To say there’s been an uproar over the cancellation of The Late Show after 33 years would be an understatement, as everybody from Jimmy Kimmel to Bowen Yang to Andy Cohen is sounding off. Stephen Colbert is still set to continue hosting episodes nightly on the 2025 TV schedule until next May, but as heated arguments continue over politics and money losses, some are claiming this move could have been made sooner than it was.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs on CBS, whose parent company, Paramount Global, is in the midst of a merger with Skydance. The reported $8 billion deal was delayed by a lawsuit involving President Donald Trump and 60 Minutes, which was ultimately settled (a move that Colbert himself criticized on the air). A person close to Skydance told the New York Post’s On the Money that if the merger hadn’t been held up, The Late Show would have been canceled sooner. They claimed:
This thing is losing money left and right. I hear it’s on the way to lose more than $50 million and they would have killed it sooner if they were in charge. This guy pisses off more than half the country.
best late-night hosts on a show that was comfortably winning its timeslot in the ratings.
deeper look into the financial picture seems to show trouble for the future of late-night shows as a whole, with advertising rates cratering ($220 million across late-night shows in 2024, compared to $439 million in 2018) and fewer people turning to network TV for entertainment.
Add to that the large staff required to produce the daily shows and the hosts’ salaries — Stephen Colbert allegedly is estimated to make between $15 million and $20 million annually — and one can see how the losses could pile up quickly.
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The debate will continue whether The Late Show’s cancellation was a financial inevitability or politically motivated, but there’s no questioning the effects many feel over the loss. Stephen Colbert’s crew is reportedly “devastated,” and you can bet that Jon Stewart had some passionate words about the importance of shows like Colbert’s that take a stand.
I’ve got a feeling we haven’t seen the end of this issue — especially with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert continuing to air at 11:35 p.m. ET weeknights on CBS.
Wednesday Season 2 will finally be premiering soon on the 2025 TV schedule, and the wait has been excruciating. It seems like forever since the series premiered on Netflix in 2022, but the second season will be here in a matter of days. Between seeing what Jenna Ortega’s titular Addams Family character will be getting up to and the insane guest stars, there will be a lot to look forward to. A lot has also changed, not only in the show but behind the scenes, and Wednesday’s creator is getting real about the star of the show putting her foot down in Season 1.
Ortega has been open about how hard filming Wednesday’s inaugural season was and revealed she had to put her foot down when it came to certain aspects. She worked long and hard hours on the show and even almost passed out while filming Season 1. While she received backlash after saying aspects of the show “made no sense” and she was changing lines on set, she didn’t let up. And it turned out to be a good thing, and creator Alfred Gough praised her for what she did and what it turned into while talking to The Hollywood Reporter:
Jenna gave notes on the scripts. She’s now a producer. She’s very involved, and she has a 360-degree view of things that, frankly, you don’t find with most actors. I think she’ll have a long career.
Wednesday and what she was experiencing. It also couldn’t have been easy for Gough to hear about what was going on, and what the Scream actress thought of the series. But he seems to be liking the charge that she took. Now, as a producer, Ortega has more of a say and can better control things for the acclaimed Netflix hit. And I hope that Gough is right about Ortega having a long career.
Jenna Ortega admitted to being an “unhappy person” during Season 1, but her mentality has since changed since she’s able to sit in on meetings, listen, and learn more. She also has a lot more say in what goes into the second season, like wanting to add more horror and gore to the show, which is what’s happening. It should be interesting to see how different Season 2 is compared to Season 1, especially since it already sounds like there were some big changes.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Ahead of Wednesday Season 2, the show has already had a third season renewal and is seemingly getting closer to a potential spinoff. It’s not so surprising, considering the Addams Family has been a favorite for decades, and there are a lot of stories to tell. But a spinoff for Ortega’s series has yet to be confirmed.
Fans will soon see what Wednesday Season 2 is all about when the first part drops on August 6, followed by part 2 on September 3, with a Netflix subscription. There are also many upcoming titles on Netflix’s schedule to look forward to.
Twenty-seven years ago, Armageddon benefited from a marketing campaign that left a lasting impression.
Director Michael Bay’s sci-fi disaster movie starred Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton and Liv Tyler in the story of a team of oil drillers sent into space to destroy an asteroid before it hits Earth. Disney’s Buena Vista Pictures released the film July 1, 1998, and THR reported then that the TV advertising spend was less than for a typical tentpole due to increased visibility elsewhere.
“We benefited from some very creative executions,” then-Buena Vista Pictures Marketing president John Cywinski told THR at the time.
As noted in the story, a key example was “a series of building art in Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas where they made it appear as if an asteroid had blown a hole through the building.” The concept, which likely wouldn’t have been approved post-9/11, was the talk of the town, with trompe l’oeil billboards near the 101 and 405 freeways in L.A.
“It was very smart and shows a great way to use outdoor campaigns,” says Russell Schwartz, former New Line president of theatrical marketing. “Most outdoor [marketing] is wasted because they’re basically taking the poster and just blowing it up.”
The unsettling visuals helped the film hit big, as Armageddon collected $553 million at the box office (more than $1 billion today) to leave the year’s similarly themed Deep Impact in the dust and become 1998’s highest-grossing title.
Today, Armageddon continues to get buzz from Affleck’s snarky DVD commentary track. (“It’s a real plan at NASA to train oil drillers?” Affleck recalled asking Bay.) Earlier this year, Affleck quipped that his commentary track is “maybe my best work in my career.”
This story appeared in the July 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
In 1996, former hockey player Happy Gilmore (Adam Sandler) was able to take three steps and pound his grandfather’s “really old” driver 400-plus yards. For self-serious golfers, it required suspension of disbelief at the highest levels. General audiences sure didn’t seem to mind.
Since that time, the only technology that has accelerated as quickly as golf clubs can be seen in the changes to our video distribution systems. In Netflix’s Happy Gilmore 2, the contents of Happy’s bag get a major upgrade — whether or not streaming is an upgrade to theatrical in the delivery of video content is an entirely different conversation.
Martin Borgmeier, who can actually can drive the golf ball 400 yards — and that’s just with a warmup swing — has embraced to great success how physics inform the long ball. So who better to break down the biomechanics of Happy Gilmore’s long game than the man who beat out all-world golfer (and a big hitter in his own right) Bryson DeChambeau at the 2022 World Long Drive Championship. We got a few tips to try out along the way.
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You were five years old when Happy Gilmore came out — what is your relationship to that movie?
It was the first golf movie I watched as a kid. I started golf at the age of nine. It was definitely the first (golf) movie I’ve watched, and all of the rest came after that — so, like, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Tin Cup…because it was my big dream as a like 10-14 year old to become a professional golfer and basically become the next Tiger Woods. It didn’t work out. (Laughs.) But like all these movies, obviously, were a big part of my life. And Happy Gilmore— actually, I’ve watched it back, like, maybe 10 years ago or so, and I realized at that point [that] all the jokes and all that stuff, most of it didn’t even [register]. But the one thing I I knew as a kid — and I remember it was — he hit it extremely far. He had his super-crazy pre-shot routine and everything — the run-up and all that stuff — and I just found it funny and enjoyed the long drives and terrible putts as a kid.
We’ve all tried the Happy Gilmore swing — have you had success with it?
Yeah, it’s so funny you say that because I just posted a Reel on my Instagram for a Bad Birdie giveaway. (Bad Birdie is a golf apparel company and a Borgmeier sponsor.) It was an ice hockey jersey (Gilmore’s first sport). [I did] the crazy approach — the Happy Gilmore swing — a little bit exaggerated, even with, like, probably 10-15 steps and a little bit of yelling involved as well. So yeah, I’ve tried it, and actually it worked pretty well.
[But] the way I did it in the video — obviously on purpose — I’m kind of just like poking the golf ball a little bit, and it falls off tee (for comedic effect). That turned out to be much harder than actually striking it well, because the biomechanics behind it— [The Happy Gilmore swing] is actually a great drill for long-drive. What you have to accomplish is, you have to get your pressure forward into your lead leg just before you make contact with the golf ball, and at the same time, stay back with your upper body, because otherwise you cannot swing up on it. So basically, forcing that by running up to it is a great way to practice that element.
Your posted longest drives are 484 yards in competition and 520 yards in exhibition — how far did a good Happy Gilmore-swing go for you?
I mean, when I really pounded it, it’s probably not even that different to when I’m really going after it (with a normal long-drive swing.) It’s not too much about the speed. I think the speed is pretty much the same — it’s fast (Borgmeier’s record ball speed is 239.3 mph) — but the crazy thing is really making the contact while keeping the face square.
Adam Sandler as Happy Gilmore in Happy Gilmore 2.
Courtesy of Netflix
You’re 6’4” and 240 lbs. There’s undoubtedly a big strength factor in long drives. But you mostly talk about biomechanics as a means to long drives — what do you see as the breakdown of brains vs. brawn?
Eighty-twenty. 80 percent mechanics and the remaining 20 percent is — let’s call it strength. But all of the work we do in the gym is mostly to stay healthy and actually make our bodies be capable of handling all the stress we put onto them on a daily basis, right? Because, I mean, obviously it’s a one-sided motion. We rarely hit golf balls left-handed…so it’s really about staying strong and healthy and being able to withstand all the stress we put onto it.
But to really hit it far, let’s say 80 percent is biomechanics, and then that remaining 20 percent I called strength, is basically your body allowing yourself to swing faster because it knows it can withstand all of that and allows you to do that, if that makes sense. Because otherwise, when you look at strongmen, right, the strongest people in the world — if strength was such a big part of it, they would [have the fastest ball speeds] in the world. They’re not. So that’s really how it works, and that’s also what I’ve been doing over the past, like, five, six, seven years, [trying] to figure out, like, how much of what is really important. And if I had to do one thing for the rest of my career, it would be biomechanics only.
Can you analyze Happy Gilmore’s swing for me?In movie-land, his drives go 400-plus yards (with old clubs). How far can a guy of his Adam’s stature and that swing with those clubs really drive a golf ball?
I would guess a 250[-yard drive] would be an amazing drive with that equipment. Because what’s going to happen with modern golf balls and his clubs, is it’s just gonna spin too much. So a lot of the energy— even if he swung really fast with that Happy Gilmore swing, he would lose a lot of energy of that ball just ballooning up in the air [instead of going] forward. Even if it was a really low-degree driver, with current golf balls and titanium drivers, obviously, that energy transfer is going to be much better than with wooden clubs.
When we talk “smash factor” — that’s one of the efficiency data points we use with launch monitors — modern titanium drivers would be around one-and-a-half of the club head speed would be ball speed. So let’s say you swing at 100 mph, it would turn into 150 mph ball speed. I would see that factor at like, roughly 1.3 or something with the wooden club. So it would be much, much, much slower than a titanium driver.
My distance sucks. Give me one or two things I could do, sight unseen, that would instantly add yardage?
It’s a combination of two things. So first of all, being aware that a driver swing is different to an iron swing. So with a driver swing, the golf ball is on a tee, so we don’t have to take the divot after the ball, we can actually swing up on it…and that’s going to improve the launch with the spin, and eventually make the golf ball go up further.
And so the other bit is — it’s actually fairly close to the Happy Gilmore swing, because, [while] he’s doing it in an extreme way, being more athletic in general and being less of a robot, and actually using a little bit of the athleticism we know from other sports…Look at any other sport — even baseball, they move, they freaking move before they swing! The pitcher, before he throws, he’s gonna move, utilizing a little bit of that [athletic movement]. That could just be a slight little trigger move before you take away the club, so making that body shift to the right before you take away the club — or it could be as extreme as the Happy Gilmore swing, but eventually moving our bodies a little bit could definitely help to get a little bit more power into that swing.
I’m gonna try some crazy shit in my garage tonight.
[Laughs] Don’t break your leg!
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
(L to R) Alec Gillis, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Elle Fanning and director Dan Trachtenberg at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for ‘Predator: Badlands’. Photo: Disney.
Preview:
‘Predator: Badlands’ showed off new footage at Comic-Con.
Director Dan Trachtenberg and star Elle Fanning were on the panel.
Fresh information was revealed.
‘Prey’ director Dan Trachtenberg has become something of a ‘Predator’ specialist, having also made animated adventure ‘Predator: Killer of Killers’.
He’s back with a second outing this year, ‘Predator: Badlands’, which naturally took the opportunity to bring some footage and guests to Comic-Con to make sure audiences are primed.
“First hunt. Last chance.”
In the future on a remote planet, a young Predator, outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate… Read the Plot
‘Badlands’, which stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, is live-action entry, and promises plenty of action.
Related Article: Movie Review: ‘Predator: Killer of Killers’
In the future on a remote planet, a young Predator, outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in artificial being Thia (Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.
What happened at the ‘Predator: Badlands’ panel?
(L to R) Director Dan Trachtenberg, Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Alec Gillis at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for ‘Predator: Badlands’. Photo: Disney.
Predator masks were handed out to the crowd at the start of the panel, which came in handy since a Predator took the stage to menace the assembled audience.
Filmmaker Kevin Smith moderated the panel, and admitted up front that ‘Badlands’ was his favorite ‘Predator’ movie so far.
Smith introduced Trachtenberg, who admitted how excited he was to be promoting a movie at Comic-Con after years attending as a fan:
“You could imagine bringing a movie to Hall H would be a dream for me. It’s something I’m really proud of, and I’m so happy to share it with all of you.”
The Predator carrying Fanning’s character (or half of her) on his back was inspired by Chewbacca carrying C-3PO in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’.
(L to R) Director Dan Trachtenberg and Elle Fanning at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for ‘Predator: Badlands’. Photo: Disney.
Here’s what Fanning had to say about taking the role:
“Reading the script, what really drew me in was the heart and emotions… there’s no humans. I’m a synthetic android, he’s a Predator. But there’s so much humanity in these characters.”
Trachtenberg was also thinking about emotions- particularly having the Predator face be uncovered a lot more this time, so as to display both the digital work and performance.
The panel closed out with the first 15 minutes of ‘Badlands’ shown to the crowd, which cheered the Predator-y goodness.
In related ‘Predator’ news, ‘Killer of Killers’ will be updated on Hulu with an additional post-credits scene featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch and Danny Glover’s Mike Harrigan.
When will ‘Predator: Badlands’ be in theaters?
This latest ‘Predator’ outing stalks into cinemas on November 7th.
(L to R) Director Dan Trachtenberg, Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Alec Gillis at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for ‘Predator: Badlands’. Photo: Disney.
