OT - Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza (May 2020)

The shutdown has lasted for less than two months, but in that short time the fallout from the pandemic has brought the film, television, music and theater businesses to their knees. It’s the greatest economic calamity to ever hit Hollywood, Broadway and other entertainment business hubs, dwarfing the wreckage left by such recent catastrophes as 9/11 and the Great Recession. And it’s being felt most acutely by production designers, camera operators, makeup artists, grips, stagehands, ticket takers, casting directors and character actors, whose names may not adorn cinema marquees but whose work forms the backbone of the business.

In February, the Motion Picture Assn. estimated that the film and TV industry directly employs 892,000 people. It’s not yet known how many of those jobs have been lost, but it’s possible to make a rough guess. According to federal data, about 125,000 of those employees are movie theater ushers and concessionaires — nearly all of whom have been furloughed or laid off. Another 170,000 work as actors, directors, camera operators, lighting technicians, set designers and other production workers — a large percentage of whom are also not working.

OT – NBA CoronaThread 2020

I estimate only 10-12 Primates care about the NBA, and hopefully all of them survive these next few weeks.

BBTF Corona Draft Tournament Voting Page

BBTF Corona Tournament Brackets

BBTF Corona Draft and Rosters Page

OT - Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza (April 2020)

The 2019-20 TV season has been shaken up by the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down all production, cut short current seasons and delayed new ones. Mandated to remain indoors, a larger-than-usual viewing public is turning to the small screen for entertainment and escapism amid the health crisis.

For those waiting for something new on those screens, here’s our annual list of spring premiere dates for new and returning series. It covers more than 150 broadcast, cable and streaming programs debuting between April 1 and May 31 in all dayparts. It does not include movies or specials.

Shows whose premieres have been delayed amid the COVID-19 crisis are compiled at the bottom of the post along with their original premiere dates, if they had been announced.

OT - Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza ([most of] March 2020)

After weighing the pros and cons of keeping a scheduled April 10 bow for its main action tentpole amid the coronavirus outbreak, MGM opted for a cautious route by pushing the upcoming James Bond outing No Time to Die to November. But how much will the move, prompted by growing disruptions due to the epidemic, cost the studio that fully financed the film?

OT - Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza (February 2020)

With half a decade in the rearview mirror since Pono’s arrival, however, there may be another, more valuable take on its creator to consider.

Neil Young’s insistence that hardcore music fans would be willing to pay extra for a high-definition digital music experience looks less outmoded in 2020 than it did in 2015, now that Amazon has put an HD-quality up-sell at the center of its multi-tiered music streaming offering. Particularly so because Amazon Music, according to Midia Research, now looks set to overtake Apple Music in global subscriber volume terms this year.

...

Allow me, then, to lead you toward an alternate retrospective tale; one which vanquishes any suggestion of Neil Young as a myopic fuddy-duddy, scrabbling to deal with the realities of the Spotify age — and instead views him as someone provably ahead of the curve of music-technological trends (albeit not always with the most rip-roaring tech at his disposal).

‘Jeopardy: Greatest of All Time’ is getting higher ratings than 2019 NBA Finals and World Series

“Jeopardy: Greatest of All Time” has been a total home run with viewers.

The program, a competition between the three most successful winners in “Jeopardy” history, has aired three installments on ABC so far, and is averaging nearly 15 million viewers in same-day ratings. With today’s fractured viewing habits and the decline of traditional network programming, that’s a pretty big deal.

What’s even more impressive is that “Jeopardy: Greatest of All Time” has bested some of network TV’s most stalwart programming: sports. From The Hollywood Reporter”

“Each episode of The Greatest of All Time has also outdrawn the first four games of the 2019 NBA Finals, the first five games of the 2019 World Series, all but one of ESPN’s 17 Monday Night Football telecasts and seven of Fox’s 11 Thursday Night Football showcases.”

So, any theories as for why this is the case, either compared to the World Series specifically or to all of these sports broadcasts generally?

OT - Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza (January 2020)

The 2019-20 TV season has hit the winter midway point, so here’s our annual list of midseason premiere dates for new and returning series. It covers more than 200 broadcast, cable and streaming programs debuting from January 1 through March 31 and includes shows that were on hiatus and some one-off specials such as awards shows.

OT - NBA Thread 2020

I estimate only 10-12 Primates care about the NBA, and hopefully none of the other ones posted a duplicate thread to this.

OT - College Football Bowl Spectacular (December 2019 - January 2020)

December 28  12:00 PM  Cotton Bowl            Memphis v. Penn State
              4:00 PM  Peach Bowl             LSU v. Oklahoma
              8:00 PM  Fiesta Bowl            Ohio State v. Clemson

December 30   8:00 PM  Orange Bowl            Florida v. Virginia

January 1     5:00 PM  Rose Bowl              Oregon v. Wisconsin
              8:45 PM  Sugar Bowl             Baylor v. Georgia

January 13    8:00 PM  Championship Game      Peach winner v. Fiesta winner

OT - Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza (December 2019)

Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have known each other for 60 years. They love each other. “I used to say that I love him, but with my fingers crossed,” says Townshend of Daltrey. Townshend, gangly and hunched, his angular face having grown into his long nose, sits in a Dallas Ritz-Carlton suite wearing gray clothes on a white-hot day. “Now, I like him too. I like all his eccentricities, his foibles, his self-obsession, and his singer thing. Everything about him.” Daltrey feels the same. He sits in a comfy chair later the same afternoon. “I’ve always kind of known Pete cares for me,” says Daltrey, crossing his legs in blue cargo shorts. He’s a little impatient because my time with Townshend ran long. “I hope he realizes I care about him. I think my actions through our career have shown that.”

Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have known each other for 60 years. They tolerate each other.

OT - NBA thread (pre-season)

I estimate only 10-12 Primates care about baseball, and this thread is the only thing keeping this site alive.

OT - NBA thread (Playoffs through off-season)

I estimate only 10-12 Primates care about the NBA, and this one only cares about the NBA thread and the Cubs so I have no idea what the rest of the website cares about.

OT - NBA Thread (2018-19 season kickoff edition)

I estimate only 10-12 Primates care about the NBA, none of whom knew the old thread would get closed, thus detracting from what this site is really about: the baseball playoffs, maybe?