Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance will finally return for season 17 this summer after a nearly three year break. Auditions for the upcoming season begin in March, with the new season set to feature adult dancers between the ages of 18 and 30.
SYTYCD audition info: “Dancers can submit online by registering and providing a link to a video of their performance. Please check danceshow2022.castingcrane.com or fox.com/dance for audition deadlines, full eligibility requirements, official rules, and additional details. Selected dancers will be invited to attend auditions in New York, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. From those auditions, the dancers selected will be invited to Los Angeles to perform for the judges and try to win a spot as one of the final contestants. Additional eligibility requirements and terms and conditions may apply.”
The Emmy Award-winning dance competition was created by Nigel Lythgoe and Simon Fuller. Lythgoe normally serves as a judge and also executive produces along with Jeff Thacker, Rosie Seitchik, Eli Holzman, and Aaron Saidman. Seitchik is on board as the season 17 showrunner.
Fox’s season 17 announcement did not confirm who will be sitting in the judges’ chairs this season. The network also didn’t confirm if Cat Deeley will return as host.
So You Think You Can Dance Details, Courtesy of Fox:
The upcoming season will feature highly skilled dancers between the ages of 18 and 30, showcasing their talents in various dance styles, including contemporary, tap, hip-hop, ballroom, animation, breaking, and more. Those who are selected to move on to the SYTYCD studio will work with world-renowned choreographers and compete each week in a variety of styles, with brand-new twists and turns introduced into the competition.
Douglas Booth as Red Bill and Dominic Cooper as Arthur McCoy in ‘That Dirty Black Bag’ (Photo Credit: Stefano C. Montesi / AMC+)
AMC+ is bringing spaghetti westerns back with their new series That Dirty Black Bag. Premiering on March 10, 2022, the gritty homage to the genre stars Dominic Cooper (Preacher, Spy City) as Sheriff Arthur McCoy, a man with a closet full of skeletons. Douglas Booth (The Dirt, Mary Shelley) plays Red Bill, a bounty hunter who prefers to chop off the heads of his victims rather than lug around their weighty bodies.
And FYI – the show’s title is a reference to Red Bill’s favorite decapitated head carryall.
During the 2022 Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, Dominic Cooper said the cast was fortunate to have had plenty of time to get ready for the series. Their preparation included watching spaghetti westerns to immerse themselves in the genre.
“We felt like kids in a candy store in that we were playing out a childhood dream,” said Dominic Cooper. “It obviously felt quite daunting sometimes to see all the classics and the actors that we respected and the work and the director’s work we respected. And we obviously wanted [it] to have its own sense and feeling. You try not to copy but you want to emulate…but you don’t want to impersonate other people’s performances from the past.
It must seep in somewhere; you can’t help it. But I certainly wasn’t watching things to steal looks and silences and then looking into the distance, in the hope that I’d replicate some wonderful performances from the past.”
Cooper added: “We watched everything and we watched it together. And we spoke about it a lot. We did our research with the directors and the actors.”
The connection to classic spaghetti westerns extended to filming locations. That Dirty Black Bag shot scenes at Fort Bravo where many of Sergio Leone’s movies were filmed.
“When we were doing our horse training, we could ride from one classic film set to another,” said Douglas Booth during the TCA panel. “You would be in a Western town and the next minute, you’d be outside a little church in Mexico. So that was quite fun. You’d watch the movie the night before and then doing the horse training the next day, you’d be riding around the sets. That was very cool.”
The shooting locations also helped capture the vastness of the Wild West in the same way classic Westerns brought the era alive on screen.
“[…] The feeling of the space – it’s so visually stunning and it goes on and on forever, these dry, rolling hills that you’ve built completely like you’re in the Wild West. It doesn’t feel like you’re in Europe at all,” said Booth. “So you can see why, historically, people over many years, have come there to make these iconic films.”
Italian filmmaker Mauro Aragoni (Nuraghes S’Arena) created the series and co-wrote the eight-episode season with Silvia Ebreul, Marcello Izzo, and Fabio Paladini. Dominic Cooper said the cast trusted the writers, directors, and producers to capture the genre’s tone while also creating something original.
“Of course, we wanted to replicate and play our childhood dreams out but we also wanted to be part of something that was new, fresh, and had a reason to be being made,” explained Cooper. “And I think that all those reasons were given to us by the producing team and the directing team, and it had a very, very distinct style. It was, yes, an homage to the spaghetti western, but it was clearly its own thing. And we all agreed that when we read it, it was one of the only things … you read a lot of material … and this, you couldn’t help but want to know what was happening next. That’s my experience, and I seem to remember us all saying the same thing about this particular piece of material.”
Dominic Cooper as Arthur McCoy in ‘That Dirty Black Bag’ (Photo Credit: Stefano C. Montesi / AMC+)
Dominic Cooper revealed in addition to working during the Covid-19 pandemic, Mother Nature decided to interrupt production with an abnormal amount of rain.
“They had a very wet season and within literally over the space of a night, we had rainfall, and our landscapes that were dry and arid suddenly became lush and green,” said Cooper. “And, again, our wonderful DP was struggling to find… We were really working day to day with finding new locations very quickly to make sure that it continued to look dry and arid because it was ever-changing.
I think that that sensation of being able to get even more impressive, wonderful, stunning backdrops which after a moment of watching, you have to keep reminding yourself that, ‘Oh my God, look at the background. Look where we are…’ It really is very cinematic and beautiful but we were on the move all the time and short of time – and, of course, filming during Covid. We respect everyone involved who managed to get this series made.”
Circumstances made it extraordinarily difficult to shoot That Dirty Black Bag and Cooper’s impressed with everything they managed to pull off in a short space of time and amid a pandemic.
“We’ve only just seen the final cuts of the first two episodes, and I knew we were making something that we were going to be proud of,” said Cooper. “The one thing about it is we were all fighting for the same thing, which was to make a wonderful show in a difficult time. And every so often we’d see little snippets of what we were making through the lens, through the camera, through the monitor, and we’d go, ‘Wow! This is worth kind of the sweat and tears of being out here for this amount of time.’”
“I think that especially we had a wonderful, wonderful DP that made sure everything looks as phenomenal as it does,” added Cooper. “It’s so collaborative, almost more than anything I’ve ever worked on. And us as actors, again, we all had time to really talk through who these characters were and to try and make them as interesting as we possibly could for ourselves and hopefully for the audience. And I think this show is very different from anything.”
Douglas Booth echoed Cooper’s praise of director of photography P.J. Dillon who shot all eight episodes. “It was amazing to have on a show like this where normally you’d have different DOPs coming in and out, to have someone as talented as him,” said Booth. “His star has been rising for a very long time. But to have to really sort of play it totally from beginning to end – I think that gives the show a real authentic look and style.”
Adrian Scarborough (Killing Eve) and Sonita Henry (Krypton) star in Acorn TV’s The Chelsea Detective, a four-episode crime drama created by Emmy Award winner Peter Fincham (The Lost Prince) set to premiere on Monday, March 7, 2022. Adrian Scarborough stars as Detective Inspector Max Arnold and Sonita Henry plays Detective Sergeant Priya Shamsie. Together, they’re a talented team capable of piecing together clues to catch murderers in Chelsea.
DI Arnold lives on a houseboat and is separated from his wife, and Scarborough describes him as a born-again melancholic. Scarborough believes having him live on an island in the middle of the Thames on his little houseboat was the perfect way to establish the loneliness of his character.
“And starting the show with him splitting up from his long-term partner, played brilliantly by Anamaria Marinca, was a really, really smart and sharp thing to do because I think it sets him up very, very brilliantly,” said Adrian Scarborough during the 2022 Television Critics Association winter press tour. “But what’s wonderful […]is because he has a fantastic partner in the shape of Sonita Henry…they simply couldn’t exist without one another. And for all of his sort of downtrodden, slightly depressive ways, [on] the other end of the spectrum he has somebody who’s bright, go-getting, very, very sharp, very, very quick on their feet, as well. She can run considerably faster than he can.”
Scarborough revealed DI Arnold has an unusual process for putting together the pieces when attempting to solve a crime. “I think he uses his piano skills very much to sort of get into the world of the crime. And he’s looking at his pinboard and he’s trying to work things out, and the cogs are whirring in there while he’s playing a little bit of Beethoven at the same time. Which I actually did for real, as well,” said Scarborough.
Sonita Henry and Adrian Scarborough star in ‘The Chelsea Detective’ (Photo Credit: Steve Schofield / AcornTV)
Sonita Henry recalled she and Adrian Scarborough weren’t able to be together for a chemistry read, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, they had to see if they clicked via Zoom.
“And then we had a brief phone conversation, and then we had a socially distanced, six-feet-apart coffee along the Thames, and then we were on set,” said Henry, laughing. “It was the weirdest thing. Luckily, he’s all right, as men go. He’s fine.
He’s all right. But we got on. Don’t tell him I told you this, but I actually love Adrian Scarborough and I think anyone that meets Adrian Scarborough falls in love with Adrian Scarborough. So, he made it very easy to play his partner. And I think because Max and Priya are on such opposite ends of the spectrum that they complement each other in their weird way.”
Henry added: “I remember when I booked the show and my reps were saying, ‘Oh, you should probably watch a lot of crime partner shows, and I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to base my character on any other character that had been there before. I wanted my and Adrian’s relationship to dictate how Max and Priya got along. And I think that comes across in the show, because that’s the one thing that people have mentioned constantly is our relationship on the show.”
During the TCA panel The Chelsea Detective stars were asked why it is that the British are so good at creating mysteries. Scarborough admitted he doesn’t know but thinks America also does a terrific job with the genre. He was actually a big fan of Columbo, as well as the UK series Inspector Morse starring John Thaw.
“I think there’s just something very wonderful about the writing on the show,” said Scarborough commenting on The Chelsea Detective’s appeal. “And there’s something about the English sense of humor which is quite dry and droll on it, I think, which I really, really like. It means that we can have a bit of a dry laugh together, even though there’s something as serious as murder in the pipeline.”
Scarborough believes part of the appeal of Inspector Morse was that audiences wanted to know more about the private lives of the characters. He thinks the same holds true for The Chelsea Detective.
“[Inspector Morse] was just really, really fascinating and interesting. It’s an interesting point as well. I think that what we were saying there essentially is that the private lives of these people is as interesting as the cases that they’re on, and I think that’s the way it should be. And that’s definitely the case on The Chelsea Detective. You desperately want to know more and more about Sonita’s private life with her partner and her new child in exactly the same way that you want to know about Max’s ongoing scenario with his ex-wife,” said Scarborough.
Hugh Jackman, Helen Mirren, Lupita Nyong’o, and Janelle Monáe are set to play new creatures and humans on the upcoming Big Mouth spinoff, Human Relations. Netflix just released the official trailer for the adult animated series which includes fan favorites from Big Mouth as well as weird new creatures including Hugh Jackman’s Dante the seductive Addiction Angel.
Helen Mirren guest stars as Shame Wizard Rita St. Swithens while Lupita Nyong’o lends her voice to Asha the Shame Wizard. Chris O’Dowd guests as Flanny the Lovebug and Harvey Guillen is Jose the Spider Receptionist.
New human characters include Ali Wong’s Becca, Janelle Monáe’s Claudia, Mike Birbiglia’s Barry, and Tim Robinson’s Doug.
Pamela Adlon, Rosie Perez, Henry Winkler, Thandiwe Newton, Jemaine Clement, Maria Bamford, and Bobby Cannavale were previously announced as guest stars.
Big Mouth‘s Nick Kroll voices Maury the Hormone Monster, Maya Rudolph is Connie the Hormone Monstress, Aidy Bryant is Emmy the Lovebug, and Randall Park is Pete the Logic Rock. Keke Palmer is Rochelle the Lovebug, Brandon Kyle Goodman is Walter the Lovebug, and David Thewlis is The Shame Wizard.
Season one’s 10 episodes premiere on March 18, 2022.
The Plot, Courtesy of Netflix:
From the inventive minds that brought us the award winning adult animation favorite Big Mouth comes the even edgier and adult-ier Human Resources. The spin-off pulls back the curtain on the daily lives of the creatures – Hormone Monsters, Depression Kitties, Shame Wizards and many more – that help humans journey through every aspect of life from puberty to parenthood to the twilight years.
It quickly becomes clear that though the protagonists are creatures, they have a lot of humanity themselves. Featuring an all-star voice cast, Human Resources is not your normal day at the office.
Season three of Fox’s 9-1-1: Lone Star continues with episode nine, “The Bird.” Airing on Monday, March 7, 2022 at 8pm ET/PT, episode nine finds Paul facing a possible career-ending medical issue.
Season three stars Rob Lowe as Owen Strand, Gina Torres as Tommy Vega, Ronen Rubinstein as T.K. Strand, Sierra McClain as Grace Ryder, and Jim Parrack as Judd Ryder. Natacha Karam plays Marjan Marwani, Brian Michael Smith is Paul Strickland, Rafael Silva is Carlos Reyes, Julian Works is Mateo Chavez, and Brianna Baker plays Nancy Gillian.
“The Bird” Plot: The members of the 126 spring into action when a surprise military homecoming erupts into chaos. Meanwhile, Owen is left responsible for taking care of a talkative pet, Paul faces a medical emergency, and Tommy goes on her first date since Charles’ passing.
The Season 3 Plot:
In the third season, a slight time-jump takes place after the events of the previous season finale found the 126 shut down and the crew dispersed across the city. In the multi-episode opening storyline, a massive and unexpected arctic front hits Austin. As the ice storm causes widespread chaos, Owen and Tommy must not only save the city but find a way to resurrect and reunite the former 126.
The Jonas Brothers will be heading to Sin City in June for a five-night residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM. “Jonas Brothers: Live in Las Vegas” is set for June 3, 4, 9, 10, and 11, 2022. Each concert will kick off at 8pm PT.
General tickets for the Las Vegas residency go on sale on Monday, March 7, 2022 at 10am PT via Ticketmaster. Citi is offering a special pre-sale for cardholders beginning Wednesday, March 2nd at 10am PT.
Members of the Jonas Brothers fan club will also have the ability to participate in a March 2nd pre-sale. Plus, MGM Rewards loyalty program members can access the pre-sale on Friday, March 4th at 10am PT.
Ticket prices begin at $49.95 (excluding tax and service charges).
The brothers took to Twitter to promote their upcoming Vegas residency, with Nick Jonas tweeting: “Best way to kick off summer 2022?? With my brothers in Vegas”
The Jonas Brothers returned to the charts after a six year break with the release of “Sucker” in 2019. The single was the first #1 for the band on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. The sibling trio were the subject of Amazon Original’s documentary Chasing Happiness and released their third #1 album – and fifth studio album – Happiness Begins on June 7, 2019.
The band recently finished up its 44 date “REMEMBER THIS Tour” which snagged a spot among the highest-grossing tours of 2021. The trio’s 2019-2020 “Happiness Begins Tour” sold more than 1.2 million tickets.
BTS is named IFPI’s Global Recording Artist of the Year (Photo Courtesy of HYBE)
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has been slowing rolling out their five charts for the year 2021. The first category – “Global Recording Artist of the Year” – was announced on February 24, 2022. “Global Digital Single” followed on February 28th.
The top honors for “Global Recording Artist of the Year Award” went to South Korean supergroup BTS. The two-time Grammy-nominated group is no stranger to grabbing the top honors in this category, coming in first for the year 2020 as well. Their 2021 win marks the first time an act has nabbed the top spot two consecutive years.
According to IFPI, the “Global Recording Artist of the Year Award” is calculated according to an artist’s or group’s worldwide performance across digital and physical music formats throughout the year, from streams to vinyl, and covers their entire body of work.
Weighing in on the news, Chief Executive of IFPI Frances Moore stated, “BTS’ phenomenal success over the last year is a testament to their creativity, hard work and ongoing commitment to continuing to find ways to bring their music to the world. By performing in three different languages, they demonstrate their extraordinarily unique global appeal, and their dynamic and passionate fanbase has helped to make them the first artists in history to top the Global Artist Chart in two consecutive years.
We would like to wish RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook and all who work on their team huge congratulations on winning the ‘Global Recording Artist of the Year Award’ and on another year of brilliant success.”
Rounding out the top five artists are Ed Sheeran at number five, Drake, Adele, and sitting at number two is Taylor Swift.
The 2021 “Global Digital Single Award” winner is Grammy Award-winner The Weeknd with his smash hit “Save Your Tears.” This is the second consecutive year The Weeknd has received the award in this category. In 2020, his mega-hit “Blinding Lights” was number one as well.
The “Global Digital Single Award” is given to the bestselling single of the year across all digital formats – including paid subscription streaming, ad-supported platforms, and single-track downloads and streams.
The “Global Digital Single Award” top five:
The Weeknd – “Save Your Tears”
The Kid Laroi ft. Justin Bieber – “Stay”
Dua Lipa – “Levitating”
BTS – “Butter”
Olivia Rodrigo – “Driver’s License”
“It has been another brilliant year for The Weeknd and ‘Save Your Tears’ has unquestionably been one of the world’s most loved songs,” said Frances Moore. “We’d like to send huge congratulations to The Weeknd and all of his team on winning our ‘Global Digital Single of The Year Award’ for the second year in a row – an incredible achievement.”
On March 1, 2022, the final winners were announced in the “Global Album Sales Chart,” “Global Album All Format Chart,” and “Global Vinyl Album Chart” categories. British power vocalist and songwriter Adele took home awards in all three categories for her album 30. Adele managed this with less than two months left in the tracking year when her much-anticipated fifth album dropped in November 2021.
IFPI Chief Executive Frances Moore said, “It has been wonderful to have Adele back and releasing music over the second half of last year. Her dominance of all three IFPI Album Charts speaks to her unique song-writing talent, her iconic voice and unrelenting global popularity.”
Aly and AJ Michalka guest star as a former pop duo on ABC’s The Good Doctor season five episode nine. Directed by Dinh Thai from a script by David Hoselton and Adam Scott Weissman, episode nine – “Yippee Ki-Yay” – will air on Monday, March 7, 2022 at 10pm ET/PT.
The cast of season five features Freddie Highmore as Dr. Shaun Murphy, Antonia Thomas as Dr. Claire Browne, Hill Harper as Dr. Marcus Andrews, and Richard Schiff as Dr. Aaron Glassman. Christina Chang plays Dr. Audrey Lim, Fiona Gubelmann is Dr. Morgan Reznick, Will Yun Lee is Dr. Alex Park, and Paige Spara stars as Lea Dilallo.
Guest stars include Rachel Bay Jones as Salen Morrison, David Marciano as Joe, and Mathew Horner as Cody.
“Yippee Ki-Yay” Plot: In an effort to please Salen (Jones), Andrews takes on a high-profile case and assigns Shaun and Allen to help perform a risky surgery to restore the voice of a famous pop star. In addition, Reznick and Park treat a man whose 17-year-old son, Cody (Horner), is confined to a wheelchair due to complications related to Kabuki Syndrome.
The Good Doctor Description, Courtesy of ABC:
Dr. Shaun Murphy (Highmore), a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, continues to use his extraordinary medical gifts at St. Bonaventure Hospital’s surgical unit. As his friendships deepen, Shaun tackles the world of dating for the first time and continues to work harder than he ever has before, navigating his environment to prove to his colleagues that his talents as a surgeon will save lives.
Freddie Highmore, Bria Henderson, and AJ Michalka in ‘The Good Doctor’ season 5 episode 9 (ABC/Jeff Weddell)Freddie Highmore and Bria Henderson in season 5 episode 9 (ABC/Jeff Weddell)Paige Spara and Freddie Highmore in season 5 episode 9 (ABC/Jeff Weddell)Matthew Horner in season 5 episode 9 (ABC)Freddie Highmore, Bria Henderson, and AJ Michalka in season 5 episode 9 (ABC/Jeff Weddell)Hill Harper and Rachel Bay Jones in season 5 episode 9 (ABC/Jeff Weddell)Christina Chang and Freddie Highmore in season 5 episode 9 (ABC/Jeff Weddell)
A crime boss needs Magnum’s help on CBS’s Magnum P.I. season four episode 15, “Dead Man Walking.” Directed by David Straiton from a script by Gene Hong, episode 15 will air on Friday, March 4, 2022 at 9pm ET/PT.
Jay Hernandez returns to lead the cast as Thomas Magnum. Season four also stars Perdita Weeks as Juliet Higgins, Zachary Knighton as Orville “Rick” Wright, Stephen Hill as Theodore “TC” Calvin, Tim Kang as Det. Gordon Katsumoto, and Amy Hill as Kumu.
Bobby Lee, Levy Tran, Eijiro Ozaki, Rich Ting, and Gedde Watanabe guest star.
“Dead Man Walking” Plot: When Magnum balks at notorious crime boss Osi Shima’s (Ozaki) request to find his missing son, Magnum learns he’s been poisoned and has only eight hours to locate Shima’s son to earn the antidote, or else he dies.
Magnum P.I. is a modern take on the classic series centering on Thomas Magnum, a decorated former Navy SEAL who, upon returning home from Afghanistan, repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator. A charming rogue, an American hero and a die-hard Detroit Tigers fan, Magnum lives in a guest cottage on Robin’s Nest, the luxurious estate where he works as a security consultant to supplement his P.I. business.
The “majordomo” of the property is Juliet Higgins, a beautiful and commanding disavowed MI:6 agent whose second job is to keep Magnum in line, with the help of her two Dobermans. When Magnum needs back-up on a job, he turns to his trusted buddies and fellow POW survivors, Theodore “TC” Calvin, a former Marine chopper pilot who runs Island Hoppers, a helicopter tour business, and Orville “Rick” Wright, a former Marine door-gunner-turned-impresario of Oahu’s coolest nightclub and the most connected man on the island.
Suspicious of Magnum’s casual attitude and presence at his crime scenes, Detective Gordon Katsumoto finds that he and Magnum are more alike than either of them care to admit. One of Magnum’s biggest supporters is Teuila “Kumu” Tuileta, the unofficial “House Mom” and cultural curator of Robin’s Nest. With keys to a vintage Ferrari in one hand, aviator sunglasses in the other, and an Old Düsseldorf longneck chilling in the fridge, Thomas Magnum is back on the case!
Filming has begun on Searchlight Pictures’ Empire of Light written and directed by Sam Mendes (1917, Skyfall). The film, which marks Oscar winner Mendes’ first solo credit as a screenwriter, will shoot in Margate, England as well as along the Kent coastline.
Empire of Light‘s cast includes Oscar winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite) as Hilary, Oscar winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) as Mr. Ellis, Micheal Ward (Small Axe: Lovers Rock) as Stephen, Toby Jones (First Cow) as Norman, Tanya Moodie (A Discovery of Witches) as Delia, and Crystal Clark (The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain) as Ruby.
Tom Brooke (The Crown) and Hannah Onslow (Call the Midwife) have just joined the cast as Neil and Janine, respectively.
Searchlight Pictures describes the film as “set in and around a beautiful old cinema on the south coast of England in the 1980s.” No other plot details have been released.
“I’m really thrilled to be working with so many wonderful collaborators across both cast and crew on such a personal project,” stated Sam Mendes. “It’s a particular thrill to be working for the first time with Olivia Colman, and to be working once again with my long-term collaborator Roger Deakins.”
Mendes is producing the film with Academy Award nominee Pippa Harris under their Neal Street Productions banner. Michael Lerman and Julie Pastor are executive producing.
“We are delighted to be working with Searchlight on Empire of Light, and couldn’t hope for better partners,” said Harris. “They have been incredibly collaborative and supportive as we embark on this new venture together.”
“This is a dream partnership for us, between the singular Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, and the outstanding cast led by Olivia, Micheal, and Colin,” said Searchlight Presidents Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum. “We’re very excited for the road ahead.”
Mendes’ behind-the-scenes team will include his long-time collaborator cinematographer Roger Deakins. Naomi Donne is the hair and makeup designer, Lee Smith is the editor, Stuart Wilson is the sound mixer, Nina Gold is the casting director, and Mark Tildesley is the production designer.
