Latest news with #RedWedding
Metro
02-06-2025
- Sport
- Metro
Postecoglou could be gone by the end of the week
It's less than a fortnight since Ange Postecoglou told nearly a quarter of a million Tottenham fans during the parade to celebrate their Europa League victory in Bilbao: 'All the best television series, season three is better than season two.' The 59-year-old former Celtic manager clearly wasn't paying attention if he watched Game of Thrones as episode nine of the third season, The Rains of Castamere, sees leading character Robb Stark, his pregnant wife Talisa, his mother and top soldiers attend a celebration where there is singing and drinking galore – just as there was on the Tottenham High Road – only for them to be slaughtered in the Red Wedding bloodbath. According to reports swirling around the club, Daniel Levy and his advisors are about to, metaphorically at least, plunge their knives into the back of the unsuspecting Postecoglou by sacking the Australian, who delivered on his proud statement that he always wins a trophy in his second season in charge by sending Manchester United to defeat in Spain. Spurs may have finished 17th in the Premier League after losing 22 games during an injury-plagued campaign but Postecoglou insists he sacrificed domestic results to make the club relevant again after years of consistently finishing in the top four but failing to win a trophy since the 2008 League Cup. Fair dinkum, mate. Big Ange was a general 4/7 on Sunday to be in charge of Spurs next season but could be out of the door by the end of the week and he's out to 2/1 with bet365 to keep his job. Brentford boss Thomas Frank has reportedly held talks with Levy and is the 4/5 favourite with the same firm to be his replacement. He has worked wonders with the Bees, gaining promotion from the Championship and establishing them as Premier League regulars after finishing 13th, ninth, 16th and ninth again this term, but it looks a sideways move at best. It also looks a penny-pinching one as Frank is a brilliant coach and will develop young and cheap players while Postecoglou and potential big-name successors like Inter chief Simone Inzaghi and former Barcelona boss Xavi Hernandez will demand to strengthen the squad by signing experienced but expensive recruits. If Tottenham do appoint a 14th manager in 24 years he is likely to follow those before him by having one arm tied behind his back and the best price of 6/1 with Sporting Index and SpreadEx for a top-four finish next season looks way off the mark. Just as it appeared Tottenham have finally ditched their 'Spursy' tag they are on the brink of grabbing it back again. Eighth seed Lorenzo Musetti can reach the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros by beating American Frances Tiafoe on the Paris clay after defeating Holger Rune in four sets. More Trending Musetti reached the last four at Madrid and Rome after progressing to the final in Monte Carlo earlier this year and was a bronze medalist in the Paris Olympics. He is 11/4 with Ladbrokes and Coral to win three sets to one and is 6/5 with BoyleSports to win by more than 6.5 games in this match. Meanwhile Iga Swiatek, the Queen of Roland Garros after winning four French Open titles in the past five years, entered this year's tournament in poor form and it appeared the defence of her crown would be over when she lost the first set in her fourth-round match with Elena Rybakina. But Swiatek is back to somewhere near her glorious best after a recovering to register a stunning 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory. She can beat Elina Svitolina in the deciding set to reach the semi-finals at 3/1 with Ladbrokes, Coral, William Hill and many others. MORE: Shoppers amazed by top quality cordless hedge trimmer you can now save £70 with this exclusive code MORE: Chelsea told they should have signed £64m Man Utd target instead of Liam Delap MORE: Chelsea open talks with Borussia Dortmund's £50m Arsenal and Liverpool target
Politico
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Politico
The Friday news dump from hell
Presented by With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine Happy Saturday. It's Adam Wren here back in your inbox. Send me tips and scoops. President Donald Trump was wheels down at 9:08 p.m. last night, back from his Middle East trip. The flight was bumpy at times but uneventful. He returned to a news cycle far more turbulent. On his way back from Abu Dhabi, he sent a crystal-clear message to Capitol Hill, as our Rachael Bade writes in her latest Corridors column: 'Tidy up the house, kids, because dad's coming home from his big work trip.' 'Republicans MUST UNITE behind, 'THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!' … STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!' Trump said on Truth Social. OMINOUS MOOD MUSIC: 'Don't be surprised in the coming days when the White House activates allies on the outside while Trump employs the inside game to move people to 'yes,'' Rachael writes. 'Indeed, the Trump administration official whom I texted with Friday warned obstructionists they'll pay a price. 'Voters gave them a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass a good bill,' the person told Rachael. 'And for those who vote against, they should know their careers are in jeopardy.'' One to watch: After failing to advance the megabill in a dramatic vote yesterday, the House Budget Committee has noticed a 10 p.m. vote on Sunday for the legislation as negotiations between the holdouts and leadership continue. More from POLITICO's Jennifer Scholtes BULLETIN: Trump will hold a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine on Monday at 10 a.m., the president said in a post on Truth Social this morning. DRIVING THE DAY A news dump from hell came for Republicans and Democrats alike Friday, and Trump's Washington is still sorting through the collateral damage this morning. Like the Red Wedding episode of 'Game of Thrones,' few characters escaped its wrath. Its blowback threatens to extend deep into the coming days. LET'S GO TO THE TAPE: 3:46 p.m. — Trump's efforts to expel alleged Venezuelan gang members suffered another legal setback from his own Supreme Court, with seven justices extending the block on deporting dozens of men held in a deportation center in Texas. Only Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. THE DAMAGE: It's a temporary blow to Trump's strategy of using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to aid his immigration agenda. BUT: 'Friday's ruling noted that it was not resolving the legality of Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act,' as POLITICO's Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney write. 'That question is being litigated in lower courts.' Trump railed against the decision on Truth Social, posting that 'The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.' 4:45 p.m. — Moody's Ratings downgraded the U.S. government's Triple A credit rating for the first time in a century, citing 'the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns.' The White House immediately went into attack mode. 'If Moody's had any credibility, they would not have stayed silent as the fiscal disaster of the past four years unfolded,' White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the news 'should be a wake-up call to Trump and Congressional Republicans to end their reckless pursuit of their deficit-busting tax giveaway.' THE DAMAGE: 'The announcement comes as Republicans are debating President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' that would extend 2017 tax cuts, with some hard-line conservatives fighting to limit the increase to federal spending deficits,' POLITICO's Victoria Guida writes. 'But those deficits would increase even under conditions outlined by that group.' BUT: OMB Director Russ Vought is clapping back at those critiquing the bills cost. 'The bill satisfies the very red-line test that House fiscal hawks laid out a few weeks ago that stated that the cost of any tax cut could be paid for with $2.5 trillion in assumed economic growth, but the rest had to be covered with savings from reform,' Vought said in a lengthy post on X. 6:08 p.m. — POLITICO reports that audio of former President Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur would soon leak. Now, Republicans are using it to again eviscerate Biden. 'Whoever had control of the 'AUTOPEN' is looking to be a bigger and bigger scandal by the moment,' Trump posted earlier this morning on Truth Social. 'It is a major part of the real crime, THAT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020 WAS RIGGED AND STOLEN!' WHAT REPUBLICANS ARE SAYING: 'We all knew that President Biden suffered from severe mental decline during his presidency,' Mike Davis, the GOP lawyer and close Trump ally, told Playbook this morning. 'But the Hur tapes make clear it was much, much worse than the American people knew. The Biden White House and its Cabinet engaged in the biggest cover up and scandal in American political history by hiding this.' WHAT DEMOCRATS ARE SAYING: 'Trump was extra chaotic yesterday because he doesn't want to talk about the economy — Walmart raising prices, our credit rating getting downgraded, record-low consumer sentiment, or the GOP budget chaos,' said Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist and senior adviser to Kamala Harris' 2020 presidential primary campaign. 'Instead, he throws out bullshit distractions: attacking Taylor Swift and leaking the Hur tapes to embarrass Biden — the latter being a completely classless move.' Biden aides were not expecting the audio to drop as early as this weekend and had been told as much by the Justice Department, according to two people familiar with the back and forth. But they did ultimately expect it to drop soon: By May 20, DOJ had been ordered by a judge to say whether it will stand by Biden's assertion of executive privilege to block the release of the tapes. Biden advisers had expected the audio to come out by that date — and it was one of the reasons they brought on extra communications help. It all amounts to perhaps one of the best-timed book releases in recent history. 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,' ($27) the book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson, will be officially released on May 20. Thompson was one of two authors on the Axios report Friday on the audio. 6:36 p.m.: Axios publishes its first crack at the audio. THE DAMAGE: Biden's legacy and reputation took another significant hit. Harris also took a hit, as Axios notes: 'Biden's defenders included then-Vice President Harris, who blasted Hur's report and called his comments about Biden's age 'gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate,'' they write. ''The way that the president's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated —gratuitous,' Harris said then. '.... We should expect that there would be a higher level of integrity than what we saw.'' 'The transcripts were released by the Biden administration more than a year ago,' Biden spokesperson Kelly Scully said. 'The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public.' LISTEN: Axios posted the full audio. THE BIG PICTURE: Surveying all of this from a careful remove is former Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), one of the few elected Democrats who spoke up at the time Biden decided to run for reelection and mounted his own ill-fated primary bid. My colleague Holly Otterbein checked in with Phillips, who texted some spicy takes after the story went up. Phillips told Holly he isn't convinced that Democratic primary voters will care about the topic in 2028. 'Based on their overwhelming selection of Joe Biden in 2024 despite abundant evidence that doing so would result in disaster, I suspect the gaslighting by 2028 aspirants won't matter a bit,' he said. RELATED READS: Another unforced error: 'When a Guatemalan man sued the Trump administration in March for deporting him to Mexico despite a fear of persecution, immigration officials had a response: The man told them himself he was not afraid to be sent there. But in a late Friday court filing, the administration acknowledged that this claim — a key plank of the government's response to a high-stakes class action lawsuit — was based on erroneous information,' POLITICO's Kyle Cheney reports. ICE officials 'now say they have no record of anyone being told by the man, identified only by the initials O.C.G. in court papers, that he was unafraid of going to Mexico.' Laying down the law: A federal judge in Maryland 'upbraided the Trump administration Friday for what she described as 'bad faith' delay tactics in the face of court orders requiring the government to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by U.S. immigration authorities,' Kyle and Josh report. Notable quotable: 'I'm like the cat with the ball of string and I'm trying to keep up with the ball of string,' U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said. More Biden scrutiny: The House Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into Biden's use of an autopen to issue pardons in the final days of his presidency. Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) told the Republican National Lawyers Association's policy conference yesterday that he believes they've 'identified the staffer' who operated the autopen, The Washington Examiner's Kaelan Deese writes. 'If what we think is going to play out on the autopen [investigation], it's going to create a strong case on the pardons,' Comer said. 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. A NEW GAZA PLAN: The Trump administration is 'working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya,' NBC's Courtney Kube, Carol Lee and Gordon Lubold report, noting that the plan is 'under serious enough consideration that the administration has discussed it with Libya's leadership.' In exchange, the U.S. would 'potentially release to Libya billions of dollars of funds that the U.S. froze more than a decade ago.' However, the report was met with pushback after publication. An admin spokesperson told NBC that the reported plan was 'untrue,' adding that the 'situation on the ground is untenable for such a plan. Such a plan was not discussed and makes no sense.' On the ground: Just a day after Trump left the region, Israel 'launched a major operation in the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas to release remaining hostages, following days of strikes across the Palestinian territory that killed hundreds of people,' AP's Ibrahim Hazboun and Samy Magdy report. 2. MORE ON THE TRUMP TRIP: Trump's sudden announcement this week that he was lifting sanctions on Syria 'triggered a scramble across the US government to implement the decision,' CNN's Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler and Alex Marquardt report. 'Trump administration officials had for months been carrying out quiet engagements to pave the way for sanctions relief and a potential high-level engagement with the former jihadist turned interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, but the announcement sanctions would swiftly be removed altogether took some officials by surprise.' On Iran: Trump's stated intention to strike a nuclear deal with Iran — which was the subject of much chatter during his Middle East trip — is likely to 'test the harder-line wing of Mr. Trump's supporters in the Republican Party and whether they will fall in line with what would be a departure from their longstanding demands that Iran dismantle its nuclear program,' NYT's Steven Erlanger writes. 'More than 200 congressional Republicans urged him in a letter this week to stand firm with Iran.' 3. MAGA REVOLUTION: Trump's desire to dramatically overhaul the federal government appears to be well on its way to becoming reality. The administration's 'push for early retirement and voluntary separation is fueling a voluntary exodus of experienced, knowledgeable staffers unlike anything in living memory,' WaPo's Hannah Natanson, Dan Diamond, Rachel Siegel, Jacob Bogage and Ian Duncan report. The scale: 'The first resignation offer, sent in January, saw 75,000 workers across government agree to quit and keep drawing pay through September, the administration has said. But a second round, rolling out agency by agency through the spring, is seeing a sustained, swelling uptick that will dwarf the first, potentially climbing into the hundreds of thousands, the employees and the records show.' 4. THE TAIL WAGS THE DOGE: 'How DOGE has tried to embed beyond the executive branch,' by NPR's Shannon Bond and Stephen Fowler: 'NPR has identified close to 40 entities — inside, adjacent to and outside of the government — where DOGE and the Trump administration have turned their attention in recent weeks. Some of them have already been effectively dismantled by DOGE … Some have been targeted for elimination by the president in his budget proposal for next year … Some of them aren't government agencies at all … Nearly all of the meetings have been conducted by a small group of young staffers, including at least one college student, with no federal government experience and little apparent knowledge about what these entities do.' 5. COMEY COMES IN: James Comey was questioned by the Secret Service over a social media post in which the former FBI director posted a photo showing the numbers '86 47' arranged in seashells on the beach, which quickly set off the right, who claimed that Comey was calling for a threat against Trump's life, NYT's Eileen Sullivan and Michael Schmidt report. 'The interview is said to have taken place at a Secret Service office in Washington. Mr. Comey is said to have voluntarily consented to the interview, the official said, and was driven to the interview by Secret Service agents.' 6. THE NEW IVF DEBATES: 'Inside the I.V.F. Deliberations at the White House as Key Report Nears,' by NYT's Caroline Kitchener: 'Provide insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization to all members of the U.S. military. Declare I.V.F. to be an 'Essential Health Benefit' — and extend coverage to the nearly 50 million Americans insured through the Affordable Care Act. Push Congress to pass a law requiring private insurance companies to cover I.V.F. procedures for any person struggling with infertility. Those are among the sweeping potential policy changes under discussion at the White House as aides prepare to release a highly anticipated report on combating infertility.' 7. TALES FROM THE CRYPTO: 'Meet 'Ice,' 'Ogle' and other crypto millionaires who bought a night with Trump,' by WaPo's Drew Harwell, Jeremy Merrill, Chris Dehghanpoor and Carol Leonnig: 'The gala dinner at the Trump National Golf Club on Thursday will link the president to an unusual collection of deep-pocketed crypto players from around the world, some of whom have told The Washington Post they hope to influence his views on how their industry is regulated or otherwise capitalize on the presidential access.' The identities of these invitees have mostly remained hidden and 'they may be able to stay that way, with one crypto investor saying he was told by the event's organizers that no cameras or journalists would be allowed in the room.' 8. RAISING ARIZONA: The conventional wisdom for Democrats trying to win in battleground Arizona is that they need to 'do nearly everything right — and still hope for a little luck. By that standard, next year's elections are looking worrisome for Democrats in the Grand Canyon State,' NYT's Kellen Browning writes. 'Their standard-bearer, Gov. Katie Hobbs, is among the nation's most vulnerable Democrats seeking re-election in 2026. And, rather than bolstering her with vital political muscle and support, the party has been consumed by an acrimonious and seemingly petty feud between the new state Democratic chairman and Arizona's two Democratic senators.' 9. YOU DON'T KNOW JACK: 'Meet New Jersey's JD Vance,' by POLITICO's Daniel Han: Jack Ciattarelli, 'a former state lawmaker who is making his third run for governor, has embraced Trump's agenda. It may be enough to propel Ciattarelli to the party nomination next month given Trump's popularity among the party base and Ciattarelli's own narrow loss to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021. But if it does, Ciattarelli would likely find himself navigating thorny terrain much like Vance has: Appealing to a broad spectrum of voters as a commonsense conservative while remaining sufficiently loyal to Trump.' CLICKER — 'The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics,' edited by Matt Wuerker — 17 funnies GREAT WEEKEND READS: — 'Stephen A. Smith Is Running. To Be Joe Rogan,' by NYT's Matt Flegenheimer: 'America's best-known sports-talker is hosting boldface Democrats and MAGA luminaries and teasing a 2028 run. But what he really wants is ubiquitous political influence, and things of that nature.' — 'The Big Takeover: The secret plans to give Trump command of America's police,' by the Phoenix New Times' Beau Hodai: 'For months, a Project 2025 subgroup drafted plans to place domestic law enforcement under Trump's thumb. We have their files.' — 'Addicted to ICE,' by Bloomberg's Rachel Adams-Heard, Polly Mosendz and Fola Akinnibi: 'Like a growing number of US communities, Torrance County, New Mexico, is convinced its financial survival depends on locking up immigrants.' — 'How the Trump Administration Is Weakening the Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws,' by ProPublica's Jesse Coburn: 'At least 115 fair housing cases have been halted or closed, according to HUD officials, some of whom fear race-based cases could be the next category abandoned.' — 'Is Jeff Bezos Selling Out the Washington Post?' by The New Yorker's Clare Malone: 'How the paper that brought down Richard Nixon is struggling to survive the second term of Donald Trump.' — 'Coming Out of the Closet Was a Liberation. Why Are Some Peeking Back In?' by NYT's Mark Harris: 'Long a place of hiding and shame, it's now being reconsidered in queer culture — and beyond.' — 'Anna Wintour becomes an unlikely activist as Washington quashes DEI,' by WaPo's Robin Givhan: ''It's a challenging time,' the longtime Vogue editor in chief said. 'I feel we need to be courageous.'' — ''We're Definitely Going to Build a Bunker Before We Release AGI,'' by The Atlantic's Karen Hao: 'The true story behind the chaos at OpenAI.' TALK OF THE TOWN Donald Trump will not attend the Indy 500 on Memorial Day weekend, a spokesperson confirmed. Sean Combs is actively lobbying some Trump associates for a pardon if he faces jail time — which, as Rolling Stone notes, is straight from The Onion to reality. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — 'FBI leaving Hoover Building, moving 1,500 employees out of D.C. area, director says,' by Washington Business Journal's Michael Neibauer OUT AND ABOUT — Tammy Haddad, Teresa Carlson, Helen Milby and Juleanna Glover hosted a party for Edward Luce's new book, 'Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet,' ($29.12) last night. SPOTTED: British Ambassador Peter Mandelson, Polish Ambassador Bogdan Klich and Anna Klich, New Zealand Ambassador Rosemary Banks, Stuart Jones, Peter Baker, Don Graham, Karalee Geis, Bob Costa, Phil Rucker, Josh Dawsey, Alex Marquardt, Evan Hollander, Matt Gorman, Kevin Walling, Alex Slater, Senay Bulbul, Liz Johnson, Charlotte Smith, Maryam Mujica, Adam Branch, Govind Shivkumar, Sydney Paul, Peter Pham, Chloe Autio, Tina Anthony, Jeremy and Robyn Bash, Ed Roman and Angeli Chawla. — SPOTTED at the Wicked Game acoustic guitar concert at Marx Cafe last night with Sidewalk Soul: Christina Sevilla, Jack Doll, Neil Grace, Raquel Krähenbühl, Josh Meyer, Tim Noviello, Steve Rochlin, Jack Detsch, Alina Bondarenko, Nihal Krishan, Shaila Manyam, David Lunderquist, Riikka Hietajarvi, Gilles Bauer, Ruth Schipper, Barbara Wegerson, Victoria Leacock Hoffman, Adam Forbes and Fabian Giorgi. TRANSITIONS — The Congressional Management Foundation has added Karsen Bailey as director of congressional outreach and Colin Driscoll as senior manager of congressional events. Bailey previously director of operations for Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) and is a Bob Casey alum. Driscoll previously was scheduler and operations manager for Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) and is a Joe Courtney David Cicilline alum. … Colleen Roh Sinzdak is now a partner at Milbank's Supreme Court and appellate practice. She previously was assistant to the Solicitor General at DOJ. … Patrick Clifton is joining Fierce Government Relations. He most recently was VP of corporate affairs at LG and is a Trump White House and Rob Portman alum. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo … NYT's Mike Shear and Reid Epstein and Peter Wallsten …… Mike Smith … NBC's Kelly O'Donnell and Courtney Clawson … Rachel Palermo … Rick Wiley … Margarita Diaz … WaPo's Olivia Petersen … POLITICO's Sean Scott, Maura Reynolds and Thao Sperling … WSJ's Robin Turner … Cheryl Bruner … The Intercept's Akela Lacy … Randy Schriver … Shannon Buckingham … Phillip Stutts … Derrick Robinson … Deirdre Murphy Ramsey of Precision Strategies … David Brancaccio … Margaret McInnis of Rep. Marcy Kaptur's (D-Ohio) office … Brielle Hopkins … Nik Youngsmith of the House Administration Committee … Tim Del Monico … Emily Druckman of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association … Ralph Neas … former Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) … Adi Sathi … former Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) … Jenna Lowenstein … Jeremy Lin … EPA's Wynn Radford … NRCC's Pieter Block THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): CNN 'State of the Union': Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent … Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) … Van Jones and David Axelrod. ABC 'This Week': Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) … Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). Panel: Donna Brazile, Reince Priebus, Sarah Isgur and Faiz Shakir. FOX 'Fox News Sunday': Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) … Speaker Mike Johnson … Adam Boehler. Legal panel: Ilya Shapiro and Tom Dupree. Sunday panel: Kevin Roberts, Susan Page, Tiffany Smiley and Juan Williams. Sunday special: Modern Warrior Live. NBC 'Meet the Press': Mike Pence … Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent … Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Panel: Ashley Etienne, Stephen Hayes, Andrea Mitchell and Amna Nawaz. NewsNation 'The Hill Sunday': Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) … Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.). Panel: George Will, Sarah McCammon, Julie Mason and Julia Manchester. MSNBC 'The Weekend: Primetime': Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) … DNC Vice Chair David Hogg. CBS 'Face the Nation': Robert Gates … retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Voice Results-Show Recap: Did Viewers Send the Right Top 5 to Season 27's Finale?
It wasn't just an axe that was swinging in Tuesday's Semifinals Results Show on The Voice, it was the big ol' kind of axe — one that was going to chop the Top 12 all the way down to the Top 5. If we went by the poll that followed TVLine's recap of Monday's episode (read it here), Super Save artists Olivia Kuper Harris (Team John Legend), Jaelen Johnston (Team Kelsea Ballerini) and Conor James (Team Adam Levine) all looked like they had a shot of being voted through to the finale. And Team Michael Bublé's Kaiya Hamilton? Er, a long shot. Last I looked, she was dead last in the poll. More from TVLine The Handmaid's Tale Throws a Red Wedding of Its Own - Read Episode 8 Recap The Voice Semifinals Recap: Find Out Which Singers Returned... and Which Sounded Like They'd Soon Be Leaving How NBC Picked What to Cancel to Make Room for 'Our Biggest New Show' - the NBA - and What to Keep But, as we're reminded just about every season, the way TVLine readers vote and the way the audience as a whole votes aren't necessarily one and the same. So who actually made it through the gauntlet into the Top 5? Before we found out, we were treated to a stirring performance of 'So High' by the show's resident EGOT winner and a spirited rendition of 'Baggage' by its country coach. And in the moment(s) of truth… SAVED BY VIEWERS' VOTES Renzo (Team Legend)Lucia Flores-Wiseman (Team Adam)Jadyn Cree (Team Bublé) — wait, really?Jaelen Johnston (Team Kelsea)ELIMINATED Kolby Cordell (Team Adam)Kaiya Hamilton (Team Bublé)Conor James (Team Adam)Alanna Lynise (Team Kelsea)WILDCARD INSTANT SAVE Olivia Kuper Harris (Team Legend), 'Rainbow' — Grade: B- | On Kacey Musgraves' ballad, Olivia sounded more breathy than breathtaking. Wish she had done 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' instead. As much as I love her, I didn't think that this would get people racing to cast their votes for her. Zzz. Even her coach sounded more like he was saying goodbye afterward than trying to rally support for her. Adam David (Team Bublé), 'Lose Control' — Grade: A | This. This is the kinda performance that's needed when you're singing for the Instant Save. Adam was effortlessly cool and soulful, and when he let loose and, ahem, lost control on Teddy Swims' hit, what a showcase he created for himself. Helluva showing for a contestant who had not too long ago been a one-chair turn. Iris Herrera (Team Kelsea), 'Rocket Man' — Grade: B | How Iris was still here after her poor performance Monday, I couldn't fathom. Nevertheless, she fared better on Elton John's oldie, showing off that wicked break in her voice and reminding us why we'd (or at least I'd) ever liked her in the first place. No competition for Adam, I reckoned, but I was glad she'd get to go out on a higher note. Bryson Battle (Team Legend), 'Talking to the Moon' — Grade: A- | Solid song choice for Bryson; he deftly executed Bruno Mars' heart-tugger. Sure, Bryson got a bit yelly in there, but he still made an excellent case for why he should advance instead of Adam. 'I didn't think you would be in this position,' Bryson's coach said after he was done. Me, neither, especially not with Jadyn (?!?) making it through! SAVED | Adam David (Team Bublé) ELIMINATED | Olivia Kuper Harris (Team Legend), Iris Herrera (Team Kelsea) and Bryson Battle (Team Legend) The Voice Coaches, Ranked From the All-Time Best to… Well, the Rest View List Which who would have cut? Vote in the poll below, then explain why you voted that way in the comments. Best of TVLine Mrs. Maisel Flash-Forward List: All of Season 5's Futuristic Easter Eggs Yellowjackets Recap: The Morning After Yellowjackets Recap: The First Supper
The Age
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
12 of the most shocking moments in TV history
The latest episode of HBO zombie drama The Last of Us will go down as an all-timer. For game players, it contained a plot turn they were first rocked by four years ago and have been keeping secret ever since. For everyone else, it was a blindside – a brutal event rendered with maximum emotional impact that redefines what the show is from this point on. We're not going to spoil it here because there are certainly people yet to experience it for themselves. And there's a real magic in shows like this which dare to hit you like a freight train. Or a car. Or a baseball bat coated in barbed wire. This is a good time, however, to come together and share our trauma. We've asked some of our culture writers to reflect on the most shocking things they've seen on screen. (Note: there are spoilers for various shows below, but the most recent is from nine years ago. You've had your chance). Game of Thrones ′ Red Wedding HBO's smash-hit adaptation of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones changed TV the moment it lobbed off Ned Stark's (Sean Bean) head. Suddenly, nothing was safe. Not even your main character in the first season of your show. But even then, viewers who hadn't read the books never knew quite how ruthless the show would get. Widely revered as 'the Red Wedding', season three's penultimate episode, The Rains of Castamere, was a staggering surprise slaughter of many remaining members of the Stark family. Robb (Richard Madden), the new King of the North on his way to lay claim to the Iron Throne, is knifed in the heart by his own bannermen. His pregnant wife is stabbed repeatedly in the stomach. And after wailing in grief, watching the life drain from her eldest son's eyes, the Stark matriarch, Catelyn (Michelle Fairley), has a blade run swiftly across her throat. The ensuing reaction videos of fans crying and screaming in shock almost got as much airplay as the episode itself. Meg Watson Lou's death on Love My Way One of the golden rules in television? Never kill children or pets. And yet, that is the very rule that Foxtel broke when it commissioned Love My Way about former couple Frankie (Claudia Karvan) and Charlie (Dan Wyllie) and their extended family. Frankie and Charlie shared custody of their gorgeous daughter Lou (Alex Cook) until January 17, 2005, when the eighth episode went to air. Without any warning, little Lou died after falling to the ground while riding her scooter. The unbearable grief that followed won the series the AFI award for best direction in television, and cable TV proved that its locally made series would never be as safe and predictable as those on free-to-air networks. Andrew Mercado The hospital shooting in Grey's Anatomy Loading Do you know how much it takes to shock a fan of Grey's Anatomy? We've seen it all. Within just a couple of years at Seattle Grace Hospital, young intern Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) had already drowned; removed a live bomb from a man's body; and lost one of her friends after he was hit by a bus and disfigured to the point no one knew who he was. But not even that prepared us for the relentless two-part season six finale in which a grieving husband of a former patient shoots up half the hospital, starting with a straight shot between the eyes of a young female intern. Bang. The whole ordeal (in which nearly a dozen died and many more were injured) sees staff hiding around the hospital, trying to care for their friends and begging for their lives. Meredith has a miscarriage at gunpoint while seemingly watching the love of her life die. Derek (Patrick Dempsey) lives, of course – only to be hit by a truck five seasons later. I don't know why I do this to myself. MW Patrick's death on Offspring For four hilarious seasons, Aussie viewers were hooked on the romantic entanglements of obstetrician Nina Proudman (Asher Keddie). When she fell in love with spunky anaesthetist Patrick Reid (Matthew Le Nevez), and then fell pregnant, fans began preparing for a happy birth. Then on August 7, 2013, Patrick was clipped by a car. Ten's ads for the series had stupidly promoted that a character would die that night, but it still came as a shock to learn that the victim would be the expectant father, especially given his injuries seemed so slight. Nina's grief, and her baby daughter, kept the show going for another three seasons, but at least she got to live happily ever after with Harry Crewe (Alexander England) … or did she? AM Rosalind Shays' elevator drop on LA Law Australia pioneered this particular soap opera trope when medical meanie Sister Scott (Cornelia Frances) fell down a lift shaft in The Young Doctors in the '80s. She survived, but a decade later Rosalind Shays (Diana Muldaur) was not so lucky. Rosalind took a dive down the McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak elevator shaft to her doom. The twist shocked everyone, including Muldaur herself, who only found out she was out of the show when she read the script. Years later, on Friends, the moment would be repeated when Joey Tribbiani's fictional Dr Drake Ramoray – the character he played in Days of our Lives – met his demise by taking a similar fall. Michael Idato Adric's death on Doctor Who There is an unwritten rule in some TV shows, particularly those pitched at kids, that the good guys (mostly) live to fight another day. This made the death of The Doctor's teenage companion Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) in Doctor Who truly shocking. With the sinister Cybermen planning to tamper with the flow of time, Adric remained on board a crashing space freighter, hoping to prevent disaster when it struck Earth. His sacrifice was so shocking the closing credits of Doctor Who, usually an explosion of synth sound from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, were played in silence over the image of a smashed gold badge – Adric's prized badge for mathematical excellence. MI Claire's death on McLeod's Daughters Things were looking up for Claire McLeod in the show's third season. She had finally hooked up with hunky fellow farmer Alex Ryan (Aaron Jeffery), she had a healthy baby, and her sister had been cleared of cancer. So, when a horse darts across the road, sending her car sailing over a cliff edge, it felt like a sick joke. But oh no, it didn't happen that quick. The car dangled over the edge, threatening to tip over at any moment. Then we watched Claire's sister desperately try (and fail) to save her, and suffered through a heartbreaking goodbye. To make matters worse, once the car finally hurtles forward, we see a mannequin dressed in Claire's clothes thrash against the steering wheel. Rip my heart out, why don't you? Nell Geraets Glenn's death on The Walking Dead For six solid seasons, AMC's zombie drama The Walking Dead had me. Then they killed Glenn. Played by the incomparable Steven Yeun, Glenn Rhee was the heart of the show. Not only had he been there since the very beginning, he was arguably the only character with a functioning moral compass. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, his head is bashed in with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. His killer, the easy-to-hate Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), crushes his head to a pulp, literally shoving his eyeballs out of their sockets. The camera remains trained on Glenn after each hit. We're forced to watch every horrific moment, as was his pregnant wife, who was held captive nearby. After that, I quit the show cold-turkey (as did millions of others). It's far too stressful watching something so clearly willing to rip your heart out. NG Omar's death on The Wire In one of the greatest series in TV history, Omar (Michael K. Williams) was the most extraordinary, most memorable character. A stick-up man with a menacing facial scar, a durag and a long coat, he was so feared that the Baltimore streets cleared on his approach to cries of 'Omar comin'!'. But, while he robbed drug dealers and wielded a shotgun, Omar was also a moral character – highly intelligent, witty, gay and caring enough to take his grandmother to church on Sundays. He had many enemies but he was a survivor. So I remember gasping at Omar's sudden death. After pouring a dealer's drugs down a drain, he was buying cigarettes in a corner store when, blam, he was shot in the head. The killer: an angelic-looking kid, Kenard (Thuliso Dingwall). Other kids looted Omar's body for souvenirs then, when the Baltimore Sun was put to bed that night, his death didn't even warrant a mention when they needed a four-paragraph brief. Garry Maddox Loading Dynasty 's wedding massacre Was it simply because the world was obsessed with royal weddings? Or was Dynasty trapped in the one-upmanship of shocking annual soap opera cliffhangers? It was the '80s, and this was a so-called supersoap, so it came as no surprise that heiress Amanda Carrington (Catherine Oxenberg) was off to fictional Moldavia to marry Prince Michael (Michael Praed). The twist? Pro-independence rebels in the European micro-monarchy staged a coup, storming the palace chapel and opening fire on the congregation, including all the show's main characters. Who lived? (Almost everyone.) Who died? (Predictably, the gay dude.) Contract renewal week was never more tense than it was in the summer of 1985. MI The Number 96 bomb blast Number 96 was unbeaten in the ratings until colour TV began in Australia in 1975. Then Seven and Nine began counter-programming blockbuster movies against Ten's sexy serial and it worked. Ratings began to fall and panicked producers decided the quickest way to revamp the show would be to kill off several characters. On Friday, September 5, a bomb exploded in the delicatessen and on the following Monday, a casualty list was printed in newspapers warning viewers that Aldo (Johnny Lockwood) and Roma Godolfus (Philippa Baker) and Les Whittaker (Gordon McDougall) were all dead. The show continued for another two years, but producers later admitted it had been a mistake to cruelly kill off such beloved characters. AM Molly's death on A Country Practice Brendan (Shane Withington) and Molly Jones (Anne Tenney) were one of the happiest couples in Wandin Valley, so when Tenney decided to leave after 4½ years, producers were left in a quandary. Given nobody would accept the Joneses divorcing, it was decided Molly would have a 'lovely, long, sad death'. She was diagnosed with leukaemia, deliberately chosen so that scriptwriters had an out if Tenney changed her mind. She didn't, and as her on-screen death loomed, Seven realised she would die during a non-ratings period. Ignoring continuity, they aired repeat episodes so Molly could slip away on June 5, 1985, while watching Brendan fly a kite with daughter Chloe (Emily Nicol). Viewers were left distraught, but Seven celebrated those huge ratings. AM
Sydney Morning Herald
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
12 of the most shocking moments in TV history
The latest episode of HBO zombie drama The Last of Us will go down as an all-timer. For game players, it contained a plot turn they were first rocked by four years ago and have been keeping secret ever since. For everyone else, it was a blindside – a brutal event rendered with maximum emotional impact that redefines what the show is from this point on. We're not going to spoil it here because there are certainly people yet to experience it for themselves. And there's a real magic in shows like this which dare to hit you like a freight train. Or a car. Or a baseball bat coated in barbed wire. This is a good time, however, to come together and share our trauma. We've asked some of our culture writers to reflect on the most shocking things they've seen on screen. (Note: there are spoilers for various shows below, but the most recent is from nine years ago. You've had your chance). Game of Thrones ′ Red Wedding HBO's smash-hit adaptation of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones changed TV the moment it lobbed off Ned Stark's (Sean Bean) head. Suddenly, nothing was safe. Not even your main character in the first season of your show. But even then, viewers who hadn't read the books never knew quite how ruthless the show would get. Widely revered as 'the Red Wedding', season three's penultimate episode, The Rains of Castamere, was a staggering surprise slaughter of many remaining members of the Stark family. Robb (Richard Madden), the new King of the North on his way to lay claim to the Iron Throne, is knifed in the heart by his own bannermen. His pregnant wife is stabbed repeatedly in the stomach. And after wailing in grief, watching the life drain from her eldest son's eyes, the Stark matriarch, Catelyn (Michelle Fairley), has a blade run swiftly across her throat. The ensuing reaction videos of fans crying and screaming in shock almost got as much airplay as the episode itself. Meg Watson Lou's death on Love My Way One of the golden rules in television? Never kill children or pets. And yet, that is the very rule that Foxtel broke when it commissioned Love My Way about former couple Frankie (Claudia Karvan) and Charlie (Dan Wyllie) and their extended family. Frankie and Charlie shared custody of their gorgeous daughter Lou (Alex Cook) until January 17, 2005, when the eighth episode went to air. Without any warning, little Lou died after falling to the ground while riding her scooter. The unbearable grief that followed won the series the AFI award for best direction in television, and cable TV proved that its locally made series would never be as safe and predictable as those on free-to-air networks. Andrew Mercado The hospital shooting in Grey's Anatomy Loading Do you know how much it takes to shock a fan of Grey's Anatomy? We've seen it all. Within just a couple of years at Seattle Grace Hospital, young intern Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) had already drowned; removed a live bomb from a man's body; and lost one of her friends after he was hit by a bus and disfigured to the point no one knew who he was. But not even that prepared us for the relentless two-part season six finale in which a grieving husband of a former patient shoots up half the hospital, starting with a straight shot between the eyes of a young female intern. Bang. The whole ordeal (in which nearly a dozen died and many more were injured) sees staff hiding around the hospital, trying to care for their friends and begging for their lives. Meredith has a miscarriage at gunpoint while seemingly watching the love of her life die. Derek (Patrick Dempsey) lives, of course – only to be hit by a truck five seasons later. I don't know why I do this to myself. MW Patrick's death on Offspring For four hilarious seasons, Aussie viewers were hooked on the romantic entanglements of obstetrician Nina Proudman (Asher Keddie). When she fell in love with spunky anaesthetist Patrick Reid (Matthew Le Nevez), and then fell pregnant, fans began preparing for a happy birth. Then on August 7, 2013, Patrick was clipped by a car. Ten's ads for the series had stupidly promoted that a character would die that night, but it still came as a shock to learn that the victim would be the expectant father, especially given his injuries seemed so slight. Nina's grief, and her baby daughter, kept the show going for another three seasons, but at least she got to live happily ever after with Harry Crewe (Alexander England) … or did she? AM Rosalind Shays' elevator drop on LA Law Australia pioneered this particular soap opera trope when medical meanie Sister Scott (Cornelia Frances) fell down a lift shaft in The Young Doctors in the '80s. She survived, but a decade later Rosalind Shays (Diana Muldaur) was not so lucky. Rosalind took a dive down the McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak elevator shaft to her doom. The twist shocked everyone, including Muldaur herself, who only found out she was out of the show when she read the script. Years later, on Friends, the moment would be repeated when Joey Tribbiani's fictional Dr Drake Ramoray – the character he played in Days of our Lives – met his demise by taking a similar fall. Michael Idato Adric's death on Doctor Who There is an unwritten rule in some TV shows, particularly those pitched at kids, that the good guys (mostly) live to fight another day. This made the death of The Doctor's teenage companion Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) in Doctor Who truly shocking. With the sinister Cybermen planning to tamper with the flow of time, Adric remained on board a crashing space freighter, hoping to prevent disaster when it struck Earth. His sacrifice was so shocking the closing credits of Doctor Who, usually an explosion of synth sound from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, were played in silence over the image of a smashed gold badge – Adric's prized badge for mathematical excellence. MI Claire's death on McLeod's Daughters Things were looking up for Claire McLeod in the show's third season. She had finally hooked up with hunky fellow farmer Alex Ryan (Aaron Jeffery), she had a healthy baby, and her sister had been cleared of cancer. So, when a horse darts across the road, sending her car sailing over a cliff edge, it felt like a sick joke. But oh no, it didn't happen that quick. The car dangled over the edge, threatening to tip over at any moment. Then we watched Claire's sister desperately try (and fail) to save her, and suffered through a heartbreaking goodbye. To make matters worse, once the car finally hurtles forward, we see a mannequin dressed in Claire's clothes thrash against the steering wheel. Rip my heart out, why don't you? Nell Geraets Glenn's death on The Walking Dead For six solid seasons, AMC's zombie drama The Walking Dead had me. Then they killed Glenn. Played by the incomparable Steven Yeun, Glenn Rhee was the heart of the show. Not only had he been there since the very beginning, he was arguably the only character with a functioning moral compass. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, his head is bashed in with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. His killer, the easy-to-hate Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), crushes his head to a pulp, literally shoving his eyeballs out of their sockets. The camera remains trained on Glenn after each hit. We're forced to watch every horrific moment, as was his pregnant wife, who was held captive nearby. After that, I quit the show cold-turkey (as did millions of others). It's far too stressful watching something so clearly willing to rip your heart out. NG Omar's death on The Wire In one of the greatest series in TV history, Omar (Michael K. Williams) was the most extraordinary, most memorable character. A stick-up man with a menacing facial scar, a durag and a long coat, he was so feared that the Baltimore streets cleared on his approach to cries of 'Omar comin'!'. But, while he robbed drug dealers and wielded a shotgun, Omar was also a moral character – highly intelligent, witty, gay and caring enough to take his grandmother to church on Sundays. He had many enemies but he was a survivor. So I remember gasping at Omar's sudden death. After pouring a dealer's drugs down a drain, he was buying cigarettes in a corner store when, blam, he was shot in the head. The killer: an angelic-looking kid, Kenard (Thuliso Dingwall). Other kids looted Omar's body for souvenirs then, when the Baltimore Sun was put to bed that night, his death didn't even warrant a mention when they needed a four-paragraph brief. Garry Maddox Loading Dynasty 's wedding massacre Was it simply because the world was obsessed with royal weddings? Or was Dynasty trapped in the one-upmanship of shocking annual soap opera cliffhangers? It was the '80s, and this was a so-called supersoap, so it came as no surprise that heiress Amanda Carrington (Catherine Oxenberg) was off to fictional Moldavia to marry Prince Michael (Michael Praed). The twist? Pro-independence rebels in the European micro-monarchy staged a coup, storming the palace chapel and opening fire on the congregation, including all the show's main characters. Who lived? (Almost everyone.) Who died? (Predictably, the gay dude.) Contract renewal week was never more tense than it was in the summer of 1985. MI The Number 96 bomb blast Number 96 was unbeaten in the ratings until colour TV began in Australia in 1975. Then Seven and Nine began counter-programming blockbuster movies against Ten's sexy serial and it worked. Ratings began to fall and panicked producers decided the quickest way to revamp the show would be to kill off several characters. On Friday, September 5, a bomb exploded in the delicatessen and on the following Monday, a casualty list was printed in newspapers warning viewers that Aldo (Johnny Lockwood) and Roma Godolfus (Philippa Baker) and Les Whittaker (Gordon McDougall) were all dead. The show continued for another two years, but producers later admitted it had been a mistake to cruelly kill off such beloved characters. AM Molly's death on A Country Practice Brendan (Shane Withington) and Molly Jones (Anne Tenney) were one of the happiest couples in Wandin Valley, so when Tenney decided to leave after 4½ years, producers were left in a quandary. Given nobody would accept the Joneses divorcing, it was decided Molly would have a 'lovely, long, sad death'. She was diagnosed with leukaemia, deliberately chosen so that scriptwriters had an out if Tenney changed her mind. She didn't, and as her on-screen death loomed, Seven realised she would die during a non-ratings period. Ignoring continuity, they aired repeat episodes so Molly could slip away on June 5, 1985, while watching Brendan fly a kite with daughter Chloe (Emily Nicol). Viewers were left distraught, but Seven celebrated those huge ratings. AM
