much want to be able to benefit from those,” Trudeau also said. “But Mr. Trump has it in mind that one of the easiest ways of doing that is absorbing our country, and it is a real thing.”
COOL.
A friend has serious concerns about Trump's Kennedy Center takeover. (Shared with permission.)
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) 2025-02-08T14:30:31.051Z
Renewals
- Big Mood has been renewed for a second sesaon on Channel 4.
Cancellations
- The Pradeeps Of Pittsburgh has been canceled at Freevee after one season.
- Dish Nation has been canceled after 13 seasons in syndication.
- Person, Place or Thing has been canceled after two seasons in syndication.
- Pictionary has been canceled after three seasons in syndication.
In Development
- Louis Theroux: The Settlers, a documentary about the ultra-nationalist community of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, is in the works at BBC.
Casting News
- Josh Kelly will guest star on NCIS: Origins on CBS.
- Law Roach has become a regular rotating judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race on MTV.
- Song Hye-kyo and Gong Yoo will star in Show Business on Netflix.
Mark Your Calendar
- F1 will premiere in theaters and on Apple TV+ later this year.
- Unconventional will premiere on Revry on February 11.
- Between Walls will premiere on Hulu on February 12.
- Euphoria has put out some sign of life.
R.I.P.
Bruce French, Actor known for his work on Passions
Frank Hildebrand, Producer and production manager on Fear the Walking Dead, and several movies
Dennis Richmond, Legendary Bay Area news anchor and one of the country’s first Black anchors
Tony Roberts, Actor who worked closely with Woody Allen and Sidney Lumet in Play It Again, Sam, Annie Hall, Stardust Memories, Hannah and Her Sisters, Serpico, and many others
John Adams Morgan, Ex-husband of The Real Housewives of New York‘s Sonja Morgan and member of the Morgan family
Tom Robbins, Author known for Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Still Life with Woodpecker, and Jitterbug Perfume
WATCH THIS
Extracted: In this new reality competition, players face extreme conditions in the wilderness while their families watch via a live feed, and decide whether or not they should stay in the competition or be “extracted.” Series premiere. 7 p.m., Fox
Surviving Black Hawk Down: This documentary explores the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, in which three U.S. Black Hawk helicopters were downed by Somali forces. Premiere. Netflix
Mad Max: Fury Road: All dystopias all the time. 8 p.m. TNT
Late Night:
- Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Betty Gilpin, Mary Ellen Matthews, Adam Lambert
- Late Night with Seth Meyers: Colman Domingo, Paula Pell
- Jimmy Kimmel Live: Zoe Saldaña, Patrick Schwarzenegger, JOHNNYSWIM featuring Tobe Nwigwe
- The Daily Show: TBA
- Watch What Happens Live: Amy Schumer, Brianne Howey
| MON. | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
| ABC | The Bachelor (new) |
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (new) |
| CBS | The Neighbor-hood (new) |
Poppa’s House (new) |
NCIS (new) |
NCIS: Origins (new) |
| CW | All American (new) |
Trivial Pursuit (new) |
Scrabble (new) |
Local |
| FOX | Extracted (new) |
Rescue: HI-Surf (new) |
News/Local |
| NBC | The Voice (new) |
The Hunting Party (new) |