News

Saturday Night Live is a legendary gig for musicians and bands.

From Lee Ving’s Fear encouraging kids to slam dance to “Beef Bologna” to Nirvana playing “Rape Me” alongside Charles Barkley and RuPaul and Sinéad O’Connor ripping up a photograph of the Pope during a cover of Bob Marley’s “War,” the show has seen its fair share of incredible performances.

These are to be explored in a documentary for NBC that will premiere on January 27, ahead of its 50th extravaganza.

Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson and Oz Rodriguez, who was a segment director on SNL, will direct Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music.

The special is produced by Questlove’s Two One Five Entertainment, RadicalMedia and Broadway Video.

It will feature untold stories behind the musical performances, sketches and cameos of the past 50 years. The three-hour special will also feature interviews with musical artists, cast, writers, and producers.

These include Bad Bunny,...

The celebrity golf tournament will feature some of the game’s biggest names, competing for a multi-million dollar prize.

Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy, and Scottie Scheffler are some of the hottest names in golf, and they’ll share the same course on Tuesday, Dec. 17 starting at 6 p.m. Et when The Crpyto.com Showdown begins on TNT, TBS, truTV, and Max. The tournament will see the four golfers competing for multi-million-dollar cryptocurrency purse, the first of its kind. Viewers can stream the tournament live on Max, or with a three-day free trial of Directv Stream.

How to watch The Crypto.com Showdown golf tournament When: Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 6 p.m. Et TV: TNT, TBS, truTV, and Max Stream: Watch with a three-day free trial of Directv Stream. 5-Day Free Trial $86.99+ / month directv.com/stream

Choose $15 Off each month for the first 2 months of Entertainment with Sports Pack or...

Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal recently made a commotion on Inside the NBA. The basketball star ended up walking off the set after rapper Jay-Z was awkwardly brought up. This comes out after the rapper had been named in a refiled lawsuit, claiming he and Sean “Diddy” Combs had raped an underage girl.

Jay-Z Got Brought Up In A Conversation With The Panelists

Inside the NBA is a halftime and postgame show for NBA broadcasts. Host Ernie Johnson is joined by a team of analysts.

O’Neal has served as an analyst on the show since 2011. He is joined by Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, who joined the show in 1998 and 2000, respectively.

Jay-Z – YouTube

During the December 10 broadcast, the panelists reacted to a tweet from Stephen A. Smith concerning who he could play against these days. Barkley notably told Smith, “You said the man isn’t on your level.” He continued,...

Warner Bros. Discovery in October did something very ambitious, announcing that the company’s current U.S. ad-sales chief, Jon Steinlauf would leave — just as soon as the company found his successor.

Two months later, Steinlauf is still leading Warner’s efforts to win money from Madison Avenue. Meanwhile, Warner initially reached out to prominent sales executives at direct rivals to see if they might be interested in the role, according to four people familiar with discussions. Recruiters representing Warner approached senior sales executives from at least three of the company’s direct rivals, according to these people, but the efforts were turned down each time.

Warner Bros. Discovery has evaluated “dozens” of potential candidates, according to a person familiar with the process, which is being managed by Bruce Campbell, the company’s chief revenue and strategy officer, with some insight being offered by Steinlauf. Warner has narrowed its consideration...

Warner Bros. Discovery has been sued by investors who claim that the media conglomerate lied about potential fallout from its loss of NBA rights.

A proposed class action, filed in New York federal court on Monday, accuses Wbd of mischaracterizing the impact that losing rights to regular and postseason games for its TNT network would have on its business. In August, a month after the NBA officially rejected Wbd’s offer to match the rights package that it cut with Amazon, the company took a $9.1 billion goodwill impairment charge related to the depreciation of its TV networks, which accounts for its failure to renew its deal with the league. The company’s stock fell by nearly nine percent in after-hours trading the day the announcement was made.

TNT has been a broadcast partner with the NBA since 1988, paying an annual average fee of $1.2 billion under its existing agreement with the league.

Bill Murray, Wayne Gretzky, and more compete for $1 million in this epic golf event.

Start practicing your golf swing for a date with “The Match: Superstars,” a two-night primetime golf event airing live on TNT and streaming on Max on Thursday, Nov. 21, and Friday, Nov. 22 at 7:30 p.m. Et. Set at Breakers West Country Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, this unique event brings together celebrities and sports legends in an exciting, star-studded golf showdown. This is one golf event that won’t disappoint… especially with a $1 million prize on the line. Watch all the golf action with a subscription to Sling TV.

How to watch ‘The Match: Superstars’ When: Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. Et TV: TNT Stream: Watch with a subscription to Sling TV. Get 50% Off $40+ / month sling.com

Limited Time: Get 50% Off Your First Month of Sling TV

Everything you need to know to...

If he can’t beat them, ESPN chief Jimmy Pitaro is still willing to do business with them.

A creative deal that will bring what is perhaps America’s favorite sports studio show to Disney after years of it airing on Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT spotlights a growing willingness at ESPN to take a “curation” approach to game-day concepts and content. Some of the biggest deals at ESPN in recent years aren’t ones that start new formats or series, but rather the type that make ESPN a perch for sports personalities who have already proven popular somewhere else.

The new pact, unveiled formally Monday after leaking over the weekend, makes “Inside the NBA” an ESPN property as far as fans are concerned. To be sure, Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT Sports will continue to produce the show from Atlanta over the term of the pact, which commences with the 2025-26 NBA season.

Live games will move off TNT in 2025, but a creative settlement allows Wbd to save some face.

The NBA has one less headache on its plate. The league has agreed to a settlement deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, putting an end to a desperate effort by the company to keep its hands on a package of live NBA games past the end of the 2024-25 season. Those games are officially moving on to Amazon’s streaming service Prime Video, but Wbd did win a few concessions in the settlement, and as part of another deal have made an arrangement to keep the beloved “Inside the NBA” studio show alive.

Key Details: Wbd will continue to distribute NBA games in areas like Latin America and Northern Europe. “Inside the NBA” will be licensed to ABC and ESPN in a separate deal. Wbd will get the rights to some Big 12 college football...

(From left) Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley on the set of “NBA on TNT” in November 2023. (Still frame via TNT Sports broadcast)

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Warner Bros Discovery (Wbd) have reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit filed over television rights to a package of NBA games.

The rights deal is scheduled to start with the 2025-26 season — in other words, next year — when a package of games will move from Wbd-owned TNT Sports to Amazon’s streaming service, Prime Video. Wbd sued shortly after the deal was announced, saying their current TV contract required the NBA to weigh counter-offers to retain the package against bids from challengers. The Desk was the first to report Wbd was considering a lawsuit. Amazon was not a party to the matter.

On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal said the NBA and Wbd were set to announce...

Warner Bros. Discovery will stay on the court with the NBA in a new settlement that gives the media company a chance to keep professional basketball in its overall lineup, even as it cedes U.S. rights to traditional TV games to rivals.

The media company and the basketball league have devised a new pact that will give Warner Bros. Discovery rights to show NBA content on its Bleacher Report and House of Highlights outlets and to distribute games overseas in places such as Northern Europe and parts of Latin America, excluding Brazil and Mexico, according to a person familiar with the matter. The new pact, which comes with an 11-year term, ends a Warner suit against the NBA that started after the league elected to cut Warner out of the structure of its next TV deal, which it has set with Disney’s ESPN as well as Amazon and NBCUniversal.

TNT Sports is rebooting its golf event series The Match with a twist: It will pit teams of A-list stars and all-star athletes against each other, in primetime, over the course of two nights, in what it is calling The Match: Superstars.

TNT Sports has lined up celebrities including Bill Murray, Mark Wahlberg and Nate Bargatze, as well as NBA legend and Inside the NBA analyst Charles Barkley, all-time NHL great and NHL on TNT analyst Wayne Gretzky, Olympics legend Michael Phelps, former MLB star Ken Griffey Jr. and former NBA star Blake Griffin, who will team up in pairs for match play.

The Match: Superstars will be held Nov. 21 and Nov. 22, and will simulcast on TNT and Max in primetime. Ernie Johnson will host, joined by 2008 Masters Champion Trevor Immelman, two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson and Kathryn Tappen.

The teams will see Murray and Gretzky paired up to face Barkley and Griffey,...

Even Derek Jeter can learn something new about the game of baseball.

When the former New York Yankees captain joined the Fox Sports roster for the 2023 baseball season, he recalls, he had to find his way on camera. “I didn’t know what to expect. They just threw me at the desk,” Jeter says while holding forth with his colleagues Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Kevin Burkhardt, in a makeshift lounge set up for them among the executive offices at New York’s Citi Field. One time, he remembers, “someone started talking to me in my ear and I almost answered them on the air.”

When this quartet convenes Friday night for commentary before and after Game 1 of the World Series, they are likely to have worked out any jitters as they start a run as one of the most-watched entities on TV. Fox has televised MLB’s signature event since 2000, but never,...

In the deal, games will air on TNT and truTV, as well as stream on Max.

Warner Bros. Discovery is continuing to pursue more live sports opportunities. The latest acquisition by the company was announced on Wednesday; Wbd is partnering with the professional women’s basketball league Unrivaled to air three-on-three basketball games on TNT, truTV and Max starting in 2025.

Key Details: The deal includes rights to air more than 45 regular season games. Action tips off on Jan. 17, 2025. The move is the latest sports deal from Wbd, another indication that it fears the NBA is about to depart. Sign Up $9.99+ / month max via prime video

The deal between Wbd and Unrivaled will allow the company to broadcast and stream 45 three-on-three women’s basketball games from the league. Games will air on Mondays and Fridays on TNT, and Saturdays on truTV. All matchups will stream on Max live.

Unrivaled is a...

Fans of American Dad! do not have long to wait for the series’ return. TBS has announced that the animated series will return for season 19 later this month, with the release of a new trailer.

Featuring the voices of Seth MacFarlane, Wendy Schaal, Scott Grimes, Rachael MacFarlane, Jeff Fischer, Dee Bradley Baker, and Patrick Stewart, the series follows super patriotic CIA agent Stan Smith (MacFarlane) and the misadventures of his unconventional family.

This season will feature guest appearances by Kevin Bacon, Charles Barkley, Bret “The Hitman” Hart, Gabriel Iglesias, Michael Imperioli, Leslie Jones, Neal McDonough, Joel McHale and Kyra Sedgwick.

Read More…...

Giving inspiration and empowerment to people with cancer through education, advocacy, public health and research programs.

Celebrity supporters

Livestrong has 21 known supporters, including Sharon Stone, Matt Damon, and Don Cheadle

Areas of work Cancer Read more about Livestrong's work and celebrity supporters. Related articles Lance Armstrong Party Raises $1 MillionJoin Lance Armstrong's Army To Fight Breast CancerOprah Tops Celebrity Philanthropy A-ListNBA Star Charles Barkley Donates to Fire VictimsLance Armstrong Stands Up To Cancer Tonight

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Cumulus Media and the Rich Eisen Podcast Network are launching two new podcasts, Variety has learned.

First up, actor and diehard wrestling fan O’Shea Jackson Jr. is set to co-host “No-Contest Wrestling,” a weekly podcast delving into the world of professional wrestling. Jackson will host the show with Tj Jefferson, with the first episode now available. The first episode features WWE star Cm Punk. Episodes will feature interviews with other top stars as well as news and analysis of the world of pro wrestling from WWE, Aew, and the independent circuit.

Jackson’s onscreen credits include “Straight Outta Compton” and “Den of Thieves.” Jefferson currently appears daily on “The Rich Eisen Show,” where he doubles as an on-air producer and talent.

Next up is “The Jim Jackson Show” hosted by former NBA star Jim Jackson. The show will debut on Oct. 3 with guest Charles Barkley. Jackson will cover basketball from...

Charities & foundations supported

Ray Romano has supported the following charities:

AmberWatch FoundationAndre Agassi Foundation for EducationAnte Up For AfricaBarbara Davis Center for Childhood DiabetesChildren Affected by AIDS FoundationComic ReliefENOUGH ProjectInternational Myeloma FoundationLos Angeles Police Memorial FoundationMelanoma Research FoundationMuscular Dystrophy AssociationNational Kidney FoundationNot On Our WatchRace to Erase MSScreen Actors Guild FoundationStand Up To CancerSt. Jude Children's Research HospitalTower Cancer Research FoundationVine GroupWatering Seeds Organization Read more about Ray Romano's charity work and events. Related articles Comic Relief Brings Laughter to New OrleansStars Raise The Stakes For DarfurNBA Star Charles Barkley Donates to Fire VictimsCelebrities To Raise Stakes For Africa AgainThe Chips Are Up For Africa

Find out more about getting help from these celebrities →

Copyright © 2024 Look To The Stars. This article may not be reproduced without explicit written permission; if you are not reading this via email or in your news reader, the site you are viewing is illegally infringing our copyright,...

Charles Barkley is launching a new production venture with big plans to get into the scripted, documentary, and live programming space.

The former NBA star and current TNT Sports analyst will launch Round Mound Media in partnership with EverWonder Studio, with backing from Jeff Zucker’s RedBird Imi. Barkley’s longtime manager Marc Perman will be president of Round Mound in addition to leading his management company.

TNT Sports will have a first-look deal with Round Mound, with Barkley recently reaffirming his commitment to stay with the company as an on-air commentator, regardless of what happens to its NBA rights. The company has 10 projects already in development, including the “definitive” documentary about Barkley’s life.

“Round Mound Media is about creating an outlet for my vision to share compelling, original stories meant to captivate audiences across the world,” said Barkley in a statement. “I’ve always looked for projects and...

Hollywood and controversies are a match made in hell. As we all know by now, Diddy, aka Sean Combs, has found himself drowning in one. The rapper has been accused of some serious allegations, including kidnapping and coercing women into s-xual activities. The lawsuits began when his long-time partner, Cassie Ventura, sued him in 2023 alleging abuse at the hands of Diddy. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Still, Diddy is sinking into quicksand at a rapid speed as more and more updates emerge.

Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs | Credits: Image by Richard Burdett, licensed under Cc By 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

American commentator Candace Owens, who is often described as conservative, sat down on her YouTube channel to discuss the controversy that has everyone shocked to their core. Doing so, she extended an acknowledging nod towards rapper Kanye West for his old comments about Diddy as she brought up...

Gayle King has landed a new deal to continue her tenure at “CBS Mornings,” TheWrap has learned. However, details, including length of the contract and her financial compensation, are yet to be announced.

King’s contract was set to run out in 2025, after signing her last deal in early 2022 to stay on as a co-host of “CBS Mornings.”

The award-winning journalist has been a core tenant of the morning show since its inception in 2012, holding down the fort for a rotating door of co-hosts. King currently hosts the show alongside Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson.

The New York Post first reported this news.

During her time at “CBS Mornings,” King has spearheaded coverage that drives ratings, including recent interviews with Jay-Z; Megan Thee Stallion; Cherelle Griner, the wife of WNBA star Brittney Griner; and Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.

“CBS Mornings” announced a couple of shakeups to its programming...

There’s a new lineup for the 2024 season of “Let’s Go!”

Starting September 2, hear from hosts six-time Super Bowl Champion head coach Bill Belichick, three-time Pro Bowl Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, and three-time National Sportswriter of the Year Peter King, as they join Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim Gray for weekly in-depth conversations on pro football throughout the NFL season.

Let’s Go!Stream previous episodesListen Now

Coming Soon

‘Let’s Go!’ Season 4 How to Listen

New episodes of “Let’s Go!” will debut every Monday at 6pm Et/3pm Pt on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio (ch. 82) and replay at 6:30pm Et/3:30pm Pt on SiriusXM NFL Radio (ch. 88). “Let’s Go!” will be available on all major podcast platforms, with additional bonus content from Belichick, Crosby, King, and Gray available only on the SiriusXM app.

Mad Dog Sports RadioSports talk with Mad Dog & moreListen on the...

The league is arguing that Wbd cannot use its matching rights for Amazon’s package since Prime Video offers a streaming-only distribution.

The lawsuit filed by Warner Bros. Discovery as a last-ditch effort to keep NBA rights is proceeding on schedule. The company says its contractually-guaranteed matching rights which it tried to exercise to swipe the NBA’s “C” rights package was improperly disregarded by the league and is now suing to try to get the court’s agreement. The NBA officially filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Friday, holding to its position that Wbd’s matching attempt was not a true meeting of Amazon’s terms.

Key Details: The NBA is arguing that a dollar-for-dollar match of its Prime Video package is not a true match attempt by Wbd. Wbd’s attempt to change Amazon’s deal terms constitutes a counteroffer, not a matching offer, according to the NBA.

Bad blood appears to abound between supporters for Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump heading into November’s tight presidential election. While both sides have enlisted varying degrees of star power at their respective national conventions, there appears to be one figure whose endorsement the two candidates seemingly covet: Taylor Swift.

Trump took to social media recently to share phony images generated by artificial intelligence suggesting that Swift and her fans support him, with the former president writing, “I accept!” Swift, who previously criticized Trump for “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism,” has yet to endorse either candidate. But given that the pop superstar has asserted her position as one of the most widely known and popular entertainers on the planet with her record-breaking Eras Tour, it’s clear that her support would be heard.

“As the female vote will be crucial in swaying the election,...

As much as it may surprise some, transitioning from athletics to entertainment isn’t that big of a leap. There are traditional routes, like Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley becoming commentators following their long careers as basketball players, as well as occasional actors. Lebron James founded a production shingle called SpringHill Entertainment in 2007, only 4 years into his professional playing career and has since, with the help of his partner Maverick Carter, grown it into the SpringHill Company, with focuses in marketing and platforming other athletes. Looking at the Paris Olympics as a current example, one of the first thing many of these athletes must do outside of their sport is learn how to present themselves to a world audience.

Some have a natural ability in this regards, such as The Goat, Simone Biles, or US women’s rugby player Ilona Maher, both of whom ranked up millions of views on TikTok during the games.

Charles Barkley once claimed he wasn’t a role model. But his most recent action seems to belie that.

Barkley said on the Dan Le Batard Show podcast today that he left a minimum of $100 million “on the table” to stay with Turner Sports. His decision to remain with Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports division came after TNT was left out of the NBA’s 11-year media rights deal.

Since TNT Sports lost that contract scrum, the NBA’s upcoming 2024-25 season will be its last with TNT, as the league moves on in 2025-26 to the NBA’s new 11-year deal for games with ESPN parent The Walt Disney Company, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video.

“The No. 1 thing for me is my people from Turner get to keep their jobs for at least another year,” Barkley, told Le Batard. “That’s all I was concerned with.”

The decision was not easy.

Just a year ago, Warner Bros. Discovery was riding high on the pop-culture tsunami that was “Barbie.” In recent days, it’s become clear that the pink glow from that box office juggernaut has long since faded.

Since the start of the year, Wbd has been enmeshed in big public battles seemingly of its own making. It has gone to legal war with the NBA. It keeps drawing a hard line with Madison Avenue on upfront ad sales pricing in an era when such tactics are not well received. The reporters at Wbd-owned CNN are demoralized. And in the months to come, the company is steeling itself for frosty negotiations with MVPDs that will no doubt push back on audience declines at its cable networks, the likely loss of the NBA and decisions that put good chunks of the company’s linear programming on Max.

Last week, Wbd disclosed that...

Fans of The Price Is Right never fail to call out the game show when they believe contestants are too much or the show might be “rigged.”

As the show awaits the premiere of its daytime season, fans continue to react to highlights from the game show.

That included fans blasting a former contestant due to her “disgusting” and “gross” behavior on another popular TV show.

More recently, fans mentioned that they thought an episode featuring Snoop Dogg might have been “rigged” or “staged” in his favor.

The rapper, who recently made headlines as an NBC correspondent at the Paris Olympics, appeared in a memorable montage of highlights as he helped contestants.

Those contestants all seemed to have great results with winning prizes, which caused some fans to question the episode.

Snoop Dogg appeared on The Price Is Right

In The Price Is Right’s Snoop Dogg highlights video, he...

Barkley promised earlier this year to retire if Wbd lost its NBA package, but it appears he’s changed his mind.

Arguably the loudest outcry about TNT potentially losing its NBA rights package to Prime Video starting in 2025 has been generated by fans who are upset about the presumed loss of “Inside the NBA.” The popular studio show hosted by Ernie Johnson and featuring Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith has been a mainstay of TNT’s NBA coverage for years, but it appeared doomed earlier this summer when Barkley pledged to retire after the 2024-25 season. It seems that Sir Charles has now changed his mind as he released a statement earlier this week pledging to stick with TNT for the long haul.

Key Details: Barkley’s statement included a line saying he would remain with TNT Sports for “multiple years to come.” NBC and Amazon have both...

Charles Barkley. (Courtesy photo)

Warner Bros Discovery (Wbd) says it has renewed its talent agreement with retired professional basketball player Charles Barkley that will keep him at TNT Sports for several more years.

The announcement comes about a month after Barkley said he would retire from television, regardless of how things shook out with the National Basketball Association (NBA), which was in the middle of negotiating a new telecast agreement with Wbd and other media stakeholders.

Last month, the NBA said it was moving games from TNT Sports to Amazon’s Prime Video and Comcast’s NBC Sports, which Wbd is contesting in court. Barkley previously criticized the NBA for forging a deal with Amazon and Comcast over Wbd. TNT Sports will air NBA games this upcoming season as part of its broadcast obligations under the prior contract.

The media rights deal raised questions about what would happen to “Inside the NBA,...

Stephen A. Smith is riled up. Sort of. During a mid-July call from his New Jersey home, the conversation turns to labels and he’s suddenly yelling into the receiver: “I’m not a podcaster! I just happen to be doing a podcast.” The combative orator of ESPN morning flagship First Take and, yes, his eponymous podcast leans into his persona, but also sheds it just as quickly. “I’m sorry, could you hold on? My daughter’s giving me an ugly look,” he says, his tone changing as he turns his attention to one of his two children. “Daddy just has to finish this.”

Then he’s back to his thunderous monologue, the kind that has helped propel Smith to the upper echelon of sports media. His 2019 contract extension with ESPN made him the highest-paid talent in network history. And while his salary has since been eclipsed by Troy Aikman,...

Charles Barkley is walking back his retirement plans. The longtime sports broadcasters and TNT Sports today issued a joint press release in which they “reaffirmed his long-term commitment” that will see the Hall of Famer “exclusively contribute to TNT Sports for many years to come.”

In June, when TNT parent Warner Bros. Discovery was on the verge of losing NBA rights, Barkley announced that he would be retiring after the 2024-25 season, which would be the league’s last on TNT for the foreseeable future unless Wbd’s legal action against the NBA is successful. He subsequently revealed that he had spoken to the companies that won the bidding for the next cycle of basketball rights, Amazon, NBC and ESPN, about potential job opportunities.

But today, TNT Sports noted that Barkley is just two years into a 10-year contract with the company — believed to be worth as much as $210M...

“Inside the NBA” analyst Charles Barkley is canceling his retirement plans to continue contributing to TNT Sports’ coverage for “years to come.”

“I love my TNT Sports family. My #1 priority has been and always will be our people and keeping everyone together for as long as possible. We have the most amazing people, and they are the best at what they do,” he said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to continuing to work with them both on the shows we currently have and new ones we develop together in the future. This is the only place for me.”

The reversal comes after the host, who previously signed a 10-year agreement with the network in 2022, said in June that the 2024-25 season would be his last and that he didn’t plan to join any other network in the event that Warner Bros. Discovery lost the media rights to the NBA.

Charles Barkley says he isn’t getting out of Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports game.

The roundball great, who is a mainstay of the long-running TNT studio show “Inside the NBA,” said Tuesday that he will put off previously articulated plans to retire and continue to work through what is believed to be a ten-year contract that kicked off in 2022. Warner Bros. Discovery is in the midst of a heated legal squabble with the NBA over keeping some passel of rights to show games after the league’s next season. Barkley’s reversal could be seen as a sweetener, though NBA executives are believed to have soured on their long-term alliance with Warner. NBCUniversal, Amazon and Disney are the league’s partners in a new rights deal that would commence next year.

“I love my TNT Sports family. My #1 priority has been and always will be our people and keeping...

Charles Barkley won’t be retiring after all.

The TNT Sports personality and Inside the NBA co-host will be staying with Warner Bros. Discovery and TNT Sports even after the next NBA season.

TNT Sports said Tuesday that Barkley has “reaffirmed his commitment” to the company, which will see him “exclusively contribute to TNT Sports for many years to come.”

The next season of Inside the NBA could be the last, with TNT Sports set to lose rights after the next season to Amazon. Wbd has sued the league to try and stop that from happening.

In a statement, Barkley indicated that he will work with the company to develop new shows, in addition to contributing to other sports programming.

“I love my TNT Sports family. My #1 priority has been and always will be our people and keeping everyone together for as long as possible. We have the most amazing people,...

David Letterman is popularly known for being the host of Late Night with David Letterman since the 80s and Late Show with David Letterman from the 90s till 2015. The comedian had an incredible knack for dealing with high-profile celebrities with such ease and candor that was loved by audiences.

Michael Jordan in the hit documentary The Last Dance | Netflix

He has inspired other talk show hosts that came after him and his vivacious personality continues to enthrall fans to this day. Letterman interviewed basketball legend Michael Jordan in his talk show where they talked about his towering height. Jordan made a rather shocking joke about his birth parents that left the talk show host in disbelief.

David Letterman Was Left Astonished At Michael Jordan’s Unsettling Joke About His Birth Parents

David Letterman hosted Late Night with David Letterman from 1982 to 1993 | NBC

Michael Jordan has been a cultural icon and...

As if going for a gold medal in corporate self-promotion, NBC is packing its 2024 Olympic coverage with the stars of its flagship late-night sketch show Saturday Night Live, hence why the surfing competition in Tahiti is being covered by Weekend Update co-anchor, and “serious sports reporter,” Colin Jost.

In addition to shoehorning comedians into correspondent roles, NBC is churning out even more blatantly synergistic SNL content, airing segments specifically hyping the show’s upcoming 50th season and, of course, the three-hour SNL 50 prime-time special.

The first of what will apparently be several SNL-focused segments on “Primetime in Paris” opened with an SNL-style montage of Parisian streets, all while the show’s house band jammed in Studio 8H, approximately 3,600 miles away. Sportscaster Mike Tirico then chatted with John Mulaney about a bunch of random topics, including the men’s beach volleyball game between Chile and Norway, which Mulaney claimed...

“American Dad!” is finally getting its own soundtrack. The show’s cast and producers revealed on Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con that an album featuring between 12 to 14 of the series’ most memorable songs (such as “Daddy’s Gone” and “When I Dress My Body”) will be released on streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music, timed to the premiere of the next season on TBS

Voice acting stars Wendy Schaal, Scott Grimes, Rachael MacFarlane, Dee Bradley Baker and Jeff Fischer joined executive producers Matt Weitzman, Kara Vallow and Nic Wegener to talk all things “American Dad!” in Ballroom 20 at the San Diego Convention Center.

Executive producer Matt Weitzman shared a list of guest stars coming to next season, including Charles Barkley, Michael Imperioli, Leslie Jones, Joel McHale, Bret The Hitman Hart, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Neal McDonough and both Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick.

Weitzman additionally shared some upcoming plot points.

One of the great things about being Charles Barkley is that you get to change your mind.

The all-time NBA great and analyst on TNT’s Inside the NBA told Dan Patrick this morning that, despite previously saying he would retire after the 2024-2025 season, he has had discussions with the three newly-crowned NBA rights holders about staying on TV.

“Everything is on the table,” Barkley told Patrick about whether he might take his talents to NBC or Amazon or ESPN. The league last week announced it had sealed a new 11-year rights deal with Amazon as well as NBCUniversal and Disney-espn, leaving Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT out in the cold.

The comments to Patrick came just hours after Barkley ripped the league for putting “money over the fans” in the negotiations. “It just sucks,” the social media-challenged analyst declared in a statement posted in his name to X.

Warner Bros. Discovery is ready to call foul on the NBA.

If the shrinking media giant has its way, athletes, influencers and others will begin to take to social media and other venues to criticize the NBA and Amazon for a new deal that will have the digital titan’s Prime Video stream dozens of professional basketball games starting in the 2025-2026 season.

Warner Bros. Discovery is working with Edelman, an independent public-relations firm, to wage a campaign that aims to cast aspersions on Amazon getting a $1.8 billion-per-year package of NBA rights that Warner believes should stay under its aegis. The two parties have been working together for the past year on corporate-strategy initiatives, according to people familiar with the matter.

Under the current effort, Edelman will seek to line up athletes, executives and other luminaries to criticize the NBA’s decision, part of a broader allocation of media rights...

(From left) Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley on the set of “NBA on TNT” in November 2023. (Still frame via TNT Sports broadcast)

Warner Bros Discovery (Wbd) has made good on its threat to “take appropriate action” against the National Basketball Association (NBA) after the league rejected an offer from the broadcaster to keep its live basketball games on TNT Sports beyond this upcoming season.

The deal, announced on Wednesday, shifts the NBA package of games previously offered by TNT and other Wbd-owned cable channels to Amazon’s Prime Video through the 2032-33 season.

The league’s current TV rights package afforded Wbd the opportunity to match a bid by any interested broadcast party during the negotiation period for the new TV package. Wbd says it did just that, offering to top Prime Video’s offer of $1.8 billion per year for the package of games.

The NBA...

Warner Bros. Discovery and Turner Brodcasting have filed a lawsuit against the NBA over its decision to reject the company’s matching rights proposal and move forward with media rights deals with Amazon, NBC and Disney.

The complaint was filed under seal in the New York County Supreme Court on Friday by Wbd’s lawyers, Weil, Gotshal & Manges Llp.

“Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights,” TNT Sports said in a statement. “We strongly believe this is not just our contractual right, but also in the best interest of fans who want to keep watching our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility we offer them through our widely distributed Wbd video-first distribution platforms – including TNT and Max.”

According to the complaint obtained by TheWrap, Wbd and Turner allege that the NBA breached its...

Turner Sports host Charles Barkley has never held back from criticizing his own employer, but in a statement Friday he shifted his ire to the NBA and team owners for choosing “money over the fans.”

The NBA Hall of Famer, a co-host of Turner studio show Inside the NBA, had previously ripped Turner parent Warner Bros. Discovery for the way it approached negotiations with the league. As a current rights holder through the end of the 2024-25 season, Wbd had an exclusive window of talks but reportedly balked at the price. The NBA then went on to seal deals with the other incumbent, Disney-ESPN, as well as NBCUniversal and Amazon. The three packages are worth $77 billion over 11 years. When Wbd asserted its rights to match Amazon’s offer, the league rejected it, prompting the media company to vow “appropriate action,” likely of the legal variety.

“Clearly the NBA has...

Charles Barkley thinks it “sucks” that the NBA has chosen to end its decades-long partnership with basic cable network TNT in favor of a streaming deal with Amazon.

The Inside the NBA analyst released a statement Friday in which he laments the league’s recently announced, multi-billion dollar media rights deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon — a deal that ends a 36-year relationship with Turner Sports — and accuses the NBA of choosing “money over the fans.” His remarks come after TNT owner Warner Bros. Discovery attempted to match Amazon’s offer for the NBA’s third-tier package, but the NBA...

Charles Barkley has weighed in on Warner Bros. Discovery’s loss of the NBA after the league rejected the media conglomerate’s matching proposal and chose to move forward with deals with Amazon, NBC and Disney.

The deals, reportedly worth a collective $76 billion, will take effect starting in the 2025-26 season and run through 2036. Some 75 regular-season games will be on broadcast TV each season, up from the minimum of 15 games under the current agreement.

“Clearly the NBA wanted to break up with us from the beginning. I’m not sure TNT ever had a chance. TNT matched the money, but the league knows Amazon and these tech companies are the only ones willing to pay for the rights when they double in the future. The NBA didn’t want to piss them off,” the “Inside the NBA” analyst said in a statement on Friday. “It’s a sad day when...

Charles Barkley has weighed in on the NBA’s new 11-year, $76 billion TV rights deals with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon.

In a statement Friday morning, the basketball hall-of-famer and TNT Inside the NBA host ripped into the league for pursuing money from big tech companies, suggesting that the league had planned to cut a deal with Amazon from the start.

“Clearly the NBA has wanted to break up with us from the beginning. I’m not sure TNT ever had a chance,” Barkley said. “TNT matched the money, but the league knows Amazon and these tech companies are the only ones willing to pay for the rights when they double in the future. The NBA didn’t want to piss them off. It’s a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over the fans. It just sucks.”

The NBA announced the new long-term deals Wednesday, with Disney and ESPN keeping their existing package,...

If Wbd’s legal options don’t avail, fans will have to say goodbye to the beloved ‘Inside the NBA’ crew.

A reality in which TNT is no longer an NBA broadcast partner is looming ever closer. On Wednesday, the league informed TNT’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery that it was rejecting an offer to “match” Amazon’s price of $1.8 billion per season for the NBA’s “C” rights parcel. That means that unless some sort of miracle occurs, the “Inside the NBA” studio show that has become a staple of games on TNT will likely go off the air following the 2024-25 season, or at least in the form that fans know and love today. This has caused a good deal of understandable outcry from fans, but judging from ratings in the 2023-24 season, the NBA’s confidence that it can survive without “Inside the NBA” seems well-founded.

(From left) Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley on the set of “NBA on TNT” in November 2023. (Still frame via TNT Sports broadcast)

Officials at Warner Bros Discovery (Wbd) have criticized the National Basketball Association for rejecting its last-minute bid for the rights to some nationally-televised basketball games.

On Wednesday, the league announced a multi-year agreement with Comcast’s NBC Sports and Amazon’s Prime Video that will effectively move nationally-televised games from TNT Sports to their broadcast and streaming platforms, starting next year.

Wbd has held the rights to NBA games since the late 1980s, and assumed expanded broadcast responsibilities for professional basketball after the games left NBC in 2002. Under its existing telecast agreement, Wbd had the right to make a competing or higher bid for games in the face of a competing offer, which Comcast and Amazon made.

Last week, after the NBA’s Board...

Cue the “Roundball Rock”: The NBA is returning to NBC for the first time in more than two decades, with the pro basketball league signing a multi-billion dollar media rights deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon — a deal that ends the league’s relationship with Turner Sports and TNT that began in 1988.

The new 11-year deal will begin with the 2025-26 NBA season, with Disney paying a reported $2.6 billion per year for the league’s “A” package to air on ESPN and ABC, which includes the NBA Finals, playoff games (with a conference final), weekly primetime games and more.

Google a list of the all-time best Saturday Night Live hosts, and you’ll find a surprising number of people who you’d never guess were funny in the first place.

I mean, before SNL, who knew athletes Charles Barkley and Peyton Manning were hilarious? Who watched Nsync videos and predicted that Justin Timberlake had “Dick in a Box” in him? Billie Eilish? Chance the Rapper? Anyone have news anchor Brian Williams on their funny bingo card?

As the show embarks on its landmark 50th season, here are five more suggestions for out-of-the-box SNL hosts who just might knock it out of the park…

1 Tony Hawk

Hawk has been quietly comedy-adjacent for years, appearing in College Humor sketches, skateboarding in a fat suit in a Jackass movie and lending his voice to The Simpsons.

His Twitter feed is surprisingly funny, too, full of self-deprecating jabs and goofy insights. As a performer,...

NBCUniversal expects to complete an 11-year rights deal that will bring the NBA to NBC and Peacock and that will transform the schedule of the broadcast network.

“Soon we will have an 11-year rights deal,” said Mike Cavanagh, president of NBCU parent Comcast, in remarks delivered during a conference call Tuesday with investors. He added: “We expect to be awarded the deal,” and noted that the company didn’t think that recent efforts by Warner Bros. Discovery to assert its right to match the terms of an agreement that is in place between the NBA and Amazon will have much of an impact on the current deal structure.

The new package, slated to go into effect for the 2025-’26 season, will include 100 NBA games during each regular season across NBC and Peacock. That, said Cavanagh, would comprise more games “than any other media partner and more regular season games than...