“We’re making progress on it,” says Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent.
Over a year has passed since Arcane: League of Legends premiered on Netflix, and it seems Season 2 is still (unfortunately) a long way off.
During an interview with League of Legends commentator Guan Ze Yua, Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent briefly touched on how Arcane’s second season is shaping up (thanks, IGN).
“I just watched the third episode of Season 2 before my flight to China, so we’re making progress on it,” Laurent explains. “It is not ready yet, and there are two reasons for that: one, you want the quality, you just don’t wanna rush, and so that takes time. So that’s the good reason.”
“The bad reason is, honestly, like, we didn’t know if Season 1 was gonna be a success,” Laurent continues. “If I had known, we could have started Season 2 way earlier, but we didn’t know, so we kind of waited a bit, and so now we’re paying the price, so it’s unfortunately not going to be this year.”
There’s also a video of this exchange available on Reddit, which you can check out below.
If you weren’t watching live, it just … isn’t the same.
This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky.
Streaming services like Netflix got us all comfortable either binge-watching TV or watching shows at our own pace. That isn’t always a good thing, however, especially when it comes to series released episodically.
I’ve seen headlines arguing that Succession fans ruined the show’s most anticipated moment Sunday night by flooding social media with immediate reactions. I fully disagree. It’s far more enjoyable to tune in at the same time as everyone else, and it is an immersive experience.
Justin Kirkland helped explain this powerful feeling (via Esquire):
“All of us, as it turns out, are looking for some semblance of structure in our lives. And as silly as it sounds, I think that appointment television represents this weird human connection to look forward to—a friendly interaction, if you will, that you can rely at the same day and time. In an era when everything feels so uncertain and fleeting, appointment television has reemerged as this reliable totem of time and consistency.”
During the final credits, I immediately pull out my phone and check for other reactions, memes, and analyses.
These pesky posts act as spoilers for fans who didn’t get a chance to watch it live. But this show just hits harder when we can all react simultaneously — and there are a lot of people who are tuned in. The premiere episode of the final Succession season drew 2.3 million live viewers across HBO Max and other linear telecasts. (That’s more than the opening night TV ratings (2.2 million) for Nets-Bucks on TNT in 2021-22.)
It is exponentially much more fun and only natural to freak out with everyone else when Succession showrunners shock us collectively with a jaw-dropping plot twist. It’s not dissimilar to reacting with everyone else on Twitter when an NBA star hits a buzzer-beater.
Speaking of basketball: During the 1970s and the 1980s, the NBA would occasionally broadcast playoff games on tape delay. Leigh Montville, in 1980, wrote about why that was so absurd (via Boston Globe):
“A delayed-tape presentation of a sports event is almost worse than not presenting the event at all. It is dried milk as opposed to normal milk. It is mashed potatoes without butter or salt or pepper. The flavor, the excitement are taken away artificially. Even if the viewer doesn’t know the score, if he has steeled himself for the 2½ necessary hours in an airtight bunker, impervious to news reports, wire reports and loud-mouthed friends and family . . . even if he has done all that, hard as it may be, the game is not the same.”
Forty years after that column about basketball, I now feel the exact same way about Succession. Even if you’ve managed to avoid the plot spoilers, if you weren’t watching live, it just … isn’t the same.
Montville mused that the NBA playoffs were “not a show,” but instead, news. I’d argue that the same is true of Succession and any other show that reaches a similar level of success and cultural relevance. Even the Los Angeles Times covered Sunday’s episode as if it actually happened to someone who isn’t a fictional character. That may have annoyed some fans, but it was brilliant work.
We are lucky to have prestige shows like Succession (or White Lotus and The Last of Us) that are must-watch live events and that are still a quality watch even if the plot does get spoiled. If you want to avoid spoilers, you have to try your best to stay offline until you’ve seen the show. Otherwise, it feels like you’re complaining about someone spoiling the score of last night’s game.
Quick Hits: Jon Rahm won the Masters! … Hot MLB mics … NBA teammates throwing punches? … and more
Y’all. It’s finally here. It’s finally happening. The moment that all of the nerds like me who have been gobbling up the animated Star Wars content for years have been waiting for has finally arrived.
This is a character that those of us who watched the animated Star Wars content are more than familiar with. She was first introduced as Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice in the Clone Wars series. Since then, she’s blossomed into a fan favorite.
Now, she’s got her own series held within the Mando-verse. And she’s hunting down the newest big bad in the series — Grand Admiral Thrawn.
As someone who has consumed every piece of Star Wars animated content possible, this is so fulfilling, man.
We’ve met the Ahsoka character — played by Rosario Dawson — in live action before in The Mandalorian series. Now, she’s taking the spotlight for a spell and it looks great. This trailer is jam-packed with lots of lightsaber action.
Not only is Ahsoka showing up in this series, but the series is basically doubling as a Star Wars: Rebels reunion, too. That series was set in the years following the fall of the Republic and Order 66. It starts slow but gets pretty great and ends unbelievably well.
So many of those characters are showing up in this series.
It’s going to be an absolute treat. But the big thing to note here is that Grand Admiral Thrawn is back. And that’s a huge deal.
For those of you who don’t know Thrawn, he’s a military genius and an absolute conqueror. He isn’t Sith, but he’s just as sinister. If there was a big bad who was just a step below Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, it’d be Thrawn.
Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 4 OF TED LASSO SEASON 3.
Ready?
Ok.
Welcome to our Ted Lasso Power Rankings!Each week of the 12-episode season, For The Win will chat about the latest episode to see who is thriving and who is straight up not having a good time in the Ted Lasso universe. Let’s dig into it.
“It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe.”
Those were the Bob Dylan lyrics that fans heard during the end credits as the latest episode of Ted Lasso paid tribute to the late journalist Grant Wahl. It is a perfectly fitting way to memorialize Wahl, whose unexpected death in December shook the sports world.
But it wasn’t actually just a tribute during the end credits. In fact, midway through the episode, there is actually an Easter egg that you may have missed if you weren’t watching closely.
Coach Beard was holding a copy of Wahl’s book. Here is how it looked:
Apple TV+
Beyond his contributions to the game of soccer, Wahl was actually directly affiliated with this show. Hunt says that the writer’s room reached out to Wahl to ask about his book The Beckham Experiment.
They hoped to hear what it was like for Wahl to write a book while embedded within a team with a new superstar on the roster so that they could apply it to their characters Trent Crimm and Zava (via Rich Eisen Show):
“Grant Wahl came back with paragraphs of answers within two days. He was incredibly generous with his experiences and it was really, really great and pretty helpful. We have a little nod to him coming up in this next episode. This was when he was still with us. We did not know what was going to come to pass.”
Wahl later visited the Ted Lasso set in England and wrote about the experience on his Substack.
“The show brought a lightness that I didn’t realize how much I needed. It was a little like the effect the show itself had on me when I started watching during the pandemic.”
The show continues to bring light to Wahl’s loved ones. Wahl’s wife, Dr. Céline Gounder, tweeted that the tributes in this episode “means so much” to her and her family.
All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted. Friday, April 7 Bristol practice 1 5:30-6:30pm Bristol practice 1 6:30-7:30pm Bristol practice 2 8:00-8:30pm Bristol practice 2 8:30-9:00pm Saturday, April 8 Bristol qualifying races 4:30-5:30pm …
All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted.
Friday, April 7
Bristol
practice 1
5:30-6:30pm
Bristol
practice 1
6:30-7:30pm
Bristol
practice 2
8:00-8:30pm
Bristol
practice 2
8:30-9:00pm
Saturday, April 8
Bristol
qualifying
races
4:30-5:30pm
Bristol
qualifying
races
6:00-7:00pm
Bristol
7:00-8:00pm
pre-race
8:00-10:00pm
race
Glendale
10:00pm
Sunday, April 9
Sonoma
1:00-3:00pm (D)
Bristol
6:00-7:00pm
pre-race
7:00-10:00pm
race
Key: SDD: Same day delay; D = delayed; R = Repeat/Replay
A variety of motor racing is available for streaming on demand at the following sites:
The Trans Am Series airs in 60-minute highlight shows in primetime on the MAVTV Network. For those wishing to tune in live, the entire lineup of SpeedTour events will stream for free on the SpeedTour TV YouTube page. SpeedTour TV will also air non-stop activity on Saturday and Sunday (SVRA, IGT and Trans Am). You can also watch all Trans Am event activity on the Trans Am YouTube page and Facebook page.
It was another busy weekend for racing on the tube, with F1, IndyCar, NASCAR and NHRA all among the series vying for viewers. The Richmond NASCAR Cup Series race marked the first cable-network telecast of the year for the series, and Sunday’s …
It was another busy weekend for racing on the tube, with F1, IndyCar, NASCAR and NHRA all among the series vying for viewers.
The Richmond NASCAR Cup Series race marked the first cable-network telecast of the year for the series, and Sunday’s coverage on FS1 averaged a 1.30 Nielsen rating and 2.303 million viewers, per numbers from ShowBuzzDaily.com. That was down from the previous week’s race at COTA on FOX (1.81/3.129m) and from this race last year, which aired on FOX (2.30/3.958m). The first 2022 race on FS1 to be run in a comparable Sunday timeslot without a rain postponement was Darlington in early May, which averaged a 1.45 rating and 2.614m viewers.
Saturday’s Xfinity Series race from Richmond on FS1 averaged 0.50/847,000 viewers, closer to last year’s 0.53/833K on the cable network.
The NTT IndyCar Series stayed on broadcast network NBC for its race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, which averaged an 0.53 rating and 830,000 viewers. That was down from last year’s 0.62/954K, also on NBC.
NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series was supporting IndyCar at Texas this year and averaged 0.37/644,000 Saturday afternoon on FS1. That was down slightly from the previous week at COTA (0.43/697K).
NHRACamping World Drag Racing Series delayed coverage of the finals from Pomona faired much better on FS1 this week, likely due to it following directly from NASCAR’s Cup race. It averaged 0.36/597,000, up from the 0.20/324,000 for the previous week’s Phoenix finals on FS1 in the same timeslot.
Formula 1 faced its first significant airtime challenge of the year with the Australian Grand Prix. ESPN’s live coverage of the race that started at 1am ET averaged 0.30 and 556,000 viewers — curiously, less than ESPN’s coverage of the race’s qualifying session at the same time the previous day (0.36/605K) albeit only down slightly from 2022’s Australian GP (0.34/568,000) which also aired on ESPN. This year’s race was also replayed on ESPN2 at 9:30am, and garnered another 217,000 viewers.
Despite its late night/early morning obstacle, F1 continued to do well among the coveted 18-49 demographic, pulling in more than half its live viewership (324,000) from that age group. NASCAR had 457,000 18-49 viewers from its 2.3m total, followed by Xfinity at 187K, IndyCar at 178K, Trucks at 143K and NHRA at 130K.
The newest episode of The Mandalorian hit the streaming platform Disney+ today as Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), Baby Yoda (Grogu) and Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) continued on their journey across the galaxy. Last week, the trio set off in order to reunite with Bo-Katan’s former Mandalorian clan and fold them in with the rest of the always-helmeted group.
This week, Bo-Katan tracks her faction of Mandalorians — who are now mercenaries-for-hire across outer space in the Imperial ships they stole back in Season 2 — to a very lavish world with a battle droid problem.
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUT CHAPTER 22 FOLLOW!
We get three incredible cameos as Din Djarin and Bo-Katan are roped into handling the rogue robots. The leaders of this opulent planet? No other than the iconic singer/flautist Lizzo and actor Jack Black. Their head of security that has a bunch of misbehaving machines on his hands? That would be… Christopher Lloyd.
Unsurprisingly, everyone lost it at the appearance of the eclectic-yet-incredible trio.
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This was a shockingly big week for Leonard Cohen references.
Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 2 OF SUCCESSION SEASON 4.
Ready?
Ok.
Welcome to our Succession Power Rankings!Each week of the show’s ten-episode final season, For The Win will chat about the latest episode to see how everyone in the Succession universe is doing. Let’s dig into it.
We should immediately address the most memorable moment from this episode: Connor Roy, played by Alan Ruck, ends up singing “Famous Blue Rain Coat” by Leonard Cohen at Maru Karaoke Lounge in Koreatown.
Nick Fury is back and he’s ready to get to the bottom of some alien espionage!
After a flood of shows and movies over the past couple of years, Marvel Studios is taking things a little easier in 2023, with just one new piece of content between May’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 and November’s The Marvels. That one piece would be Disney+ series Secret Invasion, featuring Samuel L. Jackson as superspy and former S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury.
The last time we saw Fury in the MCU he was in outer space, working with a group of shape-shifting aliens called the Skrulls. Now Fury is back on Earth and sporting some pretty serious looking scars on his face as he attempts to deal with some Skrulls who seem a little less interested in being friends.
Joining Jackson in Secret Invasion are returning members of the MCU Cobie Smulders as former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill, Martin Freeman as CIA agent Everett Ross, and Ben Mendelsohn as Skrull leader Talos. Don Cheadle also makes an appearance as Avenger’s member James “Rhodey” Rhodes a.k.a. War Machine.
Also appearing in Secret Invasion and making their MCU debuts are Oscar-winner Olivia Colman, Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke, as well as Kingsley Ben-Adir, best known for his performances in The OA and One Night in Miami.
Not many details as to the story are offered in this trailer but it’s clear there’s a mix of espionage, military action, and plenty of impostering. The Marvel Comics story on which this series is based blew comic readers’ minds back in 2008 when it revealed that many important Marvel characters had in fact been replaced by Skrull imposters for years. Will the MCU deliver similarly stunning revelations this summer?
We’ll find out when the series premieres on Disney+ on June21st.
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The merge is coming. Can it save a season that’s led to more questions than excitement?
Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 5 OF SURVIVOR 44.
Ready?
Ok.
Welcome to Survivor Vibe Check!Each Thursday this season, Blake Schuster and Bryan Kalbrosky will chat about last night’s episode to see who is thriving and who is straight up not having a good time on the islands of Fiji. Season 44 has had plenty of highs and lows, but Wednesday’s episode 5 left many wondering where the game is headed.
Blake: Ok, Bryan. What the hell did we just watch?
Bryan: That’s like asking me to summarize an avant-garde film produced in a language I do not speak. Nearly everything about this week was strange, and you could tell that we were starting to lose the plot when there were five minutes left in the episode and they hadn’t even started tribal council. I’m so sorry to Matthew, though. It’s amazing he powered through as long as he did.
Blake: I wonder if Matthew gets a second chance. I feel like we’ve talked about it for weeks now, but there was just no way he’d be able to compete in individual challenges the way his arm was. Which leads me to my next point: Did the producers tell him they were about to merge but didn’t want to reveal it? That’s the only reason I can think of for not showing him getting taken out. I’m just absolutely baffled by the edit — which is something we typically don’t really focus on until the final five or six.
Bryan: That honestly makes a ton of sense. “Hey, Matthew. It’s cool that you’re here now because you can sit out challenges for your tribes. But we’re about to start individual challenges and uhhh your shoulder seems like it hurts a lot.” That conversation was probably about as awkward as the one that Jeff had with the Tika tribe after he arrived on the boat. The way that he explained what happened was like he was speaking in riddles.
Blake: This season has felt insulting on quite a few levels. Insulting to such a great, charismatic cast, to the game itself by making this season all about fake idols and to the viewers at home who can so clearly see the producers scrambling to make a 26-day game viable. You nailed it by saying they’ve lost the plot. Can they get it back post-merge?
Bryan: I sure hope they can, Blake. Fortunately, we do have some very interesting castaways still remaining heading into the merge and I think we’ve got some compelling television in front of us. I’m not sure how all three members of the Tika tribe are still left, though, and (I hope I’m wrong but) it will almost feel like Lil making it to Final Tribal on Pearl Islands after so narrowly escaping elimination last night.
Blake: As far as actual gameplay goes, I thought Josh immediately trying to establish a relationship with Yam Yam was the right move and I would’ve loved to see them try to take out Carolyn. The dynamic between the three of them feels very Game of Thrones-ish.
Bryan: If you had to bet it all, who was going home?
Blake: Carolyn. And I don’t think she even had a clue.
Bryan: Wow. You don’t think she would have played her idol? If that happened, it would have been pretty awful for the show to have another woman (and one of the more interesting castaways in a while) voted off there.
Blake: I think it was either Josh or Carolyn (remember last week when we thought Yam Yam was on the bottom? He actually ended up as the swing vote) and I just don’t think Carolyn did enough to repair her relationship with Yam Yam. The conspiratorial part of me thinks the producers didn’t want to see either go home after losing the immunity challenge so they gave Matthew a reason to exit and forced a merge.
