SNL returns next week with Pete Davidson / Drew Barrymore writers refuse to return / Jimmy Kimmel No. 1 among returning late-night hosts
PLUS: Former Tonight Show staffers are upset Jimmy Fallon hasn't publicly addressed his toxic workplace scandal.
SNL sets Season 49 premiere with Pete Davidson as host, plus Bad Bunny in Week 2
Davidson, whose Saturday Night Live hosting debut in May to promote his new Peacock sitcom Bupkis was canceled due to the onset of the writers’ strike, will finally get to host when SNL returns on Oct. 14. He'll be joined by musical guest Ice Spice. Bad Bunny will pull double duty the following week, on Oct. 21, as host and musical guest. The entire Season 48 cast will be back, plus new cast member Chloe Troast. Davidson will be able to promote his new movie Dumb Money and Bupkis, which was renewed for Season 2.
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SNL adds one new cast member for Season 49: Chloe Troast: Troast, known for working closely with SNL's Please Don’t Destroy trio, nearly landed on Saturday Night Live's cast last season, according to Deadline. She'll appear in the Please Don't Destroy Peacock movie The Treasure of Foggy Mountain. Troast is also known for her webseries The Basics.
SAG-AFTRA is okay with its members appearing on SNL during the actors' strike: “SAG-AFTRA members appearing on Saturday Night Live either as hosts, guests, or cast members are working under the Network Code agreement, which is not a contract we are striking,” the guild wrote in a message to its members on Wednesday. “They are not in violation of SAG-AFTRA strike rules, and we support them in fulfilling their contractual obligations." The actors’ guild clarified that SNL is a “SAG-AFTRA non-dramatic production” which operates under a separate agreement “that is not subject to the union’s strike order.”
The Drew Barrymore Show's three WGA writers have rejected an offer to return
According to The Hollywood Reporter's Lacey Rose, the show's three WGA writers — Chelsea White, Cristina Kinon and Liz Koe — have declined an offer to return for Season 4 in the aftermath of Drew Barrymore deciding to return to work without her writers, a decision she later reversed. As Rose notes, the "trio of women, who share the title co-head writer and have been with the series since season one, could be seen picketing outside of Drew‘s Manhattan studio on multiple days, with signs that read, 'Honk if you (love) union labor' or 'Drew’s News: Strikes.'" The Drew Barrymore Show "is now interviewing new writers and will be in compliance with the guild," according to Rose.
Former Tonight Show staffers are upset Jimmy Fallon hasn't publicly addressed his toxic workplace scandal
"In his first show back following the writers’ strike on Monday, Jimmy Fallon didn’t address allegations about The Tonight Show’s workplace environment published in a Rolling Stone investigation from September," says Rolling Stone’s Kristie Lee Yandoli, who reported on Fallon's alleged toxic workplace. "Fallon privately apologized to current staffers in a Zoom meeting on the same day the investigation was published, but former employees who spoke to Rolling Stone now say they’re disappointed the talk show host has not publicly addressed the workplace allegations in any way. Fallon’s internal message wasn’t directed toward them, they say, and as long as he doesn’t publicly apologize to former staffers they say they don’t feel seen or heard." As one Tonight Show alum put it: “I don’t know what the full apology was like because I wasn’t there, so it’s great if people who still work there got some closure out of it but as someone who was not spoken to it’s hard for me to feel like there’s any closure. Would I have loved that apology to some extent, whether it be from NBC or Jimmy directly, have gotten to former staff? Yes. I would think that that would be the most accountable and responsible thing to do, especially when you consider the turnover that has happened since The Tonight Show started and so many people who spoke up no longer work at the show.” ALSO: Fallon's viewership was up 19% in his first episode since the toxic workplace scandal.
Jimmy Kimmel was No. 1 among late-night hosts in post-writers’ strike return Monday night
Jimmy Kimmel Live! posted its most-watched season premiere in six years for its first show after the five-month writers' strike hiatus. Thanks in part to Monday Night Football on ABC, Kimmel was No. 1 in total viewers and in the 18-49 demo with 2.27 million viewers. Meanwhile, Stephen Colbert was up over his last Late Show episode in May with 2.16 million viewers. Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show had 1.48 million viewers.
Nationwide Emergency Alert Test freaked some people out because it arrived two minutes early
FEMA had said cell phones, TV and radio were supposed to go off at 2:20 p.m. ET. Instead, it went off early, even breaking into a Senate Republican press conference.
NFL defends taking full advantage of the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce story: It's a "pop cultural moment"
After Travis Kelce said on his podcast that the NFL was "overdoing it a little bit" with their coverage of Swift, the NFL said in a statement: "We frequently change our bios and profile imagery based on what’s happening in and around our games, as well as culturally. The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce news has been a pop cultural moment we’ve leaned into in real time, as it’s an intersection of sport and entertainment, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of positivity around the sport. The vast majority of our content has remained focused on the game, our players and variety of other initiatives, including our Toy Story Funday Football alt-cast, the international games and more.”
One Piece boss on Jamie Lee Curtis: "We have to try and get her on the show"
In a wide-ranging interview with Deadline, co-showrunner Matt Owens talks Season 1, says Season 2 has resumed writing in wake of the writers' strike ending and discussed Curtis' potential involvement. "We have opportunities to stunt cast some roles, some rules that are very important, and it came out that Jamie Lee Curtis is a One Piece fan," says Curtis. As soon as she said that, we were like, okay, we have to try and get her on the show. What can we do? And Doctor Kureha, very luckily, is a character who is coming up in our story, and is someone who is perfect for Jamie Lee Curtis. So we tried to start manifesting this dream of ours. After she won her Oscar, the writers room sent her a figure of Doctor Kureha with a nice note that said, 'Congratulations on your statue, here’s another one to put next to it. Hope to speak to you soon.' When she reposted that, it got a lot of fan interest, and I commented on it. We’re trying to manifest it. Yes, as of right now, SAG is still striking so there have not been real conversations. But as soon as there can be, I’m ready. I will take her out to dinner, we’ll talk about it. We’ll do all of it because at this point we’re writing for her — we really, really want her to come and play with us in Season 2." ALSO: Monkey D. Luffy to appear in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Ryan Reynolds was responsible for "Jake from State Farm" sitting next to Travis Kelce's mom at the Eagles-Commanders game — with Taylor Swift's approval
On Sunday, NFL on Fox cameras captured "Jake from State Farm" sitting next to Donna Kelce as she watched her son Jason Kelce play for the Philadelphia Eagles, hours before she watched son Travis Kelce play against the New York Jets. Turns out it was Reynolds and his Maximum Effort team who orchestrated the cameo. Reynolds and his Maximum Effort team thought it would be fun to poke fun at Swift appearing next to Donna Kelce last week by teaming up with State Farm for the "Jake from State Farm" cameo. They were able to secure the Kelce family's involvement with the help of Reynolds' Wrexham F.C. co-owner and Philadelphia native Rob McElhenney. Meanwhile, Reynolds, who accompanied Swift to the Chiefs-Jets game with wife Blake Lively, made sure that Swift got a head's up to make it clear they weren't poking fun at her.
Starz orders The Hunting Wives
Based on May Cobb’s bestselling 2021 novel of the same name, The Hunting Wives from showrunner Rebecca Cutler "follows Sophie O’Neil and her family as they pack up their things and move away from the East Coast and head down south to East Texas where she’s introduced to socialite Margo Banks. Sophie falls prey to Margo’s irresistible charms and soon winds up consumed by obsession, seduction, and murder."
Tony Awards sets a 2024 airdate from a new home: Lincoln Center
CBS will air the 2024 Tony Awards Sunday, June 16 from the from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts for the first time.
ESPN announces NHL whiparound show Frozen Frenzy
While there's a NHL tripleheader on ESPN on Oct. 24, ESPN2 will show Frozen Frenzy, a Red Zone-esque whiparound show.
Netflix sets a premiere date for Six Feet Under
All five seasons of HBO's acclaimed 2001-2005 drama series debuts on Netflix on Nov. 1 as part of a deal between the streamer and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Love Island Games unveils its Season 1 cast, trailer and premiere date
The Peacock reality competition debuts on Nov. 1.
Real Housewives of Miami gets a Season 6 premiere date and trailer
The Bravo reality show returns Nov. 1 with all six housewives returning.