finale

A Stranger Things fan has dubbed the finale as an ’emotional betrayal’ speaking out about how unfair it is that the new year will be dominated by the popular Netflix show

The first part of the final season of Stranger Things released yesterday (November 27) in the UK, and fans are already going wild for what happens in the first four episodes. Binge-watching has been compulsory for so many fans of the 80s-themed spooky show, and people are already raving about it, saying how much they’d missed it. But some are less than impressed with the decisions made by Netflix.

Someone took to the Reddit ‘Stranger Things’ forum saying they felt absolutely “cheated” by one thing Netflix has decided to do with the Stranger Things finale. A viewer in India said that “everything fell apart” for them when they checked the schedule for when the next episodes were out.

In the UK, episodes one to four were released on November 27, and episodes five to seven will be released on Christmas Day, with the finale on New Year’s Eve. However one Indian superfan was left devastated when she realised that they were out at a different time.

They wrote: “Right now it is Nov 24 in India and I’m really excited for season five, so I decided to check the exact release time for India, and everything fell apart.

“All this time, I kept reading the dates as November 26, December 25, and December 31. That’s the pattern my brain assumed.

“But when I actually looked it up, I realised the finale lands on January 1 in India because of the worldwide simultaneous release. And honestly, this has thrown me off completely.

“Ending my year with Stranger Things and starting my year with Stranger Things are two very different emotional experiences. The difference is huge. I was expecting to wrap up 2025 with closure, not begin 2026 with emotional chaos, anxiety, or whatever heartbreak the finale is going to bring”.

They then referred to it as an “emotional betrayal,” saying “this timing has hit me harder than I expected,” saying that they had to write it “somewhere” because they feel “bad about it”.

In the comments, however, people tried to give them a bit of perspective, saying that it was exciting anyway.

One wrote: “Bro, it’s a TV show, not the end of the world.”

“Emotional betrayal? I think that’s a bit dramatic…” somebody else wrote.

A fan shared: “This is what the US has had to deal with for all the previous releases, despite the show being based here.

“I feel bad because it does suck choosing between waking up in the early hours like 2-6am or trying to avoid spoilers until after work the following day to watch, but it’s nice to end it with us being the lucky ones the last time around”.

The original poster responded, however, saying they didn’t have an issue with time; it was “the date” they had a problem with, as they didn’t want to start 2026 feeling devastated by what is likely to be a traumatic finale.

A new “Dancing With the Stars” champion has been crowned. After weeks of themed choreography revolving around TikTok, Disney films and one-hit wonders, the winner of Season 34 is (insert dramatic pause) Robert Irwin and Witney Carson.

Crikey!

Irwin, an Aussie wildlife conservationist and son of the late “Crocodile Hunter,” Steve Irwin, joins sister Bindi as a winner of the Mirrorball trophy. Bindi Irwin won the trophy during Season 21 of “DWTS,” in 2015.

Season 34 came down to social media personalities Alix Earle and Dylan Efron, actor Elaine Hendrix, and gymnast and UCLA senior Jordan Chiles. Tuesday night’s finale consisted of three rounds of dance. First was the judges’ choice round, followed by the instant dance challenge — in which the style of dance and the song are kept secret from performers until just before they take the stage — and then the freestyle round. With Carson, Irwin earned a perfect score in the instant dance portion of the show.

The season’s winner was determined by a combination of the judges’ votes and those from the public.

Irwin, 21, and Carson, 32, scored an aggregated score from the judges of 29 points. Earle finished second, with Chiles coming in third place, followed by Efron and Hendrix.

Ahead of the finale, Carson revealed on her TikTok that both she and Irwin were dealing with injuries.

“We’re kind of falling apart right now,” the pro dancer said. “My body is feeling it right now, Robert’s body is feeling it right now.”

During a clip from their rehearsals shown before his first dance of the night, a quickstep to Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl,” Irwin said he feared Carson might need to have a Plan B for the challenging choreography.

“If I push any harder, my body is going to break,” he said.

Irwin dealt with rib pain throughout the night. After his instant dance performance, a cha-cha to DNCE’s “Cake by the Ocean,” he acknowledged the toll the competition had taken.

“I catch crocodiles, and a crocodile has never managed to screw up my ribs like that,” he said. “Dancing is hard.”

South Korea’s Somi Lee shot a career-best eight-under-par 64 to open up a two-shot lead in the first round of the LPGA’s lucrative season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.

The 26-year-old made four birdies on the front nine and three more on the back nine – plus an eagle on the 17th – with the only blemish to her scorecard arriving with a bogey on the 18th.

“It’s an honour playing my first Tour Championship and I don’t think I was necessarily in a position to be nervous about anything,” Lee said.

“I thought to myself ‘whatever the score is or how I play, let’s just prepare for next year’s season’. I think that kind of alleviated the stress in today’s round to be able to get a better score.”

American Allisen Corpuz is at six under, while world number one and defending champion Jeeno Thitikul, who leads the Race to CME Globe rankings, is one of four players a stroke further back at five under.

Germany’s Esther Henseleit and Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom ended Thursday in a tie for seventh at four under and are the highest-placed Europeans in the 60-player field at Tiburon Golf Club in Florida, which contains 28 of the 29 winners from this season.

England’s Charley Hull, who won this tournament in 2016, knocked in five birdies but a double-bogey on the 10th checked her progress and she eventually signed for a three-under-par 69.

Her compatriot Lottie Woad is at two under, while world number two Nelly Korda recovered from consecutive bogeys on the second and third holes to finish one under as she chases her first win of the campaign.

The LPGA’s final event of the season carries a total purse of $11m (£8.4m).

The $4m (£3.1m) top prize is the largest winner’s cheque in women’s golf and the third biggest in all of golf behind the men’s Tour Championship ($10m/£7.6m) and The Players Championship ($4.5m/£3.4m).

Evans held a 13-point lead over both Ogier and Rovanpera going into the Toyota City-based event.

However, the Finn’s hopes took an early blow, dropping more than five minutes on Friday after damaging his rear suspension in a collision with a barrier.

Evans began slowly, placing sixth on the opening stage, but put together back-to-back stage wins on Friday and a strong Saturday morning sequence to rise up to second just 1.4secs behind leader Ogier.

The Frenchman responded with a dominant performance on Saturday afternoon, which continued as he was also the quickest driver across the final day’s six stages – including adding a further additional five points with victory in the final bonus power stage.

“It’s obviously a perfect result,” said Ogier, who is looking to equal Sebastien Loeb’s record nine world titles.

“It’s been a challenging weekend because after the rain today nothing was certain, it was the start of a new rally this morning.

“Now, let’s go to the next one. This was a perfect weekend for us to come back so close [to Evans] and let’s hope the last one is not a lottery.”

Toyota Gazoo Racing have already secured their fifth consecutive WRC manufacturers’ title and are now guaranteed to take the top three places in the drivers’ championship.

Rovanpera, though, looks destined to finish third in his final rally season before switching to a career in circuit racing.

“Definitely not the weekend we wanted to have but sometimes it’s like this,” said the 25-year-old Finn.

“Just a bit too inconsistent with results this year.”