This is the most traumatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast. Hello everybody, Chris Harrison, Lauren Zeema coming to you from the Gloomy Home office in Austin, Texas. We begin today with some very sad news. Legendary Dancing with the Stars judge Lynn Goodman has died just shy of his seventy ninth birthday. Lynn had been diagnosed been battling bone cancer. He died surrounded by his family, his wife Sue, and his son James. Lynn was someone who he had been
with the show for seventeen years. He was one of the first judges and came on when the show began in two thousand and five. Very beloved figure. Even when he was kind of snarky or kind of tough on people, everybody loved. He was just this English gentleman that everybody really loved and admired, and they made everybody smile.
I don't know if there is someone who more perfectly critiqued, because even when he critiqued, you respected his opinion. That's the thing. You never felt like. It wasn't like I think the dancer sometimes felt he was so hard on them, you know, and that was where some of that conflict came from, but he was almost like that father figure
that they also wanted to impress. They would all tell me when I covered the show that, well, if you get that good score from Len, you know, you know it means it, and you know that it means something. And they were always trying to work for those scores from Len, even though they'd all been frustrated with him
at different points. And you and I really wanted to talk about this because I think when we both woke up to this news, we both, I mean, your heart sinks a little bit because we both felt such fund memories of him. I mean, I covered the show for years, and you'd covered it, you'd been there. You and I had gone and sat in the audience of Dancing with the Stars a couple times to support Hannah Brown one time together, and I just, I mean, I'm so glad
that he was with his family. And there's actually this really sweet story. I guess in an interview last year, he had said he had actually predicted. He'd said, well, my dad passed at seventy nine, and I love the way he went, and he went, you know, surrounded by what he loved, and if I go that way I'm okay with it. So I just feel like he lived a beautiful, full life and I think you know you and I also felt like there's so much more to say about Len.
Yeah, and we're going to do that. We do have a lot more to say, and there are a lot of people that have things they would love to share and talk about Lynn Goodman, and we're going to do that. We're going to drop a very special Lynn Goodman episode of the most dramatic podcast ever. His life, his legacy, his memories on Dancing with the Stars, and what he meant to everybody. So look for that. The most dramatic
podcast ever Lynn Goodman will drop very soon. Shocking news yesterday in the world of cable TV news, First Fox announced that Tucker Carlson was fired and would be leaving the network immediately. He would not be passing go, he would not collect two hundred dollars, He would not have a goodbye show. He would not be giving a farewell speed. His last show has already aired. He is gone and removed. This was an absolute shocker to everybody yesterday.
This was wild. I mean, like you and again like the Big News Day, and you and I both I think our journalism roots come out and we're like, whoa big news day, breaking news day. And the Tucker Carlson announcement was shocking to me. Of course, we're going to get into Don Lemmon being let go from CNN, and that was much less shocking to me. But Tucker Carlson, I mean, we just come off this news of the
big Fox lawsuit settlement with Dominion voting Fox settled. There was supposed to be this big trial because Dominion was accusing Fox of hurting their brand, of spreading false information about them, and then Fox ends up not going to trial, settling for seven hundred and eighty seven million dollars, the
biggest defamation lawsuit in American history. And everybody defamation is something that is hard to prove, so notoriously a lot of the time these cases don't go to trial or they you know, I guess you can hope for a settlement. This is the biggest defamation lawsuit in American history. And so the news of Tucker Carlson being I mean, I guess fired, right, he.
Was fired, yes, one hundred percent being let go.
After that, of course people are connecting the two.
Well. I think initially people started connecting that this had something to do with the dominion settlement and the fact that Tucker was listed and he would be, you know, one of the witnesses, et cetera. And there are other lawsuits pending as well after this defamation. There's other people
in line. So there's more to come for Fox. But as people started digging into this, it really had more to do with Rupert Murdoch and Tucker Carlson stepping out of line and crossing the big red line, the conservative line, and going against basically the Fox talking points.
The reports are coming out that Rupert Murdoch, head of Everything, Yeah, Fox didn't like the way that Tucker covered the January sixth yats.
Yeah, his conspiracy theories and all the things he went with.
And there was something else he didn't like that way, and he.
Really kind of went after this one figure Ray EPs sixty minutes did a big story on that.
Okay, now I'm lacking on something. I don't watch Succession, but it just sounds like it's real.
I mean, first of all, Succession is HBO. Check it out. It is. I'm going to say, yeah, I'm trying to run through my memory bank. It's the best show on TV right now. I think by fall.
No, that's what everyone says. And this is on me. If I have to binge it, I am lacking. I feel like I'm going to love it when I binge it, and I'm behind.
And if you don't know, for the Lauren Zemas of the world, it is a story of this family, this unbelievably rich family that owns I mean, it's torn out of the pages of Fox. It's Rupert Murdoch and it's the Murdoch family and they have the kind of evil, maniacal overlord father, and then you have the kids who are really don't have any redeemable qualities about them either, and they're all kind of climbing on each other and stabbing each other in the back to try and gain
power in the empire. Anyway, long story short, Two things. One, Succession is spectacular. You must watch it. Number two, Rupert Murdoch. This is I don't know if it's art imitating life or life imitating art. I mean, but this is happening. This is the crazy man from Succession torpedoing his own network. Because look, guys, I know people on the left, even you know, the silly display of the ladies on the view yesterday singing no, no, no, no goodbye and doing the
wave and all that. So people on the left are rejoicing, people on the right are angry. If you have no dog in this fight, you're just going to look at this from the analytics and the business side. Tucker Carlson is easily the most successful television show I would say on TV right now. He gets three million viewers a night. To put that in perspective, that is bigger than most primetime shows, not to dog on the Bachelor. That's much bigger than the Bachelor gets once a week on their show.
Tucker Carlson's getting that every night, three million viewers. So he is the one hundred million pound gorilla in the room at Fox.
I was also reading and listening to a few podcasts yesterday that he had a pretty sizable by cable news standards younger demographic, which is so critical when it comes to advertising dollars that younger audience, and to be honest, cable news could use some younger viewers. I mean, you know, it drives home to me like I'd never turn on Fox or CNN or anything anymore. I don't turn on unless maybe something crazy breaking happens, like when the riots happened.
I turned on CNN to cover that or to follow that. But like for sure, your kids, college kids, they're not flipping on CNN.
Oh gosh.
Ever, No, So that that is what I think you and I were talking about the most is the fact that and I don't know what it says about Rupert Murdoch if it says that he is incredibly confident or incredibly stupid, but that he just got rid of his biggest ratings star. I mean, I think in most people's minds, Tucker Carlson and Fox News are fairly synonymous with each other at the well.
And it's interesting because they went through this before with Bill O'Reilly, who had some allegations against him and he was let go as well, and everyone thought, Okay, that's it, that's the end of Fox. And now seemingly it happens again with Tucker Carlson.
But and it wasn't, by the way, it wasn't the end of Fox.
When any means and so, look, is everybody replaceable. We're about to find out. You know, Fox will survive, They'll go on and do something. But Fox really and again this isn't taking sides. This has nothing to do with partisan politics whatsoever. I'm just giving you the facts Fox News. And this is why CNN, MSNBC, everybody goes after them so hard they dominate. It's the ratings and the money aren't even comparable. CNN is a barely a blip on
the radar. They barely exist anymore. MSNBC isn't far behind. But if you go look at the ratings, which I do often, you'll see I don't know, five to ten Fox shows and then you get down to a Rachel Maddow, you get down to these other shows of Don Lemon, and they are far far down the list on the ratings. And so that's why everybody's rejoicing is I mean, this is just a good feather in their cap because it gives them a chance to succeed well.
By the way, as much as I'm saying biggest defamation settlement in history, I also read yesterday on the Hill in an article where they were kind of talking about the Tucker Carlson thing, that Fox made two point eight billion dollars last year. Son hundred and eighty seven million isn't nothing. And also they're facing another lawsuit from a smartmatic a two point seven billion.
I was the other one I was referring to, and that one could be deeper and more impactful. Actually, and now the precedent has been set, so people are saying that could be big on the horizon.
The precedent of a huge settle. So we'll see. I don't know what this means for Fox, but it's very Again Rupert Murdoch. I guess what everybody says about him is that when he's done with you, he's just like done. You know, you're gone. And that is what happened with Tucker Carlson here. His last show was last Friday. He's not going to get to say goodbye. But it's also hard for me to not. We've said this before on the show. You guys, if you get a great ending
at your job, you're lucky. I mean, I think this all the time. I see it the more and more as I grow up. It's not not everybody gets that retirement party and sailing off into the sunset. It very rarely happens. If things don't end well for you at work. Know that it's more than likely like that. Statistically overall, you're probably not gonna it's like a breakup. It happens for a reason.
Very few get the farewell tour. Very few say, oh, I'm going to retire this season and get to play this beautiful season and end up on top and you know, get that parade. Well, you're right. It usually does not end well. Like relationships, if it ends, it ends for a reason.
And I have to say for both Fox and Again we'll get into don but they can't really give you a platform to go like, they can't fire you and then say and go ahead on your show on Monday and see whatever you want to.
The viewers exactly do that. It is I will go back. And it does just go to show that this Rupert Murdoch is very much like lead character and succession. I mean he really just at the expense of whatever, he just will set fire to everything and he.
Here's a part of me that kind of admires it. I wish I was that ballsy.
I don't know if you if you are an overlord and you are a dictator, that's what you get to do. I mean, it's his, it's his built the empire. Yeah, And that's the thing is, you know, when there's an interesting thing that I've watched happen in my lifetime because it happened at ESPN. And ESPN is struggling as well, and that is making stars. And these stars get so big, do they get too big and too powerful? That partly
came into play for my situation as well. Back when I was growing up, there was Dan Patrick, there was Overman, there were all these stars. Stuart Scott was brilliant, and these guys became huge, and you would watch Sports Center on ESPN more so to see the Dan Patrick Show or to see Keith Ober whatever. Chris Berman was another one,
and Chris is kind of hung around. But ESPN made a concerted effort to retire all these people, fire all these people, or just not renew their contracts as they came up, to get rid of anybody who had star power who could hold them over a barrel during negotiations, and that was a big deal. Now they have Scott Van Pelt SVP, who is I think fantastic, and he's the only really name brand left at ESPN that has his own kind of brand and show, and this is kind of the same thing at Fox. I think his
thing is I can make a star. It's me, not them.
Well, and you know, I mean again, it's a good business sense. I will say, Look, as much as I loved my family at Entertainment Tonight, they're at my work. Family were Look, Mary Hart was synonymous with entertainment Tonight.
People still think she's there.
They still think she's there, and she left several years ago before I even started. It's got to be about ten years or more by now, if not more than ten years. And I don't think that the people in business affairs wanted anybody else to get that big. You know, when we would go into negotiations, I mean it was mental. It was you know, there are a lot of other people that want this job. There's a lot of other
people who could do this job. And they didn't want you to become this big star because yeah, again that just meant they'd have to pay you more money. They wanted Entertainment Tonight to be I mean, we would be sort of trained that when you're going into an interview, you are entertainment Tonight.
This is huge for Tucker Carlson, This is huge for his fans. This guy has three million viewers a day. If you don't think he's not walking across the street starting his own network, joining I don't know whoever else is out there and crushing it. You're crazy.
I mean, also, we're not even talking about the fact that they did this and there's an election next year.
Yeah, I mean.
To lose you again, your fate. You just paid this huge settlement, you're facing another lawsuit, it's an election, you're coming up, and you fired your biggest start.
Okay, well you just hit on Okay, I hate to say. Now we have one more point. You hit on a very important point. Who does Rupert Murdock love and who does he probably want to be? President? Donald Trump? Who came out with some really nasty tweets, text messages, whatever it was that he did not like Donald Trump was not in his camp. That was Tucker Carlson.
So there were some text leak texts leaked Tucker saying he thought Trump in the White House was a disaster.
The fact that Trump is in line, he's leading really really strongly in all the polls, and Rupert Murdoch is firmly in the Trump camp. Fox will be firmly in the Trump camp. Tucker Carlson again had already crossed that line. Was not going along with all the talking points, and so I think that had a lot to do with it as well, although I.
Will say Trump was still supportive of him. I had to look this up because I thought i'd seen this headline. During an interview on Newsmax late Monday night, Donald Trump said, I was shocked. I'm surprised. He's a very good person, a very good man, and very talented. I can hear his whist in my head, and he had very high ratings. He's been a Trump well, who can't do it Trump? He's been terrific, especially over the last year or so. He's been terrific to me. So Trump, I mean, maybe smartly.
They're not slamming Carlson, not saying good he was fired, not all that I would imagine. I'm totally guessing here, but I would imagine Trump knows Carlson's power and knows he's going to go start something on his own. I've got an election coming up next year, and I'm going to stand on the good side. You're right, So, I mean, the truth is, whatever texts were leaked, I think Carlson and Trump have very similar audiences, so it's smart for them to stay in each other's orbit.
That is not over. We will see where Tucker Carlson lands, and I imagine it'll come out pretty quickly where he will move in the least surprising announcement in the least in the cable news world. It was a bit of a shock that had happened, just because I think we thought it was probably gonna happen at some point. You just didn't know it was going to happen yesterday. But CNN fired Don Lemon. Finally. I mean, how this guy had been surviving for this long, considering what he has
done and what he's gotten away with. But finally, you know, I think CNN capitalized off the huge news of Tucker Carlson and they went ahead and announced that Don Lemon was fired from CNN. It was a bit of a roller coaster for CNN as they tried to graciously let Don Lemon exit in base say, as that you often do in a press release, we wish him the best,
we are parting ways. Don Lemon quickly jumped on social media and released a statement saying that after all this time, all the work he had done, he was shocked that nobody gave him the courtesy of after being there seventeen years the courtesy of a call from a manager one of his executives, and CNN quickly fired back.
My favorite part about CNN firing back is that I didn't know if it was real or not for a minute because Elon Musk took away everybody's blue check mark.
So that's funny.
I saw this tweet from CNN. It is from CNN's communications account at CNNPR, but they didn't have a check mark, So at first I'm like, is this a fake account? But then I went and looked at a lot of followers, but CNN PR team, the CNN PR team tweets from their account. Don Lemon's statement about this morning's events is inaccurate. He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.
So yeah, so Don Lemon.
That did later kind of get verified.
It was a real account and Don Lemon. So Don Lemon got fired, and obviously they offered him an olive branch to like, let's go peacefully. Don took his last final shot by trying to, you know, get out first and say he was shocked. He was surprised. What shocked me about Don Lemon's statement was that he said, you know, basically, he said he couldn't see this coming. There was the Nicky Hayley stuff where he said, you know, women are past their prime.
Well and again, well, let's talk business more so ratings. Yeah, I mean, he'd been his primetime show had been not doing well, he'd been moved to this morning show.
Right, technically, he said, it wasn't a demotion. But you don't get moved from primetime where Tucker Carlson, Rachel Maddow, everybody that the big hitters are in prime.
You get moved from having your own show in primetime to being one of three co hosts on a morning show. That's an emotion, right, And so then that morning show was not doing well, not well at all, and I can't, I mean done. Lemon's got to be a big paycheck at CNN at this point. So I was like, okay, when again, from a business perspective, I'm not whatever anybody's politics are. If you're not getting good ratings, you've got to be one of the biggest paychecks CNN is paying
out over there. And then on top of it, you're offending your female co hosts. And I mean there have been rumors and other reports about the way he's behaved over the years in kind of a diva way behind the scenes. I was surprised he was still there.
A lot of stories have come out about his behavior towards you know, co female co hosts. He just had. He's had several controversial moments on air. It wasn't just the Nicki Haley thing, because you're right, the Nicki Haley thing alone, where he said women are past their prime or have it whatever? That alone. If you are killing it and ratings are high and the money's flooding in Lauren's right, that's not going to get you fired, whether
you think it should or shouldn't. That's just the life we live in and the world we live in.
Business wise, you were savvy and saying that, oh, they slipped this news in right after the Tucker Carlson.
Right there, the most least shocking news. So someone said, Wow, what a crazy day, What a coincidence. I'm like, there are no coincidences like this in our business. This was calculated, this was planned. It wouldn't have shocked me at all. Because it's a small world. It probably got out that Tucker Carlson was being fired and it was going to happen Monday, and so CNN had their ducks in a row and they were ready to go with Don Lemon.
The fact that it came out a little bit after the news cycle, and you know, the Don Lemon stuff came out a little bit later in the day, they were just kind of trying to slip it in, because really, if you're trying to just slip this in, you would have waited till Friday afternoon. Which that shocked me about Tucker Carlson is that it came out early Monday morning. That is when you want it to make news. That is Rupert Murdoch saying, I want this to make headlines.
I don't care. CNN was just riding on the wave and hoping there was so much noise about Tucker Carlson, which there was, that they could just kind of slip under the radar.
You're right, that's your Murdoch saying shots fired.
Yeah, And that is an FU to Tucker Carlson. It's an f you to everybody who loved him, who wanted him on the air, because you don't announce things super early on a Monday morning unless you want it to be big.
Yeah, you bury it on a Friday, you let it kind of hopefully people miss it a little bit over the weekend. It doesn't pack as much of a punch. It's just like when celebrities announced the divorce.
When did mine was on a Friday afternoon at five o'clock.
So let's talk about Don Lemon's future now. Look, I got to say, I actually, years ago, I used to like Don Lemon a lot. I respected him a lot, I liked him a lot. I can't exactly pinpoint where that changed for me, but I do think he got, you know, caught up in the like I used to watch CNN, and I think CNN was trying to be like Fox and be opinionated. I can't handle watching five people screaming at each other on what's supposed to be a news broadcast, and like it gives me a headache.
I don't want to watch it. It just wasn't the news to me anymore, and I stopped watching for me personally, I think Don Lemon got caught up in that. Where he's going to go from here, I don't know, but I do know that he doesn't have that same power that Tucker Carlson does.
Clearly like you said, Tucker Carlson three million viewers. He is the highest rated, just dominant force in television. Don Lemon was on a sinking ship. He had been demoted. His show was I mean not great. I mean just look at the ratings. This is not a personal take
on it. It's just the truth. Now, if you thought you couldn't tie these two things together, and these two people together, Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon, you're thinking, wow, these we're talking extreme right, extreme left, these guys political, they couldn't be further apart. Well, guess what they're together. That's right. Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon have the same lawyer, gentlemen.
Both gentlemen have lawyered up quickly. By end of business Monday, when all this was announced, Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson had both hired power attorney Brian Friedman, a familiar man to you, a very familiar man. He handled a certain situation I was in at one time, but also known for handling Megan Kelly, and Megan Kelly and Tucker Carlson are tight. So no doubt that that was probably the connection there. Gabrielle Union so pualmo.
I believe has retained Brian.
Yes, he's working with Chris Cuomo.
So Brian's really carving out a niche he really televisions.
He is kind of he's he's the batman. That's what people put up, the bat signal, and they go to Brian Friedman and he's good, He's very good. And so look, I got to say, how funny is that that? Like, you know, these two guys that probably talked about each other many times and got after each other, and you know, in these fights on cable news, and they're now sharing the same lawyer and really sharing the same fight. And honestly, these cases kind of probably have a lot of similarities.
And so as one goes, maybe the other one goes. As far as a settlement, do you.
Think either or both of them could get settlements.
I don't know. I don't know. It seems like CNN has a very strong public case against Don Lemon. I don't know what the sentiment is, what legally they have on Tecker Carlson, because while you know, there's the dominion stuff, there's all these other talking points. I'm not sure that stuff was so muddled over there at Fox.
I hadn't read that he was still in the middle of a contract, like he's had years left Donna's contract, Tucker, So I could see him getting a payout of the rest of his contract unless they've got something on him.
But can they can they can they pin all of this legal stuff on him? You know, is he's escapegoat for the dominion stuff and for the you know, the pending defamation suits possibly. You know that his has just been so kind of quiet. It's hard to know legally what they may have on him. But Don Lemon's has been very public because he's been doing it himself on the show for so.
Long then, I mean, has been saying stuff probably and.
There's been a lot of complaints as well against Don Lemon behind the scenes. I know at CNN he's not a very popular figure.
Look, there's a lot of feet in the fire with both of them. But I'm really just again, when it comes back to the ratings, I was shocked far more by the Tucker Carlson news. And it'll be really interesting to see where Fox goes from here. I mean, they have a lot of other very polarizing personalities. We're coming up on an election year. Who will they bring in to quote unquote replaced Tucker the way he replaced Bill O'Reilly.
I don't know, and nobody will say this over there, but look, that leaves a huge hole at the top, and it very rarely happens in this business. Huge. So there's a lot of prime slot when you are talent and you're sitting there and you're waiting for your moment, you're waiting for your time. Believe me, there's a lot of excited people. There's a lot of agents on the phone this morning, calling Fox, calling around. There's people from
other networks calling Fox and pitching. So the you know, if you think the funeral lasts long, it does not. There are people already making those calls in vying for those spots. Same goes for Don Lemon. You know, is that a coveted spot, not as coveted as primetime, but it's a great spot to get on CNN and start the morning show. So believe me, talent, we may publicly say they're sorry and sad, but they also see opportunity when there's blood in the water.
You know what I was thinking about just now, and I don't even know the answer. Who replaced t J Holmes and Amy Roebuck.
Is that show still on the air. I have no idea, no idea, yeah, gm A three or whatever it was. I don't know idea right, and no one talks about it. It's not been seen or heard from. Again, I don't know. Speaking of people that may need legal help. Country megastar Morgan Wallin So he was doing a show at Old Myth the other night and he canceled because he lost his voice. This is not something that's crazy, out of the blue or new. This happens to performers all the time.
What made this different is that the show actually went on, the warm up acts performed, everybody was there at the stadium, the show was happening, and then he pulled out that is actually pretty rare. I talked to some people in country music that it's pretty rare that you wouldn't have already announced before the show to stop people from coming.
The fact that the show is already happening, that was what made this very interesting and fans as much as people love Morgan walland by the way, he is the hottest thing. He is the biggest ticket. He is the biggest money maker in country music right now, hands down for sure.
I think he just set a record the other day with his what music. He is at the top of Billboard and.
Printing it. He's printing money killing it well.
But of course this is the crazy thing is that he announced. It's like a big paragraph comes up on a screen at the show that Morgan's lost his voice and won't be coming out. People had already been they bought drinks, they'd bought merchandise. They're standing there waiting, and that is why everybody's so mad. And I mean, now, some of it's a little bit funny, like somebody tweeted they rode up their bill for Morgan Wallan because this big paragraph that came up on screen said you will
be refunded, yes, for the tickets. But this person wrote out on social media, Morgan Wallan, since you're offering refunds, here's our itemized bill for you. Hotel five hundred and sixty dollars, gas eighty dollars, tickets sixteen hundred dollars. Dang my outfit one hundred and twenty dollars. Husband's outfit two hundred and eighteen dollars. Wow, the hubby got a better outfit for he spent more to eighteen He got the boots dinner two thirty five, Cracker Barrel dinner forty dollars.
Wait, dinner and Cracker Barrel were.
Going well, so it was one dinner. I never heard of the Oxford grill house.
That must be in they're for miss yeah, because they're at all miss but Crackerbail.
They spent last forty bucks loose parileros forty five dollars. I butchered that pronunciation.
They ate a lot. They went to three meals.
Hey, they were there.
For a long time. We're here for a good time.
Drinks at the concert two twenty Damn Morgan Wallen merched two thirty five for a grand total of three nine and eighty two dollars.
Holy crap.
I mean, look, the cracker Bail thing kind of cracked me up because it's like, well, you know, I mean it's just so specific.
We what stood up to me there? The husband spent more money. There was at least three meals. They spent about three hundred bucks on drinks. But it also goes to show God, these these concerts these days. I don't know how anybody can go the Taylor Swift concerts.
Well, look, we were those parents. We were by the way, we didn't have any big connections for Taylor Swift, but we wanted to get your daughter tickets for her birthday, you and I and her mom, and we were all in our laptops trying to get the tickets and we were we spent I think we spent seven hundred dollars each on the tickets, two tickets.
It's expensive, it is. Concerts are just well, that's how.
Artists make their money today, right, because they don't sell albums, so they got to make it touring, and it's in some ways horrible for them. It's exhausting. They got to do more and more shows, and it can be a lot of artists, you know, are very mentally drained and end up having a cut concerts short for that reason. It's physically draining. They train for it like athletes trained for, you know, to play sports. But I did, you know, and as much as we might like be like, this
is all very specific. And one other wild part is somebody's already filed a lawsuit. This just happened like twenty four to thirty six hours ago, and someone's already filed a lawsuit against Morgan Wallen. But I will say I did take issue with this. You gotta know sooner than minutes before you're supposed to go on, right, How do you at least not announce earlier that afternoon or before the whole show begins? What are you doing back there to your voice?
Like he said, I'm so.
Esteem and hoping for the best.
I'm so sorry. I promise you, guys. I tried everything I could. And look, there are rumors about that maybe there was some other reason he couldn't go on, but you I could see that where it's close, you also can get shots. You get steroid shots. And because I've done that before, I've lost my voice and I've gotten a steroid.
Shot to the neck. Where do they put it?
No, it's in your butt. And the idea it'll help the inflammation, because that's what it is when you're when your vocal cords are inflamed and you can't sing, and so it will reduce that inflammation. It doesn't fix everything, but it can make it about fifty percent better. And it happens.
So maybe he was hoping I can get there enough to just perform, and.
So I'm sure he had doctors there if this was indeed the case, you know, and he thought, just give me some time, give me some time. You know, we can probably pull this off. And it wouldn't have been his best show, but it you know, and he could have maybe slipped some tracks in here and there. So there's some tricks of the trade to get through a show. But unfortunate And look, is this going to hurt Morgan Wallen? No, No, I just won't stick on him. But this is his base.
I mean, he's an Oxford. I mean he's at Old Miss that is as deep south as you can get. Those are his people. So you know, if one of these instances happens, not a big deal, most people will forgive them. And these lawsuits are all kind of trivial and they're funny to talk about on a podcast. If this happens repeatedly, then you'll see some chinks in the armor.
But I was thinking of Adele when she cancel her Vegas residency the night before it was supposed to start. And look, I am an Adele fan, but I didn't think that was cool. The problem is people have traveled and just like that woman said on her bill, they've spent money on hotels and airline tickets and gas, and I mean with Adele, people had obviously gone to Vegas to see this. Very few people lived in Vegas.
Six months in advance. Now here's in advance. This is a planned out event, and.
It's not just the cost of the tats that you need reimburse that's the problem. I don't know. I don't remember what ended up happening with Adele in the way she reimbursed people, But it's an interesting question if an artist. I mean, Adele was very open. She said, I'm just not doing the show because it's not the typest show I want to do. It's not coming together the way I want it. I don't know what she ended up reimbursing people for, but part of me kind of thinks,
I don't know. I think people have a legitimate claim if they've paid for hotels and airline tickets, that you should pay them for more than just the price of the concert going ticket. It's not completely off base to me so anyway, But it didn't hurt Adele in the long run. She's back doing her residency and I want to see it. I've heard it's amazing she's extended it. I don't think this will hurt Morgan Wallen in the long run, let's get into the most dramatic corner of entertainment. There is.
I that you're going to say, Kardashians.
Oh that too. This story brings you both.
Yeah, because that's when worlds collide. That's when you know you have a big story. The Theata, the Kardashian which.
This might be the first time it's happened, so musical theater. I can't Patti Lapone, She's a very opinionated woman, which I love about her, but I don't agree with her on this one. Kim Kardashian, In case she missed it, it's been announced that she will be playing a guest starring part on a new season of the hit show American Horror Story. Patti Lapone asked about this on Watcher Rappins Live, and she slammed the idea. She said, Kim,
what are you doing with your life? Which I felt like was a pretty big existential question over a guest starring role on a TV show, which I would say, Kim's killing it, And she said that this upsets her because she thinks that it's taking away parts from more established actors. She's not okay with it. Kim, what are you doing with your life. I don't have a problem with this. I just I agree with Patti Lapone completely Kim Kardashian doing a guest starring role on a show.
First of all, let's see what she does. Maybe Kim kills it. Maybe she does a great job with the part. You know, if you want to judge it after she's up there. If she absolutely sucks, then okay, you could say, wow, an actor could have had this part. But we don't know how it's going to go. And obviously American Horror Story is doing that for their own benefit to get to use Kim's name to get the show back in the headlines. So if you're blaming everybody, say to American
Horror Story, wow she plugged. You're using a Kardashian to get your show publicity and you should be casting better actors. Why are we blaming Kim for this?
What are you doing with your life? She's a billionaire and if it didn't come through on the podcast, that's a bee. She's a billionaire, so she hasn't made a lot of missteps financially or in the business world. And I completely agree that if first of all, this is not on Kim Kardashian. It's like if someone came to me from Jerry Jones calls and from the Dallas Cowboys, the owner says, hey, Chris, do you want to coach
next year? Yeah? By the way, my answer is yes, I will be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys just because I get fifty yard line tickets and I get to watch every game. Now, am I going to suck? Absolutely? But that's on Jerry Jones and the Cowboys, not on me. But I think about Kim the same way. Yes, they're using it for publicity. Great, Now how she approaches this, If you want to say, she's not putting her heart
and soul in it. She's not showing up for practice, she's not working at this craft, she's not respecting the craft. Later you can come out and say those things and that she wasn't great and it wasn't a good call. But I agree right now to say who are you? What have you done? And this could be going to somebody else. You can always say that, you can always say it could go to someone who's better.
Post That's a good point. You could say that with any acting, any active role, and Kim is historically puts I mean, she is a hard worker. When she did a Saturday Night Live, she took that so seriously. She called people for advice. She was putting in the hours. I mean, she worked her butt off, and she works her butt off whenever she takes something off.
Knowing the Kardashians as little as I do, I know Chris better and I've talked to the others sparingly. They don't do anything half ass, right. They they go for it and they usually succeed. So I can't imagine she won't put her heart and soul in this. And it just reminded me of kind of early days of because there was one there was one quote in particular that really struck a chord with me about, you know, basically saying that there are other there's more important people, there's
other actors that deserve this spot. And it reminded me of early days when The Bachelor launched and I would go to upfronts. Upfronts is this presentation where the network, you know, sells the shows to the advertisers and stuff like that. And I remember back in the day it was Survivor and US and I didn't even think American Idol had started yet. But we were the pond scum
of television. Reality TV was looked down upon. Oh my god, all of these actors, a lot of them, I mean a lot of big names came after us and came out speaking against us of you are taking real jobs away from real actors, people that really respect this craft.
And that happened for quite some time. I mean that lasted for the early two thousands when we came on and what two thousand and one, two thousand and two, probably through like two thousand and seven, I mean a good five six years before people finally saw and gave into this. But early on, I mean a lot of actors and by the way, ironically, actors that probably now host game shows, host reality shows, do their own thing, their own version of reality TV, were the ones talking
about this. But I remember, man, we were just vilified early on, and again it was all because actors, you know, we were taking and I my whole thing was, they've never canceled a great show, a show that's doing phenomenal in the ratings to replace it with the reality show that's never never in the history. So true, it's good.
It's going to stay on and right I wish I could remember the name of this actress's name I follow because Chris and I are both in the Union, the SAG After Union. I followed them on Instagram and they post some really good content with advice for actors for other actors, and I forget who it was, but she said this thing that has always stuck with me because
I think it applies to life now. In actors and people in entertainment, you get a lot of rejection, right Like our business is a lot of because you're constantly auditioning or pitching shows and and you or you get the ratings and for your show every week. It's a lot of up and down reaction, rejection or or you're
doing well. It's roller coaster. And she said that when she was auditioning, you know, she would find herself if she really wanted a part, she'd be jealous of the person who got it, or mad and why didn't she get it? And then she learned this phrase and it stuck with her. Someone told her those are not your blessings, that's that person's blessing, and like your blessing is coming, and that you just have to think about it that way, Like, look, why can't you say great for Kim. I hope she
has fun with that part. I bet she'll kill it stylistically, at the very least. We'll see what she brings to it and move on.
And sometimes, by the way, it's a bullet dodged. Sometimes you think, oh, I want that partner for me. There was a certain show that I thought I had in the bag. It was a game show and the rug was kind of pulled out from under me and I didn't get the job, and I was really kind of crushed by it. I was already doing The Bachelor. This is going to be just on the side, and I thought this was a layup and I didn't get it, and I was so upset. And the show ended up
barely making it one season and it completely tanked. It looked terrible, it wasn't produced great and turned out to be that was the blessing, was not getting it. So it's not on your record, so you never know.
There's another great phrase from a friend of mine. I heard this from my friend Carissa, who used to be on E and I think she heard it from our mutual friend Zuri Hall, who's another correspondent, which is sometimes rejection is God's protection.
So true that is so true. That goes for relationships, it goes for work, It could be applied on so many levels. As we're wrapping things up, I need to throw out a big congratulations. You know, I'm a big soccer fan and this kind of is me slipping sports into this podcast. But don't be angry. So I love the show. Welcome to Wrexham. This is the story of Ryan Reynolds and Rob mclhaney and the fact that they
bought Wrexham Football Club At Welsh Football Club. This is a football club for the last fifteen years that has been mired in mediocrity. They are not even in a league. It's called a non league. It's actually a pub league. These are non money making teams that have fallen through the ranks and barely exist. This sounds so Ryan Reynolds Rob mclhaney famously bought this team in Wrexham and over the last several years, if you've been following Welcome to Wrexham,
and this is a bit of a spoiler. They've been to this documentary. They did the documentary, Yes, yes, and they've been trying to get the whole story. Is buying this small club in this small town and getting it out of this non league, moving it up and the way it works. By the way, I'm just going to give you a quick synopsis of how this world of football works over there. And you can be relegated or promoted if you win the league. If you are a champion,
you move to the next level. That means more money, more fame, more players, et cetera. If you suck and you're in the bottom, you get relegated, you get kicked out of that league and you get demoted to the league below you. That means less money, you lose players, you lose fans, et cetera. So for fifteen years Wrexham's been battling and they have spoiler alert, won the champions. They won the league. The league's not officially over, but they have enough points that they have locked it up.
So Wrexham is moving up to the Football League. So they are lowest level professional, but that means a lot more money for Ryan Reynolds, Rob mclhaney and the club. And so it's just exciting because I've been following this journey. I'm a huge soccer fan and I was a little worried about how they were going to appreciate this because they weren't quite huge football followers when they started this journey, but they are all in now at their heart and soul.
And Paul Rudd actually was at the game the other day when they clinched it and Paul Rudd was videoing this.
This is all over social media and as the final whistle blows and they locked up the championship and they move up into the next league, Rudd is filming both Rob mclhaney and Ryan Reynolds and there's just this moment where their soul leaves their body and they're both they both kind of collapse and the crowd's going crazy and they just collapse to their knees and then they turn into hug each other and they embraced for quite some time. You could just tell it meant so much to them.
And so congratulations Ryan and Rob, and by the way, kudos to them because what doesn't get a lot of press. They also support the women's team, and the women's team has also moved up amazing, So Rob and Ryan, congrats and by the way, kudos to you for supporting not just the men's Rexham team but also the women's club. And congrats to the ladies of Wrexham as well.
You are always such a warrior for women's sports, which I really appreciate it.
I love women's sports. Yes, and I grew up with some incredible female athlete because I was a soccer player. A lot of my friends played. They were amazing soccer players and went on to do great things in college and pro and all that. And so I'm a huge proponent of women's sports and.
Sports and your daughter's soccer teams.
Into coaching my daughters, that was my favorite. I love coaching. Coaching the kids was the best. That's if I miss anything the most of parenting in the young days, it's little league.
What was different about coaching girls teams versus boys teams because you coach your son andrew daughter.
This is the best advice I ever got about coaching, and that is boys need to play good to feel good. And it's very true. As a guy, if you have a good game, I feel good. I am confident. That's where I get my power from. Women need to feel good to play good. And when I was coaching, I saw this firsthand with the little girls I was coaching, and that is if you know, yell at them the
way you do boys, tough love or whatever. If a girl could start crying and it's over, Like, if she doesn't feel good, she doesn't feel empowered going into the game, she's not going to have a good game.
Overall, do you I mean, first of all, I agree, but overall, though, do you feel I actually was wondering this. I mean, you know, I'm not that into the sports, but just on Sunday, we were at your son Josh's lacrosse playoff playoff lacrosse game at TCU and they were champions last year and that was amazing. And by the way, just like theater, sports has a lot of rejection, a lot of losing, a lot of winning. It's a big
roller coaster eyes, so I see the similarities. But they were down and I could see their coach talking to them, and I was wondering what he was saying, and I did want to ask you, do you think, overall, as a coach, regardless of you know, which, whether you're coaching men or women or whatever, is it more effective to be inspirational or to like, do you sometimes have to give that tough love? What just works best?
It's it is the exact same thing as parenting, you have to find what reaches each kid. And when I started parenting and when I started coaching, it was my way or the highway, and I quickly learned. You quickly learn these are all individuals. Everybody is different on your team. Some kids need to be motivated and they need tough love.
Some don't. Boys and girls, it goes both ways. Some need that arm around them and tell them everything's okay, and I believe in you still and you still got this, So some need aspirational inspirational It changes from child to child, for sure. That was the biggest lesson I learned in coaching. In parenting, you can't parent the same.
My mom told me, well, here's what's hard about parenting. First you have to figure out how to parent, and then you have to figure out how to parent each kid.
Right, and you think you got it down, You're like, oh, I got this. You know, Joshua was doing great. When Taylor comes along, I got this. Nope, it is one hundred and eighty degree difference.
But then what do you do when you're standing there coaching a whole group of kids at once, when you're down and you know, and it's halftime and you got to bring everybody up together.
That is. It depends. It really depends on the moment. I've done both. You've been hard on them, I've been inspirational, you know, believe in you. It depends on what has gotten them to that moment. You know, if they're having if they're just kind of.
Like if the team's tougher than them, or if they're kind of scrubs, like if.
They're giving one hundred and ten percent. You see that, and sometimes you're just playing a better team and you're getting your brains kicked in. You got to be there for them. But if everybody went out the night before and it is a little hung over and they showed up late and they're just kind of lolligaging through the game, then maybe you need to get in their face a little bit.
Sounds like you might be referencing college sports at this point. You're like, the ten year olds are hungover, Yeah that was it, and too many brownies last night, I will.
You know, those pre night parties we had in the in Little league. So anyway, so so big news out erects some congratulations to the men's and women's clubs, and I can't wait now to watch the upcoming season where they're finally going to make it. I mean they've been acquiring.
There is one more thing I will say. It's funny people think, oh, they've made it now, and if you don't know the world of professional football over in Europe, this just means, honestly, Rob and Ryan are going to spend more money because then to get once you get to that next level, you're the bottom of the barrel in that next level, right, you're moving up. And so everybody's been doing this for a while. They have better players,
they have better coaching, they have better facilities. So now you get to that next level, if you want to compete there, you got to spend more money and then more money, and so it is kind of a never ending battle.
Okay, well, since you got to give a congratulations, I'm going to give a congratulations, and actually it has to do with money a little bit.
Yeah, a big.
Congrats too, Absolutely champion. There aren't even enough words to describe her incredible legacy and talent. Simone Biles. Simone got married, sham Now I know someone a little bit because I interviewed her when she did her season of Dancing with the Stars, and I mean Wow, you want to talk about a hard work or somebody who puts their.
All in and one of the greatest gymnasts of all times all the time, there's no way to put it intowards. So she just got married. And interestingly she kind of said on this one, well, she didn't totally put her all in in this way. This is a courthouse wedding.
She got married at court with her now husband, apparently because they are going to have a bigger destination wedding in a few weeks, so they had to go legally knock it out in America. But Simone says on Instagram, well, she didn't really have it fully together for her wedding look for the courthouse wedding, she just he's got a one hundred and twenty dollars dress, ordered some shoes on Amazon.
Looked beautiful. But everybody's kind of loving that she is wearing such an affordable dress and these kind of inexpensive shoes for her wedding. Now, she did say she's got some more major fashion looks coming for the big wedding. But I love this, I mean again, congrats on getting officially legally married. Period.
And by the way, she got married to Houston, Texan's NFL football player Jonathan Owens. So sports on sports. When they have kids, they're gonna have some freakish DNA.
This is gonna be amazing.
I mean, stud NFL football player, one of the greatest gymnasts ever. Wow.
Yes, well, I wanted to talk to you about the money part of it.
Uh huh, because we've been planning our wedding.
Yes, And I love that she did this. I've actually I mean, I'm not joking. I've been looking like on Zara at some dresses I have because I just don't think it. I am not here for the spending a ton of money on the wedding dress thing. And I don't judge it. Like, if you want to do it, I guess if you have the money, it's an important day and so do that. But for me, I can't do it. I would rather spend our money on traveling,
on experiences together. Look, you have to put a certain amount of money into a wedding day to have a great experience, which you want to have. You want to have a fun party with your friends, and that costs some money. But I can't get behind. I mean, some people spend tens of thousands of dollars on wedding dresses. Sophia Richie Lionel Richie's daughter, by the way, a lovely man. I interviewed him many times on American Idol and just like a mirindous man. Rich You've seen him in concert.
Y, Yes, I went to a lot of Richie concert in Vegas because I love him.
So his daughter just got married at one of the most incredible expensive I've never been there hotels in France, and she wore at least three Chanel wedding dresses, I think, So I don't know if she paid for those. I don't know if she got those for free. Whatever, do your thing, but for me, Simone might as she has a big destination wedding coming up. She said she's got more going on. But I love that she did this
because it doesn't have to be like ultimately. One thing to remember is if you're too focused, I think, and I've been married before and the first time around I probably was a little too focused on the party and all that. If you're too focused on that, I don't know, you got to remember what the day is really about.
And as we wrap things up, obviously, Simone Biles as you. Mention was on Dancing with the Stars, and we started this show, and we'll end it with a couple of actually a couple of said notes, because as we've been doing this, we just learned, Oh my gosh, one more I know.
I just pulled this up on my phone. Out with Harry past someone you can't even put into words. First of all, ninety six years old, Harry Belafonte, perhaps best known for the song we all know Deo, the Banana Boat song. But he, I mean an incredibly award winning musician, an activist. He organized the We Are the World concert, helped fight for civil rights, to help fight poverty, was a very outspoken, vocal, talented, just undeniable figure. He I
just looked this up. I didn't know he was the first person ever to sell a million albums.
I think it's fair to say he was the Bono before Bono. I'm someone who took his status as a incredible musician and used it for bigger, better things that he wanted to fight for.
He'd set the standard. So Harry Belafonte, rest in peace. My God, what a life.
Yeah, and same to God. Bless Lynn Goodman, the legendary Dancing with the stars, judge who had been with the show for seventeen years who passed away, and again a reminder, we're going to drop a very special Lynn Goodman edition of the Most Dramatic Podcast Ever. Until then, thank you for listening. Always appreciate you, Always appreciate your comments and questions. You can leave them in the comments section below and we'll talk to you next time because we have a
lot more to talk about. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the Most Dramatic Pod Ever and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.