HBO reports Sunday’s premiere of House of the Dragon drew 9.986 million viewers across linear and HBO Max platforms in the U.S. — the largest audience for any new original series in the premium cable network’s history.
The premiere also represented the largest series launch on HBO Max across the U.S., LatAm, and EMEA.
House of the Dragon was also the longest trending Twitter topic on its premiere day, ranking #1 for 14 hours straight, and trended #1 on Google Trends.
“It was wonderful to see millions of Game of Thrones fans return with us to Westeros last night. House of the Dragon features an incredibly talented cast and crew who poured their heart and soul into the production, and we’re ecstatic with viewers’ positive response,” said Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer, HBO & HBO Max. “We look forward to sharing with audiences what else [showrunners George R. R. Martin, Ryan J. Condal and Miguel Sapochnik] have in store for them this season.”
Additionally, the original Game of Thrones series wrapped up its strongest week on HBO Max to date.
New episodes of House of the Dragon air Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.
(NEW YORK) — As Dallas reels from deadly flooding, the rain is now moving east.
Heavy downpours will strike Louisiana, southeast Texas and southern Arkansas on Tuesday morning.
The flooding rains will stay in place over Louisiana and southeast Texas throughout the day.
In Shreveport, Louisiana, residents are already wading through up to 7 inches of rain from the past 24 hours. Flash flood warnings are in effect.
San Antonio and Austin, Texas, facing one of the driest years on record, are also under flood watches.
On Wednesday morning, the heavy rain will continue in eastern Louisiana and will reach Mississippi, where 10 inches of rain is possible over the next 48 hours.
This comes after downpours pounded the Dallas region Sunday night and Monday, at one point reaching 3.01 inches of rain in one hour.
A state of disaster was declared Monday night in Dallas County as officials announced that a 60-year-old woman died when her car was swept away in floodwaters.
East Dallas recorded a whopping 15.31 inches of rain. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport saw 9.19 inches of rain over 24 hours — the highest in 90 years.
Dallas usually sees a total of 8 inches of rain throughout the entire summer.
ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke and Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.
ABC has given a series order to the spy drama The Company You Keep, starring This Is Us alum Milo Ventimiglia, according to Variety. Based on the Korean series My Fellow Citizens, the American version follows Ventimiglia as a con-man and a CIA agent — played by Catherine Haena Kim — whose night of passion “puts them on a collision course when he ramps up the family business so he can get out for good and she closes in on a vengeful criminal who holds Charlie’s family debts in hand — forcing them to reckon with the lies they’ve told so they can save themselves and their families from disastrous consequences,” per the outlet. The show is set as a mid-season replacement in 2023…
Netflix has dropped the trailer for Love Is Blind‘s After the Altar special. The first look at season 2 of the special offers a glimpse at what happened to Jarrette, Iyanna, Deepti, Shayne, Natalie and more. As previously reported, the two couples that got married on the show are now splitting up. Iyanna and Jarrette announced their split last week and days later Danielle and Nick announced they were divorcing as well. Love Is Blind: After the Altar season 2 premieres September 16…
Deadline reports ABC is developing a spinoff of The Good Doctor, called The Good Lawyer. The spinoff will center on Joni, “a 20-something woman who battles OCD, but is a brilliant lawyer.” She’ll be introduced during The Good Doctor‘s upcoming sixth season as a defense attorney for Freddie Highmore‘s character Dr. Shaun Murphy, “who finds himself in legal trouble”…
One of the biggest hits of the year — in fact, the biggest hit of Tom Cruise‘s blockbuster-filled career — Top Gun: Maverick, will finally be available for purchase on digital today (Tuesday).
As reported, the actor/producer was adamant that Paramount Pictures delay the film during the height of the pandemic, until it could be released in theaters. That gamble paid off to the tune of more than $1.4 billion worldwide.
However, if you stayed home — or, if you just want to feel the need for speed again from the comfort of your couch, you’re in luck: It’s now available for purchase on Amazon Video, Vudu, Apple TV, and other platforms.
One of the reasons Cruise and co-producer Jerry Bruckheimer pushed for a theatrical release was because of the film’s acclaimed aerial sequences. Pilot Cruise, as well as co-stars including Miles Teller and Monica Barbaro were strapped into real fighter jets, and filmed pulling real high-G maneuvers.
Bruckheimer explained to ABC Audio, “Look, it’s much easier and safer obviously to do CGI. But you don’t get the real experience.”
“I mean CGI is brilliant, and they do some amazing things now, but an audience can tell if it’s the real deal,” Bruckheimer says.
He adds, “when they see the faces of our actors in those F-18s — how they’re contorted, and what they went through. That’s not acting, they’re actually feeling that. So that’s what makes this movie so special.”
Top Gun: Maverick will be available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on November 1, while it’s still in theaters. So far, there are no plans for it to streaming for free via subscription-based Paramount+.
Gabby and Rachel simultaneously visited their suitors’ hometowns on Monday’s episode of The Bachelorette.
Gabby met Jason, Johnny and Erich‘s families on Monday. Here’s how the dates went:
After showing Gabby around New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street, she got the stamp of approval from his family. During a private conversation with his mother, however, he confessed that while he had feelings for Gabby, he could never see himself getting engaged.
Johnny’s folks were “all in” with their potential relationship, but he also had reservations about getting down on knee, telling his mother that while Gabby is “amazing,” he didn’t know if he’s “fully there yet.”
Finally, there was an emotional meeting with Erich’s mother Donna and father Alan — the second of whom was battling advanced stage cancer. Donna and Alan’s devotion to each other through good times and bad leaves a lasting impression on Gabby and deepened her feelings for Erich. Sadly, Erich’s dad lost his cancer battle, as revealed in an “In Memoriam” to Alan Robert Schwer that flashed at the end of the episode.
Rachel’s hometowns with Zach, Tyler and Tino‘s families was more of a mixed bag:
Zach’s parents had a lot of concerns and questions for Rachel, but were comforted to hear her say her relationship with Zach “was different” than that of the other remaining men.
A fun day at an amusement park in Tyler’s hometown of Wildwood, New Jersey ended in heartbreak for the small business owner who told Rachel he was falling in love with her, only to find out that she didn’t feel the same. Tyler was sent home, without getting a chance to introduce Rachel to his family.
Rachel’s meeting with Tino’s parents — who wondered how the couple could be ready for an engagement after knowing each other a little over a month — left her shaken. Tino boosted her confidence by professing his love for her.
Rachel has yet to meet Aven‘s family — That should take place next week, along with The Bachelorette‘s “Men Tell All” episode, beginning Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
(NEW YORK) — Democrats are trying to keep control of a House remade by the once-a-decade redistricting process.
Tuesday will offer perhaps the most visible display of the impact that post-census redistricting has had — especially on their party and their chances of maintaining a mere five-seat majority.
Democrats initially saw New York state as an opportunity to wipe out GOP gains elsewhere in the country. But the courts said that they went too far, ruling their maps were unconstitutional and demanding the districts be redrawn.
As a result, the New York House races were pushed back two months, putting the primaries on the same date as Florida’s, where Gov. Ron DeSantis also inserted himself into his state’s redistricting process, proposing a congressional map that experts say was designed to elect as few Democrats to Congress as possible and guarantee a victory for Republicans. (Florida’s redistricting had legal drama of its own.)
The new map in New York forced perhaps the most highly anticipated matchup of the primary season. Veteran Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney are going head-to-head for the chance to represent the new 12th Congressional District, with a young progressive challenger, attorney and former Obama staffer Suraj Patel, also in the mix.
Nadler and Maloney have largely similar voting records. Nadler has highlighted his work as Judiciary Committee chairman, leading the committee during Trump’s impeachments, while Maloney has chaired the Oversight Committee since 2019.
Maloney found herself in hot water earlier this month when she pooh-poohed President Joe Biden’s stated plan to run for reelection. Maloney eventually walked back the comment, tweeting that she would support Biden if he decides to run again.
“Biden’s leadership securing historic investments for healthcare, climate & economic justice prove once again why he is the strong and effective leader we need right now,” she wrote.
Meanwhile Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee, upset progressives with his decision to run in the new 17th District, causing a chain reaction that has other incumbents imperiled, such as freshman Rep. Mondaire Jones, who is seeking reelection in the 10th District in what is expected to be a bitter proxy fight between moderate and progressives and has already drawn grievances from other Democratic members of Congress.
In Florida, DeSantis will find out which Democrat he will face on his road to possible reelection, which could then lead straight to a 2024 presidential run. Rep. Charlie Crist is seen as the favored candidate to challenge DeSantis for the office Crist himself once held as a Republican. But to make it to November, Crist must defeat progressive Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried, his biggest competitor.
In the Seventh Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy decided not to seek reelection — which would have been a challenge: A few months after Murphy’s announcement, the state legislature tilted her seat bright red, according to FiveThirtyEight. Even though several candidates are running in the GOP primary there, the race comes down to two candidates: Army combat veteran Cory Mills, endorsed by Sen. Ted Cruz, and state Rep. Anthony Sabatini.
And the Senate primary is setting up a battle between GOP incumbent Marco Rubio and Democratic Rep. Val Demings. Demings is expected to win her primary and go head-to-head with Rubio (unopposed in his primary) in the general election. Currently, FiveThirtyEight’s Senate Forecast has Rubio favored to win the seat, keeping it in Republican control.
(NEW YORK) — The Democratic primary battle between Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler in New York City is heading to a bitterly personal finish that’ll see one of the senior House members leave Congress.
Nadler, who chairs the judiciary committee, and Maloney, who helms the committee on oversight and reform, were drawn into the same seat, the 12th, in an unexpected twist in the redistricting process that now leaves New York voters deciding between two city titans with established power bases.
Attorney and former Obama staffer Suraj Patel, a 38-year-old progressive, is also running on a generational argument against the two septuagenarians.
Nadler has emerged as the front-runner of the trio in the lead-up to Tuesday’s primary, but Election Day will cap off a frustrating and nasty stretch of the race for city residents, observers say.
“The loser in this is New York. New York voters have been forced into this messy situation of being forced to make a choice that they never planned to and never intended. These are two members in good standing with the electorate,” said New York City-based Democratic strategist Jon Reinish. “If you’re a New York City voter, it really sucks to have to make this choice.”
Nadler and Maloney, both elected in 1992, have longstanding ties to different parts of Manhattan.
Nadler for years represented a district anchored in the Upper West Side and Maloney’s old seat covered the Upper East Side, two wealthy enclaves in New York City.
Patel hasn’t held public office but came within 4% of beating Maloney in a primary in 2020.
Nadler and Maloney have long been allies in the House and lamented the circumstances they were handed when a Democratic-drawn House map for New York, after the last census, was tossed in favor of one lumping their districts together. Yet once the race got underway, barbs started to fly.
Nadler has torn into Maloney’s long voting record on high-profile issues, including her past support for the Iraq War and Bush-era Patriot Act and opposition to the Iran nuclear deal during the Obama administration. Nadler also sought to characterize Maloney as a COVID-19 vaccine skeptic, a particularly sharp elbow to be thrown during the pandemic. (Her website states that she believes “vaccines are safe, effective, and absolutely essential for public health.”)
Maloney, meanwhile, has seemingly gone after Nadler’s age. While Nadler, 75, is one year Maloney’s junior, she appeared to pour jet fuel on chatter about his stamina, particularly after he sat at a primary debate while Maloney and Patel stood.
Earlier this month she expressed concerns about “if for some reason someone will not serve their term,” citing “tons of rumors out there.” She later reportedly said she thinks Nadler would finish another term.
Patel has argued that it’s time for a change in Congress while also hitting Nadler and Maloney for wishy-washy answers over whether President Joe Biden should run for reelection in 2024.
“This is not 1992 anymore,” Patel said in a press conference on Monday. “From abortion rights to gun control to climate change, we need energetic, new leaders, optimists with hope and ideas and energy, and we are incredibly proud of the way we have conducted this campaign.”
Early in the race, it was speculated that Nadler and Maloney would split the so-called establishment vote and that Patel could win on his fresh-faced message.
“My thought was that Patel could benefit from that being from a new and younger generation. However, maybe it has benefited Nadler and to an extent Maloney that Washington Democrats over the past couple of weeks have some wind at their backs, seem to have opened up their eyes, realized that they’re in the majority and have delivered. And maybe that has benefited these two institutionalists,” Reinish said, referring to recent major legislation congressional Democrats have sent to Biden’s desk.
Nadler has enjoyed a burst of momentum in the final stretch, winning the coveted endorsements of The New York Times‘ editorial board and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — support that led Maloney to decry the influence of the “old boys’ network that sticks together.”
Regardless of the outcome Tuesday, New York City will be losing a senior member of Congress who’s built up a career’s worth of chits in the Capitol.
Democrats lament that as a self-inflicted loss after their heavily gerrymandered House map was challenged by Republicans and ultimately scrapped by a state court, handing the map-drawling process to an outside special master who did not take Democratic priorities into account.
“I think that they naively thought that there would never be a lawsuit that could effectively overturn their maps and render their process moot,” said Reinish, the strategist. “And I think that they did not plan at all well for that. And I think it was very easy for the Republicans to find a judge to do it. They did it very successfully.”
(ATLANTA) — Every state saw a decline in life expectancy during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new federal data published Tuesday.
The report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, looked at death data for 2020, the last year for which complete data is available.
Results found that life expectancy declined in all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 2019 to 2020, mainly due to COVID and “unintentional injuries,” such as drug overdoses, according to the report.
States with the highest life expectancy were predominantly in the West and Northeast, while states with the lowest life expectancy tended to be in the South, CDC data found.
For the United States overall, life expectancy at birth was 77.0 years — a decrease of 1.8 years from the life expectancy of 78.8 years in 2020.
When broken down by state, Hawaii had the highest life expectancy at 80.7 years while Mississippi had the lowest at 71.9 years, the report said.
Aside from Hawaii, in the top five were Washington, Minnesota, California and Massachusetts. Meanwhile, rounding out the bottom five were West Virginia, Louisiana, Alabama and Kentucky.
The report found that women had an overall higher life expectancy than men at 79.9 years compared to 74.2. What’s more, in every state and D.C., women had a higher life expectancy than men, according to the report.
Hawaii and Mississippi kept their respective highest and lowest ranks when it came to life expectancy for men and women.
In Hawaii, men had a life expectancy of 77.6 years in 2020 and women had a life expectancy of 83.8 years. In Mississippi, men had a life expectancy of 68.6 years in comparison with the life expectancy of women at 75.2 years.
The report also looked at life expectancy after adults reached age 65, when they are considered senior citizens. Overall, in the U.S., adults were projected to live an additional 18.5 years after reaching age 65 in 2020.
Once again, the Aloha State and the Magnolia State had the highest and lowest life expectancy at 21.0 additional years and 16.1 additional years, respectively.
The report also found that life expectancy dropped in every single state from 2019 to 2020.
New York saw the biggest drop from 80.7 years to 77.7 years, and Hawaii saw the smallest drop from 80.9 years to 80.7 years.
Additionally, the report found that, generally, states in the South, as well as well-populated states like Illinois and New Jersey, had the biggest drops in life expectancy from 2019 to 2020, while states in New England and the West had the lowest declines.
“Overall, life expectancy in the United States declined by 1.8 years from 2019 to 2020, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and increases in unintentional injuries (mainly drug overdose deaths),” the authors wrote.
Meanwhile, annual drug overdose deaths have been rising. In 2020, more than 83,500 people died from drug overdoses, a record high at the time, according to the National Safety Council.
The CDC did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Riccardo Fabi/NurPhoto via Getty Images, FILE photo
(PORCIA, Italy) — A U.S. service member is under investigation in Italy for allegedly striking and killing a teenage boy with her car while intoxicated, according to Italian media.
Italian news agency ANSA reported that the fatal incident occurred in the northern town of Porcia on Sunday at around 2:30 a.m. local time. A 20-year-old unnamed American woman, who is stationed at Aviano Air Base, less than 10 miles north of Porcia, was allegedly driving back after a night out when she lost control of her vehicle at a roundabout and hit 15-year-old Giovanni Zanier, who was walking home with two friends on a cycling path near the road. Zanier died, while his friends were not injured, according to ANSA, which cited Italian police.
The driver suffered minor injuries from broken glass and the air bag deploying during the crash. Her blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit, ANSA reported.
Italian police placed the U.S. servicewoman under house arrest at Aviano Air Base and charged her with vehicular homicide, according to ANSA.
When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force told ABC News on Monday: “We can confirm there was a vehicle incident involving an Airman from Aviano Air Base. The Air Force is cooperating with local authorities on the investigation.”
ANSA reported that an Italian judge is expected to decide this week whether the case will be prosecuted in Italy or in the United States.
Speaking to Italy’s state-owned public broadcaster RAI, Pordenone Prosecutor Raffaele Tito said the Italian Ministry of Justice can ask that the American woman be tried in Italy based on its own decision or a request by the U.S. to do so. Tito’s office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Tuesday.
If Italian prosecutors indict the American woman, U.S. authorities could invoke jurisdiction as part of an Italian-U.S. military treaty under NATO auspices. U.S. military officials could take over the prosecution in that case. But there was currently no indication that Italy’s justice minister would intervene.
The town council of Porcia had recently ordered streetlights in the location where the accident occurred to be shut off at 2 a.m. local time, but Italian police said the crash would probably not have been averted even with the lights on, according to ANSA.
ABC News’ Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
(TAMPA, Fla.) — Superstar quarterback Tom Brady returned to training camp with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Monday. Brady had spent nearly two weeks away for what the team called “personal reasons.”
Watch the full report from ABC’s Good Morning America:
