Sure, everybody knows The Voice and American Idol — but there’s a whole lot more music-themed television out there, with new shows premiering all the time.
Specifically, country music features prominently in a number of hit TV series. For classic reality competition with a strong country hook, Blake Shelton delivers his signature goofy charm and good-natured ribbing in Barmageddon, a new USA Network series that pits celebrities against each other for a round of bar games at Blake’s very own Nashville hot spot, Ole Red.
But if you’re looking for drama, country music-centric TV is hotter than ever in that department, too. The new season of Yellowstone features a character arc from Lainey Wilson, and its Paramount+ prequel, 1883, features starring performances from Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
Then there’s FOX’s Monarch, starring Trace Adkins, which has a soundtrack packed full of country classics, and features appearances from the likes of Tanya Tucker and Little Big Town. The show will not return for a second season, but episodes from the first season are still airing every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET.
Reba McEntire fans already know that the country star has got serious acting chops — her beloved, self-titled mid-2000s sitcom is proof of that — and now you can see her take on a darker role as Sunny Barnes in the ABC drama Big Sky. The show airs on Wednesday nights.
Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is denying reports that she walked away from the third installment of the franchise, insisting instead that there was nothing she could do to advance the project.
“I never walked away,” Jenkins shared Tuesday in a statement posted to Twitter. “I was open to considering anything asked of me. It was my understanding there was nothing I could do to move anything forward at this time. DC is obviously buried in changes they are having to make, so I understand these decisions are difficult right now.”
Jenkins’ statement came nearly a week after news of Warner Bros. scrapping plans for a third Wonder Woman movie, and a story from The Wrap claiming that Jenkins had walked away when her script treatment for the film was rejected by new DC heads, James Gunn and Peter Safran.
Jenkins also paid tribute to Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman on 1970s TV series and had a cameo in Wonder Woman 1984, as well as star, Gal Gadot, whom she called “a cherished friend, inspiration, and sister.”
Jenkins, who was also set to helm the Star Wars spinoff Rogue Squadron, explains that she left the project “when it became clear it couldn’t happen soon enough and I did not want to delay [Wonder Woman 3] any further.”
“When I did, Lucasfilm asked me to consider coming back to RS after WW3, which I was honored to do, so I agreed,” she continued. “They made a new deal with me. In fact, I am still on it and that project has been in active development ever since. I don’t know if it will happen or not. We never do until the development process is complete, but I look forward to its potential ahead.”
(NEW YORK) — American soccer writer Grant Wahl died of an undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium while attending the Netherlands-Argentina match last week, according to his wife, Dr. Celine Gounder.
Gounder said an autopsy had been performed by the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office.
“Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium,” she wrote in a post on her Substack. “The chest pressure he experienced shortly before his death may have represented the initial symptoms. No amount of CPR or shocks would have saved him. His death was unrelated to COVID. His death was unrelated to vaccination status. There was nothing nefarious about his death.”
Wahl, a well-known and loved journalist in the U.S. soccer community, collapsed in the media room during the match on Dec. 9 and could not be revived.
The 49-year-old said on his podcast, “Fútbol with Grant Wahl,” that he had bronchitis and went to the medical clinic twice two days before he collapsed. He had said on the podcast that he wasn’t back to “100%,” but was feeling better.
Adam Sandler will be the recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ 24th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The prize recognizes individuals who have had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th-century novelist for which it’s named. Broadcast details will be announced later. “Adam Sandler has entertained audiences for over three decades with his films, music, and his tenure as a fan favorite cast member on SNL,” notes Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter. “Adam has created characters that have made us laugh, cry, and cry from laughing.” The ceremony will take place on March 19, 2023…
Variety reports John Cena and Jason Momoa are attached to star in the new Warner Bros. feature Killer Vacation. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but insiders compared the action-comedy film to “fun, splashy adventures like True Lies,” according to the outlet. Cena and Momoa met on the set of the upcoming conclusions to the Fast and the Furious franchise and were reportedly looking to take their natural chemistry to another film…
Netflix has pulled the plug on Warrior Nun after two seasons, according to Deadline. The fantasy drama, based on the comic book character Warrior Nun Areala by Ben Dunn, centers on orphaned teen Ava Silva, played by Ava Baptista, who “discovers she now possesses superpowers as the chosen Halo-Bearer for a secret sect of demon-hunting nuns,” per the streamer. The series also stars Toya Turner, Sylvia De Fanti, Lorena Andrea, Kristina Tonteri-Young and Olivia Delcan…
The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus is joining the John Wick universe with a role in the upcoming spinoff Ballerina, joining Ana de Armas, who stars as a young female assassin who seeks revenge against those who killed her family, according to Deadline. Anjelica Huston and Ian McShane are set to reprise their John Wick roles, along with Keanu Reeves, who’s reportedly set to make a cameo. Lance Reddick and Catalina Sandino Moreno also star. Through three movies, the John Wick franchise has grossed more than $586 million. John Wick: Chapter 4 is due in theaters on March 24, 2023…
(NEW YORK) — American Suedi Murekezi has just been freed from Russian-controlled territory by a team from Ukraine’s military intelligence and is now being driven to Kyiv.
ABC News followed a military convoy into the war’s grey zone just outside Zaphorizhia in southern Ukraine. A two-hour ceasefire was agreed to in the area, starting at midday local time, so that a swap involving dozens of prisoners of war could go ahead. Murekezi was brought out of Russian-controlled territory as part of that exchange.
Suedi had been arrested by the Russian-controlled authorities and spent weeks in a basement, where he said he was tortured. He also spent three months in a prison in Donetsk city. He was later released by the Russians, but he was without his U.S. passport and was effectively trapped in Russian-controlled territory, living in the main city of Donetsk.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News in the grey zone, just after he was brought out of Russian-controlled territory, Murekezi said he felt “trapped” in Donetsk and lived under intense uncertainty about his future and what would happen to him.
He said he was relieved and happy to be back in Ukrainian-controlled territory, a free man in the country where he has lived for years.
Clutching a Ukrainian flag, which he was gifted by military intelligence officers, Suedi said he had been subject to electric shocks and beaten by his captors earlier in the war, when he was held in a basement, which he described as a “torture chamber.”
He said the Russians accused him of being a member of the CIA. He said he and the other Americans with whom he was held were given only minimal food and water.
When asked what he was looking forward to most when he gets back to his home in Minnesota, Murekezi said “a peanut butter sandwich.”
(NEW YORK) — A woman and her son were killed after a tornado swept through a Louisiana town, officials said.
“A young boy was found deceased in a wooded area of Pecan Farms where his home was destroyed,” the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The boy’s mother was later found a street away from the family’s home in Keithville, Louisiana, officials said. She was “located under debris caused by a tornado,” according to a statement.
The victims were not identified.
The tornado was one of at least 13 that touched down in four states — Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Mississippi — overnight into Wednesday morning. At least five tornadoes were confirmed in north Texas.
More tornadoes were expected throughout the South on Wednesday, as the storm moves east.
First responders in Louisiana said they were continuing to search for other victims, although nobody else had been reported missing.
A man was also transported to a local hospital with injuries, officials said.
(NEW YORK) — States that imposed strict abortion laws this year were already more likely to have significantly higher maternal and infant death rates as well as fewer doctors providing care to women, according to an analysis released Wednesday by an influential nonprofit research group.
In 2020, for example, maternal death rates were 62% higher in the states that later passed or implemented abortion restrictions compared to the states where abortion remains accessible, the study by the Commonwealth Fund, which aims to address gaps in health care, found.
Those conclusions are likely to be cited by abortion rights advocates who have long argued that states leading the charge on abortion bans are also the least equipped to care for women giving birth.
“Compared with their counterparts in other states, women of reproductive age and birthing people in states with current or proposed abortion bans have more limited access to affordable health insurance coverage, worse health outcomes, and lower access to maternity care providers,” according to the study.
The study did not look at the impact on the abortion bans specifically — a much tougher metric that could take years to analyze. Still, the researchers warn that, according to their findings, abortion restrictions risk widening the existing disparities between states.
“The result is a deepening of fractures in the maternal health system and a compounding of inequities by race, ethnicity, and geography,” the researchers conclude.
Republicans including Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, whose state successfully challenged Roe v. Wade — the Supreme Court case that guaranteed national abortion access — have argued that it’s possible to restrict the procedure while also improving care for pregnant women.
Earlier this year, Reeves said his state plans to improve its care system for pregnant women and infants.
“The pro-life movement must dedicate itself to ensuring mothers and their babies receive the support they both need during pregnancy and after,” he said in June.
So far though, such a system hasn’t fully materialized: Mississippi is among a dozen states that have declined to expand Medicaid, the government’s health care for poor and disabled Americans. Of those 12 states, 10 of them have also imposed strict abortion laws.
Republicans in those states contend that expanding Medicaid might not be financially sustainable. But Medicaid, its supporters say, expands health care access for struggling Americans who might otherwise forgo care entirely, including women who might not see a doctor until months into a pregnancy.
In an interview with ABC News, the lead researcher on the Commonwealth Fund study, Dr. Gene Declercq, said that lack of health coverage is a big reason why women living in certain states struggle with pregnancies and birth.
Declercq, a professor at Boston University, said his study found that many areas with abortion restrictions also had few or no providers caring for women.
“If you have a whole policy that’s geared toward not really taking care of women’s health, except when they might be pregnant and you want to support the health of a baby, we shouldn’t be surprised when we find out that there’s problems with women’s health,” he said.
The question for politicians, Declercq said, is whether or not a state’s health care system is set up to protect women and children — or if that’s just campaign rhetoric.
(NEWTON, Conn.) — Two days after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, then-President Barack Obama approached a podium to speak. Before him was a room of people in shock over what had occurred in their quiet Connecticut town.
On Dec. 14, 2012, a 20-year-old gunman walked into the school in Newtown and fatally shot 20 young students and six educators.
“Here in Newtown, I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation,” the president told the families and community members gathered.
Now, those precise words stand etched in stone, welcoming visitors to the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial, created in memory of those who lost their lives 10 years ago in the nation’s worst mass shooting at an elementary school.
The memorial took a decade to achieve, in part because of the meticulous process the memorial’s planning committee took to honor the victims and their families.
“We had one chance to get it right,” said Alan Martin, vice chairman of Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission. “So, we labored over the process of site selection and labored over the process of design selection. And we knew it had to be both a natural feeling, a gentle feeling, and it had to give people an opportunity to grieve.”
The memorial opened in November in advance of the anniversary. Planners and community leaders hope the site will commemorate the lives lost even as the debate over gun violence continues across the nation.
“We thought after Sandy Hook, this would make a difference in terms of responsible and reasonable gun control,” said Martin. “We really had hope that the world might change, the country might change.”
In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, hundreds of temporary memorials sprung up all over town, flooding it with candles, flowers, teddy bears, toys and pictures. But town leaders decided the memorials couldn’t remain forever and decided to clear them by the end of 2013.
Recognizing the significance of those mementos, they chose to incinerate them into “sacred soil.” Today, that soil lives at the memorial beneath the plaque and granite stone marked with Obama’s words.
That year, the town’s council — known as the Board of Selectmen — decided to appoint a commission to figure out how best to design and build a permanent memorial to honor the lives lost. Twelve community members were appointed, including three parents who lost children, forming the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission.
Daniel Krauss, chairman of the commission, told ABC News the first question they were tasked with was, “Should a permanent memorial exist?”
After community conversations involving victims’ families, teachers, parents of students, paramedics and the general public, the answer was yes.
Krauss, along with the commission’s vice chairman Martin, said they tried to make decisions through consensus. Family input, Krauss said, was paramount but would not be the only aspect taken into consideration — they also needed a town vote to approve the $3.7 million project. Later, the State of Connecticut Bond Commission approved a $2.5 million grant which covered about 70% of costs.
After five years of site proposals and rejections, the trustees of the Boys Social and Athletic Club of Sandy Hook donated the current five-acre site, less than a mile away from the new Sandy Hook Elementary, which reopened in a brand-new building on the original property.
“You could hear them laughing and running and jumping,” Martin said, pointing out how close the memorial grounds are to the school’s playground. “When you hear the kids running…right through the trees, it’s amazing. And that’s part of the beauty of such a site.”
The commission selected a concept by Dan Affleck and Ben Waldo of SWA Design out of 188 submissions, determining that the designers’ concept fit in with their own. The planning guide stipulated “the memorial should not be physically imposing or ideologically overbearing, but through its simplicity should communicate the great depth of our loss.”
Affleck and Waldo envisioned a space that would grow with visitors over time, focusing on three primary features — a circle, path and tree — according to SWA. At the center of the memorial sits a granite basin with water, where a young sycamore was planted to symbolize the youth of children killed. Each victim’s name is engraved to the granite basin, where the water’s motions reflect a continuous energy between the living and the deceased. The paths surrounding allow visitors to choose their own route — symbolic for the journey of grief.
A mother of one of the victims visits daily, Martin said. Other family members of the victims attended the private dedication ceremony. And still, some are not comfortable visiting the memorial.
“We know some of the families would never come there,” said Martin. “Many will come here once, and many will come here whenever it is personal to them.”
Martin said the extensive process that led to the memorial holds lessons for communities in other places, such as Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two of their teachers were killed during a shooting at Robb Elementary School nearly seven months ago.
“We have gotten so many calls from people, from communities, that have had loss,” said Martin, “and people wanted to know our process. It was a slow, deliberate process. Every step of the way, we consulted with the families and we knew of sensitivity and deference.”
In Sandy Hook, as visitors depart the memorial on the same path they entered, they are once again reminded of the former president’s words from that Dec. 10 years ago: “I can only hope it helps for you to know that you’re not alone in your grief; that our world too has been torn apart; that all across this land of ours, we have wept with you.”
(WASHINGTON) — Survivors of last month’s Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will provide testimony on Wednesday at a House Oversight Committee hearing regarding anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, extremism and violence.
The hearing, according to organizers, will address the ways in which anti-LGBTQ legislation and rhetoric is rising — and may be fueling a rise in violence against LGBTQ Americans.
This year, Pride events, drag shows, LGBTQ-friendly medical institutions and more have all become prominent targets of violence, threats and protests.
Michael Anderson, the only Club Q bartender to survive the shooting, is expected to speak at the hearing along with injured club patron James Slaugh and his boyfriend, Jancarlos Dell Valle, and Mark Slaugh, James Slaugh’s brother who was also at the club that night.
“From Colorado Springs to my own district in New York City, communities across the country are facing a terrifying rise of anti-LGBTQI+ violence and extremism,” House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
Maloney continued, “Make no mistake, the rise in anti-LGBTQI+ extremism and the despicable policies that Republicans at every level of government are advancing to attack the health and safety of LGBTQI+ people are harming the LGBTQI+ community and contributing to tragedies like what we saw at Club Q.”
More than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced at the state level in the last year, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
The suspect accused of killing five people in a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs is facing 305 charges, including first-degree murder, attempted murder and bias-motivated crimes. The suspect has not yet entered a plea.
Investigators and witnesses at the club have said the shooter opened fire as soon as they walked into Club Q around midnight on Nov. 19. Patrons at the venue then tackled and subdued them until police arrived, according to witnesses.
The mass shooting was being investigated as a hate crime.
(NEW YORK) — French authorities are gearing up for the country’s World Cup semifinal match on Wednesday against Morocco.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin unveiled the enforced security measures on Tuesday, calling for the mobilization of 10,000 police officers nationwide, with 5,000 officers in Paris alone.
Wednesday’s game in Qatar is sure to be action-filled as the French reigning champions meet Morocco, the first African nation to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. The victor of the game will play Argentina in the final on Dec. 18. Argentina secured their spot in the final with a decisive 3-0 win on Tuesday against Croatia.
French police said they’re concerned about violence and damage in the wake of the game, calling for the closing of several metro stations, along with the removal of garbage cans, construction barriers, or “any other material that can be used as a weapon.”
The rigorous security precautions have precedent in past French World Cup championships in 1998 and 2018. In 1998, France’s victory at home over Brazil prompted 600,000 supporters to march down the Champs-Élysées. Over 300,000 turned out in Paris after the team defeated Croatia in 2018.
Morocco’s 1-0 quarterfinal victory over Portugal on Saturday resulted in nearly 20,000 supporters rallying to celebrate the nation’s qualification on the historic Paris avenue, leading to the arrest of 108 individuals, according to French authorities.
Despite calls from Jeanne d’Hauteserre, the mayor of the eighth arrondissement in Paris, to close the Champs-Élysées, the interior minister has decided to keep the avenue open to traffic but close the roads feeding into it Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. local time.
