Entertainment

CBS’ The Talk and two syndicated chat shows, The Jennifer Hudson Show and Sherri, hosted by Sherri Shepherd, are returning to the studio for season premieres in the coming weeks amid labor actions by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Talk, a signatory to the Writers Guild’s minimum basic agreement, went dark when the writers strike began in May and is reportedly eyeing a September 18 premiere.

Hudson’s show uses WGA writers and, per the guild’s website, is also a signatory to the union’s minimum basic agreement. It is promoting its second season, also kicking off September 18, but has done so using clips from season 1.

Shepherd’s program doesn’t use WGA writers, though it has employed some guild writers in the past. Like ABC’s The View, Sherri has been running throughout the strike. WGA members have picketed the show.

The news comes a day after Drew Barrymore announced the return of her daytime talk show. Writers picketed the show in New York on Monday, and two audience members told THR they were asked to leave the taping after they wore pins supporting the strike.

That leaves The Kelly Clarkson Show as the only daytime talker yet to announce a return. Clarkson’s show is moving from Los Angeles to New York and is currently in preproduction.

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The live-action retelling of the animated Disney classic The Little Mermaid has broken a record for Disney+.

According to the streamer, the movie has become one of the most viewed premieres in Disney+’s history since it became available to subscribers on September 6.

The musical film, starring Halle Bailey as Ariel, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula and Javier Bardem as King Triton, racked up 16 million views in just its first five days on the platform.

The Little Mermaid, which made nearly $570 million worldwide before coming to digital, was the most-watched Disney movie premiere on Disney+ since 2022’s Hocus Pocus 2.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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On Monday, September 11, Fox dropped an extended preview of the 35th season premiere of The Simpsons, which debuts October 1 at 8 p.m.

The episode, titled “Homer’s Crossing,” has Homer becoming a school crossing guard and taking things a little too far.

In addition, this season Marge experiences a series of nightmares about young Bart’s childhood coming to an end, producers tease, while an episode set 60 years in the future has Lisa recounting how Homer was scapegoated for a power outage “that plunged Springfield into darkness days before Thanksgiving.”

Of course, this season will also bring back an annual classic, the 34th edition of the spooky “Treehouse of Horror” episode.

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With his co-host Mayim Bialik still sitting out her hosting duties because of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, Ken Jennings will be behind the Jeopardy! podium once again for the season 40 debut Monday, September 11.

The show will return with the Jeopardy! Second Chance competition, in which 27 former contestants will get another opportunity to follow in Jennings’ footsteps as a Jeopardy! champion.

The winner of each week’s shows will take home $35,000 and get a ticket to the Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard competition, the quiz show’s producers explain.

The Wildcard is a new format making its debut this season, according to the announcement. “For the first time ever, players who won one, two, or three games in Seasons 37 and 38 but did not qualify for the Tournament of Champions in those seasons will be invited back to compete for a berth” in the next Tournament of Champions, which begin airing Monday, October 2.

According to the show’s producers, season 40 will also see a bump in the prize money awarded to second- and third-place finishers: Second place will now go home with $3,000, while third place will leave with $2,000.

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Academy Award nominee Rachel McAdams will make her Broadway debut in Mary Jane, a play from Pulitzer Prize finalist Amy Herzog.

The Doctor Strange and The Notebook alumna will take the stage at New York City’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre when previews start on April 2, 2024.

McAdams will play the title role, a single mom “in an impossible family situation,” according to a description from producers Manhattan Theatre Club.

Producers tease, “Faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, Mary Jane relies on unflagging optimism and humor, along with the wisdom of the women around her who have become a makeshift family, to take on each new day. But will inner strength and newfound friendships be enough to see her through?”

Director Anne Kauffman will be calling the shots behind the scenes.

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Millions of cable viewers will apparently be able to watch Monday Night Football this evening, after Charter Communications and ABC News’ parent company Disney settled a nasty contract dispute.

The disagreement left some 15 million or so Spectrum subscribers cut off from Disney-owned cable stations, including ABC and ESPN, which airs MNF.

Disney called the deal, which was announced just hours before tonight’s matchup between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets, a “transformative, multiyear distribution agreement” that “maximizes value for consumers and supports the linear TV experience as the industry continues to evolve.”

As a result, Disney said Spectrum’s customers would have their services restored “immediately.”

In a joint statement, Robert A. Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, and Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey noted, “Our collective goal has always been to build an innovative model for the future. This deal recognizes both the continued value of linear television and the growing popularity of streaming services while addressing the evolving needs of our consumers.”

They also thanked “our mutual customers for their patience” during the impasse.

Things were less over Labor Day weekend when both companies took pot shots at each other in public.

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Netflix’s manga adaptation One Piece has scored some streaming treasure. The live-action version of Eiichiro Oda‘s pirate saga — Japan’s highest-selling manga series in history — dropped on August 31 at #1 on the streaming service’s English language TV chart.

In just four days, One Piece racked up 140.1 million hours of viewing time, Netflix tells ABC Audio, and has hit its Top 10 in 93 countries — and #1 on that chart in 46.

The series stars Iñaki Godoy as straw hat-wearing swashbuckler Monkey D. Luffy, who sets off with his crew ZZ— Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero as Usopp and Taz Skylar as Sanji — to find the fabled article of treasure that shares the series’ title.

This ranks One Piece right up there with massive hits like Stranger Things season 4 and Wednesday.

Updated numbers are due out Tuesday afternoon, September 12, the streaming service explained.

What’s more, the series is enjoying a 96% audience score on the ratings aggregator Rotten Tomatoes — meaning the series has done what other Netflix anime/manga adaptations like Cowboy Bepop has done: satisfied fans of the source material, which has sold more than 500 million copies worldwide.

In fact, fans were apparently happy to sound off; there were more than 10,000 reviews submitted for the series in just a matter of days.

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Drew Barrymore announced her daytime chat show will return for its fourth season in accordance with the rules of the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, though the WGA has vowed to picket the show’s studios Monday and Tuesday regardless.

“I made a choice to walk away from the MTV, film and television awards because I was the host and it had a direct conflict with what the strike was dealing with which was studios, streamers, film, and television,” Barrymore wrote in a lengthy Instagram post. “However, I am also making the choice to come back for the first time in this strike for our show, that may have my name on it but this is bigger than just me.”

“I own this choice. We are in compliance with not discussing or promoting film and television that is struck of any kind,” she continued. “We launched live in a global pandemic. Our show was built for sensitive times and has only functioned through what the real world is going through in real time. I want to be there to provide what writers do so well, which is a way to bring us together or help us make sense of the human experience.”

However, a spokesperson for the Writers Guild said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, “The Guild has, and will continue to, picket any struck show that continues production for the duration of the strike.”

CBS Media Ventures in a statement of their own states “the show will not be performing any writing work covered by the WGA strike,” similar to ABC’s The View.

The Drew Barrymore Show‘s fourth season is set to premiere September 18.

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Paul Reubens, who passed away July 30 at age 70, died of acute hypoxic respiratory failure, according to a copy of the death certificate obtained by The Blast. The underlying cause of the Pee Wee Herman creator’s death was listed as acute myelogenous leukemia, a blood and bone marrow cancer, and he had been diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer in the months before his passing, which meant his cancer had spread to his lungs…

The 72nd Miss USA Pageant’s first broadcast airing since 2019 is set for September 29 on the CW, while the Miss Teen USA pageant will stream on the CW’s app and website on the same day. Both events will take place at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. Titleholders from each state will compete for the national titles, which will be crowned by Miss USA 2022 Morgan Romano of North Carolina and Miss Teen USA 2022 Faron Medhi of Nebraska, respectively. 2023’s Miss USA titleholder will go on to represent the U.S. at the Miss Universe 2023 competition later this year. Hosts and judges for both pageants have yet to be announced…

Disney’s Haunted Mansion is set to stream on Disney+ on October 4, according to Variety. The movie, which is based on one of Disneyland’s signature rides, follows a single mother and her 9-year-old son — played respectively by Rosario Dawson and Chase Dillon — who move into the titular mansion and enlist the help of so-called spiritual experts to exterminate their home of various ghosts, ghouls and ghastly creatures. LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Jamie Lee Curtis, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito and Jared Leto also star…

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The Nun II opened with an estimated $32.6 million to top the domestic box office. The ninth film in the Conjuring universe — starring Taissa Farmiga and Jonas Blouquet reprising their respective roles of Sister Irene and Maurice, along with newcomer Storm Reid — also grabbed an estimated $52.7 million overseas for a global haul of $85.3 million.

The Conjuring is the highest-grossing horror franchise ever, grossing more than $2 billion worldwide.

The Equalizer 3 dropped to second place earning an estimated $12.1 million in its second week of release bringing its North American tally to $61.9 million. Globally, the film has raked in $107.7 million.

The weekend’s second new major release, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, debuted in third place with an estimated $10 million at the domestic box office. The franchise’s third film — once again starring writer-director Nia Versalos, along with John Corbett, Louis Mandylor, Elena Kampouris, Gia Carides, Joey Fatone, Lainie Kazan and Andrea Martin — added an estimated $2.7 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $12.7 million.

The Indian action thriller Jawan opened in fourth place at the North American box office, grossing an estimated $7.6 million, but tacked on an estimated $56.5 million internationally, for a $64.1 million global haul.

Barbie rounded out the top five, earning an estimated $5.9 million at the domestic box office, bringing its eight-week tally to $620.5 million. Internationally, The movie took in an estimated $5.5 million for a global haul of $1.4 billion.

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