“TV has to look like the real world”: Niecy Nash-Betts on LGBTQ representation on television
Disney/Stewart Cook
Good Morning Americacaught up with Emmy presenter Niecy Nash-Betts and her wife, Jessica Betts, at the event’s after-party Sunday, and they spoke about queer representation on TV.
“Everyone wants to be fully seen,” Niecy said, “and, you know, we are happy to be representations of that.” Niecy and Jessica tied the knot in 2020.
She continued, “We applaud when others are [a] representation of that, and I just think that TV has to look like the real world at some point.”
During Sunday night’s ceremony, Niecy took the stage in the program’s salute to TV cops, joining NYPD Blue‘s Jimmy Smits and Miami Vice veteran Don Johnson. Niecy played Deputy Raineesha Williams on the beloved comedy series Reno: 911.
“Raineesha brought two important things to being a cop,” Nash-Betts said from the stage. “A marginal knowledge of the law and the belief that you can’t fight crime if you ain’t cute.”
Deadline reports Michael McKean, of This is Spinal Tap fame, is joining his Better Call Saul co-star Bob Odenkirk, Succession‘s Kieran Culkin and comedian Bill Burr in the upcoming Broadway revival of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. McKean will play George Aaronow, the timid real estate salesman portrayed by Mike Nussbaum on Broadway in 1984 and Alan Arkin in the 1993 film adaptation. The revival is set to open in the spring of 2025 …
Brendan Gleeson has been tapped to star alongside Nicolas Cage in the upcoming MGM+ and Prime Video live-action series Spider-Man Noir, according to Variety. The series, based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir, follows Cage as “an aging and down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero,” per the outlet. A premiere date has yet to be announced …
Floriana Lima has been addd to the season 21 cast of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy in a recurring role, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She’ll play Nora, a childhood friend of Owen and Megan Hunt — played respectively by Kevin McKidd and Abigail Spencer — who comes to Grey Sloan due to serious complications arising from a routine operation mishandled by another hospital. Grey’s Anatomy returns Sept. 26, with Lima’s first appearance coming in the second episode …
Alan Cumming, host of the Peacock reality competition series The Traitors, will return as host of AARP’s annual Movies for Grownups Awards on Jan. 11, the organization has announced. The star-studded ceremony recognizes the best TV, films and filmmakers of 2024, along with the Career Achievement Honor, to be announced at a later date. Past recipients include Jamie Lee Curtis, George Clooney, Helen Mirren, Michael Douglas, Shirley MacLaine, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Robert Redford, Sharon Stone and Robert De Niro …
Thirty years after Ted Danson‘s Sam Malone declared, “Sorry, we’re closed,” to end the 11-season classic sitcom Cheers, a U.K. company is reportedly interested in serving up an English version.
That’s the news from Deadline, which reports that the U.K. company Big Talk has tapped Men Behaving Badly writer Simon Nye to develop a new version of the show that was based at that Boston bar where everybody knew your name.
Cheers opened for business on NBC on the evening of Sept. 30, 1982, and its finale, “One for the Road,” attracted 40 million viewers on the evening of May 20, 1993 — one of the most-watched finales of all time.
During its run, the show earned a total of 179 Primetime Emmy nominations and 28 wins, and spun off another Emmys magnet, Frasier, in 1993.
Netflix is reportedly looking for a little spice: Variety says the streamer is looking to join forces with BuzzFeed to air live installments of First We Feast’s smash chicken wing eating show Hot Ones.
The pop culture website owns the meme-generating hit series, which can be seen on YouTube.
According to the trade, the deal is in the early stages, but it would bring to the streamer a live version of the series that has host Sean Evans taking the Gauntlet of Death hot sauce challenge with various celebrities.
Evans and company have chowed down — and created viral interview moments — with celebrities ranging from Conan O’Brien to Gordon Ramsay to Sydney Sweeney, and made meme stars out of Jennifer Lawrence, Idris Elba and more thanks to their reactions to the spicy stuff.
