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Essence Atkins stars on the new sitcom Poppa’s House with Damon Wayans Sr. and his namesake son, Damon Wayans Jr. As one would imagine, her experience working with the comedians on set has been nothing short of laughter.

“It’s fun. We laugh all day. We try to make each other laugh all day. We are constantly kind of mining for what is funny and trying things. And sometimes they work and sometimes we know they don’t,” she tells ABC Audio. “We make fun of ourselves, but it’s such a playful atmosphere.”

This energy permeates across the screen to viewers, as she says the show is for “people who want to laugh” and “people who feel like the world is worlding and … need to laugh.“

“You can look forward to laughter — real laughter, like, out loud, not where you’re just like, ‘Oh that’s funny,’ but like, you actually are laughing,” Essence says of Poppa’s House. “And I think you can look forward to stories that you will find a point of view that you connect with.”

She adds the show is also for “people who grew up with the classic sitcoms and loved them because we definitely have a throwback kind of feel.”

“I think if you loved My Wife and Kids, or if you loved Half & Half or if you loved Girlfriends or if you loved The Wayans Bros. or if you loved, you know, even Friends … or Living Single. I think that the elements are there,” Essence says. “But in addition to that, you have something that’s unique to the show, which is that you have a real-life father and son playing father and son.” 

Poppa’s House airs Mondays on CBS at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Netflix has unveiled a new teaser trailer for Squid Game season 2, in which season 1 winner Seong Gi-hun aka Player 456, played by Lee Jung-jae, is back for round two.

“Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 gave up going to the States and comes back with a new resolution in his mind,” according to the official season 2 synopsis. “Gi-hun once again dives into the mysterious survival game, starting another life-or-death game with new participants gathered to win the prize of 45.6 billion won.”

Lee and co-star Wi Ha-joon were on hand, along with series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, at the European comic-con Lucca Comics & Games to unveil the clip, which finds Player 456 reentering the games three years after his victory, but with a different purpose.

Armed with the knowledge he gained the first time around, the trailer finds Gi-hun attempting to convince a new group of players vying for the prize to opt out of the game “before they kill us all.”

Lee Byung-hun also returns for season 2 as the mysterious Front Man in charge of running the game.

Squid Game season 2 launches Dec. 26 on Netflix.

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On his Fail Better podcast, David Duchovny buried the hatchet with Gillian Anderson over his relationship with her during their days on The X-Files. 

The pair, who remain friends, weren’t so during the shooting of the Fox phenomenon, and for that, Duchovny apologized.

“The part of this conversation that is the trickiest part for me is where I guess I would talk about, like, my failure of friendship or my failure of companionship or just co-starring,” Duchovny said. 

“There was a long time, working on the show, where we were just not even dealing with one another off camera,” David said, adding for the most part the audience had no idea. 

“There was a lot of tension, which didn’t matter, apparently, for the work because we’re both f****** crazy, I guess, that we could just go out there and do what we needed to do.”

Anderson agreed, “It’s crazy that we were able to present on camera the various feelings and emotions and attraction and all that kind of stuff, but then not speak to each other for weeks at a time.”

Duchovny added they “missed a chance” at a friendship earlier on. “We missed a chance … because you’re the only person that knows what I was going through and I’m the only person that knows what you’re going through, and we didn’t make use of that.”

He concludes, “It’s nice for me to be able to say ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘I regret’ or ‘I could have done better.’ Because once that’s out, all that’s left is gratitude and that’s the best place to be.”

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