In a new poll that’s bound to get social media buzzing, Friends has been declared the “Best TV Show Ever.”
The survey of 2,000 Americans that was sponsored by YouTube TV shows 43% of respondents felt Ross, Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, and Chandler’s sitcom topped the misadventures of Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine — as Seinfeld ranked second, at 40%.
Thirty-seven percent favored Game of Thrones, while 36% said Three’s Company was their favorite — the same percentage that say Frasier always has them dropping their remotes to watch.
The Office ranked in sixth place, just ahead of M*A*S*H*, with Battlestar Galactica — original or the reboot isn’t specified — The Simpsons and The Wire rounding out the top 10.
The survey also looked into when viewers’ favorite shows were made. Nineteen percent claimed the ’80s and ’90s were prime time for television, 15% chose shows from the 2000s as their favorite, and 10% said shows from the 2010s are the best — the same percentage of those who chose the 1970s as TV’s Golden Age.
Just 7% say we’re currently experiencing the best time for TV.
Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.
Jhené Aiko and Mary Mary were announced Tuesday as two of the performers for the pregame entertainment for Super Bowl 56 on Sunday, February 13 at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Aiko will sing “America the Beautiful,” and the gospel duo Mary Mary, consisting of sisters Erica and Tina Campbell, will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” accompanied by the L.A. Philharmonic’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. Erica and Tina are thrilled to be singing in the neighborhood where they grew up.
“We’re so excited to represent INGLEWOOD at #SBLVI with our performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” they commented on Instagram.
Grammy winner Zedd will serve as the “official pregame DJ” providing the music during player warmups. He will also spin at Shaquille O’Neal‘s Shaq’s Fun House Super Bowl party on Friday, February 11 at the Shrine Auditorium in LA.
The NFC Champion Los Angeles Rams will be playing the game on their home field against the AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals.
At halftime, one of the greatest hip hop lineups ever will hit the stage as Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige perform together for the first time. For the third year in a row, Jay-Z‘s Roc Nation is serving as the strategic entertainment advisor for the Super Bowl halftime entertainment.
The game will air on NBC and Telemundo and stream live on Peacock.
AFI has postponed the band’s upcoming headlining tour dates to the fall.
The outing, which was originally scheduled to launch next week on February 11, is now set to kick off in October. The updated routing now also includes newly added stops in Anaheim and Ventura, California.
“With COVID cases still on the rise, we fear that we will not be able to complete the tour the way it is currently scheduled,” the “Miss Murder” rockers write in an Instagram post. “Moving it will hopefully give us a better chance to see it through to its entirety.”
The only unaffected dates are a pair of previously announced Los Angeles concerts taking place March 25 and 26, which will stay put since AFI does not need to travel for the shows.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit AFireInside.net.
AFI will be touring in support of their new album, Bodies, which dropped last June.
Lil Nas X is already hard at work on his upcoming project, which sees him deviate from music into art. The “Industry Baby” singer is coming to a comic book near you.
In an official press release, TidalWave Comics announced Lil Nas X is jumping into the FAME comic universe, which will focus on how he became one of the most influential voices of his generation.
Lil Nas X’s tale will be illustrated across 22 pages and will explore his life story, from his “childhood in Atlanta to international superstardom,” per the press release. The comic was written by Darren G. Davis, who explained why it’s important to create comics that also double as biographies.
“Our success with this comic shows that there is a much wider audience for sequential storytelling than many thought. These readers are simply looking for something other than superheroes or horror,” Davis said in a statement. “With our bio comics, we strive to bring these new readers evenhanded, well-researched looks at some of their favorite celebrities.”
Illustrator Victor Moura adds of the upcoming Lil Nas X storyline, “Tried my best to make the art of this book unique so it had its own voice like it should.”
Charlie Puth has four Grammy nods, headlined multiple world tours and has collaborated with some of the biggest names in music — but that all apparently pales in comparison to his latest achievement: starring in a Super Bowl commercial.
“I’ve never done a Super Bowl commercial before and somehow I’m fortunate enough for it to happen for me this year. I’m still pinching myself,” the “Light Switch” singer told Billboard. “If you had told me 10 years ago when I was attending Berklee [College of Music] that I would be on a Super Bowl commercial, animated [and] showing myself musically I wouldn’t believe you.”
Charlie stars alongside rapper Megan Thee Stallion in Frito-Lay’s “Unleash Your Flamin’ Hot” Big Game commercial, which features wild animals singing while eating chips.
The 30-year-old singer said he “was in right away” after hearing the pitch. “The premise is that all these animals eat these Flamin’ Hot products and they become musically active, they start harmonizing and being in synch and perfect tempo with each other and that’s what happened to me life as well,” Charlie remarked, joking he’s also “off to the races writing 5 songs” whenever he eats his favorite snack.
Charlie plays a beatboxing fox while the “Savage” rapper plays a songbird — a vermilion flycatcher to be precise — in the commercial, which features animals belting out “Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa.
The “One Call Away” singer raved about working with Megan, saying, “It’s technically a collaboration. I think she’s wonderful and I have nothing but good things to say about her… And I know that she just graduated college, which is really impressive and great that she has time to do that while being a pop superstar.”
The commercial will air in full on Sunday, February 13, during the Super Bowl.
The spring outing will launch March 21 in Atlanta, and will come to a close April 16 in Houston. Tickets go on sale this Friday, February 4, at 10 a.m. local time.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit WolfAlice.co.uk.
Wolf Alice will be touring in support of their 2021 album Blue Weekend, which features the single “Smile.” Along with the headlining dates, the U.K. outfit’s 2022 schedule includes a number of high-profile opening gigs for Harry Styles, Bleachers and Halsey.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. and Russia are moving ahead with their diplomatic engagements over Russia menacing Ukraine, according to senior State Department officials, after the two countries’ top diplomats spoke Tuesday.
But as talks continue to proceed, there have been no results yet — with more than 100,000 Russian troops still massed on Ukraine’s borders, including increasingly in its northern neighbor Belarus.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin said the U.S. has “ignored” Russia’s key demands that NATO bar Ukraine from joining and pull back allied troops from Eastern European countries — his first comments on the crisis in over a month.
But his government is still analyzing the U.S. response to Russia, laid out in a formal proposal hand-delivered by the U.S. ambassador in Moscow last week, he said.
During a critical call, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “did agree that the ideas on both sides that have been exchanged did form the basis for the potential for serious discussion on a range of issues,” said a senior State Department official.
Those ideas include issues like arms control and greater transparency in military exercises, they added, expressing some hope that Russia’s continued engagement could lay the groundwork for real negotiations.
But for now, Russia is still formulating its response to those U.S. ideas, senior State Department officials said Lavrov told Blinken. Once they are finalized, they will be sent to Putin for approval and then sent to the U.S. After that, Blinken and Lavrov will speak again, the senior officials said.
“I do think they agree that ideas in that non-paper could be the basis for a constructive conversation about how he enhance security in Europe,” said a second senior State Department official. The “non-paper” is what U.S. officials have called the U.S. response to Russia’s original demands.
But Lavrov didn’t outright say that during the call, they conceded. Later on Tuesday, Putin seemed more dismissive of the U.S. proposal, saying, “It is already clear that Russia’s fundamental concerns have been ignored.”
Pressed on whether the Russians may be buying time or stalling before a renewed attack on Ukraine, the second senior State Department official said, “Because we don’t President Putin has made a decision [on whether to further invade Ukraine], we think it’s important to keep the diplomatic option on the table — so to the extent that Russia wants to engage in that diplomatic track, we are also open to having that continued diplomatic engagement.”
Blinken and Lavrov didn’t agree on when or how those talks would continue, but the U.S. has called for them to include one-on-one meetings, as well as negotiations between NATO and Russia and dialogue at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a Cold War-era forum that includes the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine.
On Monday, Moscow sent the U.S., as well as several NATO allies and OSCE members, a similar letter seeking clarification about security principles enshrined in one of the OSCE’s key documents, the Helsinki Final Act, according to U.S. and Russian officials. The letter was not Russia’s response to the U.S. proposal, but seems to be part of its effort to formulate one.
“NATO refers to the right of countries to choose freely, but you can not strengthen someone’s security at the expense of others,” Putin said Tuesday during a press conference with Hungary’s autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
As the U.S. and NATO wait for that formal response, Blinken again urged Russia to deescalate tensions by pulling back troops, heavy weaponry, and equipment from Ukraine’s borders. But Lavrov gave no indication during the call that Russia would do so, the senior officials said.
“All of the actions that we are seeing on the ground do not suggest escalation. We continue to see in fact more Russian troops coming not only to Russia’s border with Ukraine, but as you know, also to Belarus for these supposed exercises,” the second senior State Department official said.
Russia and Belarus have said those forces are preparing for military exercises to improve their readiness. But the U.S. said Monday it has evidence that more than 30,000 Russian troops will mass in Belarus in the coming days, citing declassified U.S. intelligence — a concerning move that puts them within two hours of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
Graham Nash has joined Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and others in asking that his music be removed from Spotify because the streaming service has been hosting Joe Rogan‘s popular podcast, which many medical and scientific professionals have charged with spreading potentially harmful misinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccines.
Nash has issued a statement explaining his decision to have his solo recordings pulled from Spotify, which also appears to reference comments Rogan made in an Instagram video posted Monday in which the host addressed some of the accusations regarding his podcast.
“There is a difference between being open to varying viewpoints on a matter and knowingly spreading false information which some 270 medical professionals have derided as not only false but dangerous,” Graham writes. “Likewise, there is a difference between misinformation, in which one is unaware that what is being said is false, versus disinformation which is knowingly false and intended to mislead and sway public opinion. The opinions publicized by Rogan are so dishonest and unsupported by solid facts that Spotify becomes an enabler in a way that costs people their lives.”
In Rogan’s video, he denies “trying to promote misinformation,” adding, “I’m not trying to be controversial. I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than just talk to people and have interesting conversations.”
After Young and Mitchell announced they were removing their music from Spotify, the company announced that it will be adding content advisories before podcasts that discuss COVID-19.
“Personally, there are plenty of individuals and views on Spotify that I disagree with strongly,” wrote Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek. “It is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them.”
The 2022 CMT Awards have found a new venue and air date.
The show will air live from Nashville at the historic Municipal Auditorium, in addition to other venues across the city, on April 11 at 8 p.m. ET. This marks the inaugural broadcast of the CMT Awards on CBS.
A statement from CMT hints that the show will feature “world premiere performances and one-of-a-kind collaborations from in and around Music City.”
The CMT Awards was originally slated to air on April 3, but the date was moved after the Grammy Awards, which also air on CBS, had to be rescheduled from January 31 to April 3 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Details on the nominees and voting process for the 2022 show will be announced in the coming weeks. The CMT Awards will also be available to stream on Paramount+.
Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival
Dave Matthews Band is returning to the road this summer.
The “Ants Marching” outfit has announced a North American headlining tour, set to kick off May 11 in Austin, Texas. The lengthy outing will come to a close with a two-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on September 19 and 20.
Tickets won’t go on sale to the general public until February 25, but if you’re a member of the DMB Warehouse fan club, you can request access to pre-sale tickets now through February 8 at 3 p.m. ET.
