Netflix original shows usually come with high praise.
The tech giant's venture into original material in 2013 with "House of Cards" was an impressive introduction, and since then, several shows have been critical favorites, including "Master of None,""Jessica Jones," and "Glow."
But the more shows Netflix makes, the more flops it hs. It's only natural that not every Netflix original show is good according to critics (and fans).
Since we don't want you to waste your valuable free time binge-watching a bad show, we asked reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes to tell us which Netflix shows have the lowest ratings.
Here are the worst Netflix shows according to critics.
Netflix description: A comedy that zeros in on an untalented yet rising star and her oddball family.
10. "Flaked"— 42%
Critic score: 42%
Audience score: 84%
Netflix description: A self-appointed ''guru'' named Chip falls for the object of his best friend's desire.
9. "Hemlock Grove"— 38%
Critic score: 38%
Audience score: 70%
Netflix description: A supernatural series about the goings-on in a Pennsylvania steel town, where two suspects in a young girl's murder set out to find the killer themselves.
Roku has made official what's been rumored: It wants to go public.
The digital media player maker publicly filed its S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday — the first big step for a company seeking an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares.
The company plans to list shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker "ROKU."
Roku sells inexpensive boxes that allow consumers to stream Netflix, YouTube and other streaming video services to their televisions. It also offers its software to other consumers electronics makers that want to use it as the interface for their smart TVs.
Although the company is losing money, its revenue is growing fast as cord-cutters and other consumers snap up its devices, the cheapest model of which sells for $30. In the first half of 2017, Roku posted revenue of $199.7 million, up 23% from the same period in 2016, according to the S-1 filing. In fiscal year 2016, it had a total of $398.6 million in revenue, up 25% from 2015.
Roku did not specify how many shares it planned to sell, or the price of the shares. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Roku was seeking an IPO valuation of roughly $1 billion.
Althought Roku said in the filing that it seeks to raise as much as $100 million through the stock sale, that number is just a placeholder and is expected to change as the date of the IPO draws closer.
Roku intends to set up a dual-class stock structure, which will give more power to pre-IPO investors than new ones. That will make it easier for current shareholders, including its CEO, to retain control after the public offering. Existing investors will get a new class of stock that will give them 10 votes for every share they own. By contrast, shares sold in the public offering will give investors who own them one vote per share.
This model has been increasingly common as tech companies go public. Google and Facebook both have similar stock structures. But the practice has been controversial, because it can insulate founders and other insiders from legitimate shareholder concerns.
Billions of streaming hours
As of June 30, Roku had 15.1 million active accounts on its service, according to the filing. Customers using Roku devices or TV's with its interface streamed 6.7 billion hours of internet video in the first half of 2017 — up 62% from the same period in 2016, the company said in the filing.
Currently, most of Roku’s revenue comes from the sale of the streaming devices, but the company plans to increase its number of active users and grow the amount of revenue per user. Each active user is currently worth $11.22 to the company — up from $9.28 in 2016, and $6.48 in 2015.
More active users means more platform revenue, which is a mix of advertising sales, streaming subscriptions, and licensing arrangements. These licensing agreements consist of a series of partnerships Roku has made with TV makers, such as Haier and Chinese heavyweight TCL. Roku provides a blueprint that lets TV makers bake Roku’s technology, including its slick operating system, into its smart TVs in return for a licensing fee.
Despite this growth, Roku is still losing money. Since 2002, the company has incurred a total deficit of $244 million. It lost $24.2 million in the first half of 2017.
And the company faces some significant risks, chief among them the possibility that content providers like Netflix and Hulu could stop licensing Roku their content.
About one third of the time the total hours that Roku users streamed video on its boxes last year was spent watching Netflix. Roku said it is currently in the final year of its Netflix licensing deal and that it expects the deal to be renewed — but there's no guarantee.
The Los Gatos, California, company has been rumored to be moving toward an IPO since July, when it hired Morgan Stanley and Citigroup as underwriters.
On the season premiere, the Valyrian steel blade used in Bran's assassination attempt was shown in one of Sam's stolen Citadel books.
Sam stole several books from the Citadel library's restricted section. And while he was flipping through the pages, we got a peek at a drawing of a very important weapon.
The dagger is often referred to as the "catspaw blade"— a reference to the would-be killer (or catspaw) who tried to kill Bran on season one. We knew the blade was made from Valyrian steel and had a hilt made of "dragonbone," but its origins have been a big mystery in the books and the show.
Based on Sam's book, it looks like we now know the blade is an ancient Targaryen weapon.
We later saw Littlefinger give the dagger to Bran, who in turn gifted it to Arya.
If you rewatch the moment when Bran gives Arya the dagger, it almost looks like he knows she will do something important with it — like kill Littlefinger.
"Whether he knows that exactly or not, I think he looks at it and can see this that this dagger has a purpose, it has a fate, it has a destiny," Hempstead Wright said. "And that destiny is to kill Littlefinger [...] And that's why he gives it to Arya so suddenly. He's thinking, 'I don't know why, but you need this dagger.'"
Ed Sheeran's cameo on the premiere featured more than just a lovely song — the ballad had a huge significance in the book series.
In the books, Tyrion keeps his lover Shae in a house in King's Landing (not inside the Red Keep as Sansa's handmaid). This meant Tyrion would travel from the keep to her manse. A singer named Symon Silver Tongue befriended Shae and tried to blackmail Tyrion into helping him sing at the royal wedding — or else he'd sing a song about Tyrion and Shae for all the world to hear.
Here are the song lyrics, written about Tyrion and Shae:
He rode through the streets of the city, Down from his hill on high, O'er the wynds and the steps and the cobbles, He rode to a woman's sigh.
For she was his secret treasure, She was his shame and bliss. And a chain and a keep are nothing, Compared to a woman's kiss
For hands of gold are always cold But a woman's hands are warm
This fall is jam-packed with returning favorites and new options. In order to help viewers make up their minds, we're naming the shows we're most looking forward to.
We've watched all the premiere episodes made available to press or we've seen the trailers. There were some shows that we had dismissed in theory, but then they ended up pleasantly surprising us.
So, what's worth your precious couch time?
Here are the 25 best TV shows this fall, ranked:
25. "The Mayor" (ABC), premieres October 3 at 9:30 p.m. ET
The premise of a rapper-turned-city mayor wasn't instantly exciting to us, but it really comes down to the execution. Lead actor Brandon Michael Hall has charisma to spare and the show appears to have a lot of heart. Plus, "Community" star Yvette Nicole Brown is always a welcome sight.
24. "The Voice" (NBC), returns September 25 at 8 p.m. ET
Once you get over that "The Voice" is really about the interaction between the coaches and how they fight over talent rather than actually making music superstars, it's the best singing competition on TV.
23. "The Gifted" (Fox), premieres October 2 at 9 p.m. ET
A new addition to Marvel's TV offerings, "The Gifted" centers on parents, played by "True Blood" star Stephen Moyer and "Angel" alum Amy Acker, who realize that their children have strange powers. With an anti-mutant government, the family seeks haven with an underground group of mutants. We're willing to give this Marvel show a chance, though they can be hit or miss.
Ed Sheeran appeared on HBO's "Game of Thrones" as a Lannister soldier.
Fans had mixed (but strong) reactions to the cameo.
In an interview with MTV, Sheeran said his soldier character is likely dead.
"No one wants to see me come back," he said. "I'm cool with it, though."
Whether you loved or hated Ed Sheeran's cameo appearance on "Game of Thrones," rest assured you'll never see his Lannister soldier again on the show.
In a new interview with MTV News, Sheeran said he doesn't believe the soldier he played lived long, and therefore he won't be back on the series.
"We were all quite young, those soldiers," Sheeran told MTV. "I doubt I'm going to survive for that long, to be honest, when there are dragons in the world."
When Ed Sheeran popped up on the "Game of Thrones" season seven premiere, fans had a flurry of emotional reactions. For some, the cameo pulled them out the story. But others thought Sheeran's role as a singing Lannister soldier added a great depth to the series — especially since the song he sang had an important meaning in the books.
Netflix has released the trailer for the upcoming "The Magic School Bus Rides Again."
"Hamilton" star Lin-Manuel Miranda performs the reboot's theme song.
Lily Tomlin will reprise her role as Ms. Frizzle, who has been promoted to Professor Frizzle.
Kate McKinnon provides the voice of Ms. Frizzle's younger sister, Fiona Frizzle.
Remember the days when Netflix might hit the spot if you were hankering for, say, the Chinese restaurant episode of "Seinfeld," but not much else? The times, they have a-changed, kids.
There's no question that today's Netflix fare for adults is in high demand, and guess what: the kids department might have just caught up. Just take a look at the new trailer for "The Magic School Bus Rides Again," aka the greatest and smartest kids show of the '90s brought back to life. Bonus: Let's see if you can name the fella singing the theme song.
Yep — "Hamilton" devotees young and old will rejoice, as that is indeed the voice of one multi-Tony-Award-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda.
And he's not the only one helping Netflix launch the beloved children's series into 2017; comic goddess Lily Tomlin and Kate freaking McKinnon are on board this ever-festive bus as well. Tomlin is reprising her role as Ms. Frizzle — now promoted to Professor Frizzle, of course — from the original PBS version. McKinnon, meanwhile, is playing Fiona Frizzle, Professor Friz's younger sister, who's now in charge of the coolest TV classroom ever. Expect field trips on the Magic School Bus to require plenty of liability waivers, as the class is likely to visit every continent as well as, you know, the molten core of the sun.
I personally would sign all the things for my kids to be allowed onto this bus and would also volunteer as parent aide. Honestly, I trust Lily Tomlin and Kate McKinnon to drive my family anywhere.
Well done, Netflix. Now you can get started on that "Captain Planet" reboot we've all been waiting for.
On MTV's "The Hills," Spencer Pratt was one of reality TV's first major villains.
It changed the genre forever.
He told INSIDER that he appreciates what reality TV did for his life — even if people hate him.
He just wishes he didn't let his ego get the best of him.
Spencer Pratt is one of reality TV's first — and greatest — villains. As an erratic, flirtatious, and infuriating character on "The Hills," he's inspired rounds of boos across television sets all over America.
Years after "The Hills" ended, in 2010, Pratt and his wife Heidi Montag — also collectively known as "Speidi"— are in a new phase of life. They're expecting their first child.
Pratt regrets little about his "Hills" days. Reality TV, to him, was the greatest gift in the world. He's proud of making a memorable persona.
"At the end of the day, I chose the path that made it so maybe people’s opinion of me is bad. And that’s fine. They’re strangers," Pratt told INSIDER. "That sucks, obviously. It’d be so fun to have everyone love me. But my life goes on and I have lots of fun either way."
His biggest regret is clashing with television executives while making "The Hills." He thinks his ego got the best of him and he wishes he acted more mature in those situations.
"Presidents of television networks were asking to meet with me about shows and stuff, and I was saying, 'Well, you got to come out to Malibu,'" Pratt said. "Just to be stupid, you know?"
Pratt just thinks it's important that the people in his own life know that his "Hills" persona isn't totally the real Spencer Pratt.
"Obviously there’s been a lot of bad things in my life that have come from it," Pratt said. "You get too into roles and people think that’s reality, when you’re just going after the paycheck and the fame."
From new shows like Fox's "The Gifted," which centers on a family with two mutant kids, and old favorites like The CW's "The Flash," which follows the fastest man alive, Marvel and DC shows can be found on multiple channels.
There are going to be more than 20 shows based on Marvel or DC comics onscreen and on streaming services through the end of 2017 and 2018. This list excludes the numerous animated shows available, except for one that fits into the live-action "Arrowverse" and an upcoming "Deadpool" comedy.
Additionally, DC is planning to launch a digital streaming service in 2018, but we've kept their planned shows off this list until we know more.
Here are all of the superhero shows on TV over the next year:
"Gotham" (Fox)
Starring: Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, David Mazouz, Sean Pertwee, Robin Lord Taylor, Erin Richards, Camren Bicondova, Cory Michael Smith, Morena Baccarin, Jessica Lucas, Alexander Siddig, and Chris Chalk
Returning: September 21 at 8 p.m. ET for its fourth season
What it's about: The show features Jim Gordan before he is commissioner, Bruce Wayne isn't Batman yet, and the regular Batman villains aren't at their full potential yet. As the show comes back for a fourth season, young Bruce is beginning to venture in vigilantism.
"Marvel's Inhumans" (ABC)
Starring: Anson Mount, Iwan Rheon, Serinda Swan, Eme Ikwuakor, Isabelle Cornish, Ken Leung, Ellen Woglom, Sonya Balmores, and Mike Moh
Premieres: September 29 at 8 p.m. ET
What it's about: This addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe introduces the Inhumans, a royal family with incredible powers. They must flee to Earth after a familial betrayal leads to a coup that threatens their survival. Fans of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" will be familiar with the Inhuman race, but not these particular characters.
"The Gifted" (Fox)
Starring: Stephen Moyer, Amy Acker, Sean Teale, Jamie Chung, Coby Bell, Emma Dumont, Blair Redford, Natalie Alyn Lind, and Percy Hynes White
Premieres: October 2 at 9 p.m. ET
What it's about: This Marvel series set in the "X-Men" universe follows a couple who discover that their children are mutants. The family joins with other mutants generally hidden from the world and must fight against the government to survive.
Spotify and Hulu have announced a new streaming bundle that will allow college students to use both of their premium services for $4.99 per month.
"Spotify Premium for Students, with Hulu," as the companies have labeled the deal, adds Hulu's limited commercials plan to Spotify's existing $4.99-a-month premium streaming deal for college students.
Any student who is already subscribed to Spotify's premium deal will now have access to Hulu's service, which includes the back catalogs of shows like "Seinfeld" and "South Park," as well as acclaimed Hulu original shows like "The Handmaid's Tale."
The new deal marks the first TV-and-movie partnership for Spotify, which confirmed the hiring of Disney executive Courtney Holt to run its original video and podcast programming Wednesday. And the student bundle is just the "first step," according to Spotify, which said the companies will soon target the broader market with a similar bundle deal.
The new bundle
Recently, cross-media bundle deals between prominent companies have become common in the entertainment industry, as media giants contemplate the future of the traditional cable bundle.
T-Mobile announced Wednesday that it would be giving awayfree Netflix serviceto its family-plan customers, and AT&T bundledaccess to HBOprogramming with its "Unlimited Plus" wireless plan in April. (AT&T is in the process of buying HBO parent company, Time Warner.)
Amazon Prime, which in itself bundles together package shipping, music streaming, premium TV shows, and the use of many other services, also allows its customers to purchase subscriptions to video services like Showtime and Starz through a discounted bundle.
Spencer Pratt loves crystals and believes they have healing powers.
He sells them and wants to beat Goop's healing crystal kit, he told INSIDER.
Crystal healing is a pseudoscience.
Pratt acknowledges that healing crystals may not have any scientific backing, but he still thinks they look cool.
Spencer Pratt believes in the power of crystals and he is turning it into a business.
Earlier this year, he sold a line of crystal kits called Spencer's Rocks for around $30. They quickly sold out. Now he's gunning for Gwyneth Paltrow. Through her website Goop, Paltrow sells crystals at high prices. The site claims they're "medicine" crystals that interact with "energy" around them.
His own crystals, "The Hills" star told INSIDER, are the real deal, while Paltrow's are overpriced junk.
"My new competitor is Gwyneth Paltrow selling her $85 medicine bag of tumbled rocks," Pratt told INSIDER. "While I was shopping real crystals."
Luckily for him, Pratt's first round of crystal kits sold very well and he was able to buy his original crystal collection back. He's also able to invest in more crystals.
A post shared by Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) on Jul 14, 2017 at 9:47pm PDT on
Pratt believes that crystals hold "energy," and that different crystals can amplify emotions in the people who interact with them. It's a system that goes hand-in-hand with meditating on one's own emotions. For example, someone meditating on love would feel more love if they were holding a rose quartz, the crystal associated with that emotion.
"My vibe is that our body is electric," Pratt said. "We have chakras. And these cords on our computer screens or whatever — somehow it holds energy or a picture or whatever."
Pratt concedes that his theory isn't exactly backed by science.
"My made-up idea is that you holding or being around these crystals that hold energy — because we use them in technology, there’s some type of circuit."
A post shared by Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) on Jul 16, 2017 at 2:32pm PDT on
Crystal healing is a pseudoscience. But even if science never proves that crystals can harness energy, Pratt still thinks they look cool. And that's good enough.
"I think they’re beyond the coolest thing you can decorate your house with," Pratt said. "If one day we prove there is energy off of them and everyone agrees, that would be great. If not, I’m fine with them not. And they look dope to me."
Keep reading for a look at our predictions for the final season of "Game of Thrones," including our devastating guess that Daenerys Targaryen won't survive until the end.
Daenerys and Jon will arrive in Winterfell, along with the rest of Team Targaryen.
Daenerys and Jon are on a boat heading for White Harbor, where they'll land and then head to Winterfell. Given that the Night King just broke down the Wall, we can't see the showrunners dillydallying when it comes to getting Jon and Daenerys (and their armies) prepared for the big showdown.
Team Daenerys will arrive at Winterfell in time to hear the news about the Night King's imminent march on the north.
With their arrival, a series of new reunions will take place. Most importantly: Jon and Arya.
We had been hoping for a Jon/Arya reunion on season seven, but the two cousins (who think they're half-siblings) just missed each other.
This is one meeting that has to happen in the eighth and final season. Jon and Arya were very close growing up. Jon was the one who had Needle made for Arya as a goodbye present. It's only fitting for them to see each other again before the Great War begins.
Jon and Sam will also reunite for the first time since Jon was assassinated.
Sam must know Jon was killed and subsequently resurrected, since he was sending ravens to him at Winterfell, but we haven't seen these two together since season five. Sam will likely be a part of the Rhaegar and Lyanna reveal to Jon, since Bran isn't exactly the best with delicately handling emotional conversations these days.
If your favorite female TV character is wearing baggy clothing, holding groceries, suddenly "getting fat," or standing behind random props, a coverup may be in play.
Mindy Kaling recently confirmed that she's pregnant. And while the sixth and final season of "The Mindy Project" premieres on Hulu September 12, she likely didn't have to hide a bump because shooting was probably complete before she started showing. But that got us thinking about the lengths TV shows have gone to conceal pregnancies, or write them into the show.
Actresses, props teams, and everyone behind the camera do a lot to hide pregnancies during filming. Gal Gadot's pregnancy had to be hidden while shooting an additional scene for "Wonder Woman." But this is more frequently an issue for TV actors, as shows have season deadlines that aren't always as forgiving as the ones for films.
Not every pregnancy can be written into a character's storyline. So shows get creative in maneuvering around baby bumps. Often that just means the actresses are draped in comically oversized clothes, winter lasts forever because the coats are convenient, or actresses are hidden behind randomly placed objects. Or they're simply filmed from the chest up.
Take a look at which actresses were pregnant while filming and how their TV hid it:
Kerry Washington: The attempts "Scandal" took to hide its star's pregnancy in season three were often laughed at by the media and fans. From the gigantic coats, ridiculously placed objects, and chest-up-only shots, "Scandal" used every trick. And it took a toll on Washington. She said filming was a "challenge" because her "instrument was changing and evolving every day."
From TV Guide, check out 20 of the "most ridiculous" ways the show tried to cover up Washington's pregnancy.
Lucille Ball: The comedy icon was pregnant during the second season of "I Love Lucy." Though CBS allowed Ball's pregnancy to be included in the story, the episode that revealed her condition famously was not allowed to actually use the word "pregnant" and found Lucy in some very oversized coats as she wasn't supposed to be as far along as Ball was in real life.
Alyson Hannigan: She was pregnant twice in her "How I Met Your Mother" career — the first time it was hidden, while the second coincided with her character Lily's pregnancy. The first time around, the creators decided to take some humorous liberties. They hid her behind basketballs and globes, but then showed her full belly, pretending it was the aftereffect of a hot dog eating competition. Costar Cobie Smulders, however, didn't get to show off her baby bump in the show's fourth season. Instead, she was given loose clothing and big handbags.
Disneyand the largest cable operators saw their share prices take a hit on Thursday as investors seemed to renew concerns about long-term trends in the traditional media sector.
Disney shares were down as much as 5% after CEO Bob Iger announced during the Bank of America Merrill Lynch investor conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., that the studio has decided to include its Marvel and “Star Wars” movie titles in the subscription entertainment service that it is planning to launch in the U.S. by the end of 2019. The new service will take the place of the traditional pay TV window for Disney film titles.
Disney ended the day down 4.4%, or $4.46, to close at $97.04.
Meanwhile, cable shares were also hammered by news of the past 24 hours.Comcastexecutive Matthew Strauss, also speaking at the Bank of America conference, acknowledged that video subscribers would be down for the quarter by 100,000-150,000. That sent Comcast shares down 6.2%, to close at $38.60, marking the biggest one-day drop in six years, per CNBC.
Shares in Comcast rivalsCharterCommunications and Altice USA also took a hit. The cable drop was also likely exacerbated by a report issued Wednesday evening by Moody’s Investor Service casting doubt on the plausibility of Charter being acquired by a telco or tech giant because of the debt load that would accompany any transaction. Charter, the second-largest cable operator behind Comcast, has been the subject of takeover talk on Wall Street in recent months amid chatter that Verizon was eyeing the company.
Charter shares were down 1.7% at closing to $395.64. Altice fell 3.4% to $29.26.
Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker said the surprise news from Comcast had a ripple effect across the sector, even as Comcast executives reaffirmed their financial targets for the quarter and 2017 overall. Concerns about subscriber losses from storm-battered areas in Texas and Florida only adds to the uncertainty, she said in a research note.
“We think (Comcast’s) comments on Q3 subs are moving the stocks more than anything else,” Ryvicker wrote. “Unfortunately we don’t know how much is competition and how much is weather. And no one seems to care about the financials at the moment.”
Disney’s volatility proved a drag on other media stocks, although not to the same degree. Fox was off 2.2% ($25.38), Viacom fell 3.6% ($27.20), and CBS dipped 2.1% ($60.50). Time Warner weathered the turbulence with a less than 1% drop but AT&T, which is in the process of acquiring TW, slid 2.7% ($35.60).
The reaction to Disney’s decision to revamp its pay TV theatrical window strategylargely reflected skepticismthat even the biggest media companies can go it alone with direct-to-consumer services.
The ability to license theatrical releases for a pay TV window on a premium cabler has historically been a big component of film profits for all but the biggest blockbusters. Netflix has been paying Disney an estimated $300 million a year for those rights. Disney and other media companies have to balance the loss of that considerable licensing revenue against the costs of building a proprietary service that also has to be stocked with some original programming.
Netflix, the streamer that will lose Disney’s Marvel and “Stars Wars” movies as of 2019, was essentially flat for the day with a 25 cent drop to close at $179.
Netflix's library of original content has grown exponentially since it started producing shows in 2013. Over the years, it has proven to be a hotbed of original comedy programming.
With so much comedy content on the service, however, it can be hard to keep up with which shows are worth watching.
To create a cheat sheet for you, we turned to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes to rank all of Netflix's original comedy series by their composite critical ratings. The shows had to have at least one season designated "Fresh" or "Rotten," to ensure they had a high enough number of reviews.
Here are Netflix's 25 original comedy shows, ranked by their Rotten Tomatoes critic score from lowest to highest (if there was a tie, we used the audience score to break it):
Netflix description: "Pot activist Ruth Whitefeather Feldman runs a medical marijuana dispensary while encouraging her loyal patients to chill out and enjoy the high life."
24. "Friends From College"— 23%
Critic score: 23%
Audience score: 72%
Netflix description: "Twenty years after graduation, a tight-knit group of college friends reconnects and discovers that love hasn't gotten easier with age."
23. "Girlboss"— 32%
Critic score: 32%
Audience score: 70%
Netflix description: "Rebellious and broke, Sophia stumbles into creating an online business and learns how to be the boss. A comedy inspired by the best-selling memoir."
There are more than 120 different Emmy award categories. And that doesn't even include the retired ones.
The huge number of awards — compare it to the Oscars, which has 24 categories — means that a lot of people are winners. They're split between Primetime Emmy Awards, Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards, and Creative Arts Emmy Awards categories, which means that many winners and nominees are known only within the industry. But a lot of obscure categories also means that a good number of famous people get lost among all the gold.
While movie stars like Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt have received Emmy awards for producing prestigious television shows, a good number of musicians like Taylor Swift and Cher have won for working on other creative projects.
Here are 10 famous people you didn't realize had Emmys.
Taylor Swift has an Emmy for an interactive version of her "Blank Space" music video.
The pop star won an Emmy in 2015 for an original interactive program: "AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience." It's an app that offers a 360-degree view of her "Blank Space" music video integrated with a virtual reality headset.
Brad Pitt won an Emmy for bringing a classic play to television.
Pitt has long been an A-list producer with his company Plan B Entertainment, which won him an Oscar for producing "12 Years a Slave." With Ryan Murphy's HBO adaptation of Larry Kramer's classic play, "A Normal Heart," he also got the Emmy for Outstanding TV Movie in 2014.
Pitt was nominated in the same Emmy award category for producing "Nightingale" and has a nomination from 2002 for Outstanding Guest Actor in "Friends."
Jay-Z has a Sports Emmy award for his 2009 Super Bowl performance.
His performance of "Run This Town" at Super Bowl XLIV won an award for Outstanding Music Composition, Direction, or Lyrics.
Here's a list of 12 Emmy winners that don't deserve statues on their mantelpieces.
Jim Parsons is not funnier than Steve Carell.
Steve Carell was nominated for lead actor in a comedy series for "The Office" five times, and lost every time. The most undeserved loss was in 2011, the final time Carell was nominated and therefore the last chance the Emmys had to give him a win. He lost to Jim Parsons in "The Big Bang Theory." For the second year in a row. Come on.
Patricia Arquette should have never won her acting Emmy.
Look, I love Patricia Arquette. Kissin' Kate Barlow in "Holes" will always hold a special place in my heart, as will her performances in "True Romance" and "Boyhood." But it's bizarre that she won a leading actress Emmy in 2005 for the utterly forgettable "Medium" when she was up against Glenn Close in "Shield" and Jennifer Garner in "Alias."
"Entourage" is not funny. Sorry, Jeremy Piven.
Jeremy Piven won an Emmy in 2007, as a supporting actor in "Entourage," which is a dumb show. That year, he wrongly beat out Neil Patrick Harris for his role in "How I Met Your Mother," as well as Rainn Wilson in "The Office." It set the trend of Emmy losses for Harris in the role.
It is no exaggeration to say that the comedy duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim has produced some of the most gut-wrenchingly funny and disturbing television in the history of the medium.
After meeting in film school at Temple University in the '90s, Tim and Eric found a home at Adult Swim in the mid 2000s, where they released a string of innovative, 11-minute shows, including the animated "Tom Goes to the Mayor" and the absurdist sketch comedy "Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job!"
In the first season of their latest show, "Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories," the pair crafted ten diverse and darkly hilarious short films. One episode featured Bob Odenkirk ("Better Call Saul") as a doctor specializing in toe removal, and another found Jason Schwartzman ("The Grand Budapest Hotel") confronting a demented billboard ad that comically distorted the actor's face.
Eric Wareheim talked to Business Insider about the "creepier" second season of "Bedtime Stories" and the process of making a 10-year anniversary episode of "Awesome Show," which premiered in August. We also touched on his burgeoning wine business, his experience acting on Netflix's "Master of None," and the two feature films he's writing.
Season two of "Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories" premieres Sunday at midnight EST on Adult Swim.
John Lynch: The “Awesome Show” anniversary episode was fantastic. As you're switching between sketch comedy and the cinematic structure of “Bedtime Stories,” do you find it’s easier to be in one of those modes than the other at this point?
Eric Wareheim: Yeah, we hadn’t done the sketch show for a while. We’d been in story mode, doing “Bedtime Stories,” and I was doing “Master of None.” As soon as we got back to sketch mode, we spent a week doing “Awesome Show” and had so much fun because it’s such a different energy. It’s really quick, you get to be really crazy, and you don’t have to develop characters. It was easy to switch back, and we had a blast doing it. We were pretty much just crying on set every day, crying from laughing. A lot more laughter when you’re making sketch comedy. You get to the joke really quick.
Lynch: Do you feel it’s more rewarding, in a way, to find humor within the structure of “Bedtime Stories?"
Wareheim: They’re both equally rewarding. I can’t say one is better than the other. But as former film students, making “Bedtime Stories” is satisfying in the way that it looks like a film, sounds like a film, and there are really great actors involved. Sometimes “Bedtime Stories” feels almost like a trick, where you get settled in like, “Oh, I’m watching something pleasant here,” and then you’re like, “Oh, my God. This is happening?” But with “Awesome Show,” the video element just looks so wild that you know something wild is going to happen. With “Bedtime Stories,” you’re tricked into feeling like you’ve seen it before, if you’ve seen movies and dramatic TV.
Lynch: Would you say that this season is darker than season one? I’ve only seen the trailer, but that was the impression I got, that it’s more ... Cronenberg.
Wareheim: Yeah, it’s more kind of ... Lars Von Trier. More reflective of our culture and society right now. Things are getting crazy. Things are getting nightmarish, and that’s reflected in our show. As two guys getting older, dealing with these heavy issues, we’ve kind of naturally put that into our stories. And yes, the new season is darker, creepier, but also pretty funny.
Lynch: In what ways did you approach this season differently than the first one? Were there things you brought over from it?
Wareheim: Well, yes, we brought in the same style, the same soundscapes, same score, same kind of energy. But we learned a lot from season one. We know what works now, and we feel that season two is a whole new world that we’re super excited about.
Lynch: I think your fans really appreciate the versatility of your sensibilities. Do you have any sense of whether diehard fans of "Awesome Show" appreciate "Bedtime Stories" to the same degree?
Wareheim: You know, we’ve been walking our fans through our library since “Tom Goes to the Mayor,” which is very different than “Awesome Show,” and “Bedtime Stories” is very different than “Awesome Show” as well. But they all have these similar themes, and I feel like if you’re on board with a couple of these themes, and you’re a fan, you can go with us to other places. And that’s the hope of anyone’s career is to have it be dynamic and not staying the same. I’m glad we took seven years off and didn’t make “Awesome Show.” We came back, and I feel like this special is one of the strongest “Awesome Shows” we’ve made.
Lynch: The post-production editing that’s so prominent on “Awesome Show” and “Tom Goes to the Mayor,” it’s used to a lesser degree on “Bedtime Stories.” Do you feel like you’ve exhausted that tool in a way?
Wareheim: No, I don’t. I feel like with the “Awesome Show” special we tried to do some new things, which I was totally surprised at from our editors, to go to new places. We’ve seen a lot of people try to recreate what we do, and no one’s really done it quite yet. I wish people would take our editing style and take it to the next level, but I don’t think we’re done with it yet. There are more places to go.
Lynch: Your style is definitely trending toward being more cinematic, and you've done a feature film in the past. Do you see another feature on your horizon?
Wareheim: Yes. I'm writing two feature films right now. It's the most exciting thing that's happened to me. I went to film school because I wanted to be a filmmaker. Tim and I made a film, and it was really hard, but this is my personal passion. They're going to be a combination of drama and comedy, in a very dark, dark way. We've been making so much sh-t, so we're going to take a couple months the rest of this year to do some writing.
Lynch: When you're in that film mindset, do ideas germinate in the same way that a "Bedtime Stories" episode does, and then you build on it?
Wareheim: Yeah. It all comes from experiential things. For example, when I was in New York shooting "Master of None," I encountered a lot of wild, amazing things, and I'm turning those things into a feature. And it's just like "Bedtime Stories" is based off of our real fears or real things that have happened to us, and then we exaggerate them for dramatic effect. That's where everything comes from.
Lynch: Definitely. My phone was a breaking up a bit at the end there. Sometimes these phone interviews feel like I'm Ed Begley in the "Cinco-Fone" sketch from "Awesome Show."
Wareheim:[a weary laugh] Yeah. Definitely, a Cinco communication system.
Lynch: On another note, you’ve also been a successful musicvideo director throughout your career. Are there any recent music videos that you’ve admired?
Wareheim: Sh-t. I can’t think off the top of my head really. I don’t watch that much comedy, and I don’t watch that many music videos. Not to be all high falutin about it, but I like to keep my voice pretty pure and try not to follow the trends and stuff like that. I'm sure there are some great music videos out there.
Lynch: I understand you also have a wine company that you're looking to build. What's been the operation behind that, and how do you approach it?
Wareheim: Well, if you've been following my Instagram for the last five years, you know I'm real fan of food and travel and culture, and wine is like the base of a lot of culture I feel. I've learned so much about different places through wine, and I wanted to do something amazing in America and do it naturally. There's a new kind of wine making, it's not new, but it's a style that's just becoming popular called natural winemaking. And I wanted to be a part of it, and I want to give back to the world. One of the wines is actually a Dr. Steve Brule Sweetberry wine, if you know that sketch. That was sort of the start of this business, but I have a winemaker Joel Burt, who's a genius, and we said to ourselves, "Let's make good wine. Let's not make it a joke." And that's what happened. Now we have a whole line of wines coming out in the fall that are incredible.
Almost doesn't count for many of the greatest stars on television when it comes to the Emmys.
While the TV Academy voters' choose one winner in each category for the honor, many talented actors have to settle for the nomination. Some of TV's biggest stars can't even claim that.
Surprisingly, you can count Jerry Seinfeld, Lena Dunham, Tracy Morgan, and Courteney Cox among the many deserving actors who have yet to land the coveted award.
Here are 25 great actors who have never won an Emmy.
Surprisingly, Jerry Seinfeld earned lots of viewers and five lead actor noms for "Seinfeld" in the '90s, but failed to win any statues. That's kind of appropriate for a show about nothing.
Jason Alexander's three losses in the supporting actor category has some sting to it: He was beaten each time by "Seinfeld" costar Michael Richards.
Angela Lansbury, TV legend and the star of long-running '80s drama "Murder, She Wrote," has been nominated a record 15 times and has zero Emmys.
John Oliver returned to "Last Week Tonight" on Sunday to address a number of recent actions taken by the Trump administration, including the controversial decision to rescind DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Speaking on DACA — an Obama-era policy that prevented the deportation of around 800,000 young immigrants living in the country illegally after being brought to the US as minors — Oliver contended that Trump's series of decisions on the issue is "not a plan," after he played a clip of candidate Trump discussing the issue in 2015.
"They have to go. We will work with them, they have to go," Trump told NBC's Chuck Todd of the DACA-sponsored "Dreamers" in 2015. "We will do it, and we will expedite it so people can come back in. … Chuck, it will work out so well, you'll be so happy. In four years you're going to interview me and you’re going to say, 'What a great job you've done, President Trump.'"
"But that is not a plan," Oliver said in response. "Saying they have to go, but then they can maybe come back in, and ending sounding like he's trying to hypnotize Chuck Todd: 'It will work out so well, you'll be so happy, in four years you're going to say 'what a great job you've done, President Trump,' now when I snap my fingers you're going to wake up and wet your pants.'"
Oliver then seized on Trump's consistent use of the word "happy," saying that the word tends to mask when the president "has got nothing" planned in terms of policy.
"OK listen, because this is important: Any time Trump says he's going to make people happy, or that you're going to be happy in the future, that means he has got nothing and he's trying to end the conversation. Remember, that's how he shut down Chuck Todd on the plane. And he doesn't just do it with immigration, he does it with everything.”
Oliver then ran through a montage of Trump's promises on issues including trade, infrastructure, Middle East policy, and replacing Obamacare — all of which included some variant on the phrase "people will be happy."
"OK. But in each of those cases, it's the way you get to that feeling that is important. Laying out a government policy that’s just 'you'll be so happy' is like naming a restaurant 'You're Going to Be So Full.' OK, that's the goal, but how? What am I filling myself with?" Oliver asked.
"This guy is clearly out of his f---ing mind," he added.
TV show hosts have always been an important part to keeping people glued to their televisions. Whether it be morning shows and late night, game shows, or 24-hour news channel anchors, networks (and now streaming giants) are dishing out big bucks to keep their talent happy.
Variety has compiled the biggest estimated annual salaries of reality, news, and talk-show hosts. There's newbies to the game like Mike Meyers, Jamie Foxx, and Megyn Kelly, and then there are the big hitters like Ryan Seacrest, Ellen DeGeneres, and Judith Sheindlin (you know here better as Judge Judy).
This fall is jam-packed with returning favorites and new options. In order to help viewers make up their minds, we're naming the shows we're most looking forward to.
Disney’s volatility proved a drag on other media stocks, although not to the same degree. Fox was off 2.2% ($25.38), Viacom fell 3.6% ($27.20), and CBS dipped 2.1% ($60.50). Time Warner weathered the turbulence with a less than 1% drop but AT&T, which is in the process of acquiring TW, slid 2.7% ($35.60).
Eric Wareheim:
