More stories

  • in

    Fans React to Colbert ‘Late Show’ Cancellation With Puzzlement and Anger

    Many questioned the timing of and motivation for the announcement, noting that Mr. Colbert hosted the most-watched show in late night television.The first people to hear that CBS was canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” reacted to the news loudly, and viscerally, with a chorus of “No!” that turned into a sustained round of boos.They were sitting in the audience in the Ed Sullivan Theater in Midtown Manhattan when an emotional Mr. Colbert announced the decision at the conclusion of the taping of his Thursday night show.Among those who were watching was Claire DeSantis, 29, who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. After the show concluded, she said, Mr. Colbert told the audience there would be an alternate taping of the cold open.“I thought it was going to be a fun surprise,” she said.Instead, Mr. Colbert stumbled a few times on the opening line — “Oh hey, everybody!” — before delivering the announcement about the cancellation in a single take. Ms. DeSantis, who does not regularly watch the show and wanted to go for the experience, said she cried, but not everyone in the audience was in tears as they left the theater. She called her mother and roommate to tell them what had happened.“I thought this was a legacy show,” Ms. DeSantis said. “I was just really surprised that it’s just going away completely.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    ‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ Is Being Canceled by CBS

    The show will end in May, the network said, calling it “a purely financial decision.”In a decision that shocked the entertainment industry and comedy world, CBS said on Thursday that it was canceling the most-watched show in late night, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” and ending a franchise that has existed for more than three decades.Mr. Colbert’s run — and “The Late Show” itself — will end in May after his contract expires.CBS executives said in a statement that the cancellation was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”“It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,” said the executives, who included George Cheeks, the president of CBS and a co-chief executive of Paramount, CBS’s parent. “Our admiration, affection and respect for the talents of Stephen Colbert and his incredible team made this agonizing decision even more difficult.”Paramount is in the midst of closing a multibillion-dollar merger with the movie studio Skydance, a deal that requires approval from the Trump administration. Paramount recently agreed to pay President Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over an interview on “60 Minutes,” a move Mr. Colbert criticized on his show as “a big fat bribe.” The merger still requires the approval of the Federal Communications Commission.Mr. Colbert said during the taping of “The Late Show” on Thursday that he was informed of the decision on Wednesday night. When his studio audience unleashed a chorus of boos upon hearing the news, Mr. Colbert said, “Yeah, I share your feelings.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    ‘And Just Like That …’ Season 3, Episode 8 Recap: Bringing Sexy Back

    And just like that, a “Sex and the City” revival seemed to remember the first word in the franchise title.Season 3, Episode 8: ‘Happily Ever After’If anyone else had been wondering where the sex has been in this “Sex and the City” spinoff, it showed up in Episode 8.First, we have Carrie and Aidan, who were able to have sex this week because Aidan was actually able to come to New York. As he tells Carrie, once Wyatt returned from Outward Bound (which was confusing because didn’t Wyatt refuse to get on the plane?), he decided he wanted to live with only Kathy.While this is obviously sad for Papa Aidan, it’s clearly not that sad because it means he can visit with Carrie almost indefinitely. He shows up on her doorstep with tons of baggage (pun absolutely intended) in the hopes that she will clear her calendar for the day, or week, or lifetime.The two make love and then nap — a true dream — but Carrie wakes up just in time to make her meeting with her neighbor Duncan, with whom she’s swapping pages and notes. It’s strictly a working relationship, she fibs to Aidan, conveniently leaving out the Scotch-sipping and smiles they shared last week.But Aidan isn’t buying it. He is curious about Duncan, at the very least. Invite him to dinner with us! Aidan suggests, but Carrie knows better. Sharing a meal with your “boyfriend” and your “flirking” buddy kind of kills the magic on all sides.Some might cringe at the term “flirking” — a portmanteau of “work flirting” — but not me. If it becomes the Magnolia Bakery cupcakes of this franchise and trends all over the place, I’m OK with it. I think all of us have been unconsciously searching for a word to describe the way we behave with our work crushes, and we finally have it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    John Conklin, Designer of Fantastical Opera Sets, Dies at 88

    Realizing a childhood dream, he created scenery that was highly conceptual yet playful for the Glimmerglass Festival, New York City Opera and other companies.John Conklin, a celebrated designer of scenery for opera and theater, who tapped a boundless knowledge of music and art history, as well as an instinct for disruption, to create memorable sets for New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera and, most notably, the Glimmerglass Festival in upstate New York, died on June 24 in Cooperstown, N.Y. He was 88.His death was confirmed in a statement by Glimmerglass, the nonprofit summer opera company in Cooperstown.Mr. Conklin was the scenic designer for all four shows of this year’s summer season at the Glimmerglass Festival, including “Tosca,” above.Kayleen Bertrand/the Glimmerglass FestivalMr. Conklin designed the scenery — and, in some cases, the costumes — for more than 40 Glimmerglass productions, starting in 1991. He remained active with the company even after his retirement in 2008, and he served as the scenic designer for all four shows of this summer’s season: “Tosca,” “Sunday in the Park With George,” “The House on Mango Street” and “The Rake’s Progress.”Mr. Conklin also designed the 2025 Glimmerglass production of “Sunday in the Park With George.”Brent DeLanoy/the Glimmerglass FestivalThe term “prodigy” rarely applies to set designers, but Mr. Conklin’s instincts were on full display in his youth. Growing up in Hartford, Conn., he attended symphonies and operas with his family, and by 10, he was building his own models, based on photographs he found perusing the magazine Opera News.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    ‘The Porter’ Is a Rich Period Drama About Labor and Dignity

    The series is substantive, well crafted and a little melancholy, centered on a group of Black train porters in Canada in the 1920s.“The Porter” is a Canadian drama from 2022 that originally aired on the CBC in Canada and on BET+ in the United States, and it’s now available on the Roku Channel, too. The show is set in the 1920s and centers on a group of Black train porters who are trying to improve their lives, some through labor organizing and others through bootlegging.Beyond its porters, the show also follows people at a night club, a brothel, the beginnings of a medical clinic; it covers Canadian politics, American politics and railroad politics. Sure, the characters are all miraculously connected through the enchanting magic of narrative television, but the idea that one’s plight is tied to another’s is also one of the main ideas of the show. Solidarity matters — and the people who tell you that you’re one of the good ones and to slam the door behind you are the people who benefit from your exploitation, not your success. Don’t trust someone else to define dignity.It’s a show about a train, so there’s a sense of real momentum and destiny. Things are moving, and the characters are motivated, so the story feels exciting even when it’s tragic. The camera here is shaky and searching, sometimes tilting with the rocking of the train cars but also, like the characters, always scanning the scene for someone to trust, always a little unsettled.So many streaming shows feel like the TV equivalent of gray laminate Zillowcore, resigned to a lack of specialness and taste in favor of volume and repetition. Part of what’s so pleasurable about “The Porter” is how full its moments are, how crafted. There’s a melody to the clacking of its typewriters and a viciousness to the half-eaten sandwiches on its plates.“Every task is a chance to show your excellence,” says Zeke (Ronnie Rowe), our labor hero, explaining the virtue of the perfect place setting. (I’ve thought about this line every single time I’ve folded a napkin in the past three years.)There’s only one season of “The Porter,” which is a shame, but luckily it is an excellent rewatch. I like it even more now than I did when it debuted. More

  • in

    All Aboard a Steam Train to See ‘The Railway Children’

    The steam train departed the station with a gentle chug, belching clouds of steam that streamed past the carriage windows. Gathering speed, the locomotive transported its passengers through a damp green valley, past gray stone buildings, rain-dripping oak trees, banks of ferns and hillsides dotted with sheep.For many visitors to the Keighley and Worth Valley heritage railway, the picturesque five-mile route through northern England from the town Keighley to Oxenhope village is the main attraction. But for the passengers on Tuesday, it was just the beginning.A theater adaptation of Edith Nesbit’s classic children’s book, “The Railway Children,” awaited them when they stepped down from the train in Oxenhope. To take their seats, passengers headed into a large engine room shed next to the platform, where they sat on either side of a railway track. The scenes played out on a movable set that shunted up and down the tracks. And at certain key moments in the play, a second real steam train rolled in as part of the action.It was a fitting setting for a play set entirely around a small village station in the steam age. “The Railway Children” follows three children — Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis — who must leave their comfortable London home for a simple cottage in the countryside after their father is imprisoned on suspicion of being spy. The children are cheerfully resilient in the face of sudden poverty and are soon welcomed into the rural community.The audience for “The Railway Children” boards a steam train in Keighley, a town in northern England.Ellie Smith for The New York TimesKeighley is a stop on a railway line that opened in 1867 and closed in 1962. Locals and locomotive enthusiasts later revived the route as a heritage line.Ellie Smith for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Cannonball with Wesley Morris: Has Dining Gotten Too Fine on ‘The Bear’?

    Wesley Morris talks with Samin Nosrat, a chef and food writer, about her love-hate relationship with “The Bear,” a show that’s always racing against the clock. She says the best moments, in the show and in our own kitchens, happen when things slow down.You can listen to the show on your favorite podcast app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and iHeartRadio, and you can watch it on YouTube:CreditsCannonball is hosted by More

  • in

    ‘Untamed’ Review: A National Park Procedural From Netflix

    Onscreen, at least, there are enough rangers to keep Yosemite running and to investigate a mysterious death at El Capitan.In the category of “Shows That Play Differently Under the Current Administration,” this week brings “Untamed,” a new Netflix mystery mini-series set in Yosemite National Park.On one hand, you can’t help wondering whether all those rangers would have time to investigate a mysterious death on the face of El Capitan when the National Park Service has lost nearly 25 percent of its permanent staff since President Trump took office again. Aren’t there restrooms that need cleaning?On the other, hiring rangers who look like Eric Bana and Lily Santiago — who play the primary investigators of that mysterious death — might be explained as part of the recent “Make America Beautiful Again” executive order.Bana, 20 years along from his action-star heyday (when he appeared successively in “Hulk,” “Troy” and “Munich”), plays Kyle Turner, who is not just any ranger. He’s an agent of the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch, so he’s sort of a federal cousin to the naval investigators at “NCIS.” Maybe CBS would have gone ahead and called the show “NPSISB,” but Netflix, cautious by nature, has gone with “Untamed.”The title refers both to the landscape — mountainous British Columbia locations stand in for California — and to Turner, a laconic loner with a tragic back story and an entire Douglas fir’s worth of chips on his shoulder. Even his horse thinks he’s too intense.With Bana playing a modern lawman hemmed in by bureaucracy and fueled by guilt and resentment, “Untamed” sits between neo-frontier soap opera (like “Yellowstone”) and neo-western crime drama (like “Dark Winds” or the late, lamented “Longmire”). Mark L. Smith, who created the show with his daughter Elle Smith, has experience in this region of the American imagination, having played up the brutal aspects of the western mythos as a co-writer of “The Revenant” and creator of an earlier Netflix mini-series, “American Primeval.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More