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Category: Entertainment

  • ‘Paradise’ Star Enuka Okuma Goes Inside That Heavy Reunion: “Both of Them Don’t Give Up”

    [This story contains spoilers from Paradise episode seven of season two, “The Final Countdown.”]

    Last week’s Paradise ended with the highly anticipated moment of Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) finally laying eyes on the wife he had been searching for ever since finding out she was actually alive. And this week’s episode picked up right from that cliffhanger to play out their long-awaited reunion.

    Xavier had thought his wife and mother of their two children, Terri, played by Enuka Okuma, had died in the near-apocalyptic event that kicked off the hit Hulu series created by Dan Fogelman. He found out at the end of the first season that she actually survived, and he left the safety of the bunker to go and find her in season two. Against all odds, Xavier found Terri, tracking her to the location where she had called in on the radio. This episode, however, shows how Terri’s friend Gary (Cameron Britton) had misdirected Xavier into thinking Terri was in danger as a ruse, since Gary is also in love with Terri. Xavier and Terri must contend with Gary, which they do, before setting out on their mission to return to the bunker in Colorado.

    Each of them now has an additional child in their care when they reconnect and vow to go get their children — Xavier is taking care of Annie’s (Shailene Woodle) baby in hopes of reuniting her with father Link (Thomas Doherty) and Terri comes now with a boy named Bean (Benjamin Mackey), whom she has protected since The Day the world changed. “I never stopped trying to find my way back you — you just found me first,” she tells him.

    “We learn that Terri is as tough as Xavier,” executive producer and writer John Hoberg tells The Hollywood Reporter about how Xavier and Terri have changed in the three years since The Day. “The two of them both have this irresistible force quality. When they are together, they’re almost unstoppable. Xavier is a different person, and she’s a different person. So now this is like a marriage where two people took different jobs away from each other for a few years and are coming back together and, how is that going to work?”

    For Brown, also an executive producer, the comparison between present day and the levity of their meet-cute was a fun and flirty color to put on, he says, of filming their flashbacks in season two. “Then finally, after going through so much, to be reunited… I hope there’s a sense of relief that the audience feels in getting a chance to see these two people find one another again,” he tells THR, “because that’s what it felt like: relief. Like, ‘You’re here. I didn’t know if you were going to be here. So many things kept me from getting to you. I made it to you. I love you. Let’s go.’”

    Below, THR speaks with Okuma about when she found out that Terri would be entering the present-day story in such a big way, what it was like filming Terri and Xavier’s reunion, and what she knows about the already renewed third season.

    ***

    What did you know after season one about if this reunion between Terri and Xavier would happen in season two?

    I had no idea how or if that would ever happen. I did know that Terri was going to be a larger role and that you would get to see into her world, but I didn’t know how. Especially reading the beginning of the season and seeing that flashback episode, I figured — in [Dan] Fogelman-style — that I would be in a lot of flashbacks. So it was a nice surprise to know that we would dive into what happened to Terri outside, but then of course that wonderful episode seven was a nice surprise, too!

    Did you have a chat with creator Dan Fogelman and the writers about Terri’s arc ahead of time, or did you find out as you were receiving scripts?

    It was mostly finding out from reading. But then once we were shooting, being able to talk to our directors and to Dan about exactly that. Just how long it has been that those two have been missing each other.

    Had you been peppering Sterling K. Brown with questions leading up to this?

    Oh, he knows everything [as an executive producer also]. I would always ask him, but at the same time I didn’t want any spoilers. So he wouldn’t tell me, but would look at me and say, “It’s good. It’s gonna be good.” So I would just trust that it was going to be great.

    Sterling K. Brown with Enuka Okuma in episode seven of season two.

    Disney/Ser Baffo

    How did you react when you got to the end of episode six and read that they finally lock eyes on one another, but that Gary potentially stands in their way?

    I was pretty concerned. As an actor, we all have our worries and insecurities. I wanted to do it justice. As an audience member myself I had been hoping that those two get together, so I wanted to do it justice and was putting extra pressure on myself. But once we got to set — and it was so hot! Plus there were trains and explosions and hundreds of extras. It was just so massive. The stakes were so high, that all I had to do was surrender and lean into the what-if of it all, and it was all fine and natural in the end because it was almost like the stakes were actually happening.

    Did you film their reunion scene in one day?

    No, we didn’t. In fact, the tearful reunion — part two of the reunion — was shot in studio. We had done everything outside a week before. That informed everything going on in the tent, but it also gave a lot of time to really sit with that second level. It’s all pretty crazy when they first see each other, so I love that the writers gave us that moment to truly connect. There’s so much grief and loss for the time that has passed, the time they didn’t have with each other and how they couldn’t be there for one another. Giving those characters that moment was great.

    Up until this point, you and Sterling had only filmed flashbacks to establish their relationship. What was it like to bring their relationship up to date and portray them now?

    That was very much informed by how these two were leaders in their own way, in their own worlds. So coming together was now, in many ways, falling back into the pattern of who they are as husband and wife. But then it became two people who have a mind of their own and are on their own mission. Terri is not going to be told what to do, and has been running things in her own camp. So it becomes a dance of leadership.

    Brown with Okuma during Xavier and Terri’s reunion.

    Disney/Ser Baffo

    How would you say their time away from each other has informed how they’re able to step up for each other and for their family by the end of this season?

    I think because they have been away from each other for so long that coming back together as a unit, no matter what — no matter this butting of heads, in terms of leadership — shows that they have found each other and it is that union. They are going forth together and now it’s about getting the rest of that [family] unit back together, as the world is falling apart around them. I think you see very quickly the harmony they have and how they do work together.

    They are this unbelievable, one-in-a-million story to have found each other again. What do you hope viewers take away from their hopeful love story?

    Both of them don’t give up, and that is what makes the story so special to me — they’re steadfast in their belief and their faith that they will get back together. I read the story of their standoff with Gary in a cynical way, thinking, “Okay, they just got back together and this is how she’s going to die.” Maybe my heart is a little bit dark! But I do love for them that this was the fire that was stoking both of them. My love is out there, and I must find them. I must be with them again. I think it’s a beautiful message of hope and strength, and the fact that they do get together is an affirmation that it can happen.

    ***

    Paradise releases its season two finale on Monday. Read THR‘s coverage.

  • ‘Bucks Harbor’ Review: A Wistful, Humane Portrait of Hardy Souls, Young and Old, in Coastal Maine

    ‘Bucks Harbor’ Review: A Wistful, Humane Portrait of Hardy Souls, Young and Old, in Coastal Maine

    The coast is craggy and rugged in “Bucks Harbor,” and so are many of the faces — lined and hard-lived and visibly storied, in a way that plainly speaks to the original photographer in director Pete Muller, here making a fluent and expansive transition to documentary filmmaking. His camera loves the weary, callused men of the small Maine fishing community that lends the film its title, though his heart evidently does too: As it takes in the rhythms and routines of lives buffeted by time, tide and weather, “Bucks Harbor” never treats its subjects as rural ethnographic case studies, but as full-bodied characters with complicated tales of their own to tell.

    The film’s empathetic interest in individual, often eccentric human lives gives it a warmth that overrides the underlying melancholy of the material, making for a pleasingly unsentimental crowdpleaser. Following its world premiere in Berlin’s Panorama program last month, “Bucks Harbor” was a runner-up in the section’s audience awards. A North American premiere in the True/False fest followed, sure to kick off a lengthy run of docfest appointments. Nonfiction-oriented distributors should take interest in a film that could play engagingly on streaming platforms, though theatrical exhibition would best serve its textured, wind-whipped sense of place.

    “If Bangor, Maine is the asshole of the world, we’re 200 miles up it,” says stoic lobster trawler Mike of the remote waterfront he calls home, not far from the Canadian border. His tone isn’t bitter, and indeed, a mood of jaded contentment prevails in Bucks Harbor: It may be sleepy and dilapidated, but it has its own shabby comforts.

    Fisherman and former drug addict Dave has lived his whole life there, equally stifled and saved by his surroundings. As a teen, he showed artistic talent that ultimately had nowhere to go: Today, he supplements his modest income with regular visits to a local food bank, and draws in his spare time to amuse himself. Mostly, he’s good-humored and glad to still be around, fixing what he can in his life with some support from his salty, independent-minded mother — delightfully good value whenever she’s on screen. Women need men “just for babies,” she insists; her son, equally happy to be alone, resists that purpose.

    A drawlingly funny and generous storyteller, Dave is the most outwardly charismatic of the film’s four principal subjects, though the others flesh out a more surprising overview of local working-class masculinity than what initially meets the eye. Married, middle-aged Mark works in a tackle shop, and seems a taciturn, hard-shelled type, though he has, over time, found an unexpected outlet for his more expressive impulses.

    The aforementioned Mike is a more typically rugged family man, raising two preternaturally toughened young sons who already ply the family trade — there’s something rather poignant about the stern-faced proficiency they show on their father’s boat. Finally, profusely bearded clamdigger Wayne reflects on his various failed marriages and brutal childhood abuse at the hands of his father with a shrugging lack of self-pity, though there’s silent sorrow in his tired, scarred demeanor.

    Muller and editor Noel Paul don’t impose a narrative arc on these fragmented lives, instead casually drifting between them at a pace that suggests the loping rhythm of their days. (The film’s strictly observational approach extends to a complete absence of onscreen names or contextualizing title cards: We get to know these men in their own good time.) Occasionally the focus drops to the fishermen’s crustacean quarry in the deep, also guarded and unhurried but intensely vulnerable; the man-lobster parallel isn’t stretched to the point of contrivance, but the film takes a thoughtfully holistic view of all the region’s living inhabitants.

    Likewise, “Bucks Harbor” captures the spread of male archetypes in this small community — some more patriarchally conservative, some more queerly progressive, all a little wounded — in sufficiently perceptive detail that any more direct social commentary is unnecessary. All these men are products of their raw, challenging environment, albeit no two in quite the same way. And as shot by Muller and his fellow DPs Nathan Golon and Mark Unger in seasonally shifting shades of storm and stone, the water a defining presence in proceedings whether churning, frozen or serene, Bucks Harbor comes across as a forceful, compellingly changeable place, the kind that makes its humble residents do its bidding.

  • Top CNN Stars: Welcome to Our Humble Podcast Studio

    On an otherwise normal hour of CNN last week, viewers may have been greeted by the title card “Global Report: War With Iran” and an array of correspondents fanned out across the Middle East — from Tel Aviv to Doha — speaking with Anderson Cooper on AC360. Or they saw Jake Tapper multitasking as usual on The Lead, grilling interview subjects, ticking through breaking news like the dearth of TSA workers at airports due to a government shutdown. The substance was the same. The style was not.

    Out were the crisp, buttoned-down trappings of a stereotypical Cable News studio set. In were podcast-style audio setups and messy, center-of-the-newsroom production vibes more line with the aesthetic of indie influencers. The ties were gone (or loosened) and the map of Iran was printed out for a table top that included a studiously messy arrangement of New York Times sections (that, perhaps, is more Morning Joe than TikTok).

    “Here we are, giving it a shot,” Tapper told viewers, a dry welcome to his office with a note explaining that this is where his team plots out journalism daily, so may as well let everyone in with a bit of transparency. (His office is decorated with presidential campaign trinkets, specifically of the losing candidates.) Cooper, meanwhile, was camped out in the middle of the newsroom at a table that was used frequently by data whiz Harry Enten, that was now repurposed with an arrangement of podcast mics for the anchor and analyst guests.

    The AC360 podcast set up in the CNN newsroom.

    The stylistic changes are a small cosmetic tweak — but an interesting one given that seemingly every video is becoming “a tile on YouTube” in digital media right now. (Tapper himself may on the fence about the change-up: “Will we do it again?” the anchor asked on Friday. “Stay tuned.”)

    Does it work? Two Hollywood Reporter editors have diverging views:

    No, It Doesn’t

    ALEX WEPRIN: Retro, low-fi and reminiscent of Larry King … who was of course channeling the old-school late night radio shows that he once hosted before jumping to TV.

    Clearly there is a push to be more “authentic” in the same way that a lot of podcast stars are, and Tapper at least shows off his personality. In the case of Cooper, they just took a table in the middle of the 18th floor newsroom (I assume Harry Enten found somewhere else to do his data analysis in the office).

    I don’t like it, it strikes me as phony. These are millionaire celebrities, with a small army of producers, crew and support staff trying to look low-fi. A lot of the people who found success in the podcast space genuinely started from scratch, and even some of the most successful (like Piers Morgan and Megyn Kelly) have staff that number in the single digits.

    While I think CNN (and all news channels) should be endeavoring to help viewers how they “get” the news in the name of transparency, we weren’t watching Tapper work the phones or Cooper pull up an Excel spreadsheet, these looked like their normal shows in a more casual setting. Surely there is a way to actually get some reporting into the show? That might require bringing in the producers who do a lot of the legwork.

    That said, there is clearly something happening here. MS NOW is adding some Crooked Media pods, Fox News has Will Cain emulating the radio and podcast look … I think we are going to see more of these, particularly as actual video podcasts proliferate on TV sets through YouTube and Netflix. Ultimately, 20 years ago someone with access to a TV at, say 10 AM or 2 PM, would probably turn on a news channel. Now they may turn on Netflix or YouTube and watch a talk show there, so that is fresh competition. It isn’t really CNN vs Fox News vs MS NOW anymore, the universe is bigger.

    Yes, It Does

    ERIK HAYDEN: I’ll say that I thought “Summer Fridays,” in which Newsnight With Abby Phillip films from the Food Network kitchen while having its typical panelists get into arguments about bread-and-butter CNN topics, to be an interesting experiment, too. It’s too easy for reporters typing on keyboards to take potshots. Stylistically, there’s got to be some way to shake up the Cable News Studio feel that all of a sudden feels less real — and perhaps less trustworthy? — to viewers right now. And for all of the headlines during the short-lived Chris Licht era about how the veteran Late Show producer was shaking things up — remember King Charles? — programmingwise and visually (remember the tweaked chyron design?). The Mark Thompson-led CNN has yet to make as many wild swings. But in small ways like this it’s been more experimental around the edges of what CNN programming can, and should, look like.

    To Alex’s point, yes, these are “millionaire celebrities, with a small army of producers, crew and support staff” but I’d say it’s increasingly difficult to tell that there’s a small army of producers, crew and support staff in a lot of TV programming, which can sometimes look just as cheap as one dedicated journalist who knows how to web produce their own videos. But what does differentiate CNN from a lot of these indies is its vast support network. So I’m all in favor of roaming the halls of CNN’s New York and Atlanta studios, taking a tour of Jake Tapper’s office (maybe when he’s interviewing Trump on the phone, next time), heading to the podcast studio with Anderson Cooper or going to the control room to check out which feed from a far-flung location matters for viewership.

    By all means pile on the print newspapers — wave around the New York Post or Times as a prop, print out some maps, and head over to the actual newsroom cubicles where CNN digital journalists or producers are sitting, normally blurred in the background, to check out sourcing or when there’s breaking news. No one’s asking for CNN to be TMZ on TV, with Anderson Cooper as a Harvey Levin-esque ringleader in the newsroom. But it’s also a reminder of where all the breaking news updates come from (Or how about a “day in the life” of a CNN chyron writer?). The podcast mics themselves may be an easy target for a joke, but take away those mics and roll around the cameras and viewers may see how much work goes in to maintaining a live feed for hours during the day. It might be more interesting and unpredictable too. It is TV, after all.

    An overhead angle of the CNN newsroom table, maps of Iran, newspapers and all.

  • Justin Timberlake’s DUI Arrest Legal Battle Ends as Internet Frenzy Begins

    Justin Timberlake’s DUI Arrest Legal Battle Ends as Internet Frenzy Begins

    The controversial — and highly memeable — police body-camera footage of pop star Justin Timberlake’s arrest for driving under the influence in June 2024 on eastern Long Island was released late last week after a legal battle was waged by the singer against the small former whaling town to keep the “embarrassing” footage under wraps. The dispute led to a negotiated release and the redaction of certain moments that his attorney said were so sensitive they amounted to a major violation of the singer’s privacy.

    In June 2024, while visiting the tony beach town of Sag Harbor, Timberlake was pulled over and after a few traffic infractions, was soon arrested on a DUI charge. The singer was asked to perform a sobriety test, questioned by officers while handcuffed at the small town’s precinct, and finally placed in a holding cell alone for the night. Footage of all these moments was made public by the town’s police department on Friday, 21 months after it was sought by several news outlets via Freedom of Information Act requests.

    The release of eight hours of footage surrounding the Grammy winner’s arrest was not something the former boy band frontman turned actor — or the team behind his public image — wanted millions of people to see. As soon as the release was announced at the beginning of March, Timberlake’s legal team filed for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to prevent the town from making the footage public.

    That Monday, his attorneys met with a Sag Harbor judge, arguing that releasing the unedited footage would constitute an invasion of privacy. They requested either a block on the release or a private judicial review of the potentially embarrassing material. From a legal standpoint, they argued, this would ensure that any content not subject to disclosure under New York’s Freedom of Information Law would be excluded.

    Attorney Edward Burke Jr. argued the release would “devastate” Timberlake’s privacy by revealing “intimate, highly personal and sensitive details.” He added that it would cause “severe and irreparable harm” to the singer’s reputation by subjecting him to “public ridicule and harassment.” The footage was ultimately released Friday after a heated back-and-forth between the singer’s legal team and the village resulted in an agreement on a partially redacted version.

    “Since Justin Timberlake’s arrest, the Village and Police Department have attempted to comply with the mandates of the Freedom of Information Law.  We are pleased the litigation regarding the release of video footage related to Mr. Timberlake has been resolved and the Village is able to comply with its statutory obligation to release the material that is subject to disclosure under FOIL,” the law firm of VIncent Toomey said in a statement sent to The Hollywood Reporter.

    Attorneys representing Timberlake did not return an email and call placed by THR on Monday.

    What was released quickly set the internet ablaze over the weekend, as several moments caught fire, became memes or sparked debate. Whether police went too far in their treatment of the pop star — who, in one clip, is seen handcuffed to a table while being questioned — became a point of contention. In the footage, Timberlake himself questions the officers as they assure a baffled singer that this is standard procedure for members of the public accused of taking the serious risk of drunk driving.

    “You boys treat me like a criminal,” Timberlake tells two officers. Earlier, when first approached, he said, “I’m on a world tour.”

    “A what?” an officer asks.

    “A world tour… I’m Justin Timberlake.”

    The moment has already become a viral sensation, with online tastemakers revisiting past controversies surrounding the singer — from the fallout of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy to renewed scrutiny following Britney Spears’ bestselling memoir, which reshaped public perceptions of their relationship.

    Still, the arrest’s most memorable moments — captured throughout the redacted, Timberlake-approved footage — have already delighted millions as they rapidly spread online.

    In another clip, a woman who has not been identified but was with Timberlake rushes up to officers after he is placed in a squad car. Expressing shock, she insists that Timberlake be given his cell phone.

    “Stop it. No way. Don’t say it,” she tells the officers. “You’re arresting Justin Timberlake right now? Stop it. Why?” she adds, attempting to get a moment with her friend. “Can you guys please just do me a favor, because you loved ‘Bye Bye Bye’ or ‘SexyBack’?”

    During a sobriety test outside his vehicle, Timberlake appears visibly inebriated — though not incapacitated — after being pulled over for drifting into oncoming traffic and missing a stop sign. In what likely sealed his fate that night, body-cam footage shows him unable to complete a simple heel-to-toe, nine-step walk.

    A moment of levity comes when Timberlake is handed a booking form. After examining it, he turns to an officer and exclaims, referring to his listed race: “White?!” The moment plays awkwardly, highlighting his apparent surprise at an interaction with law enforcement that many people of color experience far more frequently.

    But the footage’s darkest moment comes when Timberlake is placed in a holding cell at the local police station. As the heavy door begins to close, he asks officers if they will keep the light on.

    According to reports, during the first quarter of 2025, an average of 37 people were killed each day in drunk-driving crashes.

    In the summer of 2024, a Suffolk County judge accepted Timberlake’s guilty plea as part of a deal that lessened his punishment and allowed the pop star to avoid further jail time. As part of his plea deal, the singer agreed to 25 to 40 hours of community service and to pay a fine.

  • ‘Shōgun’ Season 2 Adds Five to Cast

    ‘Shōgun’ Season 2 Adds Five to Cast

    FX is filling out the cast of “Shōgun,” with Risei Kukihara, Ryô Satô, Seishiro Nishida, Mantaro Koichi and Takashi Yamaguchi joining Season 2 of the historical drama series

    Kukihara as will play Gabriel; Satô (“Silence”) will play Rin; Nishida (“Tobu ga Gotoku”) will play Jōshin; Koichi (“Emergency Room 24 Hours”) will play Saitō; and Yamaguchi (“Letters from Iwo Jima,” “Pachinko,” “Accused”) will play Kanō. They join previously announced cast members Hiroyuki Sanada, Cosmo Jarvis, Fumi Nikaidô, Ren Meguro, Asami Mizukawa, Shinnosuke Abe, Hiroto Kanai, Masataka Kubota, Sho Kaneta, Yûko Miyamoto, Yuka Kouri, Tommy Bastow, Jun Kunimura, Yoriko Dôguchi, Eita Okuno and Takaaki Enoki.

    Kukihara, whose casting in “Shōgun” marks his first role in a major production, is repped by 42 and CAA. Casting for Season 2 has been led by Kei Kawamura and Laura Schiff, who won an Emmy for drama casting after Season 1.

    FX has not yet divulged specific details about the new characters, or about the plot of Season 2 besides that it is “set over a decade after the events of the first season and continues the historically-inspired saga of these two men from different worlds [Yoshii Toranaga and John Blackthorne, played by Hiroyuki Sanada and Cosmo Jarvis] whose fates are inextricably entwined.”

    “Shōgun” is adapted from the 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell. Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks created the series and serve as showrunners. Executive producers include Kondo and Marks alongside Michaela Clavell, Edward L. McDonnell, Michael De Luca and Sanada. FX Productions is the studio.

  • Plimsoll Productions Hires Executive Producer Paul Wright to Develop Live Programming

    Plimsoll Productions Hires Executive Producer Paul Wright to Develop Live Programming

    Plimsoll Productions, part of ITV Studios, has hired executive producer Paul Wright, who will develop live programming across all genres, including adventure, factual entertainment, and natural history.

    Wright most recently worked on “Skyscraper Live with Alex Honnold,” Plimsoll’s live Netflix event in which free solo climber Alex Honnold scaled one of the world’s tallest skyscrapers in Taipei, Taiwan before a global audience.

    A Royal Television Society and Rose d’Or-winner, Wright has over 25 years of experience as an executive producer and showrunner. Some of his credits include “Bigheads,” “The Million Pound Cube,” “Sounds Like Friday Night,” “Pride of Britain,” “Comic Relief’s Big Chat with Graham Norton,” “US Sing On! with Titus Burgess,” “US Lingo with RuPaul” and the “Laureus World Sport Awards.” He also produced “Comedy Map of Britain” and multiple FIFA World Cups, the Athens Olympics and “Match of the Day” for BBC.

    “Live television is where I live and breathe, and ‘Skyscraper Live’ showed me that Plimsoll is the perfect home for that ambition,” Wright said in a statement. “The talent here is extraordinary, and the canvas is as wide as it gets.”

    “’Skyscraper Live’ was the most demanding live production we’ve ever made, and Paul rose to every challenge it presented,” said James Smith, head of adventure and live at Plimsoll. “As we continue to invest creatively across our live slate, Paul’s range across genres, editorial judgment, and ability to perform under real-time pressure make him exactly the right person for this moment.”

    Plimsoll recently earned six Emmy Awards for “A Real Bug’s Life” (available on Disney+/National Geographic) and is currently in production on “Surviving Pompeii with Tom Hiddleston” (also for Disney+/National Geographic), in addition to several unannounced live projects in development and production.  

  • ‘American Idol’ Sets Companion Podcast, Danielle Fishel to Host (EXCLUSIVE)

    ‘American Idol’ Sets Companion Podcast, Danielle Fishel to Host (EXCLUSIVE)

    “American Idol” is expanding Season 24 with a new companion podcast.

    “‘American Idol’ Official Podcast” will be hosted by Danielle Fishel and will “dive deeper into America’s most iconic music competition series, exploring the performances everyone’s talking about, and offering exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes insights, and expert analysis of the judges’ critiques.”

    The podcast will premiere on Wednesday, April 1, on Disney+, Hulu, and other podcast platforms, following the live shows, which kick off Monday, March 30.

    Fishel, best known for her iconic role as Topanga on ABC’s “Boy Meets World” and later, Disney Channel’s “Girl Meets World,” has been part of the Disney family for decades. Since 2017, she’s been woking behind the camera, directing more than 50 episodes of multi-camera shows, including “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place,” “Raven’s Home,” “Shifting Gears” and “Lopez vs Lopez.”

    She is the co-host of the “Teen Beat” podcast and “Pod Meets World.” In 2025, she signed a new overall deal with iHeartMedia. She and her husband, Jensen Karp, are also producers on “Teen Beat, “How Rude, Tanneritos!,” Magical Rewind” and “Pod Meets World.”

    “American Idol” returned for Season 24 (its ninth on ABC) in January with its most-watched premiere in four years with an average of 8.27 million viewers in live+3 and multiplatform viewing.

    “American Idol” airs live Mondays on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu. Beginning March 30, they will also stream live on Disney+. “Idol” is produced by Fremantle and 19 Entertainment, a part of Sony Pictures Television. Executive producers are showrunner Megan Wolflick, Eli Holzman and Aaron Saidman.

  • Ronnie Bowman, Leading Bluegrass Singer Who Wrote Hits for Chris Stapleton, Kenny Chesney and Other Country Stars, Dies at 64

    Ronnie Bowman, Leading Bluegrass Singer Who Wrote Hits for Chris Stapleton, Kenny Chesney and Other Country Stars, Dies at 64

    Ronnie Bowman, a preeminent bluegrass singer who was also renowned for co-writing songs recorded by top country stars like Chris Stapleton, Kenny Chesney and George Strait, died Sunday at age 64.

    Bowman was involved in a motorcycle accident in Ashland, Tenn. on Saturday and died from his injuries the following afternoon at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville.

    “His was the voice that defined ’90s bluegrass,” wrote the website Bluegrass Today in reporting his passing.

    “Ronnie Bowman was an amazing singer and songwriter,” wrote Billy Strings, in one of many posts that his fellow performers put up on social media. “One of the best entertainers in bluegrass and country music. He lit up any room he was in. I’m terribly sad to hear that he has passed on after a tragic motorcycle accident. May our dear friend rest in peace.” Strings had had Bowman join him on stage at the Ryman last year.

    As a celebrated tunesmith, Bowman won the ACM Award for song of the year for co-writing Chris Stapleton’s “Nobody to Blame,” one of three contributions he made to that country superstar’s breakout album in 2015. (Stapleton and Bowman are pictured above at the 2016 ACMs.) He also shared songwriting credit for two No. 1 country hits, Kenny Chesney’s “Never Wanted Nothing More” (also a co-write with Stapleton) and Brooks & Dunn’s chart-topping “It’s Getting Better All the Time.”

    Other artists who cut Bowman’s songs included Jessie Buckley (for the film “WIld Rose”), Nick Cave, Cody Johnson, Lee Ann Womack, Ralph Stanley, Bill Gaither, Del McCoury and Marcus King. And as a singer or player, he appeared on recordings by Loretta Lynn, Sierra Hull, Alan Jackson, John Fogerty, Jake Owen, Yola, Randy Newman and many others.

    But he was best known to bluegrass fans as a singer-songwriter in his own right, first as lead singer and bass player for 11 years with the Lonesome River Band, where he began a partnership with Dan Tyminski in 1990, and by the mid-’90s as a solo artist. He was the recipient of numerous awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association, starting with an album of the year win for “Cold Virginia Night” in 1995, and the IBMA named him male vocalist of the year three times.

    Dierks Bentley, the country star who is known for his bluegrass bona fides, paid tribute to Bowman in an emotional Instagram post.

    “Going to take awhile for it to sink in that Ronnie Bowman is gone,” wrote Bentley. “He was the favorite bluegrass and country singer of everyone I know. And he was everyone’s favorite hang.”

    Bentley noted that he had many memories of hanging with Bowman at the Station Inn in Nashville, but said his favorite was of a favor he called in at the inaugural DelFest (named after bluegrass legend Del McCoury).

    “My wife loved Ronnie’s song ‘It’s Getting Better All the Time’ (which Brooks and Dunn cut). Obsessed really. And while she was sleeping in a bunk on the bus, I went and found Ronnie and asked him if he would come serenade her! He came up on the bus with his guitar, snuck back into the middle bunk section which is very dark, hit the first chord and ‘I don’t stop breathing every time the phone rings…’ Imagine sleeping and all of a sudden you hear someone whose voice you love, but hadn’t met, singing your current all-time fave song, six inches away from your head on the other side of a bus bunk curtain, in the pitch dark. Shock and confusion followed by tears and laughs. It was the sweetest thing to do, and that’s just how he was.

    “Listening to that song takes on a whole new meaning now,” Bentley concluded. “Can’t imagine what Garnet, his family and all his close friends are feeling right now. Thoughts and prayers for them, and for all the RoBo fans out there, as he’s affectionally referred to in my band. We all loved him.”

    A statement posted by Garnet Bowman, Ronnie’s wife, read: “We are in complete shock and utterly devastated to confirm that our beloved Ronnie passed away yesterday…  Ronnie was beloved by so many in our music community, whom he loved so dearly… and we are beyond grateful for all of the love & outpouring toward us already.  Right now, as we process, we just covet your prayers. We have no words at this time, but thank you and graciously request that you honor our privacy while we try to put our heads around this and grieve.  What we know and hold onto, is that he is with his Savior Jesus in Heaven, although already terribly missed here on Earth. Any further details or plans will be made public when there is any information to share about honoring the legacy of our beloved Ronnie.”

    “Love that man,” posted country singer-songwriter Ernest in response.

    His onetime bandmate Tyminski wrote that Bowman was “so much more than an old friend and band mate. We formed a bond years ago that we carried with us through life knowing that we had something special together. For a long time no one thought of my name without his being attached. We were a pair. I am not the man I am today without him in my life. The whole world will feel this devastating loss and he will forever be my brother.”

    One of Bowman’s last posts on social media was to repost an excerpt that George Strait’s account had put up of the song “The Journey of Your Life,” with the caption, “Thanks for recording this one George!” It’s a composition that is likely to come up as Bowman is remembered, with lyrics inspired by a grandfather figure that include the lines, “Ride the wind ’til we meet again / On the other side of life… / I’ll be the angel flyin’ by your side / On the journey of your life.”

  • Spotify Lays Off 15 Staffers In Podcast Division

    Spotify Lays Off 15 Staffers In Podcast Division

    Spotify has laid off about 3 percent of staff in its podcasting group.

    The layoffs Monday impacted 15 positions across The Ringer and Spotify Studios. The changes are being described as improving the unit’s execution and speed, rather than as a cost-cutting matter, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

    Overall, the goal is to flatten the structure of the unit, and give creative leads more direct control, the source said. 

    “Spotify does not comment on staffing shifts,” a spokesperson for Spotify said when asked for comment. 

    As part of the layoffs, the Ringer podcast New York, New York With John Jastremski will be ending. Andrew Gruttadaro, special projects lead at The Ringer, and staff writer Miles Surrey, both wrote on social media that they had been laid off. 

    “It’s impossible to sum up nine years in a tweet but: I worked on so many things — profiles, theme weeks, special projects—that I am incredibly proud of,” Gruttardo wrote on X.

    Spotify has been growing overall user numbers, reporting 751 million monthly active users in its most recent quarter, an increase of 38 million, marking the highest number of net adds in Spotify’s history, and pushing heavily into a video podcasting strategy, including inking a deal with Netflix.

  • Bill Cosby to Pay At Least $19 Million After Losing Sex Assault Case

    A Los Angeles jury found on Monday that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted Donna Motsinger, a former server at a Sausalito restaurant who was drugged by the disgraced comedian at one of his comedy shows in 1972.

    The jury awarded Motsinger $19.25 million in damages as Cosby navigates financial woes caused by a series of lawsuits from women with rape accusations, many of which were filed under state laws that extended the window to sue for sexual assault alleged to have occurred decades ago. She could be paid more depending on whether jurors decide to grant punitive damages, meant to punish defendants for particularly egregious misconduct.

    The decision is at least the second from a civil court finding Cosby liable for sexual assault after a California jury in 2022 concluded that he sexually abused a 16-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion in 1975.

    According to the complaint, Motsinger met Cosby in her 30s when she worked as a waitress at then-celebrity hotspot The Trident, where the entertainer was a regular. On one occasion, Cosby followed her back to her Mill Valley home and asked to escort her to his show at the Circle Star Theater.

    After picking her up in a limo, Cosby gave her a glass of wine, the lawsuit alleged. Once there, Motsinger said she felt sick and was given what she believed was an aspirin. She proceeded to drift in and out of consciousness before waking up at her house with all her clothes off except her underwear.

    Cosby, who’s maintained across several cases that any sexual encounters were consensual, didn’t testify at the trial. Motsinger was among the anonymous accusers in the 2005 lawsuit filed by former Temple University athletics director Andrea Constand.

    Witnesses at the trial included Constand and two other accusers, Janice Baker Kinney and Victoria Valentino. In a separate lawsuit, Valentino accused Cosby of raping her in 1969 after she auditioned for an acting role.

    Cosby served more than two years of a prison sentence of up to ten years after he was convicted of aggravated indecent assault against Constand. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court later overturned the conviction due to a non-prosecution agreement with a previous district attorney.

    Last year, Cosby was sued for defaulting on a $17.5 million mortgage for his Manhattan townhouse. He’s been accused of transferring property to his wife to hide assets.