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When CBS announced that it planned to outsource the hallowed “Late Show” slot occupied by Stephen Colbert and David Letterman before him to “Comics Unleashed,” the syndicated, low-budget talk show with stand-ups riffing on their routines, many saw politics at play.

But the show’s host and producer, comic-turned-mogul Byron Allen, saw the math. Once a cultural touchstone, late-night television has seen its prominence erode greatly over the years with viewers and advertising dollars shifting away from broadcast TV to streaming.

“I said, ‘Look guys, you’re spending a small fortune on late night,’” recalled Allen, who estimated that the programming was costing the network more than $200 million. He offered it a solution.

His company, the Los Angeles-based Allen Media Group, would pay $15 million for the airtime to run “Comics Unleashed,” which previously aired after “The Late Show,” while keeping most of the advertising time on the program to sell. It was the same time-buy model that propelled his fledgling media empire and made him wealthy many times over.

“Comics Unleashed” drew 1.1 million viewers in its debut in the new time slot last month, down substantially from the 2.7 million Colbert’s show averaged in its final season. Critics chimed in, with one outlet even calling it a “ratings disaster.”

But Allen, typically, was not fazed, saying his show bested the competition in key markets and was more comparable with the same time period last May before Colbert’s post-cancellation victory lap.

“CBS has won big-time because they have zero production costs and now they are saving $55 million a year,” he said in an interview.

Media mogul Byron Allen at his studio on the set of “Comics Unleashed” in Culver City.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

A relentlessly driven, shrewd dealmaker and entrepreneur, Allen is used to defying skeptics and seeing opportunity in assets overlooked by others. He was one of the first entertainers to recognize that there was more money to be made in owning your content, rather than just performing it.

Over the last three decades, he has built a multibillion-dollar business, Allen Media Group, which now has 2,000 employees across various media properties.

In addition to creating a trove of accessible, family-friendly programs, he’s taken a number of big, bold swings, buying up distressed assets that now span broadcast, cable, streaming and film distribution.

At times, he appears like a minnow trying to swallow a whale. Although many deals have landed, others, such as his bids for ABC, BET, Paramount Global and Tegna, have not.

“He’s had misses, but that doesn’t stop him from going to bat,” said Lloyd Greif, president and chief executive of Greif & Co., a Los Angeles-based investment bank.

After a major restructuring that began two years ago during which the company laid off staffers and sold off properties, Allen is back with a slew of ambitious acquisitions. In addition to owning CBS’ late-night block, he also took over the 12:35 a.m. slot with his comic game show, “Funny You Should Ask.” He declined to reveal how much he paid for that airtime.

Allen recently snapped up controlling interest in the digital media company BuzzFeed (including HuffPost) for $120 million and bought a 10.7% stake in cable channel Starz for $25 million.

Although Allen’s programming has been dismissed as low-budget, apolitical comedy, and his finances have been questioned by some, he remains undaunted by doubters.

“I like to say I’m a 65-year-old overnight success.” And he remains focused on his mission, even proclaiming he is “building the world’s biggest media company.”

An entrepreneurial streak

Allen was born in Detroit, where his grandparents owned a roller rink where he worked as a floor guard. Being surrounded by a family of factory workers and the legacy of 20th century American industry set the stage for his entrepreneurship. “I didn’t play sports; I played office,” he said.

At age 7, after his parents’ divorce, Allen moved to Los Angeles with his mother, Carolyn Folks. It was the summer of 1968 and they planned a two-week vacation. But Detroit was in flames following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and they stayed.

Folks put herself through UCLA and eventually worked her way up at NBC from an intern to a publicist, a move Allen credits with changing the trajectory of their lives. His mother couldn’t afford child care, so Allen often accompanied her at the studio, where he soaked up tapings of “Sanford and Son” and “The Tonight Show.” After Johnny Carson finished filming and the studio was empty, Allen would sit at his desk, mimicking the legendary late-night host.

At 14, he convinced his mother to let him do stand-up at the Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard.

“There were literally four people and 200 chairs. And I said, ‘I have to figure out how to make these chairs laugh.’”

A writer for Jimmie “J.J.” Walker, who was starring on the groundbreaking Norman Lear hit comedy “Good Times,” caught his act. He hired Allen to write jokes for Walker along with a pair of yet-to-be discovered comics: Jay Leno and David Letterman. Allen earned $25 a joke.

Howie Mandel met Byron Allen when they were both starting out at The Comedy Store.

(Allen Media Group)

“Most people in my business wait for other people to give you an opportunity,” said Howie Mandel, the actor and comic who met Allen when they were starting out at the Comedy Store during this period. “Byron and his mom constantly made their own opportunities.”

In 1979, when Allen was 18, he became the youngest comic to appear on “The Tonight Show.” Like a shot out of a cannon, the performance catapulted his career.

While various offers poured in, Allen chose the NBC prime-time series “Real People” as a host and correspondent. It was an embryonic version of reality TV. Allen traveled around the country showcasing quirky, heartwarming stories. The hit show brought Allen to every pocket of America. It also made him a star, delivering him to the country’s living rooms each week.

He continued to tour, doing stand-up and serving as the opening act for such musicians as Lionel Richie and Dolly Parton, and starred in TV movies.

Allen became a hero to young, Black entertainers who were just starting out. Among them was Eddie Murphy, who has called Allen “one of my first inspirations.”

“He just loves comedians,” said Whitney Cummings, co-creator and executive producer of the hit CBS sitcom “2 Broke Girls.” She recalled crucial career and financial advice Allen gave her after she first appeared as a young comic on “Comics Unleashed.” “It gave me like a true north. It changed my life.”

Whitney Cummings says Allen helped her early in her career.

(Troy Conrad)

As Allen’s success swelled, he said, he realized the industry was what he calls “business show, not show business.”

“You need to know the business side and learn the business side and then you can do as many shows as you want. And I knew that I didn’t want to work for anybody,” he said.

While on “Real People,” he sat in on sales meetings and went to the National Assn. of Television Programming Executives, where he introduced himself to Al Masini, the syndication trailblazer who produced “Entertainment Tonight” and “Star Search.”

“I understand you’re the best. I’m here to learn from you,” Allen said.

In 1989 he began hosting the syndicated “The Byron Allen Show.” Two years later, he created BYCA Television Distribution to take over his talk show’s distribution and syndicate other shows.

But Allen and his new company were soon facing legal and financial issues. A group of former employees and an investor sued, claiming they had not been paid. The dispute forced the company into Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Allen pressed on. He had absorbed another key lesson.

Learning from Richard Pryor

When he was still hanging out at the Comedy Store, he watched Richard Pryor trying out new material.

Iconic comedian Richard Pryor.

(Bettmann / Bettmann Archive)

“He would bomb night after night for almost three months,” Allen said. “I’ll never forget, he told me, ‘Byron, you’re only as good as you dare to be bad.’ I learned, OK, take risks. It’s about growing and taking chances.”

In 1993, Allen launched CF Entertainment on his dining room table in Los Angeles. The production company, later Entertainment Studios, became the foundation of his media empire. He focused on producing low-cost, syndicated programming, including interview series and court shows. Allen produced and often served as host.

His first show, “Entertainers With Byron Allen,” packaged the five-minute celebrity interviews during hotel press junkets, a conveyor belt of actors promoting their latest projects set up by the studios into an hourlong talk show.

Allen bartered the show for free to TV stations in exchange for a split of the revenues from selling commercials to advertisers. Success was not immediate. He said he received countless rejections at first.

“My house went in and out of foreclosure probably 14 times,” he said. At one point, he said, his telephone service was turned off, forcing him use a pay phone for calls.

But the format established the template for what became Allen’s highly successful business. Forbes has estimated his net worth in the billions. Allen declined to discuss his personal or business finances.

The mogul now owns multiple homes, including a $91.3-million mansion in Aspen, Colo., that was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal.

“A lot of people didn’t take him seriously and saw him as a comedian,” said Joan Robbins, Allen’s first employee, who has stayed on for 32 years as president of talent relations. “I don’t think anybody realized the extraordinary business sense he had.”

Byron Allen gets final touches at his studio on the set of “Comics Unleashed.”

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

As Allen’s media ambitions have expanded beyond comedy and syndicated talk shows, so has his company. It produces, distributes and sells advertising for 74 television programs (“Mathis Court With Judge Mathis” and “Career Day” among them) as well as owns 13 broadcast stations affiliated with the major networks in 11 markets and several dot-TV cable and digital networks including Cars.TV, Automotive.TV and Comedy.TV.

In 2016, he acquired the Black entertainment platform TheGrio and later purchased the assets of the Black News Channel out of bankruptcy for a reported $11 million, merging its TV assets and carriage deals into TheGrio’s network.

A year earlier, Allen made waves by filing the first of several multibillion-dollar racial discrimination lawsuits to tackle what he called the “trade deficit between Black America and white corporate America.” His case against Comcast for not carrying Allen-owned stations and networks reached the Supreme Court before being settled.

“I feel good about starting that conversation … because we were going in circles and we were definitely suffering from economic genocide,” he said.

In 2018, Allen’s company bought the Weather Channel and the streaming service Local Now for $300 million. His firm also announced it had raised $500 million in credit facilities organized by Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies Financial Group, Brightwood Capital Advisors and Comerica Bank to finance production and other acquisitions.

What unites these disparate assets? “We’re directed at where the viewers are,” he said. “That’s where we’ll be.”

But in his tireless push to expand his sprawling company, Allen has made several failed bids for high-profile assets.

In 2023, he offered Disney a reported $10 billion for ABC and some of its cable networks, and the following year bid $30 billion for Paramount Global. He also made plays for Tegna and BET.

None of his offers succeeded, prompting skepticism about his ability to finance such deals. Allen Media Group is wholly owned by the entrepreneur.

Allen dismissed such concerns. “I raised the money to buy the Weather Channel in one day,” he said. “There’s trillions of dollars looking for really good executives and really good deals. I have no problem raising capital.”

The Times viewed multiple letters from private equity firms and banks. Several indicated that Allen had financial backing on the deal to buy BET, and another showed he had $4 billion in funds to back the purchase of Paramount assets.

Over the years, former employees have criticized some of Allen’s employment practices. In 2012 he faced a class-action suit from performers and staffers on “Comics Unleashed” who alleged they were not paid residuals or reimbursed for travel and other expenses. The suit was settled in 2023.

Allen called the suits “frivolous,” saying, “I couldn’t be in business if I actually conducted myself that way.”

Last year, Allen came under fire after announcing sweeping cuts at about two dozen local affiliates that included laying off meteorologists, part of a reorganization to centralize forecasts at the Weather Channel in Atlanta. The move sparked viewer outrage and the plans were reversed.

The controversy came as Allen’s company was retrenching. He sold off about a third of the TV station portfolio for $171 million.

Allen said this was a case of “rightsizing,” paying down debt and investing more in digital. “I sold 10 of my ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates to Gray [Media] at a great price for us and a great price for them.”

Allen confirmed he is negotiating with lenders over substantial debt payments coming due in the next year, but said he is “highly confident they will get refinanced or extended.”

Shortly after he bought a stake in Starz, Allen announced his intentions to own the cable channel. Starz responded by adopting a poison pill.

“Good luck,” he said. “I still plan to take over Starz, and I will eventually get control of Starz.”

Though he’s “not praying for hat-tricks”, many would have been asking the man above for a favour or two as Scotland eyed up their first World Cup win in 36 years.

It was evident early doors against Haiti that if anything was going to happen, Gannon-Doak would be at the heart of it.

Keeping it simple, when he received the ball down the right, he looked to attack. A sight that makes Scotland supporters rejoice, such has been its rarity in recent times.

When McTominay skelped a post, it was on the end of another dazzling Gannon-Doak burst. He set up Che Adams shortly after for a shot that would be parried right in the path of McGinn, who was wheeling away in ecstasy seconds later as Scotland scored their first World Cup goal since 1998.

For 83 minutes, Gannon-Doak was the youngest man to appear at a World Cup for Scotland. That’s until his 19-year-old pal Findlay Curtis came on.

The pair play in a care-free manner. They don’t carry the years of missed qualifications or even the recent disappointments at the Euros. And it shows.

Gannon-Doak departed with 15 minutes to go against the Haitians. A collective gulp was inhaled.

“He had a cracker tonight,” former Scotland winger Pat Nevin said on BBC Sportsound.

“He’s what you want a Scotland player to be,” added ex-captain Scott Brown on BBC One.

Like few others, Gannon-Doak gets the faithful going. Believing. Hoping.

Like the rest of his generation, we’ve grown up believing ‘it’s the hope that kills you’, but with this 20-year-old driving the team, it’s difficult not to.

In this week’s episode of The Envelope podcast, Riz Ahmed talks about drawing on his own experience for “Bait,” his Prime Video series about a British Muslim actor whose life is upended when he’s rumored to be the next James Bond.

Kelvin Washington: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the next episode of The Envelope. Kelvin Washington, Yvonne Villarreal, we have Mark Olsen. And Mark, I’ll stay with you for a second. You had a chance to speak with Riz Ahmed, who is the creator and the star of “Bait,” which centers around the idea of who could be the next James Bond. So then, dang it, I’m asking you two the same question: Who could be, should be the next James Bond? Is there somebody or somebodies that you’ve thought about for a while and said, “Well, that would fit, that could work”?

Mark Olsen: It was recently announced that they have begun the casting process to replace Daniel Craig in the beloved and long-running James Bond franchise. And there have already been at least one sort of confirmed person, the actor Tom Francis, auditioned. But then there’s a lot of other names being thrown around, like Callum Turner, Jacob Elordi, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Kind of everybody about that age bracket you could think of. You know, it’s funny, in the last movie, “No Time to Die,” Lashana Lynch was given the number 007, so she was not James Bond, but she was 007. And I always thought, actually, in the last couple of movies, that Léa Seydoux would make a perfect [00 agent] — she’s cool, she feels kind of dangerous. She would have seemed to me like a great person for that kind of role. But then also, that’s obviously not James Bond. So who knows who it could be. Yvonne, what do you think? Do you have anybody in mind?

Yvonne Villarreal: Can it be a toss-up between you two? How would you fare?

Olsen: I don’t know if I’d pass basic training.

Washington: They have doubles, OK? They got stunt doubles and CGI and AI for all of that and for you, OK.

Villarreal: It’d be like the Leslie Nielsen version.

Washington So it’d be like 007 with a question mark: 007?

Villarreal: More seriously — not that I don’t take you two seriously as candidates — I would throw my enthusiasm around Jonathan Bailey or Damson Idris.

Washington: I’m gonna one-up your Idris and just go [with] the obvious, Idris Elba. It’s been sitting there for the last 15 years or so.

Villarreal: That’s why I didn’t [say that], because I’m like, “It’s been sitting there and they still haven’t.”

Washington: But sometimes it just makes sense. Sometimes it’s just sitting smacking you in the face, or shooting you with a silent 9mm — whatever he uses, James Bond. It just makes sense, and to be honest, it’s one of those, he’s probably passing [on the role] because you wanna have a franchise you can hold on to for 20 years with a particular actor, give or take, and he seems like he’d be probably too senior for that at a certain point. The podcast, the conversation behind what really happened there is going to be fascinating because, to your point, it just seems like the momentum was building for it and it didn’t happen. So it would be interesting to hear what actually comes out of that. But those are my are my guesses right there.

All right, Mark, you had a chance to speak with Riz Ahmed, obviously the creator and the star of “Bait.” Fascinating to me, just the concept of the show as a whole.

Olsen: Riz Ahmed is someone who, he’s so thoughtful about his own career, but also his place in the world. And so he does such a great job with this show and taking this idea of like, “Could an actor like Riz Ahmed, could he be James Bond? Should he be James Bond? Why not?” And so the show is just so thoughtful and finds all these really inventive ways of exploring that idea. He’s playing a little-known actor who it becomes public that he’s auditioned for the role and that throws his whole life into tumult both within the industry, with sort of like online hate towards him, but then also with his own family. And the show is also meant to be kind of a real love letter to the South Asian communities of London. Riz in the conversation talks about how they went out of their way to shoot in parts of London that you don’t normally see. So the show, it’s just so inventive and fun in a lot of really terrific ways.

Washington: Well, let’s hear more of your conversation with Riz now.

Riz Ahmed.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Mark Olsen: On the show, you play an actor who auditions for the part of James Bond. It leaks to the press, and then his whole world turns upside down. For you, is the premise of the show predicated on the idea that someone like you would never get that part, or is it that, of course you should get that? Which end of the telescope are you looking at it from?

Riz Ahmed: Kind of neither, really. The premise of the show was something a bit more emotional than that. The James Bond thing came right at the end, to be honest, of the creative process. Really, the heart of the show is the idea of auditioning. James Bond really serves as a symbol in the show, a symbol of aspiration, pinnacle of achievement in this industry and also of alpha masculinity and all this kind of stuff. And so it’s really the idea of trying to be that guy, which on some level, we’re all trying to be this kind of preferred version of ourselves, right? We’re all performing. We’re actually all always auditioning. So it’s about that feeling, [which] I think extends outside this industry. We’re doing that on LinkedIn or social media, on this podcast right now. We’re performing a version of ourselves. When actually the true version of ourselves is kind of messy, chaotic and vulnerable. So it’s that distance between the public and private self that I was really interested in, and James Bond just served as an aspirational symbol of that public way that you would love to be seen.

Olsen: But Bond, because of the specific cultural baggage that comes with that franchise, did you feel like it fit thematically with what you were trying to do?

Ahmed: Oh, perfectly. It was a godsend. It was like one of those moments where it’s like, “OK, so we want to do something about, like, aspiring to be anything but yourself. We want to do something about feeling like life is one big audition, but we need something that encapsulates success and cultural acceptance.” And it was like … Of course: Bond. And because the process of making this show was one of pulling so much from my own personal life, there was a moment or two when my name was mentioned in that conversation. I mean, along with, you know, everyone and their dog. But it was an interesting kind of thought experiment, it was an interesting, as I said, kind of vessel to place all of the themes into. And so when that idea came about, it was like, “This is perfect. We can talk about everything we want to talk about using this symbol.” We’re like, “OK, now how are we gonna get it?” And everyone told us Barbara Broccoli would never let us use it. Rightly so, she was very protective of this IP. But I wrote her a letter, sat down with her, showed her the scripts and she understood. She understood that it’s not really about Bond. It’s a show about self-love, and she really kind of vibed with that. Shout out Barbara Broccoli, thank you for letting us use Bond exactly how we wanted to.

Olsen: You recently hosted the new “SNL UK” and in your monologue, you made this joke that you don’t just play intense roles, that there’s this image of you that it’s all that you do. Did you purposely want to make “Bait” as a way to break you out of that perception?

Ahmed: It wasn’t that careerist and calculating, to be honest. I was just trying to make something that was authentically me. And I think the people who know me know that I’m a lover of comedy. My first rap song was a comedy rap song. I got banned on British radio back in the day because it was a quite an acerbic kind of satire. And actually it’s funny because I think that’s an American perception of me. In the UK, nine times out of 10, when I get stopped is for a British comedy I did called “Four Lions.” Which is like a kind of cult classic British movie. It’s a very British comedy. That’s like me, that’s like how I am in real life. And so when I wanted to make my own show, it just stands to reason it would be a reflection of my taste. So the overall frame was comedy, but I kind of have quite a maximalist sensibility. I want to have my cake and eat it. So I also wanted it to be a spy thriller and a family drama and quite surreal and psychological thriller and all of these elements kind of put together, but the frame of it all, I would say, is comedy. And yet it was really actually important to us that we tried to defy genre and defy categorization in that way.

Olsen: Did you feel like this was a role that, like, nobody was going to give you, like you had to write this for yourself?

Ahmed: It wasn’t so much out of a kind of frustration or a desire to create work for myself or break out of a pigeonhole or anything like that. Honestly, I just tried to make something as honest and authentic and vulnerable as possible, if that doesn’t sound too eye-rolly. I guess I reached a point in my life as a creative where I realized, actually, performance isn’t about putting on the mask, it’s about taking it off. It’s about sharing with the world who you are, sharing your privacy and your insanity. And if you do that, people will connect with it because it’s honest. And if you name your pain and your craziness, there’s something healing in that for yourself and others. I had kind of gotten to that place in my life. And so I wanted to kind of follow that through to a place that felt quite scary and pull on the most personal aspects of my own neuroses and my life and my neighborhood that I grew up in — so many locations are literally where I’ve grown up. So many moments in the show I pulled very directly from my life experience. My character has a panic attack at the end of Episode 1 at this particular music venue in North London. I had a panic attack in that venue in North London when I was supporting Wu-Tang Clan. My character is approached by MI5 and MI6. They say, “Hey, you’re a rising actor, do you wanna work with us, help with messaging?” That happened to me specifically once I started to become a bit more well known. There’s just so many things that kind of came from that place, and it was all based on this idea of like, “If I wanna make a show about a character who needs to learn how to take off the mask, then I need to do that as well.” And we kind of had a mantra in the room, which was like, “If it feels scary and it’s true, do it.” And there were times when I didn’t want to do it, definitely times when I wanted to kind of hide, but I just increasingly have this feeling that if you can offer up a part of yourself, then that’s one of the most liberating things you can do as an artist. And also for an audience, it just feels honest. That’s where you can connect most with people, if you’re willing to share that vulnerability.

Olsen: What was the writing process of the show like for you? Was there a moment where you had like a whiteboard with a list of awkward things that had happened to you?

Ahmed: That whiteboard would be very, very big, very, very large. Let’s say we’ve got a lot left in the tank if we ever do another season. The writing process was a learning curve for me, never having been in an American writers’ room system before. Hugely grateful to my co-showrunner, Ben Karlin, who’s got himself a really eclectic background. He’s one of the founding writers of the Onion, the satirical website. He has this track record, “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report,” but also “Modern Family.” And so I wanted someone who had that eclectic background, and we had a writers’ room that was similarly very eclectic. We had stand-up comedians. We had novelists. We had playwrights. We had experienced TV writers. We had U.S. [people], we had UK people. I just knew that I wanted this to feel quite eclectic, and as I say, kind of genre-bending. And so I wanted that breadth. So actually the writing process for this was like, “How do we make this feel as chaotic and messy and unpredictable as possible?” That requires a crazy amount of craft. And there were a lot of late nights, there was a lot of hair being pulled out. And it was, I think, one of the most intense periods, more so than the shoot, even. It was just trying to figure out what this show was. And I came to this realization, which is, Shah Latif, my character, is having an identity crisis. He’s trying to work out who he is. So it stands to reason the show should also be trying to work out what it is. The show needs to be having an identity crisis. So then we gave up on this mission of trying to make it feel coherent and consistent. And we said, “Of course, he’s an actor trying to work out who he is. Every episode should be a different genre. We should have our James Bond-goes-to-the-gala-in-a-tux episode. We should to have our Bollywood-proper episode. We should have our Linklater walk and talk. We should have our Greengrass does a spy thriller.” So we really deliberately and really defiantly tried to embrace the identity crisis of the character in how we told the story. And when we did that, everything fell into place. We would stop trying to straitjacket this into something more predictable.

Olsen: And what was it like for you to be filling this role of not just actor but also writer, producer, showrunner? How did you feel about taking on all those roles?

Ahmed: I felt scared. I felt out of my depth. I felt like I needed the help of people much smarter than me. Luckily, I had that help. And more than that help, their patience. I continually said, “No, we’ve got to go back and do it again. We’ve got to rewrite that episode. We’ve gotta redo this whole section,” as it felt so personal to me. Not just because it’s my personal experiences, but because there’s a world that hasn’t quite been put on screen before in this show, and I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility and emotional connection to that world and these characters. So at times it felt overwhelming. ButI’m of this philosophy that usually when you’re making something, you kind of end up feeling how the character is feeling. The character feels out of his depth, feels overwhelmed, feels like he does not quite know what he’s doing, it stands to reason I should feel like that. If I really feel like I’ve got it all worked out and I’m in control, we’re doing something wrong. So as far as possible, I tried to remind myself that that was a sign of almost being in touch with the material. At least that’s how I tried to talk myself off the ledge, man.

Olsen: Can you just talk to me a little bit about the title? As I understand it, “Bait” is UK slang?

Ahmed: The title actually has many different layers to it. I always say this is a show that’s hard to sum up in a sentence, but it’s really easy to sum up in one word, and that word is bait, because it has like five or six different meanings. So one key meaning is British slang. It means really blatant and in your face. So if you’re blowing up someone’s spot, you’re baiting them up. You’re being really kind of, “Look at me, look at me,” you’re being bait. So that speaks to Shah Latif, the character, and his attention seeking. But bait also means, online, trolling. It also means, in Urdu, your loyalty or your allegiance. It also mean in Arabic, in Hebrew, home. And it also, in literal meaning, it’s something used as part of a trap, which speaks to the spy thriller element to the show. So all these different layers to the word bait correspond to a different layer of show, correspond to each different episode. That’s exploring that meaning. And I wish I could tell you we had this all worked out upfront, but we struggled with the title for so long and it kind of like hiccuped itself up into the ether in a late-night kind of hair-pulling session. We realized, “Oh, my God, that’s it. That’s exactly what it should be.” So yeah, the title I think encapsulates how we’re trying to explore these different genres and all the different narrative threads in the show.

Olsen: All the things that your character of Shah Latif is going through trying to move forward in his career as an actor, remaining true to his community and his sense of self, how much of those are your own issues? Are there things that you feel like you’re on the other side of now? Are those things that you’re sort of constantly trying to figure out for yourself?

Ahmed: Of course, like this idea of searching for your identity in a world that either commodifies it or punishes it, that’s something I relate to. But I also kind of feel like that’s something we all relate to. There’s a lot of me in Shah Latif, but I actually think there’s a lot of Shah Latif in all of us. This idea of feeling as though you’re not enough. This idea of trying to cultivate a public version of yourself because you’re ashamed of the private version of your self. I think that’s such a universal feeling right now in this performative culture that we live in. We all wanna be looked at, but we don’t wanna be seen. And somebody once told me that the distance between your public and private self is the amount of shame that you carry. I think it’s true, more or less. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a private life and some things shouldn’t be kept private. It probably should. But in a kind of deeper sense, I think there’s a truth in that. So I wanted to make a comedy in this playground of shame because it’s something that I can relate to, but I just had a sense that this is a very universal feeling.

Olsen: How much of these are issues or things you were going through in your career maybe five years ago, 10 years ago? What are the the sort of top-line things that you feel like you’re struggling with now?

Ahmed: This is where it becomes a full-blown therapy session. I would say that there was a period of time when I was just really desperate to be in the room. And now I’m in a place where I’m really excited to try and build my own room. And that, in a way, is a journey that the character goes on. I think it’s a journey that I’ve gone on, and the show, in a way, is a culmination of that journey. You know, it was just such a privilege to be able to create a playground and bring together this kind of ensemble. I don’t think there’s ever quite been a brown ensemble like this on screen before and [to] showcase all that talent and create that sense of family and specificity. And yeah, as I said, kind of build my own room rather than asking for a seat at someone else’s table. So I think that journey is one that I’ve been on and one that, I think, the show is exploring.

Olsen: There are these title cards throughout the series that give you these neighborhoods and locations, and I don’t know London super well, but like, it feels like it’s a very specific version of London. What was the importance of those locations for you?

Ahmed: The shows that I really adore and the ones that really inspired me on this journey are ones that are unapologetically specific. The Holy Trinity in my mind was “Atlanta,” “I May Destroy You” and “Fleabag.” These half-hour shows that are super personal, but also super specific in the world they’re exploring, whether they’re a city like Atlanta or a certain kind of Black London, or a very particular kind of white, middle-class British family in “Fleabag.” And so I wanted that unapologetic specificity. I wanted it to be a love letter to my London. And so I wanted to shout out these neighborhoods that really mean something to me. But more than that, I wanted to give a nod to the spy genre with those title cards. You know, in a Bond movie it says like, “Somewhere in the Caribbean,” you know, “Mexico City.” I wanted do that with Kentish Town, with Brick Lane, with Wembley. I wanted to elevate our daily experience and those neighborhoods to that kind of grand stage and those epic stakes and say, “Actually, this is as magical, as important, as exotic, as thrilling as any of those locations within that kind of genre.” Jordan Peele, when he made “Get Out,” said, “Being Black in America is like living in a horror movie. That’s why I made ‘Get Out.’” I can add this thesis that being brown in the West is like being in a spy thriller. And that’s why we made this. So I wanted those neighborhoods to feel like those chyrons you have in a spy thriller.

Olsen: You’ve often mentioned in the past, it’s a phrase I’m very taken with, “stretching culture,” expanding the idea of what’s possible. And I’m just curious, like, how is that going for you?

Ahmed: There’s the idea that the universe is expanding in all directions at the same time. I feel like that with culture. I feel like things are getting crazier and better at the same time simultaneously at an accelerating pace. You know, that’s kind of how I feel about it. And it’s like our consciousness, right? You get a little bit crazier, even as you get smarter. It’s that kind of feeling. For whatever it’s worth, it may sound pretentious, but I kind of feel it’s important to try and anchor myself in some sense of purpose. And I think that’s the purpose of storytelling, is to kind of constantly expand horizons of who is considered human and what is considered human. And I think for me, at least in this moment in my journey, I want that to be about telling stories that haven’t been told before, portraying worlds and communities and characters that maybe we haven’t been that familiar with.

Olsen: You’ve expressed some frustration recently with the phrase “representation” — that it’s become kind of a hollow gesture. What would you like to see happen moving forward?

Ahmed: Well, I was really proud to be part of the conversation, when we were kind of collectively coining that term, right, going from diversity to representation. But I do think it’s not an end in itself. Like I said, being in the room doesn’t necessarily change anything. It’s what are you allowed to do in that room? Does the room change you, or do you change it? It’s what the show’s exploring. And so at least for me right now, the kind of representation I’m interested in is how authentically we can represent ourselves. Do you know what I mean? Like, do I have to code switch? Do I have put on a mask or do I get to take it off? That to me is, I think, the most exciting kind of knot to unpick right now. And as I said, that’s kind of at the heart of the show.

Olsen: I want to be sure to ask you about some of the other cast on the show, specifically Guz Khan. I feel like I could watch the two of you just driving around in a car together for hours.

Ahmed: I’ll send you the rushes.

Olsen: Did you two have an immediate chemistry?

Ahmed: Can I tell you, the story of me and Guz is its own bizarre bromance. Here’s how I thought I knew Guz. Guz went viral in the UK because he did a joke, kind of like [a] shout-out against Steven Spielberg, right? Because there’s a kind of dinosaur in his “Jurassic Park” reboot that sounds like a racial slur in the UK. I’m just gonna let people check it out for themselves. I’m not gonna say more than that. This is like 10 years ago, something like that. He goes viral, he starts blowing up, people start offering him his own TV show. He DMs me on Twitter and he’s like, “Bro, like, what’s the industry like? Is it like crazy Illuminati vibes?” I was like, “Yes, but the Illuminatis are actually very fun, come and join us.” And just started this banter with him, and he goes on his journey, becomes one of the most beloved comedians. I’m on set with him, shooting “Bait.” And he goes, “You don’t remember the first time we met and we spoke, do you?” I said, “I remember, you DM’d me like a crazy guy.” And he was like, “No, no. We met 20 years ago.” I was like, “What are you talking about?” I was doing a spoken-word performance in the Midlands in the UK. No one was coming to see it. It was a completely empty club. So I take it upon myself to go outside and start flyering passers-by. Down a dark alley, I see guys with some of his friends engaged in a business of some sort. His legal team have asked me to refer to it as “selling tulips.” They were selling tulips, OK? I go down to this alleyway, I hand him flyers, him and his friends. I’m like, “How are you doing there, gentlemen? Would you like to come and see me do some spoken word?” They’re like, “What the hell? We’re in their mid-tulip transaction.” He decides out of the kindness of his heart with his boys to come and watch me do spoken word at Coventry Student Union. And he said it was the first time he saw someone that looked like him doing something like that in a space like that. … Twenty years later, we’re on set together. We met when we were like 20 years old and I’d completely forgotten him, but he remembered. We have like a brotherhood and a friendship in real life. I wrote that role for him. He is someone who constantly reminds me that as an artist, your art can only be as expansive as your heart is. He’s just that guy on set you want to be around. He brings the positive energy, he reminds you this is meant to be fun. And actually, when you’re having fun, you’re feeling relaxed and loose, you do great work. He’s evidence of that. And so I just have so much love for him, but I would only say that because he’s not here. If he was here, I would be making fun of him aggressively.

Olsen: Now that to me seems like this notion of stretching culture, where you’ve had this influence on him that you kind of didn’t even know.

Ahmed: I would love it if he would say that publicly, rather than me having to tell the world that I’m responsible for his career. Thank you for saying it. If we can clip that bit, that would be great. Send it to Guz, yeah? Email that to him. I don’t know, man. I kind of feel like we’re all in this relay race, right, and we’re just fumbling the ball to one another and trying to move forward. And one of the great things about this show was being in community in that way. I think for some people, particularly in the UK, they’re familiar with the world that’s portrayed here. I think, for a lot of Americans, they’re really not. Interestingly, I’ve had a lot of Latin viewers and Latina viewers approach me saying, “That’s my family, I get that, I know what that is.” And so I don’t know, I just think it’s kind of exciting. One of the things I love most about storytelling on screen is we can bring people into worlds they haven’t been to before. That’s what I remember falling in love with when I watched “Goodfellas” and “Mean Streets” in that world that Scorsese creates. So yeah, I think as long as we’re all leaning into this specificity, doing so in community, maybe that’s how we get to stretch culture.

Olsen: In a recent profile on you, the actor Sandra Hüller, who you work with on the upcoming movie “Digger,” she said that one of the things she most admires about you is that you take yourself and your work seriously. And I think I feel the same way, like there’s an intentionality to what you do, there’s a sense of purpose to what do.

Ahmed: It sounds so boring, though, when you put it like that. Doesn’t it? I hope I don’t take myself too seriously. I guess I take it seriously that I’ve got this opportunity to try and tell stories, and I believe that they matter. But I actually hope I don’t take myself seriously, very seriously. I hope this show in a way is evidence of that. That’s Exhibit A. Yeah, you got Hüller’s testimony here and then you got “Bait” over here. Who do you believe?

Olsen: Is there anything you can tell me about “Digger”? It’s a new film from Alejandro González Iñárritu, it stars Tom Cruise, and it has quickly become, I think, one of the most anticipated movies of the year. People are very excited about it. And there’s very little known about it, is there anything you can say about it?

Ahmed: It’s funny you should say that because I spoke to Alejandro today and he gave me permission to reveal something exclusively to you on this podcast. No, not really. There’s nothing. Absolutely nothing. I actually might get assassinated for just saying that even.

Olsen: And have you seen it?

Ahmed: I feel like anything I say, there’s like a bomb on my leg that might go off. I’ll say this, it was a really unique and incredible experience. Alejandro is this crazy genius and being around that level of — Tom Cruise as well — they’re all obsessive perfectionists that have just like endless rocket fuel in them. It’s just inspiring to be around, honestly. Really, really unique. I don’t know if I’ll ever have an experience like that again.

Olsen: And then you were nominated for an Academy Award for acting for “Sound of Metal,” but you won an Academy Award for the short film “The Long Goodbye” that was based on an album that you put out. As you’ve become busier in your acting career, has it become difficult for you to still make time for your music?

Ahmed: The projects that I have out right now with “Hamlet” and “Bait” are things that I’ve built. I’m not saying this is the way, necessarily, it’ll always be, but at least over the last several years, acting is like this cherry on the cake. I’m spending all this time building these other things and writing these things and producing these things. And in a way making music is part of that. It’s like being in a writers’ room, with musicians in a studio. And one of the things that I’ve enjoyed most is bringing the development of stories together with the development of albums. “The Long Goodbye” short film is an example of that. But I mean, I joke about this to my friends, one of the main reasons I made “Bait” as a TV show is so that I could make a soundtrack. You know, I grew up on Bollywood where, in a way, the movie was just an excuse for the music. I partly almost feel the same way here. We’ve got a soundtrack for “Bait,” which I’m very, very proud of. And it’s a reflection, I think again, of that eclectic, multicultural London that I know and love. It pulls together artists from across the diaspora, from the Bay Area and the U.S. through to India and Pakistan, from Trinidad and Bangladesh and Karachi and London. And it’s something that I think kind of speaks to the genre-bendiness of the show as well. So in a weird way, as I’m developing more of my own stories, I’m able to incorporate music into that process more.

Olsen: But are you making music of your own?

Ahmed: Yeah, I’ve got two tracks on that soundtrack, for example. Yeah, one of them with a rapper who I’ve been a huge fan of for many, many years. So that was a lovely moment. His name is Casisdead, makes very kind of cinematic UK hip-hop. So I’ve got two tracks on that and yeah, I mean, watch this space. Hopefully I’ll have some more time.

Olsen: And then, this is a moment in the show, and I know it’s something that’s happened in the past, but are you still ever mistaken for Dev Patel?

Ahmed: Honestly, every time I’m mistaken for Dev Patel, I’ll take the flowers. I’m such a fan of his, personally, and he’s actually also from that very particular pocket of Northwest London where I’m from, that this show is almost a love letter to. That pocket of London has produced, if I may humbly put myself in that bracket, myself, but also Dev Patel, Jay Paul, Jay Sean and Jay Shetty. All the Jays. All of them. So I’m very proud of Dev and everything he’s doing, and he’s telling his own stories as well in a way that I find really inspiring.

A brand-new series of Celebrity Gogglebox kicked off this month as Channel 4 fans saw some familiar faces on their screens.

There’s good news for Celebrity Gogglebox fans as a beloved duo has made their return to the programme.

The popular Channel 4 programme, which first aired almost seven years ago, made its return to screens last week for a brand new season.

Last week, viewers saw some familiar favourites back on the show, giving their thoughts and reactions to the latest television offerings.

These included the likes of Shaun Ryder and Mark ‘Bez’ Berry, Vicky Pattison and Pete Wicks and Jennifer Saunders with her daughter Beattie.

While there were also some new additions, such as George Clarke and Max Balegde, Julian Clary and Nigel Havers and Olivia Attwood with her mum Jennifer, one duo was noticeably absent.

Rylan Clark and his mum, Linda, first joined the programme back in 2019 and have been firm staples on the beloved show.

Although they may have missed the first episode of the new series, they were back in action this Friday (June 12).

Sharing a clip on Instagram, the 37-year-old said: “Guess who’s back on Gogglebox… It’s Linda! We are very excited to be back this Friday night.”

Turning the camera to his mum, Rylan asked if she was excited to be back on the show, and she confirmed she was. He finished off the video by adding: “Right, we’ll see you Friday night!”

It wasn’t long before people commented on the post, with many thrilled to see them back on the show.

One person said: “Love you guys. So good to see you back and looking lovely as always.” Someone else shared: “Hey Linda, about bl**dy time.”

Another fan added: “Glad you are both back, was hoping you would.” While one person commented: “I wondered where you guys were last week!!! Good to have you back again. Love your banter.”

Someone else shared: “Delighted to hear this news – missed the pair of you last week & was hoping you would be back.” As another person added: “Good to see you back Linda..and Rylan of course. Cannot wait to see you both back on.”

While on X, one person said: “Rylan and his mum back.” As another added: “I love @Rylan’s mum so much.”

Celebrity Gogglebox is available to watch on Channel 4

Gene Shalit, the fast-talking funnyman who reviewed films, plays and books for NBC’s “Today” show has died. He was 100.

Shalit’s family confirmed the longtime critic’s death Friday, telling NBC that he “passed away peacefully after 100 years of an amazing life.”

According to a 2010 interview with Guy Ludwig, Shalit’s producer for more than 20 years, Shalit was hired as a contributor at “Today” in 1968. He reviewed books once a month or so, but audiences were so fascinated by his eccentric personality and equally unconventional looks that NBC ramped up the critic’s on-air appearances.

In January 1973, on the same day he was promoted to arts editor, Shalit debuted “Critic’s Corner,” the segment that would ultimately make him a household name. In 2010, Shalit retired as one of the last regular film critics on a major network.

Ludwig referred to Shalit as the “foxy grandpa” of the “Today” show.

Shalit cut his teeth in media as an entertainment columnist for McCall’s magazine, eventually landing the role of senior film critic for Look magazine in 1968 and writing a humor column for Ladies’ Home Journal. His quick wit, punchy puns and unique voice came through even on the page, and NBC took notice.

“No one at NBC had seen him. They’d only read his stuff. So he walked into this executive’s office and the executive took one look at him and said, ‘Mr. Shalit, have you ever thought of radio?’” Ludwig told “Today.”

“They didn’t know how the public would react to someone who looked so different from people who were typically on TV in 1967.”

On “Critics Corner,” Shalit favored humor over the highfalutin. He was an everyman’s critic. Of 1997’s action-thriller “Face/Off,” he said, “Now, ‘Face/Off’ is a literal title, because both of their faces are taken off. Then each face is put onto the other’s head. Even their voices are switched with microchip implants. In other words, this is an entirely reasonable, rational movie!”

“Many critics will give so much of the plot of a movie away that they destroy the movie for the viewer … I just don’t give away the story,” he told the Associated Press in 1993.

During his tenure, he was known to bust up his colleagues, and “Today” anchors ranging from Edwin Newman, Barbara Walters and Jane Pauley to Tom Brokaw, Bryant Gumbel, Katie Couric, Al Roker and Meredith Vieira.

But not everyone appreciated Shalit’s style. In 1989, a leaked in-house memo from “Today” show co-host Bryant Gumbel to Marty Ryan, the former executive producer of the NBC program, complained that Shalit’s film reviews “are often late and his interviews aren’t very good.”

Eugene Shalit was born March 25, 1926, in New York City and grew up in Morristown, N.J. He launched his elementary school’s first newspaper, “The Spotlight,” and purchased a fedora to seal his fate as a journalist. In Morristown High School he wrote the school newspaper’s humor column “The Broadcaster.” In 1949, he graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Shalit was married to Nancy Lewis for 28 years until her death in 1978 and never remarried. The couple had six children: Peter, Willa, Emily, Amanda, Nevin and Andrew. Emily died from ovarian cancer in 2012.

Fred Armisen loves living in Los Angeles.

“It’s my favorite city in the world,” says the comedian, musician and actor best known for the beloved sketch comedy series “Portlandia” and for “Saturday Night Live.” “It has a really strong sense of community for such a giant city,” he adds, noting the recent celebration surrounding the new Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Metro’s D Line extension.

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

Armisen enjoys being behind the wheel, which is how he first noticed Hulu’s “Deli Boys,” where he plays casino boss Max Sugar in the show’s second season.

“Strangely, I was a fan before I was a fan of the show,” he says. “I was a fan of the billboards. I saw ads for it, and I was immediately curious. Like, ‘What is that? Why is it called ‘Deli Boys’? Who are these people?’ There was something about the three leads, a sort of chemistry or charisma, that I wanted to be a part of.”

For him, the perfect Sunday involves traversing the city, checking out record stores and visiting museums like the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City. “I fell in love with it as its own art piece,” he says. He also enjoys going to live shows, sometimes performing and spending time at home with his family. For him, the ideal day in L.A. “is a mix of all of those things.”

The one place you won’t find the sun-averse actor is the beach. “Los Angeles is a great place for people who hate the sun,” he says. “There’s a goth quality to it. So many of the best punk bands came out of Los Angeles.” He appreciates that you can avoid the sun by staying in your car. “It feels like I get to confront my hatred for the sun without being in it,” he says.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

5 a.m.: Early rising

I love Los Angeles so much that sometimes, when I wake up, it’s still dark outside. So it’ll be, like, 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning, and it’s dark, but the palm trees are silhouetted in the sky. Right away, I’ll have granola or Grape Nuts with almond milk and blueberries. And then I just like to sit in silence while it’s still dark out, while sipping two mugs of coffee. If I do go out, the Village Bakery and Cafe on Los Feliz Boulevard is really nice for breakfast or if you have to meet someone. There is a scramble there that I really like. But lately, I’ve also been getting granola with yogurt.

8 a.m.: Make it a work day in Elysian Valley, a.k.a. Frogtown

I like to make every day a work day. So even if I have a day off, I still try to do one work-related task. I have a music-and-writing space in Frogtown where I’ve had an office for a while. I had one there when we wrote “Portlandia.” I’ve got my drums set up, and I usually like to get things ready for touring. I have all these flight cases and drums there and I get all my equipment together. I’ll just clean them up a little bit. Sometimes I practice — not practicing to get my rudiments up for drumming — but just because I enjoy drumming so much. 


11 a.m:. Lunch in Frogtown

There are a few places in Frogtown where I like to have lunch. There’s a vegan cafe near me called Just What I Kneaded, which is great, or the Spoke Bicycle Cafe, which is a little down the river. I like the chickpea farro bowl with Brussels sprouts and tempeh. Sometimes I’ll go to Wax Paper and order the Kai Ryssdal sandwich. Their sandwiches are really good and are named for National Public Radio hosts. We have to embrace being pretentious. I think in these cafes, we should talk about the Velvet Underground. It’s almost like cosplaying. Like, let’s really be Silver Lake. Well, you know, with bicycles.

1 p.m.: Run errands at the Americana at Brand

I can’t just stay in Frogtown, so
I’d next go to the Americana at Brand outdoor mall because sometimes, when a place is devoid of all those pretensions, it’s actually very relaxing. You can walk around and get a lot of errands done. I love the sushi place the Bar — Hand Rolls by Seabutter.

2 p.m.: Take a drive through Griffith Park

I love driving. That’s one thing that I love about Los Angeles. Everywhere I go, I get to be in my car. 
I like listening to the radio. It’s just a peaceful place to be. There’s something special about it, especially as day turns into dusk. I like going down Sunset Boulevard or Beverly Boulevard. I also love driving Crystal Springs Drive through Griffith Park. It is the prettiest drive. The speed limit is nice and slow. In the summer, there’s a free Shakespeare festival in that same park. I haven’t made it yet because I’m usually traveling, but I’ve always wanted to go.

3 p.m.: Hit the record stores

I know it’s a cliché for me to say I go to record stores, but I do. I like going to Amoeba Music in Hollywood. I’ll get any reissue, like a new box set. And there’s always something that’s just come out. Sometimes I’ll go to a musical instrument store called Caveman Vintage Music in Lincoln Heights just to pick up a few things that I’ll need, you know, drumsticks or whatever. Or sometimes I’ll get a weird little amp or keyboard.

6 p.m.: Sushi dinner in Glendale

If I go out to dinner, I like going to Sasabune in Glendale. It’s on the third floor of a building near the Americana. In my opinion, Los Angeles has the best sushi in the world. Ventura Boulevard in the Valley is amazing, but this place is my favorite restaurant in the world. Wow. I love it.

8 p.m.: See live music

Once a month, although not usually on Sundays, I play covers at a bar and record store called Permanent Records Roadhouse in Cypress Park. Sometimes I do stand-up at Largo at the Coronet. But I love to see live bands. The Bellwether and the Teragram Ballroom are great venues to see bands. Those two, I’d say, are my two favorites to go to because I like a little bit of space, because I can’t be up at the front. You know, I’m so famous that bands stop playing [laughs] when they see me. No, I’m just a patron. I’m a fan. The Greek Theatre is a fantastic place to see live music. And the Ford amphitheater! The last time I went, I thought,
‘Why don’t I come to every show here?‘ because it’s the perfect size. It’s outdoors. It’s not gigantic. Every seat is good. It’s really, really great. I saw Neil Young there. I saw Paul McCartney at the Fonda Theatre in March, and he was unbelievable. I love that he played there. I like the Hollywood Bowl, obviously, but everybody knows that.

Shrek’s abs are more defined than some might expect. Or is it that the shade of his green skin makes them appear more chiseled under bright lights? Maybe it’s just disorienting because no one anticipated gawking at his torso inside the historic downtown Los Angeles venue founded by Hollywood legends Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith.

These are thoughts that swirl in one’s head while attending this year’s Las Culturistas Culture Awards ceremony, held on a recent Saturday night at the United Theater. An offshoot of the popular podcast that actor-comedians Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang have hosted since 2016, the award show aims to celebrate the year’s biggest pop culture moments and plays like a fever dream more dazzling and deliciously random than a late-night scroll session on TikTok.

After launching in 2022 as a live event outdoors at Lincoln Center, the guerrilla awards show reached TV screens for the first time last year. This year’s ceremony, which will air June 17 on Bravo and stream on Peacock, coincides with the podcast’s 10th anniversary and features a kaleidoscopic array of attendees, including screen veterans like Lisa Kudrow and Will Ferrell, reality TV favorites like “Summer House’s” Ciara Miller and “The Real Housewives of Dubai’s” Chanel Ayan, and anthropomorphic icons like Miss Piggy and a certain green ogre. And the prizes? It’s the only place you can find categories like “Real Housewives Award for Best Way to Start a Confrontation,” “Pornhub Category We Would Never Click On” and “Hilary Duff Award for Millennial Excellence.”

Over lunch at the NBCUniversal lot in Universal City, Rogers and Yang discussed the show’s evolution. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Matt Rogers, left foreground, and Bowen Yang perform a musical number inspired by “Heated Rivalry” during this year’s Las Culturistas Culture Awards.

(Monty Brinton / Bravo)

I will probably regret starting our conversation this way, but we all have our blind spots and, to thoroughly prepare for this interview, I watched “Shrek” for the first time last night.

Yang: Oh great! The first one?

Rogers: How’d you feel?

I get it now.

Rogers: Get what, that he is attractive or …?

I’m not quite there yet. You guys reference the film a lot on your podcast and Shrek has also been a figure on the awards show, including this year. I was hoping you’d explain Shrek as a heartthrob to me as if we’re in a pop culture class. When did this idea really take shape?

Yang: Over at least a couple years, to my knowledge, there’s been this online meme culture around Shrek, where it’s like, “Oh my God, Shrek is like a sex king,” but now it’s even spilled over into like dating life. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this, but there’s a verb called Shreking in dating, where it has to do with women dating a guy that’s below their league because he will be nice to them; he will be a Shrek to their Fiona. That’s an interesting thing — you date someone slightly in another zone than you, so that you can be like, “Well, that’s my Shrek,” but meanwhile, there’s the tension between that and Shrek being someone that people are actually attracted to. This just speaks to the enduring power of Shrek as a pop culture icon.

Rogers: I think what it is, is he has an amazing accent. It’s a very powerful thing. He’s independent, he’s self-sufficient, he’s a movie star.

Yang: He said it at the awards. I mean, he’s a rich celebrity.

Rogers: We saw the real Shrek at the awards and he looks pretty f—ing good to me.

Yang: He looked good to me. I don’t know what these Gen Zers are talking about with this Shrek being below your league.

What are the calls with publicists like now to get their clients to participate?

Yang: Last year was a communication puzzle to solve. We were like, “OK, we have to really convey this the right way.” We thought, perhaps naively, now that we’ve done it, now that there’s a proof of concept, it’s going to be much clearer. I think it was clearer, but there was still that degree of, “oh, this is …” — not to like give ourselves too much credit, but this is a concentric circle outside of what is very established in the form of an award show. You’ve got publicists who are like, “Well, we would love for our client to win an award.” And you’re like, “No, that’s not really the point.”

Rogers: Presenting is just as good as winning, just as good as performing. But I think it’s weird that we have been so late to stumble on what the show really is, which is it’s a variety show. And, so, in wrapping your head around it that way, it’s actually pretty easy to get across. It just has the drag of an award show, and that’s our way in.

But I do understand the publicist hesitation because I will say, in a world where it’s your job to protect your client, you’re putting them in a situation that is like, “OK, they’re going to an award show — that’s something this town takes very seriously.” So, it’s an ask to be like, “Hey, can you come take the piss out of this concept that you’re then probably gonna spend eight months of the year trying to actually achieve?” I would be lying if I said that we didn’t want one day to win one of those awards. It’s an acknowledgment of your work, but in that, Bowen and I think the No. 1 thing that’s the funniest thing in the world is people who take themselves that seriously. It’s a healthy mix of appreciation for this thing that was actually a big element of the culture that made us say culture was for us, which was watching award shows when we were kids, and also the reality that we now know as people that are in the industry of what they really are, which is they’re just shows. We’re not condemning them, we’re having fun with it.

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1. Scenes from the 2025 Las Culturistas Culture Awards: Jeff Goldblum, left, accepting the award for Most Amazing Impact in Film for his appearance in “Jurassic Park,” alongside presenter Patti Harrison. (Griffin Nagel / Bravo) 2. Allison Janney was a guest of honor, receiving the Lifetime of Culture award. (Jordan Strauss / Bravo)

Have you been asked to tweak the name of a category or punch it up even more?

Yang: Last week was the window when our producers could be very honest with us and say if something may not be working. Back to the Shrek [bit in this year’s show], actually, that ended up being much dirtier and bluer than it was on stage.

Really? I already knew I wouldn’t be able to include the award category because of Times standards. So the actual bit was raunchier?

Yang: It was even raunchier. It went for it.

Rogers: But it’s also a testament to how much freedom they give us to make our show. If they were concerned at all about us desecrating the image of Shrek, we certainly did not feel that way. I am really shocked and grateful that we get to do something that it feels like we’re getting away with something.

Take me back in time with young Bowen and young Matt. What do you remember about your enthusiasm for award shows growing up?

Yang: It was watching Billy Crystal at the Oscars do song and dance numbers, zing these things in for a laugh that we’re referencing the year, being in these video packages where he was in the movies. That it was live television and just this pageantry of people congratulating themselves, congratulating each other. I would tune in live every single year to all the award shows and I would follow the host changes. I remember Whoopi’s first year [hosting the Oscars]; I remember Ellen’s first year. I was really obsessive. It opened the door for all these things that I currently love, and that I’ve somehow had a fortunate experience in, which is live television, song and dance numbers — everything that Billy Crystal was doing. It keyed me in on how show business works, down to production elements and how filmmaking comes together.

Rogers: I just remember, I looked at the screen and I was like, “Oh, that’s where I belong. I belong with them. I don’t belong out here.” I was one of those Gold Derby kids — I would be on the forums; I still sometimes look at the odds and rankings and stuff. It was like gay sports, particularly with the best actress and best supporting actress races. And then obviously the Grammys, and all of that. One year I was watching, I think it was the People’s Choice Awards or the American Music Awards or something, and Shania Twain lost to LeAnn Rimes, and I cried for a day. I took it so seriously and my mother turned to me and said, “You need to stop.” But you couldn’t tell me it didn’t matter at the time. [Reporter’s note: Twain lost the favorite country new artist award to Rimes at the 1997 American Music Awards.]

As the profile of Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers’ variety-style award show has risen, getting stars on board is an interesting puzzle: “You’ve got publicists who are like, ‘Well, we would love for our client to win an award,’” Yang says. “And you’re like, ‘No, that’s not really the point.’”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

What do you remember about your first experience at a major awards show?

Rogers: He was nominated as writer for “SNL” and took me as his date. We were sitting there — the “Queer Eye” guys were sitting like three rows behind us.

Yang: We watched Phoebe Waller-Bridge sweep with “Fleabag.”

Rogers: We watched Michelle Williams win for “Fosse/Verdon.” It was funny because we had gone to the bar and were double-fisting drinks back to the seats and I said to Bowen, “Oh my God, I’m like the Busy Philipps to your Michelle Williams.”

Yang: And who shows up behind us?

Rogers: Busy Philipps taps on our shoulders and goes, “You guys are killing it with those drinks.” And I’m like, she doesn’t even know I’m her. Cut to minutes later, Michelle walking up and giving a banger of a speech.

Yang: That was like our first brush with it. Even now we go to these, and we’re like, this is really something; it’s incredible. We were at the Oscars last year, front row, witnessing all of it go down, witnessing the moment where upsets would happen, feeling the vibe in the room shift. The benefit of our show is that the vibe is pretty high throughout; it does not decline as soon as there are losers in the room.

Las Culturistas Culture Awards took place in late May and is being telecast roughly two weeks later. Do you see it ever going the live route?

Yang: We don’t know. That is my not so secret dream, is to do it live one day. There’s just something about doing it live — and it occurs to me now that I’ve been very lucky and fortunate to have have my reps in. There’s just something so wonderful about it being this event where everyone is tuning in, enjoying it the same time you are. That is really something special.

Rogers: If he’s down, I’m down.

I’m sure this changes each year, but who’s your dream person to snag for an appearance?

Rogers: I would say the people that make it very apparent that they have sketch comedy and impression skills, and maybe you wouldn’t necessarily know that they do until they show that.

Yang: Ariana Grande.

Rogers: Our dream was for Ariana to come do an original character. We actually floated to her the idea — there was going to be like a Banksy reveal of MsMojo, and it was going to be revealed that it was Ariana Grande was MsMojo. But she actually was in rehearsals for the Eternal Sunshine World Tour. Little did we know she also was recording “Petal.” She was a bit too busy to play MsMojo, I guess, this time.

Yang: These two are forever paired in my head, but it’s because she’s another sketch performer: Cher. And sometimes the dream guests are not big names, it’s the people that we came up with in comedy. And actually one of the consumer research reports that we got back before we started writing this year’s show was that the thing that people loved about the Culture Awards was this crossover of reality talent, A-listers and Oscar winners, and comedy people — that mix, those three [types of] people mingling together is what the viewers want.

Rogers: I’m just so proud in every single way of the diverse array of talent that we were able to bring together. I looked out in the audience and it was just a party of so many friends and people we’ve met in the business — people that I didn’t even get to meet that night, but I was just gagged they’re there, especially in the edit, which you’ll see. This is Bowen’s first year in the edit, he had to miss it last year, but that’s what’s so cool about going through the footage, is you’re like, “Oh my God, there’s someone I’ve loved my entire life next to my cousin.” We were saying to each other that it ended up being like a weird love letter to our younger selves, having Mandy Moore and singing “Only Hope” with her and doing the “Pokémon” theme song and getting to hang out with Pikachu.

Do you worry about it ever getting too big?

Rogers: If it ever gets to a point where it couldn’t be funny, that wouldn’t work. We want it to always stay true to what it is, which is it’s our comedy special together. As long as it doesn’t feel like it’s selling out — and I can understand people watching it and being like, “Oh, they obviously had to have Nintendo characters because it’s NBCUniversal or obviously they had to include “Summer House” — none of that is true.

Yang: There’s no mandate.

Rogers: This is genuinely what we would want the show to be, and so as long as it’s that, we’re good.

So what’s your “I don’t think so, honey” on awards shows?

Rogers: I don’t think so, honey — 10 nominees for best picture at the Oscars. Why?

Yang: Totally. Tea.

Rogers: I actually think it helps things that are weirder win because it’s too many. And the way that they ranked choices. I’m a popular-vote person anyway.

Yang: I need us to really get on the same page about play-off music. Sometimes people are encouraged to go on, sometimes we turn against that. Let’s stop innovating, let’s stop trying to break the mold on them. Let’s just respect that as much as we can, unless it’s egregious.

And it’s always a bit within the show.

Yang: This is what I was about to get to. The hosts now are always trying to bitify that; it’s more of a practical thing to keep the show moving. Don’t try to put a hat on top of a hat by making it a comedic moment too. We’ve never really played with that trope, even though we could, and maybe should. For now, my attitude towards play-off music is, these people might not ever be on this stage again.

How soon do you start planning the next one?

Rogers: Hopefully, they give us the green light.

Ana Gasteyer, left, Jamie Lee Curtis and Patti Harrison at the 2025 Las Culturistas Culture Awards.

(Jordan Strauss / Bravo)

How did you go about deciding which categories would return this year and which you invent along the way?

Yang: We did an audit this year of all the categories from the last few years of doing this.

Rogers: Less made it back last year.

Yang: I think maybe about 30 max previous categories [returned] — that’s a decent ratio, 70-30 is nice. From there, we just kind of molded the clay on the table a little bit. We have the benefit of making this a recursive reinvented show every year; the categories itself are the premise, it’s the micro-premise within the segment or the element. The jokes are the nominees. Why not create new opportunities at every turn.

“Las Culturistas” expanded into a video podcast last year. How do you feel about this evolution we’re seeing to the format?

Rogers: It’s not that when I’m on camera with Bowen doing the podcast, like, “Oh, I wish I could be more relaxed,” I just wish the whole industry hadn’t gone this way because I feel like when you’re on camera, you can’t help but be a little bit more self-conscious, and that is going to come through in the podcast product. If I had my druthers, none of them would be on film. I can understand that it helps a lot and I can note a marked difference in the amount of times I get recognized now that we are on social media. It absolutely “helped” our podcast get bigger. That being said, I don’t think it was a good thing for podcasting that they all became TV shows.

Yang: It changes the register and the tone by nature. You cannot help but be motivated by different things, by the appearance of it, by the presentation of it, beyond what it was, which is just radio, which is a really important American form.

As two people who grew up being connoisseurs of pop culture, what is it like to be on the other side of it, to feel the intensity of it — I’m talking about what happened with the Jasmine Crockett comments — to become part of the conversation? What lesson came from that?

Yang: We are experiencing something in an acute way that I think everyone is experiencing, which is we are seeing ourselves in the third person. Everyone is kind of modulating their behavior based on how they are appearing out of body. It’s the way we all move through the world now, which can be snapshot and projected very widely out into the world for whatever reason.

Rogers: When you’re talking candidly, you can never know what piece of what you’re saying is going to be the piece that gets scrutinized again and again and again and again by what feels like the entire internet. And if you did, you would, of course, be more specific, and you would be able to really clearly say why you are saying what you are saying. We have had learning experiences with that, and so what we can do going forward is be more clear about the things that we do believe and stand by. That is something that even 10 years in the game we are learning how to do.

Yang: And I think on a very large scale, what is going to happen is that we are all going to adjust for the fact that we have behaviorally changed because of this idea that we’re seeing ourselves in the third person constantly. For me, personally, I’ve had to wrestle with this idea after being on “SNL” for seven years and having to evaluate myself and having an audience evaluate me every week. I’ve changed behaviorally; I need to get over this fear of being seen. I need to get better about listening to my own voice.

Rogers: The internet is a very weird place and the thing is, it deliberately ignores nuance. It willfully tries to make something seem lowest common denominator, so that there can be a community based around that thing. And that is not good for the world. It’s not good for discourse. It’s not good for our politics. It’s really bad for our politics. Until we can all get on the same page about the ways in which we are willfully misunderstanding each other and calling it discourse, it won’t get better.

Yang: The misunderstandings are about people’s tones, and not necessarily about the things that people are pointing toward.

This is the fourth year of the LA Card Show, and my, how it has grown.

The venue has grown larger and bolder with each year, beginning at the Mayan Theater in 2023. The Intuit Dome held the event in 2024 and Dodger Stadium in 2025. This year’s show will take place this weekend at the L.A. Convention Center West Hall.

Roughly 700 collectibles vendors are expected, almost double the number at Dodger Stadium. Food and drink will be available and the card show is open to all ages.

Pokémon cards and items continue to be the most popular to trade and purchase, according to show officials. All sorts of sports collectibles will be plentiful, with Shohei Ohtani — unsurprisingly — the most popular card, and card grading will be available on-site.

“More than just a card show, it is a cultural event built around the art of collecting,” LA Card Show co-founder Adam Derry said.

Trading Card Game (TCG) deck-building is increasingly popular, with players competing in games such as “Magic: The Gathering” using cards that represent spells, monsters and resources. Comic collectibles will also be traded and sold.

Other attractions include activations with the Clippers, Kings, Sparks and LAFC, and fashion and streetwear from HYPLAND, Holiday, Vandy The Pink and Research Vintage.

The card show will take place from 10 am. until 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday with VIP access at 9 a.m. A two-day general admission pass is $50 (VIP $100), with one-day passes $30 (VIP $50). Ages 8 and younger are free.

“Doctor Who” is going through another major regeneration.

The BBC announced Wednesday that it is not moving forward with a previously announced “Doctor Who” Christmas special. Last year, the broadcaster teased a “spectacular” special episode written by showrunner Russell T Davies for the 2026 holiday.

“After careful consideration, the BBC, Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf have collectively decided not to go ahead with the previously announced Doctor Who Christmas episode,” the BBC wrote in its latest update. “This decision was not taken lightly, and we know it will be disappointing for fans, but in order to set the show up for future series, it was decided that rather than bridge the gap with a one off special, we are choosing to push forward to invest in the long-term future of the show which ensures that when the TARDIS lands once more, it does so in all its glory.”

Whovians know that the Christmas Day specials are a longstanding tradition for the sci-fi series. Previous holiday episodes have marked the first full appearance of David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor in 2005 as well as Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor in 2023.

BBC’s plan now is to “put Doctor Who out to competitive tender” in order to “[secure] the next phase of the show for future generations” — meaning they are inviting potential producers to pitch their ideas for the next era of the long-running series. This also means Davies and producer Bad Wolf are parting ways with the franchise.

“And so GOODBYE from me to Doctor Who but HELLO to a big new future for the show,” Davies wrote in a Wednesday Instagram post, confirming his exit. “You’ll have to wait a bit longer for new Doctor Who… but you’ll be waiting for MORE Doctor Who than a one-off. So it’s worth it!”

Davies, who led the “Doctor Who” revival from its 2005 launch to 2010 before returning for his second stint in 2023, also said that he had not written a script for the previously planned Christmas special and “no actor was ever approached to play the next Doctor.”

“I’m as excited as anyone to see what comes next!” Davies added. “Will they keep the theme tune? Will they lose the blue box? Will they bring back the Drahvin?! It’s all up for grabs, which is so Doctor Who, exciting and unpredictable and new!”

Bad Wolf, which worked on the two seasons starring Gatwa as the Time Lord, also on Wednesday confirmed its exit on Instagram in a post thanking fans and those that joined them on this “incredible journey through Space and Time.”

“It has been a joy and a privilege to have been at the helm of the TARDIS alongside the brilliant Russell T Davies,” read the production company’s statement. “Doctor Who is – and always will be – a show that shines light into the darkness and it has been an absolute honour to have been its torch bearer for 26 episodes with the BBC and Disney+.”

The BBC in its announcement reiterated its commitment to “Doctor Who” and its future. It also shared that a previously announced animated “Doctor Who” series for CBeebies is currently in production.

This latest “Doctor Who” update comes during a tenuous time for the franchise. The series has faced low viewership, Disney+ exiting as the show’s co-producers and Gatwa ending his run as the Doctor. The most recent season concluded with a cliffhanger, with the Fifteenth Doctor regenerating into a form resembling Rose Tyler, the companion portrayed by Billie Piper.

Actor Anthony Head died last week at the age of 72 after complications due to pneumonia.

Last week, the world was shocked and saddened to hear the news that actor Anthony Head had died.

The star was best known for his roles as Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Rupert Mannion in the comedy series Ted Lasso.

On Wednesday’s episode of The One Show (June 10), BBC presenters Angellica Bell and JB Gill spoke about his death to actor Colin Morgan.

The 40-year-old starred alongside Anthony during his time on the children’s fantasy show Merlin, which ran from 2008 to 2012.

Anthony played King Uther Pendragon in the series, while Colin played the title character in the beloved show

Addressing the news of his death last week, host Angellica said to Colin: “Your big break was in the BBC series Merlin alongside the late Anthony Head, and you must have some fond memories of working with him?”

He said: “Yeah, I was so shocked and heartbroken to hear about his loss last week. He was such a pinnacle of a role model to me and all the young cast of Merlin.

“I have such incredible memories of working with him. Right now, my thoughts go out to his daughters, Daisy and Emily.”

JB added: “Yeah, condolences to his family as well.”

The news of his death was confirmed by his daughter in a statement which was released on Friday, June 5.

The said: “It is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of our extraordinary father, Anthony Head.

“He passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family. It has been, and forever will be, an honour and a privilege to be his daughters, and to have witnessed first-hand the impact both he and his work have had on so many.”

Since the announcement of his death, tributes have been flooding in from his former co-stars, including Matt Lucas, Charisma Carpenter and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Alongside a photo of them all years ago, the actress wrote on Instagram: “Tell Giles I figured it out and I’m ok” Well I don’t have it figured out and I’m not ok. But I know I’m the lucky one because I knew you. Thank you to Daisy and Emily who not only shared their dad with me, but with the world.

The One Show is available to watch weeknights on BBC One from 7pm

The BBC star was absent from her usual space on the green sofa as JB Gill and Angelica Bell fronted the programme.

Things looked slightly different during the latest episode of The One Show as people were quick to notice Alex Jones’ absence.

The Welsh star usually fronts the programme alongside a plethora of rotating presenters, including Roman Kemp, Vernon Kay and Clara Amfo.

However, on Wednesday night (June 10), BBC fans saw Angellica Bell and JB Gill opening the programme as they explained where the 49-year-old was.

Angellica said: “If you’re wondering where Alex is tonight, she’s at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition before it opens to the public next Tuesday.

“Last night, we revealed the successful artists, both amateur and professional, who were selected to have their work displayed in the world-famous gallery. Tonight, we’ve been invited to a special launch party to celebrate.”

The camera then cut to a clip of Alex inside Burlington House, where the event is taking place, as she walked through one of the rooms holding the artwork.

She said: “It’s one of my favourite nights of the year. Oh my goodness, there is so much to see here. Now, we’ve been following some of the artists all week who are hoping to get their work on the wall.

“Tonight, after 22 years of submitting, Vincent will finally see his on one of these walls, it’s going to be quite an emotional moment, I think.

“Also, you should see the guest list! There are celebrities everywhere here, and I might just get one for a chat later, who knows.”

The BBC star later spoke with Vincent who was overcome with emotion when he saw his artwork on the wall after two decades trying to achieve his goal.

Elsewhere on the show, Nikki Fox informed viewers that they won’t be seeing her on-screen for a while as Watchdog was taking a hiatus.

She told viewers: “We’re having a little break now. Going to have a little lie down and a bacon roll!

“But we are going to be back very soon with plenty more investigations from me, Matt and our new team members! We’ve got Nick Stapleton, who you saw tonight and Amanda Haque.”

As she wrapped up, Angellica told fans the Watchdog segment would return again in September.

The One Show is available to watch weeknights on BBC One from 7pm

There’s a sense of quiet mystery in tarot. That’s why during my reading last week, it was more peculiar than disruptive when a dancer hopped on a table to lay at a 90-degree angle and jet her feet in the air.

Despite said activity, the tone was contemplative, and moments later, as I was being asked to describe the colors and mood of a Ten of Swords card, I was tapped on the shoulder. After a gesture to follow, I was handed a lantern.

The way I swayed the light would now dictate the performer’s movements. We may not have been dancing, but it was close. Melancholic and intimate, the performer (Haylee Nichele) silently guided me to become comfortable in my discomfort, to sit with the evening’s themes of longing, loss, confusion and impending grief.

Sam Alper’s Bill, foreground, and Haylee Nichele’s Constance in Koryn Wicks’ “You Must Be Here for the Reading,” an immersive tarot show.

(Daniel Kleen)

“You Must Be Here for the Reading,” running through June 20 at North Hollywood’s After Hours Theatre, is part theatrical and dance performance, part tarot reading and part cocktail hour. It’s also personal, led by two actors who encourage the attendees to open up, to complete poems and to generally tune into their vulnerability.

The 60-minute show, partly scripted and partly improvised, comes from the mind of Koryn Wicks. Trained in dance and choreography, Wicks’ day job is in themed entertainment while her personal projects explore the immersive space. They’re theatrical works that experiment with audience interaction. “You Must Be Here for the Reading” is no different.

The setup: Collectively, our group of eight has arrived at a tarot reading, only the famed reader we are there to work with, Constance, performed by Nichele on the night I saw, never arrives for her assigned role. We know her fate, but her partner, Sam Alper’s Bill, who nervously attempts to carry on with the performance in her absence, does not.

From there, “You Must be Here for the Reading” becomes a show heavy on audience participation. There are scripted, story-specific beats, but the cards pulled — and the tales they tell — is, of course, randomized.

Sam Alper as Bill, an unsuspecting tarot card reader in Koryn Wicks’ “You Must Be Here for the Reading.”

(Daniel Kleen)

“I knew that I wanted the audience to be the primary drivers of the tarot reading,” Wicks says. “I knew that I wanted the host to not be a tarot reader and there to be some sort of event that made it so the audience would have to take the reins and read the tarot.”

In turn, “You Must Be Here for the Reading” works for both those who are novices to the space as well as those who are more experienced. During the pre-show, guests can explore tarot books and uncover slips of paper hidden in them that prompt us to answer questions or complete poems — the latter will figure into the performance. A worksheet given to us asks us to interpret some core tenets, as well as to enter the reading with a question we would like to explore.

The show then focuses on how each attendee’s desires, concerns or lived experiences shape the perception of the reading.

“What’s drawn me to tarot is the way it’s built on symbolism and the way that symbolism is embedded in the collective unconscious,” Wicks says. “I think it’s really fascinating that we have this artifact that has this ability to give us insight into a lot of shared experiences. When I’ve read different books about tarot, or had my cards read by different people, there is an openness to interpenetration.

“The assignment I gave myself for this piece,” Wicks continues, “was to create an experience in which you had a group of people coming together and going through the process of defining the symbolism and meaning of the cards in real time.”

And yet the show also pulls from Wicks’ background in dance. While Constance never shows for the reading, her presence is still felt, often hovering or circling around the table with movements designed to interpret the tone of the reading. She’s a ghostly presence, the gracefulness heightening the somber emotions of the night. Though she and Bill never interact directly, much of the dance seeks to explore their unseen bond. At times, Constance may call on various audience members to act as a dance partner.

Koryn Wicks, creator of “You Must Be Here for the Reading,” an immersive tarot performance in which audiences are tasked with deciphering their own cards while a melancholic story unfolds around them.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

“I really believe that one of the most beautiful things art does for us is remind us that we are not alone,” Wicks says.

Immersive art allows for a sense of participation, which Wicks hopes will increase one’s appreciation of dance.

“Dance is an embodied art form,” Wicks says. “There is science that shows that some of the enjoyment from watching dance comes from imagining yourself moving. In North America, a lot of people haven’t had an experience or education with dance, especially not concert dance. Then we ask them to sit in a dark auditorium in a small chair and not move to enjoy it. I found through my research, both practical and academic, there is something to inviting audiences to participate in dance that allows them to derive meaning from it.”

While there isn’t enough time in the show for everyone to have a one-on-one experience with the dancer, watching an audience and cast member attempt to get in sync with each other underlines the night’s themes of connecting. Ultimately, that’s the space where the show resides. “You Must Be Here for the Reading” uses tarot as a means to bring some structure to our often disconnected lives.

“It stands in contradiction to our current historical moment,” Wicks says of the show. “It’s very anti-AI. It’s asking people to sit with books and to find little seeds and not necessarily pursue solutions or puzzles. It’s asking us to connect, sometimes with strangers.”

I kept my question that I brought to the reading secret, but I found the show provided a hopeful answer. Not because the cards offered a solution. Instead, they provided a community.

Saturday Kitchen presenter Matt Tebbutt has been at the helm of the BBC cookery show for almost a decade

Saturday Kitchen host Matt Tebbutt has revealed a major confession nearly a decade after succeeding James Martin as the face of the BBC cookery programme.

The presenter, 52, had been a frequent guest and stand-in host before securing the permanent role in March 2017.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk at Jeremy Clarkson‘s FarmFest during the May Bank Holiday weekend, he confessed he now finally considers himself a TV chef.

“I think it is fair to say now I am probably a TV chef. I originally started as a working chef doing all the hours for 14 years. That’s a tough game. TV cookery isn’t.

“It comes with other pressures. There are time pressures. Conformity. I mean I’ve always been a chef but I think now it’s veered into ‘TV chef’,” he acknowledged. Discussing his position on the long-standing cookery programme.

He explained, “My job is to make food and cooking look really accessible. We have our guest chef’s on and they’re the kind of the aspirational ones.

“My job is to do those dishes that people will look at and go ‘I could get out of bed now and go to the supermarket and buy those ingredients and make that’.”

“Whether they do or not I don’t know but it is there for them,” he chuckled.

One philosophy Matt is particularly passionate about is the “farm to fork” approach, which was amongst the key reasons he was supporting Farm Fest.

He made an appearance at the festival on Sunday, 24 May, where he delivered a cookery demonstration, gave a talk and even took on the role of judge at the dog show, despite confessing he keeps two cats at home, reports the Express.

“It’s absolutely [great] to be able to support British farmers at a time when the government isn’t and to highlight [what they go through],” he said shortly after his arrival.

“I mean, you see it around you,” he added, gesturing towards the nearby stalls.

“People who are committed to supporting farming and where the food comes from. It’s marvellous. So if I can show support, I will.

“I live in a rural part of Wales, so you see it on a daily basis. You are in pubs with farmers chatting to them, and you know the sort of problems that they are trying to overcome right now, so it is great to support this.”

Saturday Kitchen airs at 9am every Saturday on BBC One and iPlayer

Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater have reportedly ended their relationship after almost three years together.

According to multiple outlets, the former couple — who met on the set of the 2024 musical blockbuster “Wicked” — quietly called it quits several months ago.

“It’s amicable, they gave lots of time and careful consideration and decided to go their separate ways,” a source told People. “They are still friends and very supportive of one another. They have been quietly broken up for several months.”

The “Thank U, Next” singer, 32, and “SpongeBob SquarePants” actor, 34, had been linked since 2023. They made their relationship Instagram-official in 2024 in the lead-up to the release of “Wicked,” in which Grande starred as G(a)linda the Good while Slater portrayed Munchkin and future-Tin Man Boq.

Their dating rumors were scrutinized at the time because Grande and Slater both had highly publicized splits from former spouses around the same time. Grande was previously married to real estate agent Dalton Gomez, while Slater had been married to psychologist Lilly Jay, his high-school sweetheart with whom he shares a child.

In March, Slater wrapped the off-Broadway run of “Marcel on the Run.” In addition to co-writing the play with Marshall Pailet, Slater portrayed mime artist Marcel Marceau.

Grande, meanwhile, embarked on her Eternal Sunshine tour in Oakland on Saturday. This marks the “Hate That I Made You Love Me” singer’s first tour since 2019. Grande is slated for five shows in Los Angeles beginning June 13.

This might be the last time fans can catch Grande at a live concert — at least for a while. In November, she mentioned these shows might be her “last hurrah” as a touring pop star.

“I’m very excited to do this small tour, but I think it might not happen again for a long, long, long, long time,” she said on the “Good Hang With Amy Poehler” podcast. “So I’m going to give it my all, and it’s going to be beautiful, and I think that’s why I’m doing it, because it’s like, one last hurrah.”

Grande’s next album, “Petal,” will be released July 31.

Christa Miller, who plays consummate mother and opinionated neighbor Liz on “Shrinking,” has one piece of advice for parental dressing: Step away from the athleisure.

“You’re not going to feel confident in workout wear,” says Miller. She and the show’s costume designer, Allyson B. Fanger, are very intentional with Liz’s outfits, a master class in effortless yet accessible casual chic: Bold colors, layered tops, cheeky accessories and a liberal use of stripes. “The character totally could have been [in] Lululemon, but I didn’t want to fall into that trap.” Instead, Miller says they chose to spotlight Californian brands like Clare V, Jennifer Meyer, and fittingly, Mother, styled “a little off” for looks that have become so popular that Fanger created a LookLikeLiz hashtag on Instagram for fans.

Miller is just one of the stars pulling focus for their characters’ distinctive style on shows that are contenders in the Emmys race this year: Keke Palmer (“The ‘Burbs”), Sarah Snook (“All Her Fault”), Lucy Punch (“The Audacity”), Elle Fanning (“Margo’s Got Money Troubles”) and others all have fans buzzing about their fashion. And costume designers and style experts agree that the inspiration goes both ways.

“There was this expectation that once you became a mom, the attractive parts of you got set aside because you were just a mom,” says Shana Draugelis, founder and CEO of lifestyle and shopping website the Mom Edit, which recently ran a detailed feature on Liz’s wardrobe. “With the advent of Instagram, the whole style game has just completely leveled up.”

Liz’s looks, which Miller says are inspired by “Brentwood mom” style, reflect the character’s personality. “She’s not going to work, but she does want to have a certain element of presence,” says Fanger, who is a five-time Emmy nominee for her work on “Grace and Frankie.” “But there’s also a casual component to Los Angeles dressing. Mixing levels [of designers] lends itself to uniqueness, a strong point of view and a general coolness. You never look like you’re trying too hard.”

As Samira, a city native who moves to “The ’Burbs” with her husband and baby son, Keke Palmer stands out from the cul-de-sac crowd.

(Elizabeth Morris / Peacock)

Another character with a strong fashion POV is “The ‘Burbs” Samira (Palmer), a city girl and new mom who moves with her husband Rob (Jack Whitehall) and their baby son from the city to the idyllic (and fictional) Hinkley Hills. Clad in bright, slouchy-cool separates and statement accessories, Samira quickly makes a splash among her more blandly dressed neighbors.

“She’s the only Black woman in the neighborhood,” says the show’s costume designer, Trayce Gigi Field, who pulls quite a bit of, yes, Mother, but also likes to sprinkle in some lesser-known designers like Good ’Ol Whats-her-face jeans. She also paired Samira’s Howard University sweatshirt with biker shorts a la Princess Diana. “Showing her jewelry and her vibe and just having cooler clothes … it’s a great contrast to the other characters, except for Rob, [who] had the Black wife glow-up.”

Less brightly colored but no less interesting are Marissa (Snook) and Jenny (Dakota Fanning), who bond after the disappearance of Marissa’s son in an affluent Chicago neighborhood in “All Her Fault.” Their wardrobes are more subtle, yet show that there are different strata in the quiet luxury landscape. Publishing exec Jenny is well off, but nowhere near as wealthy as Marissa, who owns an accounting firm. (Perhaps not coatless “Succession” rich, but still.)

Sarah Snook, left, and Dakota Fanning connect as working moms in “All Her Fault,” albeit with subtle class distinctions between them.

(Sarah Enticknap / Peacock)

Costume designer Gypsy Taylor pulled “silks and beautiful fine wools and cashmeres” in warm toffee, chocolate and peachy tones by designers like Max Mara and Armani for Marissa, while Jenny “was a little bit more street: leather coats instead of cashmere. Or a beautiful J. Crew turtleneck as opposed to a Saks Fifth Avenue” one.

But perhaps the most amusing depiction was how Taylor contrasted the stay-at-home moms (and dads) with Marissa and Jenny, with most of the sartorial showdowns taking place during school pickups and dropoffs. “We just went hard yummy mummy on her,” says Taylor of PTA President Sarah Larsen (Melanie Vallejo). She used “too much Lululemon,” as well as Alo and PE Nation to round out the athleisure.

In “The Audacity,” Silicon Valley parents Duncan (Billy Magnussen) and Lili (Punch) portray a different kind of luxury, a casual minimalism that belies the residents’ mind-boggling net worth. “The focus is not so much showing off the wealth, but at least, you know, it’s still there,” says the show’s costume designer Farnaz Khaki-Sadigh. “So you see people like wearing a T-shirt, but it’s not your average T-shirt — more about the quality of the fabric than the designer name on it.”

As the wife of a tech magnate in “The Audacity,” Lucy Punch’s costumes tap into the ultra-minimalist luxury of Silicon Valley.

(Ed Araquel / AMC)

Finally, on the other side of the economic spectrum, there’s Margo (Elle Fanning) and her mother Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer) in “Margo’s Got Money Troubles.” When college student Margo unexpectedly becomes pregnant, Shyanne and Margo’s estranged father Jinx (Nick Offerman) step in; the series follows their struggle to support each other after baby Bodhi arrives.

Costume designer Mirren Gordon-Crozier says via email that her conversations with Fanning “centered around making Margo feel emotionally truthful rather than overly styled.” This meant vintage Levi’s, worn tees, thrift-store knits, “pieces that feel inherited or accumulated over time.” As for her mother, “Shyanne is much more performative. She understands the power of presentation and uses fashion almost as armor.”

But it’s not just the distinctive clothes that are uniting the people on these shows — it’s the fact that parenthood is just one aspect of these characters’ very full, very busy lives. “What does feel good to me is the fact that so many of these moms are being portrayed in Hollywood for something other than being a mom,” says Draguelis. “It just feels like being a mom is a continuation of who you are.”

Since its creation more than a century ago, the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting has been in the lamppost business and little else.

But in recent months, the little-known city agency has found itself pulled into a fierce debate over L.A.’s relationship with Flock Safety, a surveillance technology company that has been criticized for supplying data used to enable the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

In L.A., Flock operates dozens of automated license plate readers, which allow authorities to scan for vehicles that have been reported stolen or are registered to known fugitives, tracking their movements throughout the city.

The devices are often mounted on municipal light poles, which makes the Bureau of Street Lighting responsible for their installation.

Reports that Flock has shared license plate data with federal authorities, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have prompted dozens of mostly smaller cities across the country to end their relationship with the company. But in L.A. it still has found willing customers, including the LAPD.

Hundreds of emails obtained by The Times through public records requests reveal how LAPD boosters, homeowner associations and elected officials have engaged in a months-long campaign to pressure the Bureau of Street Lighting to speed up installations of the plate readers.

Flock, headquartered in Atlanta, said that it contracts with roughly 5,000 U.S. law enforcement agencies nationwide, and that its technology complies with a California law that limits what information can be shared with federal authorities. A company spokesperson said that Flock’s technology is “built around transparency, accountability, and local control.”

“Our customers own and control their data, which is deleted after 30 days by default,” the spokesperson, MoMo Zhou, said in a statement to The Times. “Our platform includes safeguards like audit trails to help ensure accountability at every step. Every day, Flock supports communities across the country in addressing crime and locating missing people.”

The Bureau of Street Lighting, with 177 employees and a relatively modest budget of $49.4 million, would seem an unlikely player in the broader debate over police surveillance. It is primarily tasked with repairing and fortifying the city’s more than 210,000 streetlamps — a frequent target of copper wire thieves — and maintaining its network of electrical vehicle charging stations.

The push to put up more plate readers has come amid calls for greater transparency around the Los Angeles Police Department’s dealings with Flock. In March, the Police Commission asked the department to report back on what information the company’s scanners collect and share. In recent months, the commission declined to approve donations of Flock cameras.

Members of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition held a news conference to express opposition to Flock Safety, a license plate reader, ahead of a Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners meeting on March 3, 2026.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

The commission ordered its inspector general to conduct an audit of the LAPD’s use of license plate reader technology, with the findings expected to be released in the summer.

Recently, Councilmember Ysabel Jurado introduced a motion urging the commission to “refrain from entering into any new Memoranda of Understanding, Contracts, or other Agreements, or implement any pilot programs with Flock Safety or its affiliates.” LAPD officials said last month that the city attorney’s office has been working on drawing up a formal contract with Flock.

Behind the scenes, though, the pressure to work with Flock has been ratcheting up from other council offices and community groups.

When a representative from Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky’s office emailed the streetlighting bureau urging speed, she received a response that said the installation process shouldn’t be rushed because some city light poles can’t support the weight of a Flock reader, which is normally powered by a solar panel.

“The last thing we need is to have a pole fall onto someone or something if there are high winds,” the bureau’s Clinton Tsurui wrote in the June 4, 2025, email.

In another exchange, Tsurui expressed frustration with a colleague who had offered what he thought was an overly optimistic timetable for installing new plate readers.

He wrote: “smh, promising things we can’t do is going to catch up with us one day.”

The Los Angeles Police Foundation, a nonprofit group that has long bankrolled equipment for the LAPD and offered other support, has criticized delays in installing the Flock devices. Last year, the foundation facilitated the donation of dozens of Flock cameras, most of which ended up in affluent neighborhoods on the city’s Westside and in the San Fernando Valley.

Records show that in May 2025, Dana Katz, the foundation’s executive director, reached out to the mayor’s office with a request to waive permit and rental fees associated with installing the new readers. Katz wrote in an email that the extra expense of around $2,000 per device were “cost prohibitive and detrimental to public safety.”

Katz also pointed out that in some places, there are no city-owned poles on which to mount the devices — but offered a possible solution.

“Flock has its own pole that has been accepted by the County of Los Angeles for these situations, and we would like the City to accept the use of them, too,” she wrote to Robert Clark, the city’s then-deputy mayor of public safety.

A few of L.A.’s historic streetlights stand outside the Bureau of Street Lighting’s office near Virgil Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Katz wrote Clark again on Aug. 6 to ask why officials were estimating a six-to-12-month wait for approval of new Flock readers on public property in the neighborhoods of Cheviot Hills and Brentwood Park, where there were no existing city poles to mount them. She noted that the county’s engineering department had already approved the company’s poles, and asked Clark whether there was a way for the city to “piggyback on these other entities’ approvals in order to speed this up so that these neighborhoods don’t have to wait so long for help in preventing these home invasions?”

In the following weeks, Katz’s emails took on an increasingly urgent tone. In one of her last messages, email records show, she told an aide she expected more help than the mayor’s office was offering.

“With all due respect, the answers you have provided are completely generic and do not provide any guidance and direction as to how we can expedite this process,” she wrote.

She added: “I’ve said it before, and I will say it again — these delays are harmful to public safety.”

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office told The Times that ultimately neither Clark nor the aide intervened on the Los Angeles Police Foundation’s behalf.

Email records show Flock’s courtship of the bureau dates at least to spring 2024, when the company agreed to donate two of its plate readers to help combat copper thefts.

Tsurui emailed LAPD Capt. Celina Robles to say that the company’s executives had requested an in-person meeting with the bureau and the LAPD “to discuss the benefits of this product and how it can benefit the city moving forward.”

On June 24, 2024, a lobbyist from the D.C. firm Modern Fortis emailed Bureau of Street Lighting Executive Director Miguel Sangalang seeking to “explore a public-private partnership” between Flock and the city. Sangalang took another meeting to discuss Flock a few months later with former City Councilmember Joe Buscaino, who after leaving City Hall had gone to work for Ballard Partners, a powerful Florida-based lobbying firm.

In January 2025, after wildfires devastated Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other areas, Flock stepped in again. The company agreed to donate more than 50 plate readers, free of charge for six months, to the wealthy Palisades area, where residents and law enforcement officials were on high alert about potential theft.

A Flock Safety automated license plate reader in Costa Mesa.

(Courtesy of the city of Costa Mesa)

In the days and weeks that followed, city and police officials continued to pepper the bureau about speeding up the approval process.

On Jan. 21, 2025, records show, Cmdr. Randall “Randy” Goddard of the LAPD’s Information Technology Bureau wrote streetlighting officials to say that the Palisades community “could use a big favor from your department.”

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell “fully supports this and has been working with the City Attorney’s office to finalize the terms,” Goddard wrote.

For many Iranians, the most immediate threat is no longer just war, but water.

Years of drought, falling rainfall and unsustainable water use have pushed the country into severe water stress, depleting reservoirs, rivers and groundwater reserves. The US-Israel war on Iran has added further strain after reports of damage to desalination plants, pipelines and other civilian water infrastructure in the early weeks of the conflict.

Iran is classified by the World Resources Institute as facing “extremely high” baseline water stress, using more than 80 percent of its renewable water supplies each year.

In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera breaks down Iran’s worsening water crisis and what is driving it.

How Lake Urmia disappeared

One of the most striking examples of Iran’s water crisis can be seen from space.

A time-lapse display of Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran shows how the largest saltwater lake in the Middle East, which covered nearly 6,000sq km (2,300sq miles) in the 1990s, shrunk to just 581sq km (224sq miles), less than 10 percent of its former size.

Consecutive droughts, agricultural water use, river diversion, and groundwater extraction have transformed vast stretches of Lake Urmia into exposed salt flats.

More than 60 dams built on its feeder rivers choked off inflows, while farmers diverted water into irrigation channels and decades of groundwater extraction drained the aquifers below. Rising temperatures accelerated evaporation as precipitation fell.

Iran’s growing water deficit

To sustain its freshwater resources, a country must replenish at least as much water as it withdraws for agriculture, industry, and household use.

Iran has long been on the wrong side of that equation. Decades of dam construction, intensive farming, and groundwater extraction have pushed consumption far beyond what rainfall can replenish.

In 2025, Iran’s 92 million people consumed around 100 billion cubic metres of water, nearly 13 billion more than its renewable resources could provide.

Agriculture is by far the largest consumer of water in Iran, accounting for about 91 percent of all withdrawals, compared with seven percent for households and two percent for industry. Yet much of that water is lost before it reaches crops, as ageing and inefficient irrigation systems waste a significant share of the country’s most precious resource.

Disappearing dams around Tehran

Iran is one of the world’s major dam-building countries, and has constructed hundreds of large and small dams to store water, generate electricity, and manage shortages.

In recent years, dozens of reservoirs have dropped to extremely low levels, leaving several to nearly run dry.

Before-and-after satellite imagery of Lar Dam, Latyan Dam and Mamloo Dam, all clustered around Tehran and the southern slopes of the Alborz mountains and forming part of the main water supply system for the capital region, reveals how water levels have declined over time as drought and rising demand strain Tehran’s water system.

Drought displacing thousands

Water scarcity is increasingly reshaping where Iranians can live.

As wells run dry and farming becomes harder to sustain, many families are leaving rural communities in search of more secure livelihoods. According to Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, Iran’s vice president for Rural Development and Disadvantaged Regions, only 38,000 of the country’s 69,000 villages remain inhabited, while 31,000 villages have been abandoned.

The pressure extends far beyond abandoned settlements. According to Iran’s state-owned Water and Wastewater Company, about 27,000 villages, home to more than 10 million people, are currently experiencing water shortages. In total, more than 70 percent of Iran’s villages are facing some form of water crisis.

Many migrants head towards major cities such as Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, and Shiraz. Yet these cities are facing water pressures of their own. Home to more than nine million people, Tehran has seen growing strain on its water system as drought and demand continue to rise.

The map below shows how Iran’s population is concentrated in the western half of the country. Today, roughly 75 percent of Iranians live on less than 40 percent of the country’s land area, concentrating both people and water demand in a relatively small region.

The effects of water scarcity can also be seen along the Zayandehrud River, once one of central Iran’s most important waterways.

Satellite imagery of Zayandehrud Dam reveals declining water levels upstream after years of drought and overuse.

Further downstream, the consequences become visible in the heart of Isfahan. The historic Allahverdi Khan Bridge (Si-o-Se Pol) was built over a river that sustained the city for centuries.

Today, residents increasingly encounter dry riverbeds beneath its arches as sections of the Zayandehrud repeatedly run dry.

Only a tiny fraction from desalination

Desalination accounts for only about three percent of Iran’s water needs, a stark contrast to Gulf neighbours, which depend on it for the majority of their drinking water.

Most of Iran’s desalination plants are located along its southern coast on the Gulf. As a result, desalination is largely concentrated in coastal cities, while inland areas such as Tehran, Isfahan and most agricultural regions rely on other water sources.

Love Island’s George Knight has spoken about his exit from the show after the bombshell’s sudden departure just days into filming was finally aired on the ITV2 show

Love Island star George Knight has spoken about his sudden exit from the ITV2 show for the first time since his departure was aired. The bombshell decided to quit the villa just days after entering.

He said in an Instagram video: “Hello, everyone. Just wanted to take a moment and come on and say a massive, massive thank you to every single person who has reached out over the past two days, wishing me their love, their support, and all their well wishes.

“It has been completely overwhelming, and I am trying to get back to every message, which is pretty, pretty much impossible. But thank you so much.”

He continued: “And I think moments like this give you a massive kind of perspective on the bigger picture, and as fun and as great my six days in the villa were, it’s obviously important for me to be here with my family, so thank you so much.

“It’s, it’s been, as I said, completely overwhelming, and a massive thank you to all of ITV’s welfare team and the execs who have been amazing. Hopefully it’s not the last you see of me, and looking forward to the year ahead, and yeah, thanks again, guys.”

George was a day one bombshell, entering the villa alongside Yasmin Hadlow. But before the week was over, he had chosen to walk away from the show.

His exit was not shown on Love Island. Instead, the show decided to just portray its aftermath. OG Islander Lorenzo Alessi told his fellow contestants that George had decided to leave for “private reasons”. He said: “George has left the Villa for private reasons and won’t be coming back.”

The Islanders seemed shocked, particularly Robyn Langton, who had been getting to know George. The 21-year-old nsaid: “Aww, George, we love you!” The other Islanders clapped and in a VT, Robyn added: “I can’t believe it, I actually can’t believe it. He was the only person I was actually kind of interested in.”

After leaving the villa, George said on social media: “Family comes first, always. Leaving the @loveisland Villa was a decision made in order to be with my family. Out of respect for them, I’d prefer not to go into any further detail. Thank you to everyone who has reached out with kind messages and support! It genuinely means a lot.”

As well as his official Love Island headshot, he shared a picture of himself and his sister in his post. In the pic, he sat on a garden bench with Emma and their dog. In the comments, Emma wrote: “Love you George.”

Despite only being on the show for a small amount of time, George really shook things up in the villa. The 28-year-old footballer was tasked with choosing a boy to send home and opted for Samraj Toor, coupling up with Mica Harris as a result. However, Samraj and Ellie Chadwick, who was chosen to be dumped by Yasmin, were not sent home and instead re-emerged as bombshells, with the chance to confront George and Yasmin.

Despite being coupled with Mica, George and Robyn kissed. The day before he walked away from the villa, George and Robyn fought, as she felt he was mischaracterising the situation to the rest of the villa. Mica was also hurt and told George she was stepping back from getting to know him because she thought he was better suited to Robyn.

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June 8 (UPI) — Nithya Raman will advance to a Los Angeles mayoral runoff in November, besting Spencer Pratt for second place in last week’s primary vote, sources including CNN and NBC News said Monday evening.

Raman, a City Council member, will run against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass; both are Democrats. Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is considered a progressive challenger.

Raman emerged second Monday over Republican Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star. Pratt was in second place as of primary day, but late-counted votes swung the tally toward Raman. They were part of a14-candidate field in the primary.

“Right now, we have a city that feels rudderless,” Raman told CNN before the primary. “So many positions that haven’t been filled, places where Angelenos feel abandoned on some of the most important issues facing this city. I will bring that urgency, I will bring that accountability, I will bring that focus that Los Angeles needs and that Angelenos need.”

Raman and Bass had close political ties before Raman entered the election late. Pratt campaigned on criticism of Bass’ response to the 2025 wildfires — he lost his house in last year’s Palisades fires — and homelessness.

NBC News reported that while President Donald Trump did not officially endorse a candidate in the election, he praised Pratt’s bid before the primary, saying, “I’d like to see him do well. He’s a character.”

The 79th Tony Awards went off without a hitch at Radio City Music Hall, Sunday. The show, hosted by Pink, ran just over three hours and was relatively unsurprising when it came to the wins it delivered. Although each year it seems more marquee film and television stars appear in the audience as celebrities of a certain caliber continue to flock to the stage in search of a more authentic—and immediate—connection to their audience.

This year viewers could see Adrien Brody, John Lithgow, Laurie Metcalf, Rose Byrne, Daniel Radcliffe, Nathan Lane, Alden Ehrenreich and more. Despite, or perhaps because of the star power, the show stuck to its expected script with “Schmigadoon!” winning best musical, “Ragtime” best musical revival, “Liberation” best play and “Death of a Salesman” best revival.

Still, the night had enough laughs, groans and tender moments to keep things interesting. Here are seven of our favorites.

Vampires as metaphor for what ails America

Ali Louis Bourzgui used vampires as a metaphor for American folly in his acceptance speech for performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical at the 2026 Tony Awards.

(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)

Who knew vampires made such a good metaphor for America’s worst excesses? When 26-year-old Ali Louis Bourzgui took to the stage at Radio City Music Hall after an upset win for performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical, he used the undead to poignantly describe the country’s biggest sociopolitical challenges.

“Vampires represent those who have shunned their own humanity in order to achieve a nonexistent sense of superiority. The billionaires will never find happiness from their money. The colonizers will never find fulfillment from the land and lives they steal. The fascists will never find meaning from their conformity, not in this lifetime or eternity,” said Bourzgui, who originated the role of David in the musical adaptation of the cult vampire horror film “The Lost Boys.”

—Jessica Gelt

A Tony trifecta for John Lithgow and Laurie Metcalf

John Lithgow won the third Tony Award of his career at the 2026 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.

(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)

It’s always a good feeling when actors we have known and love get rewarded by a well-deserved win, and so it was on Sunday night when John Lithgow and Laurie Metcalf took back-to-back wins early in the show. The former for performance by an actor in a leading role in a play for his portrayal of the controversial, beloved British author Roald Dahl in Mark Rosenblatt’s drama “Giant.” The latter for featured actress for her portrayal of Willy Loman’s protective wife, Linda, in “Death of a Salesman.” The plays were quite different, but the winners shared a very specific honor: the night marked the third Tony win for each actor.

Lithgow won his previous trophies in 1972 and 2002, and Metcalf in 2017 and 2018.

—Jessica Gelt

Nathan Lane is an ‘American theatrical treasure’

Nathan Lane accepts the best revival of a play award for “Death of a Salesman” at the 2026 Tony Awards.

(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)

Unless Nathan Lane gets a crack at playing King Lear, his Willy Loman in Joe Mantello’s production of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” will go down as one of the peak challenges of his acting career. Not winning the Tony for his indefatigable performance must sting, but John Lithgow was favored to win for his brave turn as the baleful Roald Dahl of Mark Rosenblatt’s “Giant.” Lane had to have been prepared but a subtle wince of disappointment could be detected when the camera pryingly caught his immediate reaction.

So it was gratifying to see Lane receive his due from Mantello, who upon accepting his award for directing credited Lane with being the inspiration for the production. And when “Salesman” won for best revival, it was only fitting that Lane accepted the award on behalf of the company about a play that, ultimately, he pointed out, is about a family.

It was a point that Laurie Metcalf, who won for her featured performance as Linda Loman, also raised when she thanked Lane, Christopher Abbott (who played Biff) and Ben Ahlers (who played Happy) —her ferocious Loman family— for making her better.

A three-time Tony-winner already, Lane doesn’t need another trophy to assure him that he’s an American theatrical treasure. But this wasn’t just another Broadway outing for him. This was Miller’s masterwork in a production that will be remembered long after the tally of this year’s Tony Awards are long forgotten.

—Charles McNulty

Joshua Henry is a good person, a great actor and everybody loves him

Joshua Henry won a Tony Award for performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical at the 79th Annual Tony Awards, earning perhaps the most rousing standing ovation of the night.

(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)

The biggest standing ovation of the night came when Joshua Henry won the award for performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical for his critically acclaimed portrayal of Coalhouse Walker Jr. in the revival of “Ragtime.” Wearing a show-stopping black suit with golden flowers, Henry rushed to the stage as the star-studded crowd leapt to its feet to deliver a rousing standing ovation.

Henry first came to the full attention of fans playing Aaron Burr in the 2017 national tour of “Hamilton,” and has since gone on to distinguish himself as one of Broadway’s most charming and relatable stars. His optimism and kindness shine through, as does his fierce love of his art form, which was apparent as he gave his acceptance speech, thanking — in particular — his first vocal coach for believing in him. He also gave a poignant shout-out to the show’s original cast members Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald, and sent all the love to his three young sons.

—Jessica Gelt

Pink had fun, but didn’t seem to know why she was there

Neil Patrick Harris and Pink perform during The 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.

(Jenny Anderson / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)

Pop star Pink kicked off the show with a wink and a nod to her hit “Lady Marmalade,” and went on to wow the audience with an action-packed opener filled with more than 150 performers and riffs from every Broadway show imaginable, plus a spirited appearance by Megan Thee Stallion. But the line that resonated most came early on when she spun hopelessly on a rope above the stage dressed as Peter Pan and a worried Neil Patrick Harris appeared to ask why she was performing in such an old-fashioned show.

“I just want to show how much I love theater even though I’ve never been on Broadway,” Pink said, still dangling, but nailing a few tricks. “I’m just concerned people might be like, ‘Why’s Pink hosting the Tonys?’”

That wasn’t the first time she seemed to be apologizing to the audience for being there.

—Jessica Gelt

Darren Criss gives happy endings

Darren Criss and Nicole Scherzinger joked it up during the 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.

(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)

Darren Criss is a Broadway superstar who consistently delivers “Happy endings,” according to co-presenter Nicole Scherzinger.

In what might have been the show’s most racy and deliciously groan-worthy joke, Scherzinger, stood side-by-side with the “Maybe Happy Endings” star to deliver the penultimate awards of the night, and noted, “You gave the world happy endings.”

“I did?” asked Criss, feigning innocence.

“You’re a giver,” said Scherzinger.

The pair took a beat through bubbling titters from the audience before knowingly yelling, “Happy Pride everyone!”

—Jessica Gelt

Leslie Odom Jr. delivers a moving in memoriam

Leslie Odom Jr. performs the In Memorium tribute during The 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.

(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)

Tony Award winner Leslie Odom Jr. sang a soulful rendition of “Without You” from “Rent” during the ceremony’s In Memoriam segment, which honored artists who died in 2025 and 2026, including Diane Keaton and Robert Redford. These annual segments are mournful — and tricky — and the “Hamilton” star managed to create an understated atmosphere that set the perfect tone for the somber projection of recently lost greats such as Robert Duvall, Tom Stoppard and Carmen de Lavallade.

—Jessica Gelt

MEGAN Thee Stallion nearly blew the roof off Radio City Music Hall after gracing the 2026 Tony Awards stage in barely-there lingerie during the ceremony’s wild opening number.

The rapper bent over in a Moulin Rouge-inspired look and showed off her signature twerking skills before dropping an F-bomb during the live awards show that was televised on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday night. 

Megan, 31, made a surprise appearance during host Pink’s massive Broadway-themed opener on Sunday night, instantly becoming one of the most talked-about moments of the 79th Annual Tony Awards.

The music superstar strutted onto the stage in a sparkling black corset bodysuit complete with fishnet tights, dramatic garters, sequined detailing and towering heels.

She channeled full Parisian cabaret energy inspired by her recent run in Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Broadway.

The Grammy winner joined Pink during a remixed performance of Lady Marmalade, the signature Moulin Rouge anthem, as dancers swarmed the stage in feathered costumes and red velvet-inspired looks.

ALL THAT JAZZ

Rose Byrne, pregnant Aubrey Plaza, and more stars dazzle at 2026 Tony Awards

At several points during the performance, Megan dropped into twerk breaks – which resulted in roaring applause from the crowd.

At another point, the camera cut to stunned audience members cheering and laughing as the Houston-born rapper was bleeped after dropping an F-bomb.

The over-the-top opening number featured more than 170 Broadway performers and included tributes to Moulin Rouge!, Chicago, Rent, A Chorus Line and several of the night’s biggest nominated productions.

Pink, who is hosting the Tonys for the first time ever, kicked things off flying over the audience in a Peter Pan costume and harness before launching into a theatrical mashup packed with celebrity cameos.

Mormon Wives breakout Whitney Leavitt also popped up during the opening dressed in her Roxie Hart costume from Chicago, while Lea Michele belted out surprise vocals during the sprawling musical performance.

Fans immediately flooded social media praising the campy energy of the opener – and Megan quickly emerged as the breakout star of the night.

“One thing Megan Thee Stallion is gonna do is commit to the performance,” one fan wrote on X alongside fire emoji’s.

Another viewer posted: “Megan twerking at the Tony Awards was NOT on my bingo card but she ate.”

A third fan joked: “Broadway just became the Hot Girl Theater.”

Others praised Pink for embracing the over-the-top antics of the Tonys opener, with one viewer calling it “the most fun opening number in years.”

Megan’s appearance comes just weeks after wrapping her history-making stint in Moulin Rouge! The Musical, where she became the first female-identifying performer ever to play the role of Zidler in any production of the show worldwide.

The 2026 Tony Awards aired live on CBS and Paramount+ from New York City’s Radio City Music Hall.

LUKE Evans caused the Tony Awards audience to blush and sent social media spiraling after performing in a scandalously skimpy Frank-N-Furter costume live on CBS.

The Beauty and the Beast actor left little to the imagination, wearing just a tiny black jockstrap, a leather corset and sky-high heels for Sunday night’s Rocky Horror Show performance. 

During the 79th Tony Awards held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, the ceremony paid tribute to the hit Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show. 

Luke, 47, emerged through a cloud of smoke to perform his starring role as the iconic Dr. Frank-N-Furter with glam-rock chaos in full force.

He completed the sexy look with fishnet stockings, elbow-length gloves, dramatic stage makeup and the crystal-covered corset before launching into a raunchy rendition of the track Sweet Transvestite alongside the cast.

At one point during the performance, the Welsh actor spun around to flash the crowd in the barely-there costume while grinding across the stage and dramatically whipping off a velvet cape to reveal the jockstrap underneath.

BROADWAY BABE

Megan Thee Stallion drops F-bomb & twerks in lingerie for Tony Awards opener

ALL THAT JAZZ

Rose Byrne, pregnant Aubrey Plaza, and more stars dazzle at 2026 Tony Awards

The raunchy performance instantly sent social media into a meltdown as viewers praised Luke for fully committing to the campy cult-classic character.

“Luke Evans shaking his d**k and a** on stage at the Tony Awards while wearing his slutty Rocky Horror Frank-N-Furter costume…this is what Pride Month is all about!” one fan wrote on X.

Another viewer joked: “I did NOT expect Luke Evans in six-inch heels and a corset at the Tonys but now I never want him to take it off.”

A third person posted: “Broadway Luke Evans might be his most powerful form yet.”

Luke has been starring as Frank-N-Furter in the Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show since previews began earlier this spring, with the production officially having its opening back in April at the Hudson Theatre.

The actor previously admitted he spent months preparing physically for the demanding role, which includes elaborate choreography, live vocals and multiple quick-change costume moments throughout the show.

Frank-N-Furter, the provocative alien scientist at the center of Rocky Horror, was originally made famous by Tim Curry in the 1975 cult-classic film adaptation.

Now, Luke has made it his own, putting a darker and more seductive spin on the iconic role.

While Luke may be stirring up conversation on Broadway these days, the actor has spent years building an impressive resume across film, television and theater.

Many fans recognize the star as the villainous Gaston in Disney’s 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast opposite Emma Watson, where his booming musical vocals and cocky swagger made him a standout.

He also starred as Bard the Bowman in The Hobbit trilogy and played the sinister Owen Shaw in Fast & Furious 6 before later reprising the role in the franchise’s spinoff projects.

On television, Luke has taken on darker dramatic roles in projects including The Alienist, Nine Perfect Strangers and Hulu’s true-crime miniseries Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue.

Broadway audiences, meanwhile, have long known Luke for his powerhouse stage vocals. 

Before his Hollywood breakthrough, he starred in major London West End productions including Rent, Miss Saigon, Avenue Q and Piaf.

His turn as Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show marks Luke’s splashiest return to the stage in years – and judging by the positive Tony Awards reaction, audiences are fully embracing his comeback.

The actor’s Tony Awards appearance quickly became one of the night’s most viral moments alongside Megan Thee Stallion’s Moulin Rouge-inspired twerking performance and host Pink’s over-the-top opening number.

The 79th Annual Tony Awards aired live Sunday night from Radio City Music Hall in New York City.