EXCLUSIVE : The Daily Show has been ticking along nicely with its phalanx of guest hosts including Chelsea Handler, Leslie Jones and Kal Penn. The producers of the Comedy Central series are currently weighing up how the y replace Trevor Noah in the hot seat come the fall, and one suggestion has been to continue the revolving roster of guest hosts on a permanent basis. The ratings certainly suggest it’s working. Comparing the first quarter of 2023 – Leslie Jones kicked off the new format January 17 – with the first quarter of 2022 when Noah was host, Deadline understands that linear ratings are up 13%. On the social side, views are up 16% in this period compared with last year. Much of this has been done without much marketing; Deadline understands a push is being saved for when the new plan is in place later in the year. It would certainly make for a fresh take if Comedy Central decided to keep the revolving chair and would freshen up the late-night space, … [Read more...] about ‘The Daily Show’ Finds Ratings Success With Guest Hosts As Correspondents Stake Claim For The Hot Seat
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‘Bad Cinderella’ Broadway Review: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Latest Could Use Some Badness
Your first thought after seeing Bad Cinderella , the latest musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber , is, well, she isn’t that bad. For better and worse. The musical, energetically directed by Laurence Connor, opens on Broadway tonight with quite a reputation: We’ve heard it was lambasted by critics in London (it wasn’t). That Andrew Lloyd Webber himself trashed it (he didn’t). The truth: Bad Cinderella , known as plain old Cinderella during an abbreviated London run that had the dreadful timing to coincide with the Covid pandemic (that was Lloyd Webber’s point when he lamented opening the show then), is a musical that upends and modernizes the age-old tale with an irreverent, knowing tone meant to smirk away the old lessons and replace them with new ones – with morals, as in the moral of the story, that more closely aligned with today’s thinking. What, you’ve seen this before, maybe when it was called Wicked ? Into the Woods ? Six ? There is no shortage of … [Read more...] about ‘Bad Cinderella’ Broadway Review: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Latest Could Use Some Badness
‘The Bachelor’ Recap: Zach’s Self-Imposed No Intimacy Rule Leads To Messy Fantasy Suites
SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Season 27, Episode 10 of ABC ‘s The Bachelor . It’s time for fantasy suites on Season 27 of The Bachelor . Or, as Zach calls it, sex week. Except…maybe not. After arriving in Thailand, where Zach will meet his final three women, he says that he isn’t planning on being intimate with any of them, despite the implications that come with spending the night together for the first time. This is also a big week for Zach, because he made it this far on Season 19 of The Bachelorette with Rachel Recchia. Being back at this stage of the process makes him anxious, but he says he’s just trying to do what feels right. “What’s most important to me and to express to each and every one of the women is no sex. No sex of any kind for fantasy suites,” he said, adding that speaking with former Bachelor Sean Lowe encouraged him to take this route in an effort to not “muddy the situation.” Well, based on the previews for this … [Read more...] about ‘The Bachelor’ Recap: Zach’s Self-Imposed No Intimacy Rule Leads To Messy Fantasy Suites
Philippa Langley On Digging Up ‘The Lost King’ Richard III After 500 Years – Specialty Preview
The much-maligned Richard III finally gets the royal treatment in Stephen Frears’ The Lost King as amateur historian Philippa Langley unearths the monarch’s five-century-old remains in a parking lot in Leicester, England, in 2012. Two books and a documentary later, IFC Films presents the feature film version in 750+ theaters. “It took eight years from starting the search to cutting the tarmac. To see it telescoped into a hundred or so minutes made it really powerful for me,” Langley, who’s played in the film by Sally Hawkins, told Deadline. Richard III (1461-1483) is one of Shakespeare’s most malevolent villains, a deformed hunchback usurper and murderer. But historians have contested the portrayal of the last king of the House of York and Plantagenet dynasty, noting history is often (re)written by the victors, in this case the Tudors. A society of “Ricardians” at work for years to rehabilitate the monarch’s image, and other well-wishers, chipped in to fund a costly … [Read more...] about Philippa Langley On Digging Up ‘The Lost King’ Richard III After 500 Years – Specialty Preview
‘The Simpsons’ Credited For Predicting Fate Of Florida Principal Who Was Forced Out By Parents Angered By Michelangelo’s ‘David’
Once again, The Simpsons are being credited for predicting a future dumpster fire. Case in point: a 1990 episode of the animated Fox comedy depicted an angry mob of people protesting the planned exhibition of Michelangelo’s David in Springfield. “It’s fifth,” a woman tells Marge. “It graphically portrays parts of the human body, which practical as they may be, are evil.” Flash forward to this week, when a Florida charter school principal says she was forced to resign after some parents complained about their sixth grade students seeing a picture of David in class. It all unfolded at Tallahassee Classical, which bases its curriculum on the conservative and Christian Hillsdale College in Michigan. According to The Washington Post , the charter schools that rely on Hillsdale’s curriculum are supposed to teach Renaissance art to sixth graders, which includes the statue of David. But Barney Bishop III, the chair of the school board, told reporters that parents — two, to … [Read more...] about ‘The Simpsons’ Credited For Predicting Fate Of Florida Principal Who Was Forced Out By Parents Angered By Michelangelo’s ‘David’
Daveed Diggs Talks Exploring The Climate Crisis Through A Faith-Based Lens In Apple TV+’s ‘Extrapolations’
SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the first three episodes of Apple TV+’s Extrapolations . Daveed Diggs plays a rabbi grappling with the realities of the climate crisis in Scott Z. Burns ’ series Extrapolations for Apple TV+. When audiences first meet him, Rabbi Marshall Zucker is newly ordained and set on serving a congregation in Tel Aviv. He’s passionate about his religion and also about saving the world, specifically from the climate crisis. But in Episode 3, which is set 10 years later, things clearly haven’t worked out as planned. Now, he’s back in his hometown of Miami. He’s doing much less saving the world and more pandering to the Department of Sea Level Mitigation, hoping that they will zone the synagogue to be saved from sea-level rise and flooding — and his sermons are noticeably less passionate than they used to be. That’s when he meets Alana Goldblatt (Neska Rose), who is preparing for her bat mitzvah with Rabbi Zucker. But Alana … [Read more...] about Daveed Diggs Talks Exploring The Climate Crisis Through A Faith-Based Lens In Apple TV+’s ‘Extrapolations’
‘Smash’ Musical Heading To Broadway With Steven Spielberg, Neil Meron & Robert Greenblatt Producing
Smash is finally heading to Broadway . In an announcement long awaited by fans of the 2012 NBC series, a stage musical adaptation is planned to arrive on Broadway during the 2024-25 season, with a lead producing team of Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg . A top flight creative team is attached, including director Susan Stroman, composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman , book writers Rick Elice and Bob Martin, and the TV series’ choreographer Joshua Bergasse. Spielberg, whose original idea led to the NBC series, said in a statement, “ Smash is near and dear to my heart, and it was always my hope that a musical inspired by the show would eventually come to the stage. We now have an incredible creative team, and I’m looking forward to completing the Smash journey which began with my producing partners over ten years ago.” In addition to new music, the stage version will include many of the Shaiman-Wittman songs from the TV series, including the … [Read more...] about ‘Smash’ Musical Heading To Broadway With Steven Spielberg, Neil Meron & Robert Greenblatt Producing