It wasn't so long ago that Sony had expanded the Jeopardy! franchise, creating a Pop Culture version with Saturday Night Live's Colin Jost as host.
Tomorrow, that expansion will include ESPN.
ESPN Jeopardy! drops on Disney+ & Hulu, with Monday Night Football play-by-play man Joe Buck at the controls, coming off his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Buck dropped by Good Morning, America to talk about it.
Seems Disney suits see Buck as the 2nd coming of original Jeopardy! moderator Art Fleming. A mixture of celebrities (i.e. Jon Hamm, Keegan-Michael Key), ex-athletes, and current ESPN talents will play for charities. Having already seen the list of contestants, resident court jesters Stephen A. Smith & Pat McAfee are sitting out for now.
The phoniest sports fan on the planet, Donald John Oscar Madison Trump, picked Argentina to make it 2 World Cups in a row. On Sunday, Spain won the Cup for the first time since 2010, their only other Cup title, 1-0 in double overtime.
After the game, Dumb Donald tried to bigfoot the moment, like he did last year. The Spaniards wanted none of that, and quietly escorted him off to the side. Argentina, on the other hand, became the latest victim of Trump's kiss of death.
Conspiracy theorists worried about Lionel Messi and Argentina, though, could rest easy.
You know by now that former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, a Senator misrepresenting Alabama when he lives in Florida (so they say), wanted to run for a higher office in Alabama. Last we heard, however, he might've been talked out of it.
Five years earlier, Herschel Walker moved back from Texas to Georgia to run for Senate, and got spanked at the polls. Dumb Donald rewarded him with an ambassadorship to the Bahamas.
Now, Dumb Donald has endorsed embattled MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to run for governor of Minnesota, where MyPillow is based, to unseat Tim Walz.
Small problem, as Jesse Dollemore explains.
So Lindell is registered to vote in Texas, but not Minnesota? His campaign is DOA. Trump's endorsement feels more like another kiss of death. The GOP just loves carpetbaggers, don't they?
John Oliver used his anchor's position on Last Week Tonight to make a public plea for an appearance on a daytime soap.
ABC & Peacock answered. CBS? Who knows?
Oliver made his soap debut Thursday on General Hospital, and will finish there on Monday. Next month, he moves over to Days of Our Lives for three episodes. E! has the scoop.
The self-deprecating humor aside, Oliver, even if it's a small sample, is a natural. I love the fact he's playing a secret agent on General Hospital. The spy game is still a thing there, 45 years later.
The Supreme Court, in one of several cases regarding president Trump heard today, ruled that President Cheapo needs to pay E. Jean Carroll what he owes her, per a civil liability ruling 2 years ago.
From the Associated Press YouTube channel:
Now, you know that there are no more appeals on this case. However, the biggest skinflint this side of Jack Benny will still be doing this.
"WAAAH!! I don't really owe her anything! WAAAAHHH!"
Now, you could chalk up Trump's denials as a product of advanced age, just as much, if not more so, as his reluctance to pony up. He's also been told he can't fire Federal Reserve commissioner Lisa Cook without proper cause.
Speaking of the Fed, it's current chairman, Guilderland native Kevin Warsh, has gotten on Trump's bad side by following his instincts, and not the dictums of President Cheapo. It sure sounds as though the honeymoon's already over for Warsh as it relates to Trump. Stay tuned.
I think you can stick a fork in Dumb Donald's "SAVE America Act", which is meant to be a voter suppression law. A judge just shut down Trump's efforts to interfere in future elections. Glenn Kirschner explains.
Just think, Dumb Donald blocked a bi-partisan housing bill because he wanted his precious project passed. You can just imagine the reaction in the White House....
Meanwhile, a fence has been erected around the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, and Trump still won't allow the tarp to be removed from the Kennedy Center. Everyone can see right through your act, now, bub. Grow up, and deal with it.
When the late Richard Nixon was President, he had an "enemies" list, which consisted of political foes like Senators Birch Baye, Sam Ervin, Howard Baker, & Ted Kennedy. The existence of this list ultimately contributed to Nixon's resignation in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal. Journalist Daniel Schorr, famous for The Pentagon Papers, was also on the list.
52 years later, the current president, the onion-skinned Donald Trump, has his own list, which includes online commentators like Brian Tyler Cohen & David Pakman. The rationale behind this?
The truth hurts. As much as the Trump administration insists on forwarding false narratives contrary to truth & reality, the fact that they are now targeting the likes of Cohen & Pakman speaks to the frustration in the White House over the fact that Trump and his staff are constantly fact-checked for every falsehood that they speak.
Farron Cousins, who is not on the list, explains:
The list goes right along with Trump's campaign of retribution & revenge, largely because Cohen & Pakman, and Cousins, too, represent a section of the country that will not indulge Trump's delusional power fantasies, especially now as he approaches his 80th birthday on Sunday. It's almost as if Trump, once upon a time, took a wrong turn at the Twilight Zone, and never looked back.
I've said this before, and it bears repeating. Criticism comes with the territory when you are in a position of power, such as Trump. The problem is, he won't accept any criticism, even the constructive variety that is meant to help encourage him to do & be better. He doesn't want anyone near him that will tell him the truth. You're meant to indulge his delusions. At this point, no. At this point, the delusions have to stop. They have to, before it's too late.
More than 5 1/2 years after he lost his bid for re-election, Donald Trump just won't let go of the fact that he lost, and insists to this day the election was rigged against him, when it clearly was not.
In Arizona, Attorney General Kris Mayes is turning the tables on Trump's band of ambulance chasing legal weasels, including Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and John Eastman.
Brian Tyler Cohen & Glenn Kirschner break it down.
They say that Trump truly believes he was screwed. No, he wasn't, but you can't make him understand that. What really cost him in 2020 was his bumbling the government's response to COVID. Given Trump's temper tantrum on national television today on Meet The Press, it's likely he'll take his denials with him when he leaves Washington in 2029. If only he wouldn't.
When 60 Minutes bowed in 1968, it was at the back end of CBS' Tuesday lineup, before moving into its current spot at the front of the network's Sunday block. Today, it is on the verge of being repackaged into tabloid television if CBS' current owners so desired, the better to placate a frequent guest who has self esteem issues. If you don't know what I mean, you haven't been paying attention.
60 Minutes represented investigative journalism, getting to the heart of stories not getting enough time on the evening news. Revealing to America the names behind the headlines. Mike Wallace (ex-Biography) was lead anchor at the beginning, with a rotating cast of co-anchors & reporters including Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Diane Sawyer, Ed Bradley, Harry Reasoner, and pundit Andy Rooney, an Albany native. When it came to major headlines like Watergate and the Iran hostage crisis in the 70's & 80's, 60 Minutes was must-see TV, long before NBC coined the term.
From 1974, a profile on Watergate figure Donald Segretti.
I shan't be surprised if, within a year, the series is reduced to being a network cousin to, say, Inside Edition, dragged down into the dirt because of a thin-skinned loose screw in Washington.
Before becoming Senator, Tommy Tuberville was known in Alabama as the head football coach at Auburn. He eventually ended his coaching career in Cincinnati, at the university there, before turning to politics.
Instead of running for re-election for his Senate seat, Tommy Tubes decided to go for higher stakes, and run for governor of Alabama. Ah, but therein lies the rub. Emphasis on lies, folks.
Remember when former Georgia football icon Herschel Walker decided to return to the Peach State to run for Senate, at the request of Donald Trump? You know how that worked out, right? Walker was sacked, losing the election to Rev. Raphael Warnock. Walker had been living in Texas at the time, ignorant of the rules regarding residency to run for office in either state. Trump subsequently made Walker an ambassador to the Bahamas last year.
Tommy Tubes is making Walker out to look like a deer-in-the-headlights rube, as Farron Cousins explains.
George "Pinocchio" Santos, the 2nd most prolific liar in the GOP, after, of course, Trump, didn't finish his lone term in Congress. Madison "Foghorn" Cawthorn, was defeated in a primary, serving just 1 term, and at last check, left North Carolina for parts unknown. Tommy Tubes is facing an uphill battle, and his own tax returns may have cost him his career.
No wonder Trump is so reluctant to let his returns be made public. He's got more skeletons in his closet, don't ya think?
This is going to hit president Donald Trump right where he lives. In his overfed ego.
ABC should start promoting Jimmy Kimmel Live! by highlighting the fact that the comedian has earned a Peabody Award. Check it.
Trump swindled his way to the Nobel Peace Prize medal, and stole some soccer trophies that don't belong to him. Kimmel earned the Peabody. Trump will be wetting his Depends any time now.....!
Jimmy Kimmel has been part of the pop culture fabric for nearly 30 years, dating back to Win Ben Stein's Money. Just watch. Next year, it'll be Stephen Colbert's turn......
We found out that Dr. Ken Jeong is a huge Red Hot Chili Peppers fan. Contestant Sherlock Hound got a rise out of Jeong with a compact cover of the Chilis' 1991 smash, "Under The Bridge".
Some folks initially thought it was Hootie & The Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker under the mask. Nope. Turned out it was former baseball pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who played for a number of teams, including Cincinnati, Boston, & Arizona, during his career. Jeong got in on the fun calling out, "One time!" prior to the chorus.
Y'notice how judge Robin Thicke is sounding like his late father, actor-singer-songwriter Alan Thicke? Maybe his next album will cover all the theme songs dad wrote.....
We all know president Trump lives in a delusional fantasy world where he is beloved and revered, when, in reality, he is not.
In reality, with 2 weeks before he turns 80, he shows us over and over again that he is detached from reality. We reported yesterday that more than half of the headline acts supposedly signed for the Freedom 250 concert series in Washington have dropped out. Now, Trump is threatening to cancel the concerts, and put himself at the center of the festival.
Yeah, like that's going to work. NOT! Remember, this is a guy who rage watched the Super Bowl halftime show in February when he could've saved himself some stress with the Turning Point USA show. Knowing Donnie Diapers, he probably couldn't find the channel the TPUSA show was on.
Then, he went and claimed he's attracted more people than rock legend Elvis Presley.
Yeah, right, and pigs will fly.
From Canada comes this report.
If Trump follows through with his threat to speak at the National Mall, it will be must-avoid TV, and he'll end up inviting another assassination attempt.
My take? Well.....
Trump just doesn't get it. He doesn't want to get it. People are tired of his act. Bellevue is waiting.
As Sony continues to expand the Jeopardy! franchise, the newest spinoff is available for online streaming.
Pop Culture Jeopardy! launched at the end of 2024 on Amazon Prime, but shifted to Netflix for season 2, which ends June 6. Colin Jost (Saturday Night Live) is the series host. Unlike the regular Jeopardy! and other spinoffs, the Pop Culture iteration has three two-person teams instead of three single contestants. The more, the merrier.
Let's take a look at a sample category. Full episodes, of course, are unavailable, other than on Netflix & Hulu.
Jost's profile has been raised in recent years, what with an endorsement deal with Blue Moon beer and his marriage to actress Scarlett Johanssen. If the core Jeopardy! needs a fill-in should something happen to current moderator Ken Jennings, Jost would be a good bet to cover.
CBS owners Paramount-Skydance claim that they needed to terminate the radio news department because of how today's society receives their news via live streams and social media.
When CBS Radio News signs off on Friday, an era will end, and not entirely for the reasons that they claim. One commenter online suggested that some of the current radio staff, including veteran journalists Steve Kathan, Vicki Barker, Debra Rodriguez, Wendy Gillette, and others, could move to streaming. CBS gave former WCW announcer Christopher Cruise a new lease on life, and he likely could move into retirement.
Locally, WROW, a CBS affiliate forever, will simply go directly to local news updates from WRGB between 5-8 am, starting May 26. Currently, the station will run a short news brief from CBS for about a minute or so before going to local news. That they get the local news from WRGB reminds that WROW no longer has a news department of their own, and hasn't in years.
On Mother's Day, CBS Sunday Morning ran a feature piece on their radio cousins. Intro by Jane Pauley. Mo Rocca is the reporter.
You know who to blame, really. Even though CBS Radio News is non-partisan in its coverage, the decision is not entirely on Bari Weiss, or new owner Larry Ellison. It comes because president Trump, who doesn't comprehend the distinction between constructive & destructive criticism, doesn't want to hear any dissenting voices on the air.
WROW dropped CBS' World News Roundup a couple of years ago in order to streamline their morning news. What will happen when there's a breaking story after May 22, and CBS can't cover it on radio? I guess we'll have to wait & find out.
But, trust me on this. After Trump leaves office, Ellison may be forced to reconsider this ill-advised decision, and he should.
The connections of Preakness winner Napoleon Solo had to be fans of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., even if it was the box office bomb, and not the 1964-8 series that aired on-----wait for it----NBC, which carried Saturday's Preakness......
No truth to the rumor that there was anyone named Waverly among the owners.
I'll move on.
When part 1 of the 2026 Subway Series began Friday, fans figured that the Yankees, despite a slump of their own, would lord it over the Mets, what with the injuries that have plagued the Amazin's. Friday's Yankee win came at a price for the Mets, who lost starter Clay Holmes, the ex-Yank, to a broken leg.
But, if there is a word that describes the Mets now, after a horrid start to the season, it's resilience.
The Mets came back and won Saturday. Today, after Freddy Peralta fell into a hole with 6 walks in 5 innings, the Mets fought back. Tyrone Taylor smacked a 3-run homer off Yankee closer David Bednar to tie it in the 9th. In the 10th, Yankee manager Aaron Boone gave his detractors some fuel by moving one of his outfielders into the infield to cut off the winning run. Rookie Carson Benge hits a chopper that causes a collision between two infielders, and the Mets win the game, 7-6. Devin Williams, last year's Yankee closer, picked up the win.
In the run-up to tonight's Backlash PLE on the ESPN app (the 1st hour will be simulcast on ESPN2), various WWE personalities have appeared on ESPN programming.
Perhaps the biggest impact on sports outside WWE came from Long Island native Paul Heyman. Heyman, beloved in Philadelphia as the mastermind behind Extreme Championship Wrestling, threw his support behind his hometown Knicks in the NBA Eastern Conference semi-finals, and warned the 76ers that "their season was already over". It might've seemed like typical bluster from Heyman, with the Knicks already up, 2-0, when he made this statement, but, as of today, he might actually be right, after the Knicks won again on Friday to go up, 3-0.
Your move, Philadelphia.
It has not been a good week off the field for the Atlanta Braves.
First, former announcer John Sterling, who later became an icon as the radio voice of the Yankees, had passed away, followed by former owner Ted Turner on Wednesday. Now comes word that Bobby Cox, who served two stints as manager (1977-81, 1985-2010), with a run in Toronto in between, winning 5 National League titles, 14 division titles, and the 1995 World Series, has passed at 84.
MLB has produced this video obituary, narrated by Matt Vasgersian:
There is also mourning in Pittsburgh, as former player & coach Bob Skinner passed away mid-week at 95. I never saw him play, but he served as a coach for managers Bill Virdon & Jim Leyland for several seasons.
Many of us living in the 518 grew up with investigative reporter John McLaughlin, first on WTEN, then, at the end of his career, at WNYT. McLaughlin, a graduate of LaSalle Institute in Troy and Siena, began his career in print journalism at the Troy Record, back when it was a respectable newspaper, in the mid-60's, before moving permanently to television around 1972.
During his 40+ years at WTEN, McLaughlin served as a co-host for the annual Cerebral Palsy telethon, and hosted a pair of public affairs programs that usually aired on Sunday mornings.
WTEN morning co-anchor Christina Arangio looks back at McLaughlin's career, queued up by afternoon co-anchors Lydia Kulbida & John Gray.
McLaughlin passed away at 83. His last gig was doing radio ads for a local business a few years ago.
CNN founding father Robert E. "Ted" Turner has also passed away.
Turner launched CNN in the summer of 1980, and watched it evolve, or, maybe as of today, devolve. Turner also owned the Atlanta Braves & Hawks during the 80's and part of the 90's, and even took a chance on being the 1st owner since Connie Mack to double as manager, but that didn't last. Ultimately, Turner sold CNN, Cartoon Network, and the rest of his television empire, to Time-Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery, and soon to be Paramount-Warner, barring any last minute miracles), in the mid-90's. Turner's biggest contribution to children's television was the launch of Captain Planet on TBS and in syndication in the 90's.
Wrestling fans will recall that Turner enabled Eric Bischoff to open World Championship Wrestling's bankroll to better compete with the now-WWE. This lasted for 3 years before WWE took over and defeated WCW, buying out the rival in 2001.
One became a cherished sports icon upon returning home, and finished his career at the end of 2024. The other should've stayed retired when he had the chance, and now is fighting for his life.
John Sterling, the radio voice of the Yankees from 1989-2024, and host for several Old Timers Day events at Yankee Stadium, as well as the host-narrator of Yankeeography on the YES Network, has passed away at 87. Sterling had previously called games on TBS for the Atlanta Braves & Hawks, the latter when WTBS carried their games. In the course of his career, Sterling also called some NHL games, as well as college football, and if memory serves, his last college football broadcast was also on YES a few years ago.
MLB Network offers this retrospective.
And, then, there is America's Disgrace, Rudy Giuliani.
The former mayor, attorney, and chief sycophant to Donald Trump was admitted to a hospital Sunday, but spokesman Ted Goodman would only divulge that Giuliani was in stable, but critical, condition, leaving everyone in the dark about Giuliani's actual condition.
Update, 4:08 pm (ET): Goodman announced today that Giuliani is in the hospital to be treated for pneumonia.
Trump didn't exactly help the cause by blaming left wingers for Giuliani's condition in a post on Truthless Social in the last 24 hours. Giuliani gave up what dignity he had left by casting his lot with Trump during the 2020 election, amplifying false claims of election fraud, which Trump is still whining about 5 1/2 years later. When Giuliani began appearing on TV again about a decade ago, you could already see that his best years were behind him. But if he thought Trump would help him with his legal bills, well, he should've known that Trump is the biggest cheapskate this side of Jack Benny's radio-TV persona.
I've a feeling Giuliani may soon join Sterling in the afterlife. The Yankees, to be sure, will memorialize Sterling themselves, just as they have for other broadcasters in their employ.
Maybe the Mets could learn something from what happened in Philadelphia earlier this week.
Rob Thomson was fired, the 2nd manager in 4 days (Alex Cora), replaced by bench coach Don Mattingly, who had come over from Toronto in the offseason. Philadelphia has since opened some distance between themselves and the last place Mets, amid speculation that Mets manager Carlos Mendoza may be the next to go, at least if you follow the drama on reddit.
Mattingly previously managed Miami and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and is the kind of experienced voice the Phillies needed.
The Mets, meanwhile, continue to be plagued by injuries. Luis Robert, Jr., one of their off-season acquisitions (Chicago White Sox) went down earlier in the week, and after Saturday's loss to the Angels, infielder Ronny Mauricio went to the IL with a thumb injury. Redditors are blaming David Stearns for some of the off-season moves, including letting professional leech Scott Boras Badenov con Pete Alonso into chasing the money to Baltimore. Alonso has been struggling, and someone suggested a trade to bring him back to Flushing.
Alonso is back in New York this weekend, but, aside from a home run on Friday, the Yankees have held him in check. The Mets will see Alonso later this season.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani mistakenly assumed Trae Young was still with the Atlanta Hawks ahead of the 1st round of the NBA playoffs. Young was traded earlier this season.
So, the Knicks blew the Hawks out of the playoffs on Thursday, winning game 6 by 57 points. The game was actually over in the 1st quarter. In Atlanta!!!
Bank on this. Braves fans will pick up the gauntlet for the Hawks when Los Bravos play the Mets later this season.
The PGA tour is at the Doral Country Club, owned by president Trump, this weekend, and, how's this for a surprise? When the players reached holes 16-18, there were no fans in sight! Meidas Touch explains:
Welp, if Trump didn't initiate the current conflict with Iran, and actually learned how to comport himself as president instead of being an elderly man on his 4th or 5th childhood, that wouldn't happen. People see the Trump name on the building, and turn away. Why should the world's worst golfer own a course? At least grand-daughter Kai (Don, Jr.'s daughter) learned the game the right way.......!
We're reading that the Saudis are pulling their financial backing from the LIV golf tour, in its 4th season, and 2nd with broadcasts on Fox (moving over from CW) after this season. Hmmmmm. People were speculating that the Saudis might not renew their contract with WWE when that runs out later this year. And speaking of WWE......
NXT fans were jumping for joy upon learning earlier this week that the PLE's for the Tuesday brand will begin airing on CW this summer. Since the network is looking for some weekend programming to complement the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts series, and fill the void created by LIV golf's departure last year, this is great news. Last month's Stand & Deliver streamed on YouTube, but this is even better. Apparently, the new deal starts with the Great American Bash in July, after the former WCW event had been set up as a 2 part episode of the weekly NXT series the last couple of years.
The once prestigious National Wrestling Alliance is back on television, as NWA Powerr began airing on Comet (check listings) this weekend. Broadcasts will mostly air Saturday afternoons at 4 pm (ET), though a special episode aired Friday night. Unfortunately, the quality of wrestling, while it seeks to revive the studio wrestling aesthetic from the territory era, has suffered under Billy Corgan's ownership. The former Smashing Pumpkins frontman should be happy with the new deal, though, as that should bring more eyeballs to the NWA & Comet.
This is how desperate Dumb Donald is to have his enemies prosecuted, regardless of the lack of evidence.
On Tuesday, former FBI director James Comey was indicted for the 2nd time, this time over a long since deleted instagram post of a formation of seashells reading, "86 47", which the department of injustice claims is a call for violence against the president. No, it isn't.
For someone to be "86'd" doesn't always mean someone's targeted for death. In some cases, you lose your job, and people will say you were "86'd". Unfortunately, the DOI doesn't see it that way, because they have to cater to a president with severe OCD.
Whoopi Goldberg and the panel on The View weigh in.
"Counterfeit" Kash Patel is trying to save his job, amid rumors he might be the next one to go. If he & Todd "Bleached" Blanche can't gain a conviction from this, it won't matter, because Patel will almost certainly be gone, and maybe Blanche, too.
Oh, but that ain't all.
On the same show, former attorney Alina Habba was a guest, and her choice of words couldn't be more ironic, in that she claimed she did her job for Trump's "pleasure". In what way?
And, then, you have FCC "chairman" in name only Brendan "Used" Carr making more threats against ABC & Disney, even asking for a review of broadcast licenses of Disney-owned ABC affiliates, just because Jimmy Kimmel made some jokes ahead of last Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner, with some clever editing. Even Melania Trump was offended, or at least was encouraged to lash out at Kimmel.
Again, it is intentional misinterpretation to justify the misplaced anger.
As Whoopi said regarding the Comey indictment, it is another distraction from the growing myriad of issues facing Trump, who, of course, was made to look like a chump when King Charles of England addressed Congress Tuesday. Decorum is something of a foreign concept to Trump.
This indictment won't net the result the president wants. And ain't that just too bad.
