Netflix reports that it achueved its highest Christmas Day viewership of all time this year, with the second volume of “Stranger Things” leading the charge.

While an exact viewership total for Dec. 25 was not provided — and while that total would also include Netflix’s two NFL games and other holiday viewing — “Stranger Things” Season 5 was the most-watched title of the day worldwide thanks to the release of three new episodes. Those episodes also helped Season 5 to a total of 34.5 million views during the week of Dec. 22-28. That’s the season’s second-best weekly total after its debut with 59.6 million views in November,...

As “Heated Rivalry” continues to… heat up and become a massive hit for HBO Max, conversations have begun regarding the upcoming Emmy season. While romance series have broken through at the award show recently — see “Nobody Wants This,” which broke through with three nods for its first season — this adaptation will not get the same treatement.

“Heated Rivalry” is fully funded by Canadian company Bell Media, Crave’s parent company. The 2024-25 Emmy rules state that a “foreign television production is ineligible unless it is the result of a co-production (both financially and creatively) betwen U.S. and foreign partners,...

Danny Ramirez will not be returning for “The Last of Us” Season 3.

After co-starring in Season 2 opposite Katilyn Dever as a Firefly in Season 2, the actor has had to drop out of the project due to scheduling conflicts, TheWrap has learned.

He appeared in four episodes as Manny Alvarez. As TheWrap previously reported, Ramirez (“Top Gun: Maverick”) was cast for Season 2 in November 2024. His character Manny is a loyal soldier whose sunny outlook belies the pain of old wounds and a fear that he will fail his friends when they need him most. He is instrumental in Abby’s (Dever) journey of revenge against Joel (Pedro Pascal) after Joel’s...

The “Stranger Things” series finale is shaping up to be a major theatrical event.

1.1 million people have RSVP’d to watch the final episode of the Netflix sci-fi series in theaters on New Year’s Eve, according to an Instagram post from co-creator Ross Duffer, who also said that 3,500 showtimes across more than 620 theaters are completely sold out.

Duffer teased that he and his brother Matt Duffer, his co-creator, would be attending a screening or two. “What a way to close out a ten-year journey—together,” Duffer wrote. “Maybe we’ll see some of you in LA.”

Volume 1 of Season...

CNN’s documentary about Chevy Chase is set to premiere on Thursday (January 1) and is already causing controversy, with some of the comedian’s former costars, Saturday Night Live‘s Terry Sweeney and Community‘s Yvette Nicole Brown speaking out. According to The Hollywood Reporter, one part of the doc, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, revisits an incident between Chase and his former SNL costar. Sweeney was the long-running sketch show’s first openly gay cast member. “You said something to Sweeney like, ‘Oh, you’re the gay guy. Why don’t we ask if you have AIDS. And every week, we weigh you,” the film’s director,...

Donald Trump stirred up controversy after taking to Truth Social to share takedowns of the Kennedy family, mere hours after the tragic death of JFK’s granddaughter Tatiana Schlossberg at 35 years old. Schlossberg, a former climate and energy reporter at the New York Times, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia after her daughter was born in 2024.

One message that Trump re-posted read: “The Trumps have always been supporters of the arts. The Kennedys are supporters of the Kennedys.”

Another noted: “They don’t raise money for it. They never show up. And the only Kennedy who has been there recently...

Taylor Sheridan is one of the most prominent figures in Hollywood these days, creating one hit television show after another. Among the prolific creative's popular television shows is the Paramount+ espionage thriller "Lioness," which premiered in 2023. The series stars Zoe Saldaña as a CIA case officer who leads an elite team on counterterrorism missions around the globe. The show brings higher intensity each season as the War on Terror escalates throughout the series, raising the stakes for the spec ops ensemble.

For fans of modern military dramas and political thrillers, there is no shortage of similarly globe-spanning and action-packed shows.

Editor’s Note: The following story contains spoilers for Season 1 of “Pluribus.”

The first season of Apple TV’s acclaimed sci-fi drama “Pluribus” just wrapped on Christmas Eve, but audiences are already pining for news of the next chapter.

The nine-episode series from “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” creator Vince Gilligan seemingly came out of nowhere in November, creating a frenzy at the tail end of 2025, which was a largely uneventful year for original drama television. Set primarily in Gilligan’s go-to destination of Albuquerque, New Mexico, “Pluribus” kicks off with all but 12 people on Earth being infected with an alien virus that joins them into a mysterious hive mind. While the virus’ global effects are seemingly positive — creating a communal society full of smiling faces and absent of violence, bigotry, and class systems — on a person-to-person level, the results are less comforting. Individuals aren’t “I” but “we,...

Real Time host Bill Maher has once again shared his “great idea” for the next edition of The Golden Bachelor, which would see him taking the lead role in the hit dating competition series. Speaking with John Stamos on the latest edition of the Club Random podcast, the 69-year-old comedian stated he was the “correct age” to star in The Golden Bachelor, but he’d only take on the role under one very specific condition. “I want to be the Golden Bachelor, but none of this age-appropriate bullsh*t,” Maher said, to which Stamos replied, “Oh, you want to have the younger…” “What I would actually [date],” Maher continued, adding, “That’s a funny show.

If TVLine had its own awards show, this would be the appropriate time for our In Memoriam segment, honoring the many TV series we lost this year.

As the final hours of 2025 tick by, we're taking stock of all the shows (at least 83!) that permanently left our screens this year — some of which knew they were heading into their final seasons, but many of which did not.

Once again, it was a tough year of goodbyes for Netflix subscribers, as no fewer than 19 of the streamer's offerings ended in 2025 (from the embattled "Sandman" to the animated "Big Mouth"). But whether...

Despite Donald Trump‘s prediction that this year’s Kennedy Center Honors would be “the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done,” the 2025 ceremony hit a record low, losing over one million viewers from last year. According to Variety, citing Nielsen Live + Same Day Panel + Big Data numbers, the President Trump-hosted ceremony averaged 3.01 million viewers. This was down 25 percent on the 2024 Kennedy Center Honors, which at the time posted a record low of 4.1 million viewers. This year’s Kennedy Center Honors — which were held in Washington, DC, on December 7 and aired on CBS on December 23 — recognized country music star George Strait, metal band Kiss, singer Gloria Gaynor, and actors Michael Crawford and Sylvester Stallone.

Viewers have called out Fox News for “grasping at straws” on Tuesday night (December 30), as OutKick host Tomi Lahren mocked former President Joe Biden for taking a holiday vacation. “You’ll never guess where Joe Biden was spotted… spoiler alert, he’s on vacation!” Lahren said on Tuesday’s edition of Hannity, in which she was filling in for regular host Sean Hannity, who himself was on vacation. Hannity and his fiancée, Ainsley Earhardt, spent the Christmas holidays in Paris with both of their kids. Earhardt shared photos from the vacation on Instagram on Sunday (December 28), showing the blended family posing for snaps in front of various landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower.

"The Big Bang Theory" featured many recurring habits that defined Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), but few were as consistent as his practice of knocking on doors three times — most often when visiting Penny (Kaley Cuoco) across the hall.

The origin of Sheldon's three-knock routine has been addressed both behind the scenes and within the show's canon. Speaking on "The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast," executive producer Lee Aronsohn explained that the habit was initially created for practical storytelling reasons.

"When you're a writer, actor, any kind of performer, timing is incredibly important," Aronsohn said. "The people who are the...

[Warning: The below contains Major spoilers for Palm Royale Season 2 Episode 8.] We’re so glad we had this time together — again! The last time Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence worked together was in 1978, when the beloved comedy/variety series The Carol Burnett Show ended its 11-season run. In the eighth episode of Palm Royale‘s second season, actor/singer Lawrence, one of the Burnett show’s legendary ensemble cast, popped up as Lottie, the spry, centenarian mother to Burnett’s scheming Palm Beach society queen Norma Dellacorte. “I feel like I was right back where I always was,” Lawrence told TV Insider. “It was very comfortable and so good to see Carol and so good to meet...

Jeopardy! fans on Reddit got a shout-out during Tuesday’s (December 30) episode, courtesy of contestant Dondi DeMarco, who went on to cement his spot in the Second Chance tournament finals. The episode saw DeMarco, an operations executive from New York, taking on Ricky Chandak, a financial insurance senior from Boston, Massachusetts, and Emily Johnson, a dog walker from Honolulu, Hawai’i. All three former contestants were competing for a spot in the finals, hoping to advance to the Tournament of Champions. It was a competitive game, with all three scores relatively close heading into Final Jeopardy. However, DeMarco came out on top, winning the episode with $27,201 and punching his ticket to the finals.

Every day, TVLine's What to Watch column spotlights new and returning English-language shows (and select movies) premiering or airing fresh episodes across broadcast, cable and streaming — organized below by release time and alphabetically within each slot.

On TV this Wednesday: Ryan Seacrest, Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, and Bert Kreischer and Hardy count down to 2026, and "Stranger Things" comes to an end.

If you'd like a recommended watch-list like this delivered to your inbox each morning, you can sign up for our free What to Watch newsletter here!

Read more: Young Sheldon Easter Eggs: Every Big Bang Theory Cameo, Callback,...

Canal+ and Warner Bros. Discovery have signed a new multi-year, multi-territory agreement to strengthen their partnership internationally, including the expansion of HBO Max to two more countries.

Through the pact, which a press release calls a “major milestone” in the companies’ collaboration, distribution of HBO Max via Canal+ will be renewed in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania, and will expand to Belgium and Austria. Distribution of Cartoon Network, Cartoonito and CNN International in Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia will also be renewed, as will Warner TV in the Czech Republic.

Across MultiChoice Group territories in Africa,...

[Warning: The following contains Major spoilers for Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 Episode 5, “We Check In to C.C.’s Spa & Resort.”] Percy Jackson and the Olympians made some big changes from the source material in Season 2 Episode 5 in the sirens scene. This scene from the Sea of Monsters novel has never been adapted before, so it was one of Season 2’s most anticipated moments. It delivered surprising twists to what Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) saw in her vision, as well as who appeared in it and how. The stars break down the big changes and more in our Percy Jackson video interview above. Percy (Walker Scobell) and Annabeth were saved from the Ironclad disaster by the inhabitants of C.

The board of Warner Bros. Discovery is poised to reject the amended takeover offer fielded by Paramount Skydance last week as David Ellison keeps up his pursuit of the assets he sees as crucial to building a 21st century Hollywood heavyweight.

Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that the Wbd board was expected to reject the amended offer that was made with fanfare by Paramount Skydance on Dec. 22. Wbd has already struck an agreement to merge with Netflix in a deal valued at more than $80 billion.

But Paramount Skydance hasn’t given up and is making a tender offer to Wbd shareholders.

Ratings for the Kennedy Center Honors took a sharp decline this year. The poor turnout comes shortly after Donald Trump added his name to the historic forum.

This year’s Kennedy Center Honors, hosted by Trump, averaged 3.01 million viewers, according to a report from Nielsen Live + Same Day Panel + Big Data. That represents a 25% dip from last year’s numbers. The 2024 show hit a record low of 4.1 million viewers after reaching 4.5 million viewers the year before.

The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.

Trump is the first sitting president to host the Kennedy Center Honors,...

After George Clooney said he felt that newly-named editor-in-chief Bari Weiss was “dismantling CBS News as we speak,” Weiss has responded by inviting him to visit the CBS newsroom.

“Bonjour, Mr. Clooney! Big fan of your work. It sounds like you’d like to learn more about ours. This is an open invitation to visit The CBS Broadcast Center, where I’m spending the holidays working to relaunch the Evening News with my colleagues. Tune in January 5,” Weiss said in a statement shared by Paramount Skydance. The “bonjour” was presumably a reference to Clooney, his wife Amal and their twins becoming French citizens this week.

Isiah Whitlock Jr. has died at the age of 71. The actor was best known for playing the corrupt state senator Clayton “Clay” Davis on The Wire and for being a frequent collaborator with director Spike Lee. Whitlock’s popular catchphrase, “sheeeeee-it” (an elongated pronunciation of sh*t), was incorporated into several of his projects across his career. Tributes from Lee, Whitlock’s former costars, and fans are flooding in on social media. Whitlock died on Tuesday, December 30, in New York. His death was announced by his manager, Brian Liebman, on Instagram. Liebman told Deadline that Whitlock died peacefully after a short illness. “It is with tremendous sadness that I share...

When it comes to its original programming, Netflix excels with its genre shows, including and especially science fiction. Bolstering its original shows, Netflix always has a robust library of licensed sci-fi series available to stream that have long proven to be fan-favorites. The types of science fiction on Netflix range from sprawling cyberpunk epics to shows that blend sci-fi with strong horror and fantasy elements to form something wholly original. This is one of the most malleable genres around, and these are shows that take full creative advantage of that flexibility.

Simply put, when it comes to sci-fi, Netflix has...

The entertainment industry has numerous notable figures in 2025. Hollywood was in shock after the death of director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife, with figures across entertainment and politics paying their respects to the “Princess Bride” filmmaker.

The film world was also shaken by the death of “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks” director David Lynch, with tributes to the visionary filmmaker continuing for weeks. Two-time Oscar winner Gene Hackman was found dead with his wife in late February in Santa Fe, N.M., while “Harriet the Spy” star Michelle Trachtenberg died in New York on Feb. 26. “The Doors” and...

Isiah Whitlock Jr., best known to TV audiences for playing Clay Davis on HBO's "The Wire," has died at the age of 71.

Whitlock passed away on Tuesday, Variety reports, with his manager Brian Liebman sharing on Instagram: "It is with tremendous sadness that I share the passing of my dear friend and client Isiah Whitlock Jr. If you knew him — you loved him. A brilliant actor and even better person. May his memory forever be a blessing. Our hearts are so broken. He will be very, very missed." (No cause of death has been officially released.)

Whitlock had small roles...

Isiah Whitlock Jr., an actor best known for playing the corrupt state senator Clay Davis on “The Wire,” died on Tuesday in New York, Variety has confirmed. He was 71.

His manager, Brian Liebman, shared the news on Instagram, writing: “It is with tremendous sadness that I share the passing of my dear friend and client Isiah Whitlock Jr. If you knew him — you loved him. A brilliant actor and even better person. May his memory forever be a blessing. Our hearts are so broken. He will be very, very missed.”

Indiana-born Whitlock was a prolific character actor who was a frequent collaborator of Spike Lee,...

While 2026's "Supergirl" will contain the first appearance of intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo in a proper live action movie, Jason Momoa — of "Game of Thrones" and "Aquaman" fame — isn't the first actor to play the character.

Lobo made his official live action debut in 2019 on the SyFy series "Krypton," played by Emmett J. Scanlan. An accomplished TV actor, Scanlan's resume includes a five-episode stint on the BBC historical crime drama "Peaky Blinders" as Billy Grade, a bookmaker with a dubious agenda.

"Krypton" dives into Superman's family history by focusing on Kal-El's grandfather Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe). When Seg-El and his...

Netflix is delivering a new twisty thriller that will have us guessing just who to believe and what exactly is happening, not only with a murder mystery but also with the relationship between the two characters at its center in His & Hers, premiering on the streaming service on Thursday, January 8, 2026. Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal star in this book adaptation as Anna Andrews and Jack Harper, estranged spouses who reunite following a murder in her hometown, which draws her back, as a news anchor, to where he still works as a detective. Could there be a second chapter of this tale? Read on for everything we know so far...

For "Heated Rivalry" star Connor Storrie, filming the first season of HBO Max's smash hit came with its fair share of obstacles to overcome, including honing his ice-skating skills enough to play a convincing professional hockey player. But that was nothing compared to what Storrie calls "the most scary thing ever" about bringing Ilya Rozanov to life on screen.

As revealed during his recent appearance on Owen Thiele's "In Your Dreams" podcast, the most difficult part of the process was learning to speak Russian, a skill he was forced to master in a very short amount of time. Texas-born...

Since the launch of Disney Channel in the mid-1980s, Disney Entertainment Television has become a platform for rising actors to begin their careers on screen. As the brand is gearing up for 2026, the year marks two milestones for the company: 20 years of “Hannah Montana” and “High School Musical,” where actors and musicians like Miley Cyrus, Zac Efron, and Ashley Tisdale got their start on children’s programming. For Brenda Kelly Grant, Senior Vice President, Talent and Casting, Disney Branded Television, fostering and uplifting the industry’s upcoming slate of actors is key when it comes to future programming.

“For my entire casting team,...

Ever since it debuted on Comedy Central in 1997, "South Park" has satirized American society, skewering notable public figures, including movie stars, athletes, and politicians. Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the series has been on the air with five different U.S. presidents at the time of writing, beginning with Bill Clinton and continuing up to the present day with Donald Trump. The latter has been Parker and Stone's primary source of ridicule for Season 27, kicking off with a highly-rated premiere that targeted both the 47th president and Paramount following the merger with Skydance, and the cancellation of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

When content creator Ruby Franke met family counselor Jodi Hildebrandt through their church community in Utah, their friendship seemed inevitable. Hildebrandt, founder of the life-coaching company ConneXions, was a powerful voice within the Mormon church, as was Franke: The mom and wife vlogged about her life raising six children with her then-husband, Kevin Franke, on the YouTube channel 8 Passengers.

Hildebrandt soon became a constant presence in Ruby’s life. But the religious influencer’s focus on “fixing” the vlogger’s family led to both women being arrested on suspicion of child abuse against two of Ruby’s children. The documentary Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story, from director...

After more than a decade, the Spartacus universe is back with its first spinoff, Spartacus: House of Ashur. Creator Steven S. DeKnight is no stranger to TV, having previously worked on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Yet, it wasn’t until the 2010s that he created something solely his own with Spartacus, the blood-soaked series that turned Starz into one of modern television’s most successful companies. Inspired by the historical figure of the same name, the series focused on the gladiator as he led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic and was infamous for its brash violence and raw sex scenes. Below, as Season...

After an explosive 2025 on The Young and the Restless, executive producer and head writer Josh Griffith has no plans to slow down. “You’ve got to just keep that momentum going,” Griffith says. “It’s going to be a very exciting, suspenseful, and romantic winter and spring. It’s going to be jam-packed with intrigue, mystery, suspense, and love. We have some fun surprises up our sleeve for 2026.” Check out what will be happening with your Genoa City faves in the new year. Victor Newman, Nikki Newman, Jack Abbott, and Diane Jenkins “I love that we’re back to reigniting Victor [Eric Braeden] and Jack’s [Peter Bergman] feud. There’s going to be massive,...

The numbers don’t lie: American viewers like their old TV favorites, and they really like TV they can watch for the nice price of free. After studying Nielsen top 10 streaming in data from the start of 2020 to late 2025 — and including Netflix’s self-reported viewership — Bloomberg has found that American viewers aren’t tuning into new shows as much as they are old ones. Of the 10 most-watched original shows — in terms of minutes watched while in Nielsen’s weekly top 10 — zero are new series, marking the first time in several years that new series haven’t broken into that top 10 list, Bloomberg notes. Squid Game is at the top with 18.6 billion minutes,...

Like Vecna’s hive mind, fans were united last week as they pushed Stranger Things 5 to the top of the English TV list with 34.5 million views. Volume 2 of the new season made December 25 Netflix’s most-watched Christmas Day ever globally. The three new episodes brought newly heightened suspense as viewers ready themselves for this week’s series finale, which streams on December 31 at 5 p.m. Pt / 8 p.m. Et, and screens in theaters across the US and Canada through January 1. Over 1.1 million fans have already RSVP’d for the screenings.

The Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow also had a banner week as the play broke...

Canadian romance novelist Rachel Reid first saw Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams in person on the set of “Heated Rivalry,” Jacob Tierney’s television adaptation of her queer hockey book series “Game Changers.”

“They were filming the very first sex scene, their first hookup and it’s the longest sex scene on the show,” Reid tells me. “It was a closed set, so I was just sitting on a couch for four hours while they did that. I had headphones, so I could hear it and I had read the script, but I couldn’t see it. I was just listening.

Believe it or not, two of broadcast TV’s biggest events aren’t even in primetime. They also happen to pretty much bookend the year: ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest” opened 2025 with record numbers, while NBC scored another big win last month with the 99th “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”

Kicking off the year by peaking with 29 million viewers at midnight as 2024 turned into 2025, “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest” continues to be a juggernaut as viewers watch the ball drop in Times Square.

Related: The 100 Most-Watched Telecasts of 2025: Super Bowl,...

You may know him as a certain superhero, but Chris Hemsworth has a wealth of film roles that go beyond Thor. Sure, he’ll pick up the hammer for the ninth time in Avengers: Doomsday —which got a Hemsworth-centric teaser this week — but the Australian actor is still an onscreen action hero when he’s not hanging out with Captain America and Rocket Raccoon. After getting his big break on the soap opera Home and Away, Hemsworth pivoted to films in the 2000s — starring in flicks like J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek reboot, Snow White and the Huntsman, Rush, Black Hat, and more — and has only had growing success since.

Shrinking will return for Season 3 in early 2026. Apple TV revealed the Shrinking Season 3 premiere date and first-look photos on October 21. Among the returning guest stars this season are Jason Segel‘s How I Met Your Mother costar Cobie Smulders and Damon Wayans Jr. New cast members are Michael J. Fox, who will have a significant arc tied to Harrison Ford‘s character, and Jeff Daniels, who will play the father of Segel’s Jimmy. Fox and Daniels are seen in the Shrinking Season 3 trailer, as is Candice Bergen, another guest star this season. The trailer (above) was released on December 30. Series co-creator Brett Goldstein will also be back as Louis,...

Warning: The article below contains major spoilers for the Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 episode “The Bridge.” Viewers have rewarded Stranger Things’ first four seasons with Popcornmeter scores ranging from 83 to 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But for the Netflix hit’s current fifth season — which ends with the series finale tomorrow, Wednesday, December 31 — the Popcornmeter score is practically in the Upside Down, at a lowly 56 percent. Much of viewers’ ire comes from frustrations with the writing, the heavy exposition, and the special effects of Season 5 — and Season 5’s second volume in particular. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show has been review-bombed since the drop of Volume 2, which included the show’s penultimate episode “The Bridge,...

There's gold in that there Paramount mountain, and for the past seven years, a lot of it has come from Taylor Sheridan's critically acclaimed and immensely adored Montana-based family saga, "Yellowstone." The Dutton family name has now perhaps gained as much notoriety as the Starks of "Game of Thrones" or the Sopranos of "The Sopranos," but there was a time when John Dutton & Co. almost didn't get a second of airtime thanks to one of their most volatile family members.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Sheridan explained that in the early days, when he was trying to find a home for "Yellowstone,...

Will someone else beat out 99 other people for the chance to win $1 million? After Reverend Peter Nevins won Season 1 of 99 to Beat, fans wondered if there would be a Season 2, and some of them spotted a clue about the game show‘s future. 99 to Beat follows 100 players who compete in various challenges and games. Each round, at least one contestant is eliminated. Sometimes, it is more if there is a group challenge, and $10,000 is added to the prize pot each time a contestant is eliminated. This makes the final prize $1 million. The show is hosted by Ken Jeong and Erin Andrews, who offer commentary and advice to the contestants.

There are two things you can count on right now in television: football and “Tracker.” Both once again dominated Variety’s annual look at the most-watched telecasts in primetime.

This year, a full 48 of the top 100 slots went to NFL games — up from 45 in 2024 — and that number actually jumps to 55 if you include six NFL-related studio shows and one weather delay.

This year’s list was led, of course, by Fox’s coverage of Super Bowl Lix, which attracted an average of 126.7 million viewers as Philadelphia beat Kansas City on Feb. 9.

Related: Top-Rated Television Networks: Ranking 2025’s Winners and Losers

Among other pro sports,...

The Price Is Right host Drew Carey said the contestant’s win was a “Christmas miracle” after a close call on Cliff Hangers. The contestant won a trip after only being two numbers away from losing. Paul Allen, from Huntington Beach, California, came to the podium during the fourth item up for bid on December 24. However, he did not win until the sixth item up for bid, which was hockey gear that included two pairs of figure skates and two pairs of hockey skates, gloves, pants, helmets, and pads. Allen won the items when he bid $1,301, just $1 above his opponent, Shannon. The actual retail price was $1,626. Allen came to the...

Need more toxicity? Hulu is prepared. The streamer is launching the “‘Tell Me Lies’ Official Podcast,” hosted by Stassi Schroeder, Variety can exclusively announce.

The nine-episode podcast will premiere on Jan. 6, one week before the premiere of “Tell Me Lies” Season 3, with a Season 1 and 2 recap episode.

Video episodes will be available on Hulu, Hulu on Disney+, Disney+ and YouTube, domestically. Audio episodes are distributed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, SiriusXM, iHeart Radio, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Pandora, as well as through audio channels in partnership with ABC News Audio.

Podcast guests include creator, showrunner and executive producer Meaghan Oppenheimer; series stars Grace Van Patten,...

Stephen Colbert for U.S. president in 2028? Don’t count on it. In a recent panel discussion, the Late Show host tempered hopes of him running for office. “Absolutely not. Yeah, absolutely, I should not run for president,” Colbert told John Dickerson, David Plotz, and Emily Bazelon, hosts of Slate’s Political Gabfest, at a live taping of the podcast this month. “I understand why you’d want me to,” a deadpan Colbert added as the audience laughed and cheered. “That is something I’m going to have to discuss with my faith leader and my family to see if, once my service on [CBS talk show] The Late Show ends in May,...

We’d like not to solve this puzzle. Wheel of Fortune fans have debated whether or not the Prize Puzzle round should be retired from the game show. The Prize Puzzle round has the contestant competing to win a prize, usually a trip, rather than money that round. However, the price of the prize is added to the contestant’s total, typically putting them way ahead of their competitors, as they are usually $10,000 or more. The other rounds include the Mystery Round, the Toss-Ups, and the Bonus Round. Typically, those who win the Prize Puzzle advance to the Bonus Round because they usually tack on the most money. However, that...

It's been more than half a century since "Gilligan's Island" first appeared on screens. Sherwood Schwartz's sitcom ran for three seasons between 1964 and 1967, but thanks to syndication deals and multiple spin-off projects, including two animated series and three TV movies, the show remained in the public consciousness for decades following its cancellation. Today, "Gilligan's Island" doesn't command the same cultural influence it once did, but it remains a TV classic that's frequently cited as one of the best and most beloved sitcoms of all time (with Bob Denver's mysteriously-named Gilligan being one of the most charmingly dumb TV...

It all comes down to this: The Stranger Things series finale starts streaming — and hits select movie theaters — tomorrow, Wednesday, December 31, and Netflix has shared one last trailer for Season 5 of the sci-fi hit. “I need you to fight one last time,” an emotional Hopper (David Harbour) tells Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) as we see her and the rest of the Hawkins kids — including Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Will (Noah Schnapp) — facing Henry Creel/Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) and other supernatural threats in Hawkins, Indiana. “Life has been so unfair to you,” Hopper adds. “Your childhood was taken from you. You’ve been attacked,...