Chris Rock, Martin Short to host final ‘Saturday Night Live’ episodes of 2024

Hacks earned top honors at Sunday’s Emmy Awards, nabbing the trophy for Outstanding Comedy Series. 

This was the first time the comedy starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder took home the top comedy award. It was previously nominated in 2021 and 2022. 

The show beat out previous Outstanding Comedy winner The Bear, coming as a bit of a surprise, although the FX show has been the subject of much debate as to whether it is indeed a comedy.

In total, Hacks took home three awards Sunday night. In addition to Outstanding Comedy Series, Smart won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, and the show won Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.

Other nominees in the Outstanding Comedy Series category included Abbott Elementary, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Only Murders in the Building, Palm Royale, Reservation Dogs and What We Do in the Shadows.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Some people would metaphorically give their teeth to launch a hit TV show, but for Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, it was literal. 

He clarified to the BBC that he was under so much stress making the original series, which became a global phenomenon, that he lost “eight or nine” teeth. He’d previously said six of his teeth fell out. 

In preparation for the anticipated follow-up to the show, which is due on Netflix on Dec. 25, Hwang said, “The stress I feel now is much greater,” adding of his chompers that he’ll “probably have to pull out a few more very soon.”

That said, the Emmy-winning show’s creator said much like his show’s contestants, he pursued a second season for the jackpot. 

“Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much,” he tells the outlet. “So doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too.”

That said, he explained he “didn’t fully finish the story” of the first season’s winner, Lee Jung-jae‘s Seong Gi-hun aka Player 456. For the forthcoming go-round, Gi-hun takes on the life-or-death game once again, with vengeance on his mind for the people behind it. 

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Wicked promotional run has become the press tour that has spawned a thousand memes, as stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were seen constantly tearing up, full-out crying and being dramatic while talking about the film. But the star of another musical film — albeit an animated one — says people just don’t understand what it’s like to be, as she puts it, “a theater kid.”

Auli’i Cravalho, who provides the voice of the main character in Disney’s Moana and Moana 2, tells Vanity Fair, “I need people to understand what it’s like to be a theater kid. Being a theater kid is emotional. Get off my girls Ariana and Cynthia’s backs. Do you understand me?”

She continues, “You don’t know what it’s like to be working on a film for this long. The film is two hours and 40 minutes long. If you’re not crying after working with someone for that long, and you’re both theater kids and you’re singing live … I am very passionate about this.”

Auli’i says she plans to see Wicked as soon as she can.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.