The Kelly Clarkson Show has racked up a bunch of Daytime Emmy nominations. It leads the talk field with 11 nods, including one for Kelly in the Daytime Talk Series Host category. The Drew Barrymore Show follows in the talk show categories with seven, while The Jennifer Hudson Show scored six.
The Brazil version of Michael Jackson’s video for “They Don’t Care About Us” has joined YouTube’s Billion Views Club. It’s only his second music video to achieve the feat, following “Billie Jean.”
Adam Lambert has added another show with Queen to his schedule. Queen + Adam Lambert is set to perform at the 2023 Formula 1 Lenovo United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, October 21. The show is one of many Queen + Adam Lambert have planned for 2023. Their North American Rhapsody tour kicks off October 4 in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Kelly Clarkson Show has racked up a bunch of Daytime Emmy nominations. It leads the talk field with 11 nods, including one for Kelly in the Daytime Talk Series Host category. The Drew Barrymore Show follows with seven in the talk show categories, while The Jennifer Hudson Show scored six. Meanwhile, Selena Gomez’s HBO Max cooking series, Selena + Chef, was nominated for Outstanding Culinary Series.
The Chainsmokers have released the music video for their new song, “Up & Down,” featuring rising Canadian rapper 347aidan. The video glitches in and out of live action and animation, showing Drew Taggart, Alex Pall and 347aidan on the streets and on the stage. They’ve been playing the song at shows since early this year, but its release marks the duo’s first new music since May 2022’s So Far So Good.
Paris Hilton has been behind the DJ booth many times, but now she is hitting the stage for her first full concert as a singer. On Wednesday, the socialite announcedParis Hilton: Live in Concert, where she’ll perform at LA’s Fonda Theater on June 7. Tickets go on sale May 5, with a portion of sales going to benefit GLAAD in honor of Pride Month.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — House Republicans on Wednesday passed a bill to increase the nation’s debt ceiling while cutting federal government spending — and while the legislation has no prospect of becoming law, GOP leaders hope it will help force negotiations with Democrats.
The proposal, known as the Limit, Save, Grow Act, passed 217-215, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in voting no.
If enacted, the bill would increase the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, reduce funding for federal agencies to 2022 fiscal year levels, limit growth in government spending to 1% per year and block various measures backed by the White House, such as federal student debt cancellation and new funding for the IRS.
“We cannot sit back and ignore the problem like the president has. I know he does it with the border, and I know he is now doing it with the fiscal policy of America,” McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday before the vote.
“We want to sit down and work together, and that is exactly what this bill does,” he said, noting that “we are sitting at $31 trillion of debt.”
The proposed debt limit increase would last through March 2024 — a shorter extension than preferred by President Joe Biden — in exchange for spending cuts and policy changes.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the bill has no chance in his chamber and the president has vowed to veto it. Democrats have repeatedly insisted the debt ceiling should be raised separate from any compromise on government spending and policy.
“Congress is going to need to raise the debt limit without — without — conditions and it’s just that simple,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in January. She recently labeled the House bill a “ransom note.”
In remarks at a news conference on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged the House GOP bill couldn’t clear the Senate but said that McCarthy and Biden must come to some compromise. “We must never default, and the agreement needs to be reached between the speaker and the president,” he said.
Citing past debt ceiling negotiations that involved Biden during the Obama administration, McConnell said Biden “knows that sometimes in divided government, you don’t get things exactly the way you want them.”
On Wednesday afternoon, before the House voted, Biden was asked a shouted question about negotiating on the debt ceiling as he left a press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is visiting Washington.
“They haven’t figured out the debt limit yet,” Biden said, somewhat sarcastically.
When a reporter asked if he would meet with McCarthy, the president said yes — but made it clear, once again, that he views increasing the debt ceiling as “not negotiable.”
“I’m happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended,” he said.
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please return for updates.
Music fans are about to learn a lot more about Carlos Santana. Sony Pictures Classics has just landed the worldwide rights to the new feature-length documentary Carlos, chronicling the life and career of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.
The film, directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Rudy Valdez, is described as “an intimate and exhilarating look inside the mind of an elemental force of contemporary music,” featuring archival footage and music that has never been seen or heard before.
“I am honored and humbled to tell Carlos Santana’s story as a director,” Valdez shares. “Carlos is a true trailblazer who has meant so much to so many people. My hope is that this film is a celebration of a life defined by humanity. I’m thrilled to be putting this story out into the world.”
So far there’s no word on when Carlos will be released.
(NEW YORK) — The seismic exit of Fox News host Tucker Carlson this week elicited reaction from politicians as varied as former President Donald Trump and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
But the move also sent shockwaves across Wall Street.
Shares of Fox News-parent company Fox Corporation on Monday tumbled more than 3%, which amounts to hundreds of millions in value.
Nielsen data on Tuesday showed a roughly 20% drop in audience for the first show featuring temporary replacement host Brian Kilmeade, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The departure of Carlson, the nation’s most-watched primetime cable news host, could cause significant financial damage for Fox Corporation through diminished stock value, weakened income from cable carriers and lower advertising revenue, some analysts told ABC News.
“It has the potential to be massive,” Matthew Tuttle, the CEO and CIO of Tuttle Capital Management, who closely follows the media industry, told ABC News. “There’s going to be a very large impact from this. I don’t think you can dress it up as positive.”
However, some media industry analysts downplayed the potential damage since the company has overcome previous departures of high-profile hosts and the move offers an opportunity for the 8 p.m. show to draw corporate advertisers alienated by Carlson’s controversial programming, experts said.
When asked if the company would prove resilient, Huber Research analyst Doug Arthur told ABC News, “There’s no doubt in my mind. The company has survived these kinds of talent hits before.”
Following Carlson’s departure, Fox News told ABC News it’s still the most watched cable news network.
“For more than 21 years, FOX News Channel has been cable news’ most-watched network in all categories with more Democrats, Independents and Republicans now tuning in than either CNN or MSNBC,” a Fox News spokesperson told ABC News. “Attracting more of than 50% of the cable news viewing audience with the top 12 programs in cable news, FOX News’ powerhouse team of journalists, analysts and opinion hosts are trusted more by viewers than any other news source.”
The Fox Corporation did not respond to a request for comment. Carlson has yet to comment on his exit from the company.
Here’s how the departure of Carlson could impact Fox Corporation, according to analysts:
Stock value
After news of the Carlson exit broke on Monday morning, shares of Fox Corporation fell more than 3% by the close of trading that day. The following morning, the decline ticked past 3.5%, amounting to a lost value of more than $500 million.
“The initial stock move was all Tucker,” Tuttle said.
The market reaction stems from the loss of a high-profile star and anticipated attrition among his viewers, analysts said.
On average, Carlson’s 8 p.m. show reached about 3.25 million nightly viewers over the first four months of this year, outpacing competitors in the time slot and other nighttime hosts on Fox News, according to Nielsen.
“He was their ratings leader in primetime,” Huber said. “That’s going to hurt.”
The departure of Carlson compounds the financial damage and uncertainty caused by Fox News’ recent $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, Huber said.
“There’s a black cloud over the stock right now,” he added.
Still, the stock stabilized in trading on Wednesday, ticking up slightly for the day.
“The initial reaction seemed a little bit overdone,” Brandon Nispel, an analyst with KeyBanc Capital Markets, told ABC News. “I heard questions from investors: ‘Is Fox worth anything without Tucker.'”
“The answer is ‘yes,'” he added. “But it’s clearly worth something modestly less than when they had Tucker.”
Fees paid by cable carriers
Fox Corporation sales depend in part on fees paid by cable carriers like Comcast and Dish Network that distribute the company’s broadcasts.
Over the three months ending in December, such fees delivered $1.7 billion or 37% of Fox Corporation revenue, the company’s latest earnings report showed.
Analysts differed over the potential effect that the loss of Carlson poses for carrier fees.
Without Carlson and the promise of his sizable audience, the company will enter its next round of negotiations with cable carriers in a weakened position, potentially hurting the fees it can command, Tuttle said.
“That is a major concern because at least in the short term, they’re going to lose viewers,” he said. “There’s going to be an impact.”
However, the overall lead in audience enjoyed by Fox News in primetime will reassure cable carriers, limiting the effect of the personnel move, Arthur said.
“Their ratings lead is so large at night that I don’t think any distributor is going to screw around with having Fox News fall off of their network,” he said.
Nispel echoed the sentiment, saying he expects a limited effect on carrier fees.
“If anything, it will be a small margin of negative impact,” he said, noting that Fox Corporation already renegotiated several carrier agreements over the past year.
Advertising revenue
Fox Corporation derives the majority of its revenue from advertising, which made up 54% of sales over the final three months of 2022, an earnings report showed.
Since it boasts the largest primetime audience, Carlson’s show generated more advertising revenue last year than each of the 8 p.m. shows on CNN and MSNBC, as well as each of the other primetime shows on Fox News, a New York Times analysis of Vivvixx data showed.
In all, Carlson’s show delivered $77.5 million in advertising revenue last year, according to Vivvixx data.
The likely decline in audience for the 8 p.m. time slot at Fox News, at least in the short term, will hurt advertising revenue, analysts said.
“It creates a lot of uncertainty,” Nispel said. “They’re losing their leader in their primetime lineup.”
However, the move opens up an opportunity for the channel to attract corporate advertisers that previously balked at the controversial views expressed by Carlson, they added.
“It’s going to hurt in the short term,” Arthur said. But he later noted: “The point of strong ratings is to have strong advertising. If you have strong ratings but lousy advertising, what’s the point?”
The opening may attract a more moderate host who reassures major advertisers, Tuttle said, but he cautioned that a replacement would feel pressure to take up similarly controversial positions as a means of gaining a large audience.
“We’re in a society where controversy sells,” Tuttle said.
Queen + Adam Lambert have added another performance to their busy schedule. The group is set to perform at the 2023 Formula 1 Lenovo United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
Queen is set to close out the Germania Insurance Super Stage on Saturday, October 21, following the F1Sprint, while The Killers will open the festival, headlining Friday, October 20, following the F1 qualifying.
The show is one of many Queen + Adam Lambert have planned for 2023. Their North American Rhapsody tour kicks off October 4 in Baltimore, Maryland. A complete list of dates can be found at queenonline.com.
The Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That… is coming back for its second season and the cast is excited for its return.
On Wednesday, the official teaser for season 2 dropped on HBO Max featuring Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), as well as new characters who were introduced in the first season, Che (Sara Ramirez), Seema (Sarita Choudhury), Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker) and Dr. Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman).
The upcoming season will also see the return of a familiar character from the original Sex and the City series: Aidan Shaw, played by John Corbett, who was last seen in the 2010 movie Sex and the City 2.
At the end of the teaser, fans see Aidan appear at the bottom of Carrie’s iconic New York City apartment stairs.
Parker took to Instagram to share the teaser, and said she is thankful for the And Just Like That… team and audience who “keep these stories alive.”
“Thank you to the enormously talented team, both on and off camera, who spent hours and hours working on this next chapter,” Parker said. “Making the coldest winter days feel and look like spring and always giving more and better than we could have ever hoped or dreamt.”
“This one’s for you, Part 2. X, SJ,” Parker added.
In February, Parker shared a photo on Instagram of her and Corbett kissing in character on a busy New York City street and wrote in the caption, “This. Is. Not. A. Drill.”
The photo garnered over 1 million Instagram likes and tens of thousands of comments from fans of the show.
And Just Like That… season 2 will be available to stream on HBO Max in June.
(NEW YORK) — In the wake of its historic $787 million settlement with Dominion, Fox News will now turn over additional evidence as part of the ongoing $2.7 billion defamation case it is facing from Smartmatic, lawyers for both sides said in court on Wednesday.
Fox has agreed to turn over depositions, exhibits, and “all of the responding documents” related to a number of individuals at the company– including Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, an attorney for Smartmatic, Edward Wipper, said in court.
“We agreed that the Fox defendants will produce the depositions, exhibits, and errata, and all of responsive documents,” Wipper said.
The resolution between the two parties came as attorneys for Smartmatic and Fox were back in court on Wednesday for a motion hearing in the case. The depositions and exhibits come from the Dominion case.
The parties agreed that Fox will turn over documents relating to four individuals: Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch, News Corp co-Chairman Lachlan Murdoch, Fox’s chief legal counsel Viet D. Dinh and SVP of Fox Corp. Raj Shah.
Smartmatic, based in Florida, is suing Fox News, Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, former Fox host Lou Dobbs, and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani for $2.7 billion. The suit was filed in February 2021.
A day after Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, a Fox spokesperson said the network will be “ready to defend” itself against the Smartmatic suit.
“We will be ready to defend this case surrounding extremely newsworthy events when it goes to trial, likely in 2025,” the statement said. “As a report prepared by our financial expert shows, Smartmatic’s damages claims are implausible, disconnected from reality, and on its face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms.”
The judge ordered Fox to turn over the documents by May 10.
“How’s one week?” the judge initially said to Fox.
“Can I have two?” Fox attorney Winn Allen responded.
(HOUSTON) — Parts of Texas and Florida are under threat of severe weather Wednesday, including potentially damaging, giant hail.
Severe storms, including a tornado threat, are forecast in Texas as a powerful storm system moves across the South Wednesday.
There is an enhanced threat for severe storms across north-central Texas as a powerful storm system moves across the South.
Potentially strong tornadoes, large destructive hail and damaging winds are expected across the region starting late Wednesday afternoon and lasting into the night.
“The potential for large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes will maximize south of I-20 this afternoon/evening,” through 8 p.m. CT, the National Weather Service said.
Isolated hail up to the size of quarters is possible throughout the evening, NWS said.
The severe weather comes after damaging storms were reported from Texas to Colorado on Tuesday, including damage near Lubbock, Texas.
Meanwhile, a separate storm system is expected to bring severe weather to a large swath of Florida on Wednesday, with the rare threat of huge hail possible.
A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued from Gainesville to Orlando to Miami through 9 p.m. ET. The main threat will be potentially baseball-sized hail, according to the NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center. Damaging winds are also expected.
The threat comes after hail was reported in parts of Florida on Tuesday.
(HELENA, Mont.) — The Montana House voted on Wednesday to censure the state’s first openly transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr, who called for her colleagues to vote against a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth.
The House voted 68-32 to censure Zephyr, who is barred from participating from the House floor.
On April 20, Zephyr told conservative lawmakers they would have “blood on their hands” during debate on SB99, which would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The bill passed and is now on the desk of Gov. Greg Gianforte, who has signaled his support for the legislation.
On Wednesday, in a hearing before the vote about disciplinary actions Zephyr could face, she defended her words.
“I rose up in defense of my community that day, speaking to harms that these bills bring that I have firsthand experience knowing about. I have had friends who have taken their lives because of these bills. I have fielded calls from families in Montana, including one family whose trans teenager attempted to take her life while watching a hearing on one of the anti trans bills,” she said on the House floor.
Zephyr said, “When the speaker asks me to apologize … on behalf of decorum, what he’s really asking me to do is be silent when my community is facing bills that get us killed.”
The “Youth Health Protection Act” would restrict the use of hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgeries on people under age 18 for the purposes of gender transitioning.
Gender-affirming care has been found to be associated with improved mental health of transgender adolescents and teenagers, according to research in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA Pediatrics.
Gender dysphoria, the stress one may feel when they do not desire the gender identity typically associated with their assigned sex at birth, can lead to negative mental health outcomes for transgender people, according to studies.
“If you are denying gender-affirming care and forcing a trans child to go through puberty, that is tantamount to torture, and this body should be ashamed,” said Zephyr in the April 18 debate.
She continued, “If you vote yes on this bill, I hope the next time you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands.”
Zephyr told ABC News that she believes she is being silenced by “those in power who don’t want to be held accountable.”
“When I stood up to speak on Senate Bill 99, I chose my words with precision, and I spoke with clarity because I see the real harm that these bills bring. I won’t be apologizing for my remarks,” she said on ABC News’ Start Here podcast.
Zephyr told ABC News that she has been stonewalled from debate or comment on the Montana House floor for over a week by Republican leaders, who say her comments broke the rules of “decorum.”
“All representatives are free to participate in House debate while following the House rules; the choice to not follow House rules is one that Representative Zephyr has made,” said House Speaker Matt Regier in a statement to reporters. “The only person silencing Representative Zephyr is Representative Zephyr.”
The Montana Freedom Caucus, which includes several of Zephyr’s colleagues, misgendered Zephyr by using he/him pronouns and argued the legislation “protects minor children from forced life-altering and unnecessary surgical procedures.” Physicians from across the country have previously told ABC News that some types of gender-affirming care are reversible or partially reversible and are only pursued after thorough discussions and evaluations with medical professionals.
On Monday, protesters took to the statehouse chanting, “let her speak!” as a debate about a separate bill that would allow students to misgender or deadname transgender people without disciplinary action went on. Several protesters were arrested. Deadnaming refers to the use of a transgender person’s name from before they transitioned, such as their birth name.
Other legislators say Zephyr encouraged their disruptions.
“When the speaker disallowed me to speak, what he was doing is taking away the voices of the 11,000 Montanans who represent who elected me to speak on their behalf,” Zephyr said Wednesday in defense of protestors.
Late Tuesday, legislators were told they would be voting Wednesday on whether Zephyr “violated the rules, collective rights, safety, dignity, integrity or decorum of the House of Representatives” and if her actions warrant discipline.
The House “may expel or punish a member for good cause shown with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its members,” according to the Montana Constitution.
Her censure is reminiscent of the Republican-controlled Tennessee state House of Representatives expulsion of two Democratic lawmakers in what marked the first partisan expulsion in the state’s modern history.
On April 6, state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson were expelled for allegedly violating the chamber’s rules of decorum by protesting gun control on the House floor.
The protest was in response to the mass school shooting in Nashville that left three children and three adults dead.
Pearson was reinstated by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners and Jones was reinstated by the Nashville Metro Council.
Rep. Gloria Johnson evaded expulsion for her participation in the protest by one vote.
“We’re also in a moment right now with those in power in the Republican Party don’t want to be held accountable,” Zephyr told ABC News. “So whether it is my transness here in Montana rising up in defense of my community, other cisgender women rising up in defense of the trans community in Nebraska or people in Tennessee, representatives in Tennessee rising up about gun violence. It’s really about the marginalized being silenced by those in power who don’t want to be held accountable.”
States across the country are considering bans on transgender health care for minors that are similar to Montana’s SB99.
At least 12 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah — have passed laws or policies that restrict gender-affirming care for people under the age of legal majority, which is the threshold for legal adulthood.
