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‘Fired’ Gabrielle Union Criticizes America’s Got Talent

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America’s Got Talent has seen the judging panel change many times over the last 13 years with the majority leaving on good terms. However Gabrielle Union’s recent departure, after only two months on the show, has come under scrutiny.

Since joining the popular show, Union had started to have concerns, which she highlighted to the NBC executives, including those who ran the show, highlighting issues including what she saw as attempts to misgender contestants, alleged racist incidents and producer Simon Cowell’s constant habit to smoke indoors.

Two months into the producer and actress’s contract Union was invited to a meeting with Simon Cowell. The music mogul discussed her concerns regarding the show but asked her to talk directly to himself with her issues rather than with the NBC executives. However she had been speaking to the executives, including those in charge of the show, who, according to sources, would attempt to soothe her with promises they would investigate her worries before ignoring them completely.

So when Union finally got to talk with Cowell she was incredibly infuriated with the environment and his orders not to talk to NBC was interpreted as him trying to cover up some serious problems.

Last week NBC cut short Union’s 3 year tenure with the show after just one season with several sources claiming it was due to her being seen as ‘difficult’ by Cowell and his team. However Julianne Hough was dropped at the same time which could contradict these claims.

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America’s Got Talent has seen several female judges come and go over recent years as it tries to retain their share of the viewing figures. Not only has host Tyra Banks been replaced, so have judges Heidi Klum and Spice Girl Mel B. However the two male judges, Simon Cowell and Howie Mandel, have remained on the show.

Sources states that claims Union was fired are incorrect, rather commenting that she was ‘rotated out’. While the show does like to change the judges often to maintain a fresh appearance, previous judges were retained for several seasons before they left.

Last week Variety reported on several of the complaints from Union, including an allegedly racist joke from Jay Leno who was appearing as a guest judge. In season 14 a painting was shown on camera of Simon Cowell and his dogs. Leno commented that the painting ‘looked like something on the menu at a Korean restaurant’. Not only was Union shaken by the remark, an Asian member of staff who was also on the set seemed to be upset. When Union requested the footage not be included in the show she started to gain her reputation for being ‘difficult’.

A list of questions regarding Union’s departure was sent to NBC Entertainment and Fremantle who produce America’s Got Talent who commented,

“America’s Got Talent has a long history of inclusivity and diversity in both our talent and the acts championed by the show. The judging and host line-up has been regularly refreshed over the years and that is one of the reasons for AGT’s enduring popularity. NBC and the producers take any issues on set seriously.”

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It was also alleged that Union annoyed producers, as well as Cowell, almost from the moment she started on the show due to her complaints regarding Cowell smoking inside the theater during filming. With few walls between dressing rooms, cigarette smoke drifted into Union’s dressing room. It is worth noting that California law – where the auditions were being held – forbids an employer to allow smoking in an enclosed work space.

Despite Union’s requests that smoking be stopped inside, due to her allergy to cigarette smoke, she was repeatedly turned down. A source claims an NBC executive informed her that despite the crew, staff, and talent’s annoyance, Simon Cowell had been smoking indoors for years. With NBC giving the majority of America’s Got Talent’s control to Cowell there was little they could do to stop him as all decisions regarding the show had to have his approval first.

Union further frustrated executives when she asked drag contestants which pronoun they preferred as well as an incident when an Italian male contestant wore black gloves when doing a Beyoncé impression.

Concerned the gloves were being used to highlight the skin tone changing, or ‘blackface hands’ as Union referred to them, Union chose not to put the contestant through. The act was never included in the show.

It appears that the incident that caused the most damage involved Dylan Gilmer, a 10 year old black rapper. Two sources have alleged that in a meeting with producers the team decided the show required an act ‘that America can get behind’. Their decision for that act to be an all white dance group from Texas rather than Gilmer, who gained a far greater response from the audience, caused Union to object.

However sources have denied the producers commented on the need to choose such an act, saying they would never use that choice of language.

After meeting with Cowell at his home last May the decision to drop Union was made during the break between season 14 and 15 leaving Union to look at her legal options against NBC.

Apple TV

Apple TV Plus: Everything You Need to Know About Apple’s Streaming Service

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Streaming services have been taking over the world of entertainment. Ever since Netflix converted to be exclusively an internet provided source of movies and television shows, cable TV has become more and more obsolete. Now, major companies all over want a piece of the action, and with Netflix constantly raising its monthly prices and dropping content that viewers want to see, there’s never been a better time to try to steal those loyal customers. 

Apple has been one of the biggest names, alongside Disney, HBO, and NBC, to announce their new streaming service. Apple TV Plus is set to launch on November 1st for $5 a month. According to CNET News, the company announced their service at an event in March, but didn’t give further details until the recent iPhone event this past September. The event confirmed that Apple has a $6 billion budget to gain access to Hollywood’s best movies, TV shows, and actors for original content. The most popular being the Apple TV Plus original series The Morning Show, starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carrell, which is set to premiere around the same time at the service launch. 

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Steven Spielberg speaks during Apple TV+ Launch

According to CNET’s coverage of the Apple TV Plus announcement at the September iPhone event, “Apple TV Plus will launch with nine confirmed titles, including a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Jason Momoa, a comedy about poet Emily Dickinson starring Hailee Steinfeld and a book-focused series with Oprah Winfrey called Oprah’s Book Club. After launch, the nine programs will be expanded by another five that Apple confirmed it will add in the following months.” 

Apple added that all original series will, for the most part, be uploaded to the service with the first three episodes of a given season, but also some will pull a Netflix and just upload the entire season at once for a proper binging experience. Like Netflix, the service will be a monthly cost and the shows will have no commercials. The service will be available on your Apple TV in the official Apple TV App, you can experience it with a seven day free trial before committing, in addition if you buy an apple device (iPhone, iPad, MacBook, etc.) within the next year you’ll get a full year of Apple TV Plus for free. 

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Steve Carell, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston during event launching Apple TV+

According to CNET the service will be available in 100 countries and will also include a family plan feature allowing five users to be on the same plan at once. At $5 a month it lands Apple at one of the cheapest newer streaming services, which could greatly work in its favor. Compared to Disney who’s streaming service will be available on November 12th and will cost $7 a month, HBO Max and other cable based services like Starz range from $9-$15 depending on the plan. As stated before Netflix takes the prize for most expensive at a whopping $13 a month, with its current competitor, Hulu, not too far behind at $12 a month. Hulu, however, offers discounted plans that include other perks like Spotify premium. It’s lower price point and high budget puts Apple TV Plus as one of the new services to look at for in terms of which one you’re going to give your money too. 

So many networks and companies are attempting to enter into the streaming entertainment field due to cable television and on demand movies growing more and more obsolete. Cable networks such as NBC and CBS have announced their own services in order to increase viewership, but what all these companies aren’t aware of is too much of a good thing, isn’t a good thing. The reality is within the next decade people are most likely going to stop watching regular cable all together. It’s up to the networks to decide how to make a service the most accessible with the most enjoyable content that they know viewers will want to see. Apple has a good shot with such a low price point and high budget potential for many well known shows and movies to be added to its service. However, the next year will be crucial for all of these services and how well they do. Costs will most likely be cut, arguments over who gets the rights to what will ensue, and overall people just might lose interest in a particular brand of service. Overall, TV viewers and movie buffs alike have a huge year ahead of them when it comes to home entertainment, and only time will tell what service will come out on top. 

Boy Thinking

Déjà Vu! How Nostalgia Is Running The Entertainment World

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Nostalgia is a powerful feeling. The overwhelming sentimental longing for a time deemed much simpler. The memories flooding back from the golden days of waking up on Sunday Morning, making your favorite breakfast and turning on the television to watch any of the vast amount of classic shows that built you. 

Shows such as Full House, Boy Meets World, The Jeffersons, All In The Family, etc. hold the formula for family sitcom shows that were saturated throughout television for a majority of the nineties and early 2000’s. The essence of what these shows meant for so many was powerful, but now the shows are off-air, years have passed, and we’ve all grown up, hence the sentimental longing. 

However, television networks are beginning to realize that the money is in the nostalgia. So much so that every show previously mentioned has been rebooted and have already recorded multiple seasons each, and those are just a few examples. 

This trend goes beyond just television sitcoms. Disney re-releases another version of one of it’s classic tales every decade or so.  This way, every generation can have the same magical entertainment experiences their parents did, and as of late they’ve all seemed to be live-action, perhaps so the parents can watch their favorite childhood movies quite literally come to life.

Boy bands and girl groups that we all loved as kids, such as the Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, and the Jonas Brothers, all have continued to create new music and tour. 

The Star Wars franchise has released movies with similar concepts, but with different characters, creating a freshened up version that will appeal to the masses, which they all have. 

Even the video game industry is built around this concept. Take the classic characters and games that individuals throughout multiple generations have loved, and refresh it to become modern, or refresh it to feel older. This idea is present a lot within the Nintendo gaming world, as we’ve seen Mario trying to rescue Princess Peach for decades now.

So why exactly is the concept of bringing back childhood classic entertainment so impactful? 

The immense amount of money in it. Nostalgia has been fully capitalized off of, and it makes sense how. For example, after a full decade, Disney decided to make a sequel to the widely popular Pixar movie The Incredibles. Not only did millions of children line up at the box office to see the newest and coolest superhero movie, but also millions of adults who are now ten years older and highly anticipating seeing their favorite super family on the big screen again. 

Appealing to multiple generations is a tough but necessary task in the entertainment world, the views and the money that movies and television can bring in is what keeps studios and networks alive and so they can keep making our favorite visual masterpieces. 

So how can studios guarantee a solid profit from a movie reboot, like The Incredibles II?

BBC, and “The researchers, from the University of Southampton, Grenoble Ecole de Management and the University of Minnesota, argue that an atmosphere of nostalgia has a capacity to ‘weaken consumers’ grasp on their money’. Cultivating past memories and bygone eras promotes a sense of ‘social connectedness’, say the researchers, in which old-fashioned community values and relationships with other people are seen as being more important.”

The idea of not spending your money on these reboots begins to seem almost blasphemous. The internalized conflict of not joining the world in getting a second chance at seeing your favorite kid movies becomes too much of cross to bare, so you spend the $18 on the movie. 

In addition, studios don’t have to focus so heavily on the cost of marketing and advertising. They already know people are going to want to see the visual nostalgia they’re craving, and any marketing techniques they need to accomplish, they can just take from ten years earlier when they released the movie/show in the first place.  

The concept of a reboot for something that was once considered an entertainment milestone also works positively in the realm of reality. Studios and networks realize a lot of members of their audience have a lot of worry and distress. Whether it’s from our political climate, one’s occupation, home life, etc. people need a break and the number one way people like to relax is kicking their feet up and being digitally stimulated by whatever they want. So when that digital stimulation can include nostalgia that takes an individual out of their present day struggles and back to their simple easy-going past, the choice is clear. 

The profitable gain that nostalgia brings into the entertainment world is clearly multifaceted, but even when it’s broken down it doesn’t seem to matter. Audiences realize as long as they get to keep reexperiencing something so sacred to their youth, they’ll buy it, and the studios will continue to sell it.