Steve Pond's Blog, page 10

Get Ready for ‘Stranger Things 5′ With Netflix’s Look Back at the Series’ Beginnings | Video

Netflix’s “Stranger Things 5” is approaching.

The final season of the beloved series will arrive in time for the holidays – specifically, in three batches over Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Ahead of its arrival, Netflix has unveiled a featurette that looks back over the years, with some teases of what’s to come. Watch it below.

The featurette does a good job of reminding you what made the series such a cultural phenomenon in the first place, with quotes from the cast and crew. And there is, of course, footage from the show’s past – including some utterly adorable behind-the-scenes material – with glimpses of the new season, which looks very exciting.

“When I read that pilot, I thought it was one of the best pilots I’d ever read,” David Harbour, who plays Hopper in the show, said in the featurette. “It felt so pure and beautiful.”

For her part, Winona Ryder, who plays Joyce Byers, added, “I got to watch these kids grow up, which was the biggest gift that this show has given me.”

Summing up the series, producer and frequent director Shawn Levy said, “It’s part of the magic of this show – even as we evolve, even as the storytelling becomes more epic, it’s always anchored in these characters who we love.” (Levy isn’t confirmed to be directing any of these final episodes yet, but it sure looks like he’s going through storyboards in this footage, huh?)

And, teasing this new season, the Duffers remarked that “Stranger Things 5” is the “biggest season in terms of action, in terms of visual effects, in terms of story,” but noted that “ultimately what people want is to see these characters together one last time.”

Maya Hawke, a relatively recent addition to the “Stranger Things” party (she arrived in the summery third season, perhaps still the best season of the show), added, “This is a season about fighting to the bone, even if you don’t know you’re going to win.”

Netflix’s official synopsis reads: “The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding.”

“As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread,” it continues. “The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.”

And if you’re looking to do a final rewatch before the new season, tune in — starting on Sept. 29 — to the “Stranger Things” and Netflix social channels, as well as the Tudum website, for an epic watch-along. Just don’t let Vecna know.

“Stranger Things 5” will release on Netflix across three premiere dates with Volume 1 on Nov. 26 (four episodes), Volume 2 on Christmas (three episodes) and The Finale on New Year’s Eve. Each volume releases at 5 p.m. PT.

The post Get Ready for ‘Stranger Things 5′ With Netflix’s Look Back at the Series’ Beginnings | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Paramount Plans to Reinvent Itself as a ‘Tech-Forward’ Company. Here’s What That Means

With Paramount Global officially under his control, David Ellison faces a difficult task: making good on his vision of turning the struggling media conglomerate into a tech-forward company that, in his own words, blends the “creative heart of Hollywood” with the “innovative spirit of Silicon Valley.”

Though details around that strategy remain sparse, Ellison said in an open letter after taking over last month that Paramount would use tools such as virtual production stages and artificial intelligence to boost content creation. Paramount will also partner with father Larry Ellison’s Oracle to move Paramount+, Pluto TV and BET+ to a common backend infrastructure next year.

Additionally, Paramount is tapping into the technical expertise of Oracle’s former CEO and current executive vice board chair Saftra Catz and Scale AI chief financial officer Dennis Cinelli, who will both serve as board members, and former Meta and Google executive Dane Glasgow, who will oversee the company’s product strategy and vision going forward across digital platforms, immersive storytelling, advertising and AI-powered capabilities.

The emphasis on technology comes as Ellison tries to kickstart a media company that’s been left rudderless after years of mergers and planned takeovers. It’s also well behind the larger players in the game, with Paramount’s 77.7 million streaming subscribers far short of Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery. At the same time, profits in its linear TV business are declining rapidly as audiences cut the cord in favor of streaming and social media.  

Paramount isn’t the first company who’s tried to reinvent itself using technology, and history has shown these transformations have varying degrees of success — from the massive digital growth of Netflix and the New York Times to the collapse of Blockbuster after starting the transition too late. But it’s hard to bet against the financial firepower of the Ellison family, who are also circling The Free Press and could potentially add TikTok and Warner Bros. Discovery to their roster in what would be a massive expansion of their control over media and technology. 

Paramount CEO David Ellison at a press conference (Mary Kouw/Paramount)

David Ellison himself has acknowledged the transformation won’t be easy, but insists that, combined with ramping up content investment, it’s key to Paramount’s future success.

“Unless you can build a tech product that is truly competitive with what’s coming out of Silicon Valley, you can’t compete. One of the big problems facing legacy media is they don’t actually understand that skill set and how critical that is,” Ellison told reporters in August. “A combination of great content working with tech products hand-in-hand is how you actually get this business growing and scaling again.”

Representatives for Paramount and Oracle did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment on this story. 

Ellison’s uphill battle

While there are some technical benefits Paramount can put into place, it’s still unclear what the grander vision of being a tech-forward company looks like. 

Experts told TheWrap that Paramount’s tech transformation could lead to benefits like better ad targeting, more personalized recommendations, more flexibility and speed in decision-making and cost savings. But former MTV and BET digital executive Andrew Rosen noted those wins seem “increasingly marginal and tactical” without having more details about the company’s broader vision. 

Others were more skeptical about the long-term benefits, particularly surrounding streaming subscriber growth and engagement. 

“I don’t see a change in the consumer-facing part of the technology that is likely to gain them a meaningfully accelerated trajectory on subs or usage. I just don’t see a change to the sign-up flow, marketing tech or recommendation engine that wildly changes where they’re headed,” former CBS Interactive CEO Marc DeBevoise told TheWrap. “But there is value in that new ownership is likely to be more committed and aggressive and do more experimental things to push for faster growth. So, it’s more of a mindset shift than a specific technology that comes out of the box from Oracle.”

Howard Homonoff, a strategic advisor to media and tech companies and managing director of Homonoff Media Group, told TheWrap that he’s not convinced Paramount can beat Netflix, Amazon and Google at tech, or that it’s even Paramount+’s biggest issue.

“It’s a service that, like a number of others, have nowhere near the scale of the biggest competitors in the streaming space,” Homonoff said. “They have a much more global challenge here, which is what’s the place of an independent or partnered Paramount+ in the streaming world?” 

Streaming media analyst Dan Rayburn added that moving Paramount+, Pluto and BET+ to the same infrastructure — one of the early priorities for the company — is much easier said than done.

“When you’re acquiring companies and merging different services into the same umbrella, there are places in that video stack where you can say, ‘Hey, we could standardize here.’ But there’s other places where you can’t,” Rayburn told TheWrap. “So it’s easy for executives to say, ‘We’ll just merge everything in the backend,’ or, ‘We’ll default to the same infrastructure,’ but that’s just not reality.”

A studio in the cloud

Ellison has said he intends to scale Oracle’s so-called “Studio in the Cloud” model, an online system which was previously used on production of Skydance Animation and Netflix’s animated musical film “Spellbound,” across all of Paramount’s production workflows. 

Studio in the Cloud allows Skydance Animation’s teams across Los Angeles, Madrid and Stamford, Conn., to collaborate, share content and give each other feedback as if they were all in the same room together. It also gives the studio more flexibility to react to last-minute creative changes by scaling its compute, storage and workstations up or down based on the needs of a project, as opposed to the limits of physical data centers and hardware. 

“The qualitative gains that we get is the ability to get more content up on the screen for notes in dailies every day. The more notes I get back, the more content I can iterate on, the faster I can get to a bigger decision or even to delivery,” Greg Brentin, Skydance Animation vice president of technology, said during Oracle’s 2024 CloudWorld conference. “And quantitatively, if I need more horsepower because I have a sequence that is really challenging, a lot of foliage, a lot of characters, a heavy environment that’s taking 14 to 20 hours per frame to create, I need more to get it done to hit those creative targets.”

Skydance Animation

At the time, Brentin said Skydance’s goal was to become the first studio to shift its technology resources entirely away from physical workstations, data centers and storage systems to the cloud by the end of 2025. But it remains to be seen just how easy that transition will be for a legacy media player like Paramount, whose mindset and culture is very different from a tech behemoth like Oracle or even an upstart like Skydance. 

“The cultural differences are going to be significant and not simple to get through,” Enderle Group President Rob Enderle told TheWrap. “Getting through the integration part of this merger is going to be extremely painful. [Paramount and Oracle] are two very large-scale entities that are very set in their ways and very different.”

He believes both Glasgow and Oracle will focus heavily on infusing AI to cut costs, improve personalization and content discovery and create smarter, more effective and more lucrative advertising. While AI’s impact on content creation has understandably sparked fears in Hollywood about potential job losses, Ellison has argued it would be used as a tool to help creatives, likening it to Pixar transitioning its staff from pencils and paper to computer animation.

“We’re in another one of those times where you’re going to see that level shift, but we’re always going to do it through the lens of supporting our talent and enabling them to make things that they’ve never created before,” he said at the August presser. 

Enderle added Glasgow will create a “stronger B2B culture,” but expects it to clash with Paramount.  

“On the positive side, this is likely the right skill set to move Paramount forward,” Enderle said. “On the downside, Paramount will need to change dramatically and organizations like this resist change very effectively.”

Oracle and the Ellison family’s ambitions

While Paramount benefits from Oracle’s technical expertise as it looks to build a next-generation media company, the software giant gets a hefty asset it can use as a test case as it looks to compete for customers and revenue with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. 

During Oracle’s latest quarterly earnings, Oracle’s Catz told Wall Street its cloud infrastructure revenue will grow 77% to $18 billion in its 2026 fiscal year and increase to $32 billion in fiscal 2027, $73 billion in fiscal 2028, $114 billion in fiscal year 2029 and $144 billion in fiscal year 2030. The majority of that is included in a backlog of about $455 billion in outstanding contract revenue it expects to collect. 

“We can give you a private version of the Oracle Cloud with every security feature, every function, everything we do for $6 million,” Larry Ellison said on the company’s investor call earlier this month. “I think the cost for the other hyperscalers is more than 100 times that.”

Beyond the technical support, Larry Ellison appears poised to bring even more assets into the Paramount universe. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said Larry Ellison, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell are among those who would be involved as investors to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. under a proposed deal with China. Then there’s the reported Paramount bid being prepared for Warner Bros. Discovery, which will be backed by the Ellison family.

“I don’t think this is, ‘Hey, son, here’s your toys. Good luck.’ They’re much more serious people than that. When Larry decides he’s going to enter catamaran racing, he builds the world-cup winning Team USA,” DeBevoise said. “He’s saying, ‘All right, I’ll put down some real money to see you do it on a big scale. And if that works, let’s see if we can make it a way to advance Oracle’s broader ambitions long-term.’ Ultimately, they have to keep iterating.”

When asked at the August presser about how an Oracle acquisition of TikTok would impact Paramount, David Ellison declined to comment. But he emphasized that Paramount’s new leadership would be more focused on the next three to five years rather than the next three months and “open for business to explore everything” to scale the company globally.

“When you think about how streaming applications evolve over the next year, they’re not going to look identical to what they do today,” he said. “We’re going to always look to create long-term value in the future and want to be on the forefront of that. We will be opportunistic.” 

The post Paramount Plans to Reinvent Itself as a ‘Tech-Forward’ Company. Here’s What That Means appeared first on TheWrap.

Jimmy Kimmel Tears Up in ABC Return, Slams Trump and FCC for ‘Direct Violation’ of Free Speech | Video

Jimmy Kimmel returned to the ABC lineup with a strong statement for most American households to watch on Tuesday night, six days after being pulled off the air for right-wing backlash against his comments about Charlie Kirk’s death.

Holding back tears, he told his audience: “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.” He also thanked those who spoke out about the show’s suspension, regardless of where they stand in a fractured American political landscape.

The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host thanked Disney for bringing him back on the air, though he admitted he was “not happy” about their initial decision to suspend him. He praised Erika Kirk for how she forgave Charlie Kirk’s accused shooter, while also calling out President Donald Trump and FCC chair Brendan Carr for their “direct violation” of the First Amendment for their part in the suspension saga.

“They welcomed me back on the air, and I thank them for that. Unfortunately, and I think unjustly, this puts them at risk. The President of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs,” Kimmel said in his opening monologue. “Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke. He was somehow able to squeeze Colbert out of CBS, then he turned his sights on me, and now he’s openly rooting for NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and the hundreds of Americans who work for their shows who don’t make millions of dollars.”

“I hope that if that happens, or if there’s even any hint of that happening, you will be 10 times as loud as you were this week. We have to speak out against this. He’s not stopping, and it’s not just comedy. He’s gunning for our journalists too, he’s suing them, he’s bullying them,” the comedian added. “Look, I never imagined I’d be in a situation like this. I barely paid attention in school. One thing I did learn from Lenny Bruce and George Carlin and Howard Stern is that a government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American.”

“I’m so glad we have some solidarity on that from the right and the left and from those in the middle, like Joe Rogan. Maybe the silver lining from this is we found one thing we can agree on, and maybe we’ll even find another one. Maybe we can get a little bit closer together,” Kimmel said. “We do agree on a lot of things. We agree on keeping our children safe from guns, reproductive rights for women, social security, affordable health care, pediatric cancer research. These are all things that most Americans support. Let’s stop letting these politicians tell us what they want and tell them what we want.”

Kimmel also thanked his fans, friends and enemies alike for their support over the last week — including Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Conan O’Brien, James Corden, Arsenio Hall, Kathy Griffin, Wanda Sykes, Chelsea Handler, Jay Leno, Howard Stern, David Letterman, Ben Shapiro, Clay Travis, Candace Owens, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and even late night hosts from other countries.

Kimmel concluded his monologue tearing up for a second time while giving some praise to Charlie Kirk’s widow: “On Sunday, Erika Kirk forgave the man who shot her husband, she forgave him. That is an example we should follow. If you believe in the teachings of Jesus, as I do, there it was. That’s it, a selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow. It touched me deeply and I hope it touches many. And if there’s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that.”

An hour before the episode aired, President Donald Trump lashed out at ABC for bringing Kimmel back, suggesting he is once again going to go after the network.

“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.”

“He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do,” he continued. “Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”

Although, Kimmel also had joke for Trump in Tuesday night’s episode: “He tried his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.”

Kimmel’s return came six days after Disney “indefinitely suspended” the late night host due to his Sept. 15 coverage of the Charlie Kirk assassination.

“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” the Walt Disney Company said in a Monday statement. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

Local affiliate owners Nexstar and Sinclair both decided to still preempt Tuesday’s new episode across their stations. Representatives for both companies did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment after the return monologue aired.

“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming,” a Sinclair spokesperson told TheWrap on Monday. “Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”

“We made a decision last week to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel’s ‘ill-timed and insensitive’ comments at a critical time in our national discourse. We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve,” Nexstar echoed in a Tuesday statement. “In the meantime, we note that ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ will be available nationwide on multiple Disney-owned streaming products, while our stations will focus on continuing to produce local news and other programming relevant to their respective markets.”

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC.

The post Jimmy Kimmel Tears Up in ABC Return, Slams Trump and FCC for ‘Direct Violation’ of Free Speech | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Trump Says He’s Going to Test ABC Amid Jimmy Kimmel Return: ‘Let’s See How We Do’

President Donald Trump lashed out at ABC on Tuesday night ahead of the return of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” suggesting he is once again going to go after the network.

“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.”

“He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do,” he continued. “Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”

The social media post came within the hour of the Tuesday night return of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after Disney decided to end the show’s “indefinite suspension” after six days on Monday.

“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” the Walt Disney Company said in a statement. “We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

Trump had initially celebrated Kimmel’s suspension after FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened the House of Mouse, saying Disney could “do this the easy way or the hard way,” in regards to their licenses.

“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump wrote the day of. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”

“Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk, and Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person,” he then said on Thursday in a press conference with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago, so, you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”

Trump got even more pointed on Air Force One later that day. “When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do — if you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative one in years, or something — when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that,” the president said, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

However, some conservative pundits and commentators were less enthused by the overstep, with people like Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro and Ted Cruz all suggesting the move was too far into authoritarian territory. Also on Monday, 400 celebrities — including Jennifer Aniston, Selena Gomez, Pedro Pascal, Ben Affleck, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep — warned of the dangers of encroaching on America’s Freedom of Speech in an ACLU open letter.

Ultimately, local affiliate owners Nexstar and Sinclair both decided to still preempt Tuesday’s new episode across their stations.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returns to ABC on Tuesday night.

The post Trump Says He’s Going to Test ABC Amid Jimmy Kimmel Return: ‘Let’s See How We Do’ appeared first on TheWrap.

‘The Daily Show’ Mocks Trump’s Tylenol Autism Presser and TikTok’s Rapture Crowd | Video

If you’ve been online in the last 24 hours, then chances are you’ve heard about President Donald Trump linking Tylenol to autism and/or some select TikTok users welcoming the rapture. Naturally, “The Daily Show” had plenty of opinions on both stories on Tuesday night.

“We are living in crazy times right now, people are feeling worried and depressed. However, there is some good news: the world is ending,” host Jordan Klepper joked at the top of the episode.

At that, news clips of Rapture-Tok content began playing, including people who are willingly selling their possessions ahead of the Biblical end-time event.

“Listen, if I believed my Earthly body was going to leave this worldly realm, my first reaction would not be to turn a profit on Carvana,” Klepper continued. “I just want to say how unfair the TikTok algorithm is. It’s giving some people a heads-up about the end of the world? Mine is all just videos of guys power-washing sidewalks.”

“And while some people may or may not depart this mortal coil, for those of us left behind, there’s a lot of s–t we have to deal with. Chief among those, our President,” Klepper then transitioned. “Yesterday, Donald Trump held a major press conference to announce the cause of Autism — and also to announce that RFK Jr. is officially a weirder color than him now.”

The next portion of the Comedy Central segment featured plenty of coverage from their Monday press conference — including Trump’s trouble pronouncing the word ‘Acetaminophen.’

“Now, I don’t want to suggest there’s been some disconcerting cognitive decline… but back in 2020, that mofo could spit out ‘Hydroxychloroquine’ no problem,” Klepper noted.

You can watch the rest of the “Daily Show” video to see which correspondents are actually rapture-worthy, above.

“The Daily Show” airs Monday-Thursday at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central before streaming on Paramount+.

The post ‘The Daily Show’ Mocks Trump’s Tylenol Autism Presser and TikTok’s Rapture Crowd | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

‘Dancing With the Stars’ Week 2: Robert Irwin Tangos to the Top on One Hit Wonder Night

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Dancing With the Stars” Season 34, Episode 2.

Preparing for a double elimination, the stars stepped it up on Week 2 of “Dancing With the Stars” Season 34.

Robert Irwin and Whitney Leavitt topped the leaderboard yet again on One Hit Wonder night, heating up the competition. Carrie Ann Inaba returned to the judges’ table, but there was a twist — in order to save time, only two judges could give feedback per couple with the third giving a one word critique. 

Halfway through the show, host Alfonso Ribeiro announced that Episode 2 had already surpassed last week’s record of 21 million votes. In the end, actor-musician Corey Feldman and NBA All-star Baron Davis were both eliminated Tuesday night.

Alix Earle kicked off her Week 2 routine with a baby freeze in heels before completing a jive to “Mambo No. 5.” Derek Hough called Earle and her partner Val Chmerkovskiy a “powerhouse partnership” but wanted a few more kicks and flicks throughout the routine. Bruno Tonioli told the social media star the routine was a “breakthrough, my love.”

Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy in “Dancing With the Stars.” (Disney)

Danielle Fishel and Pasha Pashkov performed a cha cha to “Rhythm of the Night” by Corona. In her package ahead of her performance, the “Boy Meets World” star revealed she had a strained hamstring but still included a cartwheel and a full split in her routine. 

Andy Richter’s partner Emma Slater opened their tango to “It’s Raining Men” as a weather girl herself. Inaba gave the comedian a big hug as she gave her one word critique “improved.” All the judges praised his apparent love for dance despite his level of inexperience. 

Former Fifth Harmony star Lauren Jauregui put the ballroom at ease, according to judge Inaba, with her foxtrot to “Lovefool” by The Cardigans. Partner Brandon Armstrong said he was excited to show off his partner as an individual outside of her girl group. Hough complimented the star on her gracefulness in the foxtrot. 

The ballroom was on their feet for Jordan Chiles’ jive to “Maniac” by Mark Morrison. After receiving low scores Week 1, the Olympic gymnast was determined to come back stronger with her Week 2 dance. Chiles told host Julianne Hough that she takes criticism well, and it pushes her to be better. The judges applauded her improvement with high scores to match, saying the style let her personality shine through. 

The “Comeback King” Corey Feldman told partner Jenna Johnson that he would be upset to go home after just two episodes. The actor-musician performed a cha cha to “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-A-Lot, entertaining the crowd with a silly routine full of booty shaking. Johnson even said they laughed all week during rehearsals, but it only earned the couple 5s from the judges.  

MomTok star Jen Affleck brought her countertop dance moves to the ballroom Tuesday with her routine to “Take On Me” by a-ha. The judges said the reality star was much improved from last week but still got onto her partner Jan Ravnik for including too many lifts.

Robert Irwin wowed the judges yet again with his tango to “Move Your Feet” by Junior Senior. Though the wildlife conservationist does not have any dance experience, his charisma won over the judges. “You don’t need gimmicks. You’re good,” Tonioli said of the routine. Inaba said that she’s buying what Irwin is selling this season.

The “Parent Trap” star performed a cheerleader-themed routine to “Hey Mickey” with her partner Alan Bersten. With pigtails and all, Elaine Hendrix gave a clean jive routine. Tonioli complimented her versatility and ability to embody different characters while Hough praised the actress’ sharp movements.

NBA all-star Baron Davis choked a little in his samba to “Return of the Mack” by Mark Morrison. Inaba could barely critique the routine because she was distracted by so many missteps. Hough tried to pull it back together and gave his compliments to Davis’ partner Britt Stewart. His subpar performance ultimately sent him home.

Whitney Leavitt turned out a spicy cha cha to “Play That Funky Music” by Wild Cherry for her Week 2 routine. Inaba praised the reality star for setting the competition on fire both of the opening weeks. And Tonioli was impressed by the amount of content that her partner Mark Ballas incorporated into the routine. Leavitt tied at the top of the leaderboard yet again with Irwin.

Hilaria Baldwin stunned the judges with her technique in her tango to “What Is Love” by Haddaway. Hough specifically complimented her arms and the fluidity of her movement with partner Gleb Sanchenko. Inaba did knock the couple for a little lift in the routine, but overall the judges praised the wellness creator.

Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa in “Dancing With the Stars.” (Disney)

After teasing his samba skills on social media, Dylan Efron lived up to the hype. Performing one of the trickiest ballroom styles with his partner Daniella Karagach, the “Traitors” star impressed the judges. Inaba said his skillset was baffling to her because he presents as a beginner but his hips look more expert level. Hough wanted to see more power and strength from the couple moving forward.

Pentatonix singer Scott Hoying danced a cha cha to “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” with his partner Rylee Arnold. The judges noticed an improvement from the a capella singer since last week but encouraged him to take up more space. Hough said the 6’3” Grammy winner needed to embrace his full wingspan and reach in future routines.

LEADERBOARD: Week 1 and 2

Robert Irwin & Witney Carson: 37Whitney Leavitt & Mark Ballas: 37Hilaria Baldwin & Gleb Savchenko: 35Alix Earle & Val Chmerkovskiy: 34Lauren Jauregui & Brandon Armstrong: 34Elaine Hendrix & Alan Bersten: 33Danielle Fishel & Pasha Pashkov: 31Jen Affleck & Jan Ravnik: 34Jordan Chiles & Ezra Sosa: 32Dylan Efron & Daniella Karagach: 30Baron Davis & Britt Stewart: 28Scott Hoying & Rylee Arnold: 28Andy Richter & Emma Slater: 25Corey Feldman & Jenna Johnson: 24

“Dancing With the Stars” airs live on Tuesdays on ABC and streams on Disney+ in local time zones and the next day on Hulu.

The post ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Week 2: Robert Irwin Tangos to the Top on One Hit Wonder Night appeared first on TheWrap.

‘Doc’ EP Says Show’s Traumatic Premiere Sets Up Transformative Season 2: ‘It Evens Out the Playing Field’

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Doc” Season 2, Episode 1.

“Doc” put its medical staff through a traumatic event to kick off Season 2, one that triggered Amy into regaining a tiny bit of her memory.

The Fox drama series returned for its 22-episode sophomore season with a big case that turned violent, after the father of a patient hoping for a heart transplant held Amy (Molly Parker), Sonya (Anya Banerjee) and a nurse hostage. The father, a police officer played by Alex Fernandez, blamed Amy for convincing them to wait for a heart transplant six years prior — a consult Amy did not remember since she lost eight years’ worth of memories after a brain injury in Season 1.

Eventually, Amy discovered that the patient’s condition made it impossible for her to survive a transplant, so she decided to spare the father the grief of knowing that by simply telling him to hold off on the transplant until she got worse. In the end, Amy helped the father come to terms with losing his daughter.

But the discovery did not come before the man shot and injured TJ (Patrick Walker) and caused emotional damage across the show’s cast of doctors.

“Putting everyone through something evens out the playing field,” said executive producer Hank Steinberg, who wrote the premiere episode. “In the first season, Amy is the one who’s gone through this accident and this trauma. And now Sonya and Jake [Jon Ecker] and TJ and Michael [Omar Metwally] and Gina [Amirah Vann] and Katie [Charlotte Fountain-Jardim] have all gone through the wringer of this thing, and we’ve given them all stuff to react to.”

Before the episode’s traumatic events, “Doc” also revealed the aftermath of Jake finding Amy and Michael together in the Season 1 finale — and he was less than happy about his girlfriend’s actions with her ex-husband. Steinberg told TheWrap the love triangle is “definitely unresolved” and will take interesting directions this season, so expect a messy and fun ride ahead.

Read below for TheWrap’s conversation with Steinberg about how the premiere sets up transformation across the board, “Doc” Season 1 dropping on Netflix and how Felicity Huffman shakes things up when she joins the cast in Episode 2.

Molly Parker and Anya Banerjee in “Doc.” (Fox)

TheWrap: Why did you decide to start the season with this traumatic gun incident?

Steinberg: It’s always fun to start with a bang. We loved the idea that something from Amy’s past would come back to haunt her in an unexpected way.

We also knew we wanted her to start to get some memories back, and in our research, we discovered that oftentimes it’s when people are in the middle of a new trauma, some of the memories could begin — it could open up that doorway. So it seemed like a great way to combine that. And we also love the idea that the characters all end Season 1 in this place of a lot of things [are] unresolved and there’s a lot of conflict. Putting them all in a life-or-death situation was just a great way to kick off some of these conflicts being worked out. Some of the conflicts would seem kind of small compared to suddenly, “my life is at risk.”

The event shakes Amy up, and also triggers a memory from her lost years, which puts her on a mission to recover her memory as soon as possible. How does that set things up for her journey this season?

The premiere really sets up her main narrative drive of the season, which is that she wants to get her memories back.

She’s split into two identities: The version of her that is stuck in 2016 — the version of her that has come out of this accident with a vague understanding of the past — and then the version of her that went through the last eight years. How can she reconcile who she is if she doesn’t make those things cohere? And in addition, what happens in the episode is she has this recognition that she’s still a great doctor. She was a brilliant doctor during those years, and she can’t remember eight years of medical knowledge and experience, exposure to hundreds or thousands of cases that she doesn’t have back. The big moment in the premiere is her realizing that the older version of herself already knew that Rosie could never survive the heart surgery, and that makes her really feel like she almost cost someone their life today. Her not remembering the context of what’s happening with people around her potentially almost cost TJ his life. She feels like she can’t walk around in this twilight zone any longer.

She also feels this connection with Jake. She’s missing their six months of being together and she wants that back. Then later on in the season, we’ll get into the fact that she doesn’t remember the last year of (her son) Danny’s life, and she’s going to want that back.

How the memories come back, how they taunt her and tantalize her and when they come back is a major feature of the season.

Patrick Walker in “Doc.” (John Medland/Fox)

TJ was seriously injured in the conflict, and he’s still unconscious but seemingly stable by the end of the premiere. How does this set up his journey in Season 2?

TJ is going to struggle with recovering physically and feeling vulnerable in a way he never really has in his life before. He was an Army ranger. He somehow actually escaped clear in the army, and now as a doctor he gets shot in the hospital. So that’ll be a really good place to start. There’s also some strong consequences that come off of his injury. Some things have changed in the hospital in terms of bringing in newer personnel to help while TJ is recovering that changes dynamics with the doctors.

The subject matter at the center of this episode could not be more prescient given the country’s current conversation about gun violence. Obviously this was written months ago, but what were you hoping to convey through this particular story?

We were not trying to say anything about our gun culture, necessarily. Because he’s an active cop, who has a firearm, we were not really trying to say anything about our gun laws or gun control, or what is happening with the availability of guns. This is more of an intimate emotional story about a guy who, like Amy, is having such a difficult time dealing with his grief that he starts acting out on other people.

In a way, he’s a mirror of Amy. It’s just that he happens to be a man who’s a cop who has a gun, and so when he gets angry and loses hope, this is what he turns to. Whereas Amy put up emotional walls and pushed people away because she couldn’t deal with her grief.

Omar Metwally in “Doc.” (John Medland/Fox)

Beyond this big event, the premiere gave an answer to the big love triangle cliffhanger between Amy, Jake and Michael. They both agreed the kiss was a mistake and just a consequence of the complicated emotions, but Jake is not ready to forgive and forget. How does this and the recent trauma impact those relationships moving forward?

What we love about the triangle is the fact that you love all three of the characters. There’s a complexity to each leg of that triangle and I really love it. I don’t know who I’m rooting for.

The triangle is definitely unresolved at the end of the premiere, and there is a lot that will be played out between the three of them over the course of the next 21 episodes. It’ll be pretty juicy and fun, but also very grounded. They’re three adults. They’re flawed, but they’re good people. Each one of them doesn’t quite know what’s right for them or what they should do. And there’s a lot of head versus heart for all of them in different moments.

And Michael had a baby. Everything is coming at them at once.

We came up with the idea that downstairs is a hostage crisis, and upstairs in pediatrics Michael’s wife is in premature labor and the baby might have a problem. Michael’s now delivered as a new father again and is pushed toward that urge to ignore himself, including a big question mark — however he feels about Amy. It’s going to be really hard for him to move in that direction.

Jake also comforted Sonya after the day’s events, and we know she’s had her eye on him for a while. Could his rift with Amy leave the door open for them to explore things romantically?

It could. I don’t want to give away too much, so I won’t say much. A lot of people are wondering what we might explore, and we might just surprise you.

Felicity Huffman is joining the cast this season as the new head of internal medicine. When does she make her debut and how does she shake things up moving forward?

She arrives in the very next episode and she’s amazing. She’ll completely change the dynamic. Felicity’s an incredible actress. We love this character. She’s hard-charging, but funny and smart and drinks scotch, travels all over the world doing Doctors Without Borders. She has what’s called a ‘vagabond spirit.’ But she’s also Amy’s old mentor and medical school teacher and they’re also friends, so it adds a fresh dynamic for her.

The Season 2 premiere coincides with Season 1 of “Doc” arriving on Netflix. What was your reaction to learning the show would get on such a big platform?

If I said I understood the business side of what the streamers are doing, I’d be lying. But it seems like having the new episodes on Hulu and the older episodes on Netflix is a great way for us to just get exposure on multiple platforms. So it’s exciting.

“Doc” Season 2 airs Tuesdays on Fox and streams the next day on Hulu. Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix.

The post ‘Doc’ EP Says Show’s Traumatic Premiere Sets Up Transformative Season 2: ‘It Evens Out the Playing Field’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Paul Thomas Anderson Says ‘One Battle After Another’ Political Violence Is Still ‘Far From Reality’ in Wake of Charlie Kirk Shooting

Paul Thomas Anderson doesn’t think viewers should try too hard to connect the violence in “One Battle After Another” to reality.

While on the press tour for his latest film, Anderson spoke with the French outlet Le Figaro. Here, he talked about returning to adapt another Thomas Pynchon novel, nearly working with Leonardo DiCaprio in “Boogie Nights” and a missed opportunity to reunite with Tom Cruise on the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.

He also spoke about the notion that his new film’s use of political violence is inappropriate, particularly in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The interviewer also related the movie’s ideas to the slaying of Minnesota Democrat Melissa Hortman.

“It’s a horrible murder,” Anderson said of Kirk’s death in the interview, translated from French via Google Translate. “I don’t think we can bring it back to my film, an action-comedy very far from reality. I’m just trying to sell movie tickets for a fiction movie.”

“One Battle After Another” found itself under a bit of a microscope after the public slaying of Kirk made national headlines. As the murder launched renewed nationwide conversations about political violence in a divided country, it soon cast a shadow over Anderson’s new film, with some outright refusing to engage in the aftermath of the event.

“Anything further stoking our political fires is not something I’m interested in consuming right now,” one X user said on the day of Kirk’s death, opting out of an early screening that night.

This is a minority opinion, though, with the film receiving a large swath of rave reviews. “One Battle After Another” doesn’t open to the public until Friday.

In “One Battle After Another,” DiCaprio stars as Bob Ferguson, an ex-revolutionary whose past comes knocking at his door, threatening the life of his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti). Anderson’s first movie set in the modern day since 2002’s “Punch-Drunk Love,” “OBAA” is incredibly timely, involving conversations around immigration detention centers, sanctuary cities and white nationalism.

Anderson and DiCaprio have crossed paths before. When the filmmaker was directing his second feature, “Boogie Nights,” he initially offered the role of porn superstar Dirk Diggler to the young actor. DiCaprio turned the part down, putting the ball in Mark Wahlberg’s court.

“I don’t want to talk too much in his place, but he had the choice between ‘Boogie Nights’ and ‘Titanic,’ and I think he considered it important at this point in his career to make a film that could attract a large audience,” Anderson told Le Figaro. “I can understand it. He had already shot several auteur films, very interesting but more confidential.”

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‘The Lowdown’ Creator Sterlin Harjo Explains That ‘Reservation Dogs’ Cameo in the Premiere

Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Lowdown” Episode 1.

Sterlin Harjo’s “The Lowdown” is here.

A new FX mystery series, “The Lowdown” is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and stars Ethan Hawke as Lee Raybon, a so-called “truthtarian” — an investigative journalist-slash-unregistered-detective — who finds himself in the crosshairs after the subject of one of his pieces (Tim Blake Nelson) winds up dead. While the professionals rule it a suicide, Raybon think there’s something more sinister at play, which draws him deeper into Tulsa’s underworld — a nebulous space filled with white supremacists, drug dealers and corrupt politicians.

If you only know Harjo from his work on “Reservation Dogs,” the charming, subtly groundbreaking series (also streaming on Hulu), you’ll recognize the warm humor, inclusivity and unforgettable characters make a return in “The Lowdown.”

And there’s also the first scene of “The Lowdown,” which links the series in an even more concrete way. (Yes, we do realize that Hawke made a memorable cameo on “Reservation Dogs.”)

In the opening scene of the new series, Lee Raybon is walking to the used bookstore that he owns. He passes a young girl walking in the opposite direction, who looks up at him quizzically before giving him an approving nod. That young woman who walks by is Paulina Alexis, who played “Willie Jack” Sampson on “Reservation Dogs.”

Harjo told TheWrap that “The Lowdown” does take place in the same universe as “Reservation Dogs” (he joked that it was the “Sterlin-universe”) and that the moment wasn’t planned at all.

“I get a text in classic Paulina fashion that says, ‘I’m in town.’ I’m like, ‘You live in Canada. What are you doing in Tulsa?’ She said, ‘I just happened to come visit on a road trip,’ ” Harjo said. He told her to come to set “right now — we’re about to do the opening of the show.”

When Alexis arrived, Harjo said, “It became this idea of — just give him the handoff, we’ll give him a nod as you walk by. It worked out so beautifully. It was good fortune. It wasn’t planned.” Hawke jumped in: “It wasn’t planned at all.”

Somehow the fact that the moment wasn’t planned only adds to its power. Even if you haven’t seen Harjo’s earlier series, it still works. It says so much about Hawke’s character and about the general world of the show, where even a misfit can be acknowledged as something more, and serves as a terrific table-setter for what’s to come. Sure, things get pretty hairy, but in “The Lowdown,” if you’ve got a smile on your face, it might turn out alright.

“The Lowdown” airs Tuesdays on FX and streams the next day on Hulu.

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‘Alien: Earth’ Creator Noah Hawley Unpacks Wendy and the Eye Monster’s Big Finale Moments, Season 2 Hopes

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Alien: Earth” Season 1, Episode 8.

The tables at Neverland turned quite a bit in the “Alien: Earth” finale and the Lost Boys are in charge … for better or worse.

The chaos of Weyland-Yutani showing up on the island to take back the various aliens from the Maginot; Wendy (Sydney Chandler), Joe (Alex Lawther) and Nibs (Lily Newmark) failed escape attempt; and the T. Ocellus eye monster plotting and scheming, was bound to come to a bloody head and the finale paid off on that promise. Season 1 ends with the adults on the island locked in a cage with the Lost Boys calling the shots — with the aid of the xenomorph — and Wendy ominously saying it was their turn to “rule.”

“There’s a difference between being a wartime leader and a peacetime leader,” series creator Noah Hawley told TheWrap about Wendy’s skill as a leader. “If you’re playing big picture games, you’ve got to sacrifice some pieces, like all that stuff, she’s going to have to figure out how to do that.”

The final episodes showed Wendy leaning into her connection with the xenomorph past the point of communication and joining forces to get off the island — and later to hunt down soldiers and track Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin). Despite leaning into more violent solutions, Hawley is not sure Wendy is really grappling with some of the choices she made to round out Season 1.

“There’s a moment in the seventh hour where she releases the xenomorph, but she doesn’t stick around to see what happens,” he said. “She doesn’t stick around to see that like four people die seconds after she does that, so she’s not really grappling with the actual implications of her decisions yet. I think that’s sort of ahead for her to see.”

Hawley continued about Wendy’s violent finale choices: “I think she’s angry, and I think she feels hurt and she’s grieving Isaac. She still hasn’t necessarily dealt with the trauma of being a terminally ill kid, like all that stuff is in there but she’s acting with what feels like moral clarity to her. These kids have literally been told that they’re floor models, their property. They’re not meant to have opinions or an agenda. Yet, no one’s looking out for them, so that the only way to protect themselves is to take control. But that doesn’t mean that they’re going to do any better.”

“Alien: Earth” (Credit: FX)

That sense of protection through control is shown to full effect in the finale. Despite running through a number of soldiers and security — both on the Wayland-Yutani and Prodigy payrolls — Wendy and the xenomorph hold off on killing the Neverland leaders and instead cage them up. Boy K, Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis), Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) and Morrow (Babou Ceesay) are all rounded up. Hawley says Wendy is not quite at the point of outright killing everyone who has wronged her but it’s a “slippery slope.”

“I’m sure she would argue that all she’s doing is protecting herself and the people that she loves,” the showrunner said. “And so, killing Boy Kavalier in the moment in that he’s at his most vulnerable is not an act of protection; that is a murder. She’s not willing to do that, but it’s, you know, slippery slope.”

Elsewhere on the island, the T. Ocellus eye monster — the real scene-stealer of Season 1 — finally moved on from its sheep host. Boy K had clear machinations to put the alien into Joe, but before that could happen it had a square-off with Wendy and managed to get out of the facility. It seemed like another animal host was in its future until it happened across Arthur’s (David Rysdahl) body — dead on the beach via chestburster. A dead human host certainly feels like an upgrade from an imprisoned sheep or a cat.

“It’s opportunistic,” Hawley said. “But it was in a dead cat that seemed like a way to get around, but the moment it saw what looked like a better vehicle, it jumped ship. I don’t know if Arthur is a long-term solution, but it certainly is a way to get up and around.”

Season 1 wrapped without an official renewal from FX. The show was a long journey from inception to premiere in August 2025, and Hawley is hopeful and has plans to get to work on a second season as soon as they’re given the nod. In an era where big shows can take two or more years between seasons that should be music to fans ears.

“I’m on the starting block, you know what I mean,” Hawley said. “As the show wraps up, I’m waiting for the gun to go off to start the Season 2 race. Season 1 is always a proof of concept and then, in success, you have to build a show to run for multiple seasons. So that’s sort of where my head is at now. Let’s build something sustainable that we can create more of a regular schedule. None of us want to be off the air for any longer than we have to be.”

He finished: “We all feel the urgency, and yet FX is is very deliberate in their choices. Not so much as I would say, ‘Are we picking it up or not?’ But, like ‘what can we spend on it.’ These are not cheap shows to make, and I always say to Disney, it’s my job to be ambitious for you.”

“Alien: Earth” is now streaming on Hulu.

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