Latest news with #30Rock
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘NBC Nightly News' anchor Lester Holt signs off in final broadcast after a decade: ‘The honor of a lifetime'
'NBC Nightly News' anchor Lester Holt called his decade-long tenure helming the network's evening broadcast the 'honor of a lifetime' as he bade farewell during his final newscast Friday night. 'As an anchor, it has been an honor to lead this program and an honor to be welcomed into your homes,' the 66-year-old newsman said as he signed off from the 30 Rock studio one last time. 'I'm so grateful for your trust.' The veteran journalist, who will remain at the Peacock network on 'Dateline,' where he has been principal anchor for 15 years, thanked viewers, along with his family and crew, during the heartfelt send-off. 'Around here, facts matter, words matter, journalism matters, and you matter,' Holt said. 'Over the last decade, we have shared some dark and harrowing days and nights from our country — the pandemic, mass shootings, natural disasters — each testing our resilience and our compassion. That's why I often like to leave you with something to smile about, moments that reassure and connect us.' Holt closed the broadcast, surrounded by tearful colleagues, by saying he would miss spending the evenings with his audience, before wishing his successor, Tom Llamas, 'great success.' 'In the meantime, please continue to take care of yourself and each other, and I'll do the same,' he concluded as a video tribute celebrated the longtime reporter's coverage and interviews. Holt, who began his career in 1981 at CBS, joined NBC News in 2003, where he held various anchoring and reporting roles during his 22 years at the network. He was named 'Nightly News' anchor in 2015 when his predecessor, Brian Williams, ended his 28-year career at the network in disgrace after falsely claiming he was aboard a helicopter shot down in Iraq. The evening news has remained firmly in second place in the ratings behind ABC under Holt's watch. Holt, who announced his departure in February, recently told Variety that his decision to leave the anchor chair once occupied by Tom Brokaw stemmed from his desire to return to his reporting roots on the network's newsmagazine program. He explained the full-time gig will give him more freedom to 'flex different news muscles' than his anchoring role. 'I never saw myself doing this job forever,' he told the outlet of his 'Nightly News' position. 'People say it's been a great run. It's like, well, I'm still running.' Llamas, 45, will take over the legendary news desk starting Monday.
Perth Now
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Katrina Bowden pregnant
Katrina Bowden is pregnant. The '30 Rock' actress and her musician husband, Adam Taylor, 33, are expecting their first child together and Katrina, 36, says the pregnancy has brought them even closer. She told PEOPLE: 'It definitely has brought us closer together. In the beginning, it was a little bit scary, and it's still a little bit scary because it's something so unknown and so different. It brought us closer together talking about how we want to parent, names, just preparing for something that we've never had to think about before, so it's definitely bonded us in a way that we've never bonded before." Katrina discovered she was pregnant while Adam was away on a ski trip with friends, because she was so excited she couldn't wait to take the test. She explained: "Adam was on a ski trip with his friends, and I took a test. I was going to wait until he got home, but I couldn't wait," she shares. "Then, I told him when he got home, and we were both very excited, so ... I was really hard to keep it to myself for a full day. "We had just started trying, so we didn't expect it to happen so fast. It was really surprising and exciting. [Taylor] was very excited and immediately wanted to tell everybody." And, the couple are already making travel plans for when the baby arrives. Katrina said: 'We really plan to, in the beginning [during] the first year, try to travel just to get the baby used to being in new places and around different environments. We want to try to do a big trip or a good, fun vacation type of trip, the two of us with the baby, and then just immerse the baby in something new and something different and different experiences." The couple tied the knot in Hawaii in November 2024.
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Scarlett Johansson relished hosting Saturday Night Live
Scarlett Johansson loved hosting the final episode of 'Saturday Night Live's 50th season. The 40-year-old actress recently became the first woman to host the long-running comedy show seven times, and Scarlett has revealed that she relished the experience. Scarlett - who is married to 'Saturday Night Live' star Colin Jost - told 'Extra': "I felt really happy to be able to close out the 50th with the cast and crew at 30 Rock … There's real familial vibes and, you know, it's been an extraordinary year there with the 50th special, which was a humongous amount of work for everybody, and then a really successful season." Scarlett recently premiered 'Eleanor the Great', her directorial debut, at the Cannes Film Festival. And the Hollywood star admitted that it's been a whirlwind few weeks for her. She shared: "I think I'm still processing it, and part of still processing it is that the next day, I left for Cannes and now I'm here. So I think it'll be maybe like two months from now and then I'll be able to, like, have some perspective on the meaning of it all." Meanwhile, Scarlett recently revealed that she couldn't imagine "being with somebody who wasn't funny". The actress explained that humour is a huge part of her life, and she thinks it can help her to overcome all sorts of challenges. Scarlett - who has been married to Colin since 2020 - told Collider: "My husband's a comedy writer, and I couldn't imagine ever being with somebody who wasn't funny. "I grew up in a very funny household. My dad is Danish and has a very dry sense of humour, and my mom is Jewish, so that's culturally a big part of our identity. It's certainly a certain kind of humour, and growing up in New York, that's another layer of it, of course. So, I see the ironic humour, also, in terrible things." Scarlett also revealed that her directorial debut was inspired by "very New York-centric" films. She said: "The script did remind me a lot of movies that I love that are specific to independent films from the '90s and early aughts that are very New York-centric, whether it's 'Living Out Loud' or like 'Crossing Delancey' or some Woody Allen films. It felt like the potential for that stuff."
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Hoda Kotb reveals heartbreaking reason behind her exit from the Today show: ‘It was non-negotiable'
Hoda Kotb opened up about her emotional departure from Today earlier this year. In a candid interview with People, the 60-year-old longtime co-anchor reflected on her final day and revealed the personal reasons behind her decision to say goodbye to the beloved daytime series. Kotb recalled the emotional farewell she experienced on her last day at 30 Rock. She described being surrounded by a stream of familiar faces, including Maria Shriver, Simone Biles, Andy Cohen, Kathie Lee Gifford, and Jimmy Fallon. While the day was filled with love and support, what stood out most to her was the overwhelming sense of heartbreak she felt as she said goodbye. She also added, 'When you say goodbye to something you love, even though it's right, it's like your heart's broken and on display.' Also Read: Who is Alastair Stout? The fresh face cast as Ron Weasley in Harry Potter television series Kotb is now venturing into the wellness space with the launch of her new company, Joy 101. The brand will offer an app, live events, and a subscription newsletter, all designed to promote joy, mindfulness, meditation, and overall wellness. She told the outlet the venture is 'really cool to just realize that there's so much more to life.' She added, 'I wasn't able to bear witness to my kids' daily lives because of what I was doing. I got to see Haley sing 'What a Wonderful World' at 9:15 a.m. — I would have missed that. I used to think life was the big things, but it really is all the stuff that happens in between.' The former Today host revealed that the family has also been navigating taking care of her younger daughter Hope, who has Type 1 diabetes for the past two years. Kotb referred to her daughter as a 'trooper' for enduring the tough realities of treatment as she shared, 'who calls her daughter 'trooper' for having had to deal with the unpleasant realities of treatment.' She explained, 'She was getting shots — four or five a day — every day for a year. Now she is getting them less frequently because we have some other means to get her what she needs, but there's a lot to it, Some kids can have sweets and she can't. If she's up in the night, we have to take care of her at night.' Kotb noted, 'She is a happy, healthy, rambunctious, amazing kid, and we have to watch her. Diabetes is a part of her, but not all of her. I hope it shapes her but never defines her.' Also Read: 2 Secret Service officers brawl outside Obama's home: Here are 5 other times the agency was involved in scandals It became non-negotiable for Kotb to be fully present for her daughter, however, that was not possible with the Today schedule used to run on. She told the outlet, 'I really wanted to and needed to be here to watch over her. So, whenever she needs anything, and it can happen at night, multiple times, I'm up — I'm up up up.' She added, 'But I would never, ever want Hope to one day grow up and say, 'Oh, my mom left her job because [of me].' It wasn't that alone. But if you look at it cumulatively, it was a part of that decision.' However, she also joked about having a 'split' verdict over having her around all the time among children. Also Read: Musician Katie Greenwood Ross dies after battle with breast cancer, 'She was sedated for comfort and quietly left us…' Kotb also opened up about how she is now enjoying sleeping in till 4:30 am. She also enjoys meditating, journaling, and walking her kids to school, along with attending gym or tennis lessons and her work. She slao shared, 'Sometimes I'm right there working in my office, and they'll run up to the window and wave to me and throw up a heart [with their hands]. They're fine because they want me to be here, they're just happy to see me, and then they'll go off and play.' Talking about how their nighttime looks like now, she shared, 'I sleep in the middle so there's no rolling over — and it is not my favorite sleeping position — but when I wake up and they're both nuzzled into me, I'm thinking to myself like, 'Oh my gosh, look at me! I get to lay here with these two kids, and all they want to do is be as close to me as they can get.''
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What's the Secret to Comedic Timing? The Creators and Artisans of ‘The Four Seasons' Pull Back the Curtain
There's something very aspirational these days about being able to take a vacation during spring, summer, fall, and winter. But the creative team behind 'The Four Seasons' miniseries had some goals of their own in mind when adapting the 1981 Alan Alda film of the same title. Co-creators, writers, and executive producers Tina Fey, Tracey Wigfield, and Lang Fisher, have all been involved in legendary comedy series from '30 Rock' to 'Never Have I Ever,' but 'The Four Seasons' demanded more character-driven and even 'indie movie' focus to its visual style than your standard sitcom. ' In the shows that Tina and Tracey and I have done before, it's been really rapid fire and there's been a lot of tight coverage and I feel like when we first started talking to [cinematographer Tim Orr], we'd like to play things looser,' co-creator and director Lang Fisher told IndieWire as part of a recent USG University Panel. 'To have more cinematic composition in the shots we're doing and more movement and, you know, to have it feel more like an indie movie.' More from IndieWire Cowboys vs. Accountants: The Real World of International Production Financing | Future of Filmmaking Summit at Cannes Richard Linklater Explains Why You Need to Be a 'Cheap Hustler' to Make Indie Films | Future of Filmmaking Summit at Cannes The plot of that indie movie is, fittingly, broken up into fourths as it checks in on a set of friends, all well-to-do couples, across four different vacations. Steve Carell and Kerri Kenney-Silver's Nick and Anne go through the biggest changes, beginning with a hail mary vow renewal that the latter puts on to save their marriage; but Tina Fey and Will Forte's Kate and Jack have their own struggles about how they do (or don't) show up for each other; and Colman Domingo and Marco Calvani's Danny and Claude sometimes have very different ways of looking at the world. Co-creator and actor Tina Fey was drawn to the original movie's tone, as well as the groundedness of Alda's writing. 'It felt like you were just really with these people. I loved what we refer to as the container play rules of the original. We're only seeing them on vacation. We never see their homes. We never see them at work. We pick up clues about who they are and what they do on the vacations,' Fey said. The original cast wasn't too shabby, either, and one of the highlights of the second episode of the Netflix series is the rare Alan Alda appearance, as he shows up at the vow renewal to give a little relationship advice to the current iteration of characters before dealing with the consequences of a spicy cup of coffee. 'It was all people that you love from other things coming together. And so that was our goal as producers,' Fey said. 'Could we put together this ensemble that people go, 'Wait, I like these people from other things and now they're all together. There's something kind of fun about that.' Assembling the right team behind the camera was just as crucial. 'We want this to be a beautiful show,' Co-creator and writer Wigfield told IndieWire. 'We want the visual language of the show to be prettier, slower, cozy, [to] welcome you in. But these kinds of words are nonsense coming out of my mouth if we don't hire the right people to interpret them and make real decisions based on them.' Chief among the interpreters were cinematographer Tim Orr and production designer Sharon Lomofsky, who tried to craft each season to be very classy and elegant while also hinting at the mess each of the characters would very much like to leave behind on vacation. 'We all wanted to make it feel timeless to where the cinematography was naturalistic and grounded but still had a richness and texture that was built through the lighting and where we placed the camera and how we moved it,' Orr told IndieWire. Orr avoided handheld coverage, which might be more ungainly, and an over-reliance on the tight shot-reverse shots sitcoms often employ to make sure that each improv riff gets captured. Dolly work and wide shots, to capture a sense of environment and of the characters' relationship to each other, and to themselves, did more storytelling work. 'And that's a thing I really appreciated about this show, is that there was a fearless attitude towards it [being OK] to play it in that wide shot,' Orr said. Likewise, Lomofsky wanted the homes and vacations we see in the show to look quite classy but to always give the audience some information about the characters they wouldn't necessarily say themselves. 'It's a dance and a symphony, picking the right [color] palettes for each bedroom but making it all feel like one house,' Lomofsky told IndieWire. From an exploding pottery shed to eco-yurts on a beach resort that Lomofsky and her team constructed truly out of nothing but a mud field, the production designer had a lot of logistics to manage in her builds. But some of the groundedness that supports the comedy comes out of building in a sense of history into the vacation houses that we see, down to the smallest details. 'It was all composing different eras, in a way, because we are staying in this [vacation] house for a really long time and bringing in collections over time and family photographs, which take a lot to actually do. We had to do photo shoots to do the family photos on the wall,' Lomofsky said. 'What I'm always going for is that it looks effortless — but it's really not effortless at all.' 'The Four Seasons' is streaming on Netflix. IndieWire partnered with Universal Studio Group for USG University, a series of virtual panels celebrating the best in television art from the 2024-2025 TV season across NBC Universal's portfolio of shows. USG University (a Universal Studio Group program) is presented in partnership with Roybal Film & TV Magnet and IndieWire's Future of Filmmaking. Catch up on the latest USG University videos here. Best of IndieWire 2023 Emmy Predictions: Who Will Win at the Primetime Emmy Awards? 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series
