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      Stephen Colbert Laughs Off Trump’s Shilling for Dr. Oz

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      “Come on, he’s a con man. And so is Dr. Oz,” Colbert joked of the former president.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Con Men ClubOver the weekend, former President Donald Trump endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race.“Come on, he’s a con man. And so is Dr. Oz,” Stephen Colbert joked.“Now, I’d like to list all the scams Dr. Oz has tried to foist on his audience, but we only have an hour show.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Among the many snake oil supplements he has peddled are raspberry ketones for fat burning, lavender soap for leg cramps and strawberries for teeth whitening. None of these work, of course, but hey, there is one simple trick to make you healthier: Take two household bananas, then jam one in each ear until you can’t hear Dr. Oz anymore. You’ll be fine, or you’ll be better!” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Aw, grandpa thinks his TV friends are his real friends. [imitating Trump] ‘You know who should be attorney general? That nice lady from “Murder, She Wrote.” She solved all of the murders in Cabot Cove. Also, when are they going to make Pat Sajak secretary of transportation? He knows wheels!’” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (Pumpkin Crown Father Edition)“CNN got their hands on text messages between Don Jr. and Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on Nov. 5, 2020. D.J.T.J. sent Meadows a number of ideas of how to ‘win’ the election they lost. He said, ‘We have multiple paths. We control them all.’ Junior would have texted his dad directly, but apparently Trump didn’t add him to the family plan.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Listen, if you’re gonna text your plans to overthrow an election, at least disguise it with emojis: ‘I got an idea: ballot box, trash can, American flag, poop emoji, pumpkin, crown, father.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Junior was so confident in the plan that he was concerned that not everyone was looped in, texting, ‘This is what we need to do. Please read it and please get it to everyone that needs to see it.’ Oh, I’m pretty sure the F.B.I. has seen it.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingBen Stiller, the director of “Severance,” sat down with Trevor Noah on Monday’s “Daily Show.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightGillian Anderson will talk about playing Eleanor Roosevelt in “The First Lady” on Tuesday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This Out“Ava is controlled chaos,” Janelle James said of her character on “Abbott Elementary,” a mockumentary-style sitcom on ABC praised for both its humor and its poignancy.Kendall Bessent for The New York TimesJanelle James, the breakout star of “Abbott Elementary,” loves playing a hilariously terrible elementary school principal. More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘The First Lady’ and ‘Abbott Elementary’

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      Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson star in a new series about first ladies in the White House. And “Abbott Elementary” airs its season finale.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, April 11-17. Details and times are subject to change.Monday2022 CMT MUSIC AWARDS 8 p.m. on CBS. The country-pop singer Kelsea Ballerini and the actor Anthony Mackie will host this year’s CMT Music Awards ceremony, which will be broadcast live from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Tennessee, about a 10-minute walk from the honky-tonk bars of Broadway. The singer Kane Brown has the most nominations of the night, with four. Ballerini, Mickey Guyton, Breland and Cody Johnson are also among the most-nominated acts. The lineup of performers includes Brown, Guyton with Black Pumas, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Maren Morris with Ryan Hurd, and Jason Aldean with Bryan Adams.INDEPENDENT LENS: JIM ALLISON: BREAKTHROUGH (2019) 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). When James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo were awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in medicine, a statement from the Nobel committee said it all: The two researchers’ breakthrough work, which used the body’s immune system to attack cancer, amounted to “an entirely new principle for cancer therapy.” This documentary from Bill Haney (“The Price of Sugar”) is a profile of Allison, looking at the life that led him toward his groundbreaking research — in part, the loss of family members to cancer — and the challenges he faced moving his unconventional ideas forward. In his review for The New York Times, Ben Kenigsberg wrote that the documentary itself lacks the kind of innovative touch that it celebrates in its subject, but still “does a solid job of explaining the barriers — justified skepticism, professional groupthink, the high cost of long-term research — that Allison faced in proving that a new kind of treatment could work.”TuesdayQuinta Brunson in “Abbott Elementary.”Temma Hankin/ABCABBOTT ELEMENTARY 9 p.m. on ABC. The first season of Quinta Brunson’s sitcom ends on Tuesday night with an episode about a school field trip to a zoo. The show stars Brunson as a teacher in a Philadelphia public elementary school whose staff members are as passionate as they are wacky — and it has been a very big hit this season. In a recent article, The Times’s chief television critic, James Poniewozik, called it the best sitcom of the season. It’s “not a year’s supply of pencils,” he wrote. “But it is something else significant: Sustained attention for a profession that, however much lip service we pay it, usually gets lost among TV’s stable of doctors, lawyers and police.”WednesdayChristopher Rivera and Brooklynn Prince in “The Florida Project.”A24THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017) 5:20 p.m. on Showtime Showcase. After offering an idiosyncratic, shot-on-an-iPhone slice of Los Angeles in “Tangerine” (2015), the writer-director Sean Baker crossed the country to tell a story about a trio of children who live near Disney World in a ramshackle, sherbet-colored motel called the Magic Castle. This is the setting of “The Florida Project,” a drama centered on a 6-year-old girl, Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), who has summertime adventures even as she and the adults around her grapple with the stresses and desperation of poverty. The result is a movie that “is honest about the limits of benevolence, and about the wishful thinking that can cloud our understanding of the world,” A.O. Scott said in his review for The Times. “Its final scenes,” he wrote, “are devastating, and also marvelously ambiguous, full of wonder, fury and cleareyed self-criticism.”ThursdayTHE TIME MACHINE (1960) 8 p.m. on TCM. H.G. Wells’s formative 1895 novella “The Time Machine” was one of the first books to imagine a device that would allow people to hop through time. This 1960 film adaptation starts its story in the same Victorian time period that the original book came out. Watching its protagonist (played by Rod Taylor) feels especially surreal when the viewer is in 2022.FridayA scene from “Chamber Music Society Returns.”Chamber Music Society of Lincoln CenterCHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY RETURNS 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). This two-part documentary looks at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s efforts to come back fully from a pandemic hiatus. It covers the challenges of bringing live performances back to Alice Tully Hall and the planning of a multicity tour that must allow for the uncertainty of the era. Part 1, which debuted last week, is now available to stream on PBS.org and the PBS app; Part 2 will air on Friday night.SaturdayFANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM (2016) and FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD (2018) 7:55 p.m. and 10:53 p.m. on USA Network. The third movie in the “Harry Potter” spinoff series “Fantastic Beasts” — subtitled “The Secrets of Dumbledore” — hits U.S. theaters this week. These first two entries weren’t particularly well received, but for families who want to brush up on the lore, this double feature offers a refresher. And for those seeing the new movie, it offers an interesting opportunity to judge two takes on one character: The titular evil wizard in “Crimes of Grindelwald” was played by Johnny Depp, who has been replaced by Mads Mikkelsen in the new movie.SundayTHE FIRST LADY 9 p.m. on Showtime. In truth, the singular “lady” in the title of this new drama series is a little misleading: There are three of them. The show layers the stories of a trio of first ladies of the United States — Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt — comparing and contrasting their experiences navigating the White House during different eras of American political life, but contending with many common expectations. It has three heavy-hitting performers in Viola Davis (as Obama), Michelle Pfeiffer (Ford) and Gillian Anderson (Roosevelt). More

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      Rae Allen, Tony Winner and TV Mainstay, Dies at 95

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      In a varied career, she had memorable roles in “Damn Yankees” and on “Seinfeld” and was nominated for three Tonys. She later became a director.Rae Allen, a Tony Award-winning actress who was seen in both the stage and film versions of the hit musical comedy “Damn Yankees,” and whose many television roles included a world-weary unemployment counselor to the jobless George Costanza on “Seinfeld” and Tony Soprano’s aunt on “The Sopranos,” died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 95.Her death, at the Motion Picture & Television Fund retirement home, was confirmed by her niece Betty Cosgrove.Ms. Allen made her Broadway debut in 1948 and her big splash seven years later, when she was cast as the sports reporter Gloria Thorpe in “Damn Yankees, the story of a middle-aged Washington Senators fan who makes a Faustian bargain to become a slugger named Joe Hardy and help his team keep the hated Yankees from winning the pennant. She led a group of nimbly dancing Senators in celebration of Hardy’s beneficial impact on the team with the showstopping song “Shoeless Joe From Hannibal, Mo.” (“Who came along in a puff of smoke? Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.”)Ms. Allen earned her first Tony Award nomination for that performance, which she reprised in the 1958 movie version, her first film. She received her second Tony nomination in 1965 for Jean Anouilh’s play “Traveller Without Luggage,” and won the Tony six years later, as best featured actress, for Paul Zindel’s “And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little,” in which she played a neighbor in a story about the relationship between three neurotic sisters.“The awful neighbors are also given precisely the right clumsy boorishness by Rae Allen and Bill Macy,” Clive Barnes wrote in his review in The New York Times. He called their scenes “among the most entertaining of the evening.”Her comedic skills were also on display in a memorable two-part episode of “Seinfeld.” She played Lenore Sokol, a deadpan counselor skeptical about George Costanza’s attempts to get an extension on his unemployment benefits, including his claim to have interviewed for a job as a latex salesman for a phony company, Vandelay Industries. She softens when he sees a photograph of her plain-looking daughter on her desk.Ms. Allen and Roberts Blossom in the 1961 Off Broadway production of Edward Albee’s “The Death of Bessie Smith.” Leo Friedman“This is your daughter? George says. “My God! My God! I hope you don’t mind my saying. She is breathtaking.”She asks if he wants her phone number, but after they briefly date, her daughter dumps him because he has no prospects.Ms. Allen later had roles in “A League of Their Own” (1992), as the mother of the baseball players portrayed by Geena Davis and Lori Petty,” and the science-fiction film “Stargate” (1994), as a researcher. She was also seen on TV series including “Brooklyn Bridge” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”In four episodes of “The Sopranos” in 2004, she played Quintina Blundetto, the aunt of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and the mother of the mobster Tony Blundetto, played by Steve Buscemi.Steven Schirripa, who played Bobby Baccalieri on “The Sopranos,” wrote in an email that Ms. Allen was “acting royalty” who was “respected by everyone in the cast.”Rae Julia Abruzzo was born on July 3, 1926, in Brooklyn. Her mother, Julia (Riccio) Abruzzo, was a seamstress and hairdresser. Her father, Joseph, was a chauffeur and an opera singer whose brothers performed in vaudeville. At 15, Rae played Buttercup in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore” in Greenwich Village.After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1947, Ms. Allen started her Broadway career as a singer in the musical “Where’s Charley?” She followed that with a role in another musical, “Alive and Kicking.” Her next three shows, also musicals, were “Call Me Madam,” “The Pajama Game” and “Damn Yankees,” all directed by the Broadway luminary George Abbott, who became a mentor and father figure.In the 1960s, Ms. Allen was in the Broadway productions of “Oliver!,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.”From left, June Lockhart, Betty Garrett and Ms. Allen in a 2006 episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.”Ron Tom / © ABC /Everett CollectionBy then, her television and film career had begun to take off; in the 1970s, she also started directing. In 1975 she was named director of the Stage West Theater Company in Springfield, Mass., and in 1991 she directed a revival of “And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little” at the Zephyr Theater in Los Angeles.She twice directed productions of “Cyrano de Bergerac” — the first in 1978 at the Long Beach Center Theater, in Long Beach, Calif., starring Stacy Keach, and the second in 2010 at the Ruskin Group Theater in Santa Monica, starring John Colella.Reviewing Ms. Allen’s staging of Ibsen’s “When We Dead Awaken” at Stage West in 1977, Mr. Barnes wrote that it had “speed, conviction and perception.”She also ran acting workshops and was a personal coach. In her 40s, she received bachelor’s and master’s of fine arts degrees in directing from New York University.Ms. Allen’s marriages to John Allen and Herbert Harris ended in divorce. No immediate family members survive. More

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls the Police on Jimmy Kimmel

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      Kimmel said of Greene’s angry tweets about a joke he made earlier this week: “She’s a snowflake and a sociopath at the same time — a ‘snowciopath.’”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Marjorie Is the New KarenJimmy Kimmel struck a nerve with Marjorie Taylor Greene this week, prompting some tweets from the congresswoman in which she said she’d filed a threat report with the Capitol Police..@ABC, this threat of violence against me by @jimmykimmel has been filed with the @CapitolPolice. pic.twitter.com/nxYX1LF2jK— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) April 6, 2022
      Kimmel was chuffed, saying, “This is what she does instead of working — she tweets.”“On our show Tuesday night, M.T.G. — ‘Klan Mom’ as we call her — earlier in the day called three of her fellow Republicans ‘pro-pedophile’ for supporting Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court — which is lovely. A lovely thing to say. So I made a joke. I said, ‘Where is Will Smith when you need him?’ And the audience laughed. And then she saw it, and she decided she was going to get some political mileage out of this.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“She called the police. Not only did she call the police, she called the same police she voted against giving a congressional gold medal to for defending our Capitol against the insurrection she helped incite on Jan. 6. That’s who she called — the people she wanted to defund.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It’s amazing how quickly you can go from ‘These liberals! You can’t say anything anymore’ to ‘What did you say? I’m calling the cops!’ Must be that cancel culture they’re always talking about.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“So I, after processing the fact that someone called the police on me — believe it or not, that has never happened to me in my life — I tweeted back, ‘Officer? I’d like to report a joke.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“This woman, remember, she is the one who endorsed fringe conspiracy theories and repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians. Now she’s dialing 911 because she got made fun of. She’s a snowflake and a sociopath at the same time — a ‘snowciopath.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“And nobody does anything. I feel like maybe other Republicans like having her around to make the rest of them seem normal.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Justice Jackson Edition)“‘Ladies and gentleman, the newest member of the United States Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’ — is what I will be saying in a few months, when she’s actually sworn in. It’s a long process.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson today became the first Black woman to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, in case you’re wondering why the flag over the Fox News building is at half-staff.” — SETH MEYERS“Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. She got ‘yes’ votes from all Senate Democrats and three pro-pedophile Republicans.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“That’s right, she’s going to be Justice Jackson. When Disney heard that name, they immediately added her to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yep, Jackson will now debate the most important issues facing our country, like freedom of speech, states’ rights, and ‘Is it cake?’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingThe rapper Pusha T talked about his writing process and collaborating with Jay-Z for his new album on Thursday night’s “Desus & Mero.”Also, Check This OutQuinta Brunson, center, created and stars in “Abbott Elementary,” a surprise hit in its first season.Liliane Lathan/ABC“Abbott Elementary,” a sitcom about the dynamics of public school in 2022, is this season’s best new network comedy, James Poniewozik writes. More

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      Sarah Jessica Parker Tests Positive for Coronavirus

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      Sarah Jessica Parker, who is currently starring on Broadway in a revival of the Neil Simon comedy “Plaza Suite,” tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, according to a spokesman for the production.Parker’s co-star, Matthew Broderick, who is also her husband, had tested positive earlier this week, and has been out of the show since Tuesday. The show had continued with his understudy, Michael McGrath, but will be canceled Thursday night, and it was not clear when it will resume.“Plaza Suite” is now one of four Broadway shows currently shuttered by the resurgent coronavirus in New York City, an increase in cases powered by the Omicron subvariant known as BA.2.A revival of “Macbeth” canceled more than a week of performances after its star, Daniel Craig, and other members of the company tested positive, and a new musical called “A Strange Loop,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2020, postponed the start of its preview performances, also citing positive tests. Both shows are hoping to be back onstage on Monday.And “Paradise Square,” a new musical that opened last weekend, canceled its Thursday night performance, citing “Covid cases in the company.”Off Broadway, a much-anticipated musical, “Suffs” at the Public Theater, has also canceled its performances this week, including its scheduled opening night, because of virus cases. More

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      ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Recap: This Is a Musical Now

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      An uneven episode leaves more questions than answers about the direction of the season.Season 2, Episode 6: ‘Two for One’Let’s begin with the most important “Picard” news of the week: The show is bringing on most of the original “Next Generation” cast next season. This is incredible, exciting news! It’s always fun to look forward to more content involving your favorite show.That is, until you consider that most of the post-“Next Generation” outings for the crew haven’t been well received by audiences. Of the four movies involving the cast, only “First Contact” was considered a hit. But it’s still exciting. We haven’t received a real update on what these characters have been up to since “Nemesis,” and I wonder if the reunion fun next season will include rekindling the romance between Picard and Dr. Crusher.Let’s table that and any further speculation for now, however, because we need to talk about something far less exciting: the current season, which seems to be going off the rails. This episode was the shortest of Season 2 so far, running slightly more than a half-hour. It’s also the rare “Trek” episode that takes place almost entirely in one room and in real time.I’ll give “Picard” this much: They’re willing to break conventions. But some of the choices seem shortsighted, and this week a choice the writers made last season came back to bite them.The biggest subplot of the episode involves the Borg Queen implanting her consciousness (or something) into Jurati. It is unclear why the Queen is so fascinated with Jurati. She seems bent on making Jurati into a confident person; to bring her out of her shell. It’s a noble aim, but the Borg Queen caring so much about an individual seems out of character for what we know about the Borg. Even the Queen’s fascination with Data in “First Contact” can be explained by Data locking out the main computer and the Borg needing access to those codes.Regardless, Jurati keeps putting herself in positions where she needs the Queen to do super-techie things in order to save the crew. This allows the Queen to push Jurati to live her best life, including making her passionately kiss Rios in public. (Side note: It feels like the show is headed toward Rios wanting to stay in the 21st century to be with the doctor who treated him when they arrived to this century.)There’s also the continuing presence of the Watcher, who tells Jean-Luc that she has never spoken to Renée or interacted with her thanks to some kind of Watchers “code.” This once again raises the question of what the Watcher actually does, or why the audience is supposed to care about her presence. (The Watcher says this is the best way to keep Renée safe. Don’t ask why. Just go with it.) If anything, the Watcher’s spying on Renée — reading her text messages, viewing her therapy sessions — makes her a highly unsympathetic character.Renée doesn’t seem ready for this mission, but Picard and his crew are intent on her going through with it, based on what they assume will save their original timeline. (The later conversation between Renée and Picard comes off as tone deaf and manipulative rather than as a pep talk to get Renée on the flight.)Adam Soong upbraids Picard and has him thrown out of the event. Soong is a wealthy benefactor for the Europa mission, and has enough juice that he can simply whisper to someone and have Picard removed. Later in the episode, Soong’s daughter discovers a bunch of headlines calling her father a “mad scientist” who is known for illegal genetic experimentation. So why does Soong have this much sway at an event like this? Why would money from such a toxic figure be accepted by the institution behind the launch? (It’s unclear whether this is a private expedition or something N.A.S.A. is funding.)Even so, Picard needs to be saved from Soong.This leads to one of the more baffling moments in the history of “Star Trek,” which is saying a lot. The Queen causes the lights to go out and Jurati begins to sing. No, really: sing. She belts out “Shadows of the Night” by Pat Benatar and the band joins in, as if this was all just part of the set list. (Alison Pill has an amazing voice!) The proper reaction from those around Jurati would be to have her escorted out for causing a disturbance. Instead, the band is like, “OK, I guess we have a singer now. Thank goodness we know the Pat Benatar song in this exact key just in case something like this happened!”Jurati takes a bow with the Borg Queen and is talking to herself the whole time. None of this seems strange to anyone in the audience!Not content with throwing him out of the event, Soong decides to run Picard over with his car. Here’s where some of the uneven writing undermines the plot: The show tries to build tension by implying that Picard’s life is in danger, but we know from last season that it is not. Picard is literally not human anymore. He died last season and was brought back to life as a synthetic being. Why is he even bleeding? When the doctor examines Picard later, she should be wondering why this human she is examining looks like a machine on the inside! (One other question: How did the crew get Picard to the doctor’s office?)The explanation seems to be that the Watcher will use something called a neuro-optic interceptor to go inside Picard’s mind and rescue him from the coma. (Here’s another idea: You could just repair Picard later. Because he’s a machine.)The episode ends with Jurati strolling away from the event, apparently now fully possessed by the Borg Queen. Maybe she was on her way to do karaoke. More

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      Jimmy Kimmel Trips Out Over Mushrooms Talking to Each Other

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      “Anyone speak shiitake?” Kimmel joked of new research suggesting that fungi communicate.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Sounds Like a ‘Fungi’A researcher in England recently discovered that mushrooms and other fungi communicate similarly to humans.“When they prodded them with electrodes, they exhibited spikes of cognitive activity that resembled vocabularies of around 50 words — like an Eric Trump-level vocabulary,” Jimmy Kimmel joked on Wednesday.“Anyone speak shiitake?” — JIMMY KIMMEL“They were able to determine that mushrooms say, ‘Hello,’ “Goodbye’ and ‘For the love of God, please stop eating us to get high.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Ironically, you know who would find this story most interesting is people on mushrooms, right? Isn’t that crazy? A mushroom might actually be a ‘fungi.’” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Who’s Got Spirit? Edition)“Spirit Airlines may have a new owner soon. Back in February, Spirit announced plans to merge with Frontier Airlines, but yesterday, JetBlue swooped in with a better offer. JetBlue wants to buy Spirit for $3.6 billion, plus $55 extra for carry-on luggage.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Don’t worry, it’ll still be the same Spirit Airlines, except now every seat will have a TV that doesn’t work and a bag of blue chips.” — JIMMY FALLON“The JetBlue C.E.O. said, ‘Customers shouldn’t have to choose between a low fare and a great experience, and JetBlue has shown it’s possible to have both.’ And Spirit Airlines has shown that it’s not.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Spirit, in real estate terms, is what you’d call a ‘fixer-upper.’ This would be a clash in cultures for sure. Spirit is a budget airline, no frills. Ever fly Spirit? And then JetBlue offers things like free Wi-Fi, snacks, drinks — they have a real bathroom instead of a bucket that everyone passes around.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“If there’s no Spirit anymore, who are we going to make fun of? Look out, Allegiant, you’re on deck.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth Watching“Carpool Karaoke” returned from a two-year hiatus with Nicki Minaj joining James Corden on Wednesday’s “Late Late Show.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightPete Holmes, star of the new CBS show “How We Roll,” will pop by Thursday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutChantal Anderson for The New York TimesThe actress Anya Taylor-Joy shared the beauty and wellness rituals she enjoys for comfort and self-soothing. More

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      Lizzo’s ‘Big Grrrls’ Asks Big Questions

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      The singer wanted a new kind of backup dancer. Along the way, she ended up making a new kind of TV show.Lizzo would have rather just hired her dancers through an agency. But, as she says on the first episode of her new show that premiered on Amazon Prime Video last month, “Girls who look like me just don’t get representation.”She’s talking about “representation” in the professional sense. But broader questions of representation loom on “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls.” The eight-episode show follows a group of aspiring plus-size dancers who recently competed for a chance to back up Lizzo onstage and possibly join her tour as one of her “Big Grrrl” dancers.Lizzo tells the dancers that if they don’t rise to the occasion she’ll send them home — or she might not. A few episodes in, she tells them that they might all get to stay.“The No. 1 thing is I didn’t want to eliminate every week,” Lizzo said in a Zoom interview.“I’m looking for dancers, not dancer,” she said, emphasizing the plural. If she eliminated a woman every week, she said, she wouldn’t have anyone by the end.Ashley Williams.Michelle Groskopf for The New York TimesArianna Davis.Michelle Groskopf for The New York TimesA reality TV competition that doesn’t cut contestants may seem like a paradox. But Lizzo’s career has always featured surprising and somewhat contradictory combinations. She regularly appears nude and bristles at being called “brave” for it. She insists on the inherent value of fat bodies and has started a shapewear line. She twerks and she plays the flute.Inside Lizzo’s WorldThe Grammy-winning singer is known for her fierce lyrics, fashion and personality.‘Feel-Good Music’: Lizzo says her music is as much about building yourself up as it is about accepting where you are.Why ‘Truth Hurts’ Matters: In 2020, The New York Times Magazine put her No. 1 hit on its list of songs that define the moment.Diary of a Song: Watch how Lizzo made “Juice,” a party song that packs all of her joy and charm into three danceable minutes.Her Beauty Rituals: Lizzo talked to us about her skin rehab, impossible standards and what she does first thing in the morning.“I don’t have to fit into the archetypes that have been created before like Tyra Banks or Puff Daddy,” Lizzo said. “They all did it their own way, and that’s what I’m doing.” Lizzo’s persona as a TV host is part demanding queen, part nurturing mentor. Several times throughout the show, she delivers imperious one-liners to the camera, holds for a few seconds and then bursts into laughter.Lizzo’s warmer and more supportive moments are tempered by her choreographer Tanisha Scott, who brings tough love and an exacting rigor to her rehearsals.Lizzo, left, and the choreographer Tanisha Scott in a scene from the series.James Clark/Amazon Prime Video“I’m able to speak to them from my own personal experience, to not give up and not also feel sorry for yourself in any sort of way,” Ms. Scott said in a Zoom interview. Ms. Scott started her career as an untrained dancer with a larger-than-average body and has emerged as a rare success in her industry. She said she had to work 10 times harder than other dancers to get where she is.“So I wasn’t going to be sweet and easy and ‘this is a bunch of roses’ and ‘we all got this,’” she said. “No. You have to work for it.”Ms. Scott credits Lizzo with opening the door for the greater commercial viability of larger dancers. “She’s making this not a trend or a novelty, she’s making this a business,” she said.One of the unique elements of Lizzo’s show is how seriously it takes both the talents and struggles of its aspiring “Big Grrrls.” Every episode features athletic feats performed by larger-than-average bodies, including particularly jaw-dropping acrobatics by Jayla Sullivan, one of the contestants. But the show doesn’t shy away from the dancers’ injuries, insecurities and occasional food issues.Tonally, the show lives somewhere between body positivity — a concept that has fully penetrated certain corners of marketing — and body neutrality, a newer idea that encourages people to accept and respect their bodies. The entertainment and dance industries are also in a moment of transition in their attitudes toward larger bodies.“There’s a movement of plus-sized women coming to the forefront as leading roles, as stars,” said Nneka Onuorah, who directed the show and appears in an episode. “This show is just the tip of the iceberg on that.”Lizzo said she has seen the change “on a commercial level, where bigger girls are being welcomed in casting rooms.” “I’ll even hear things about, ‘Oh, we need a Lizzo type,’ which is really inspiring,” she said.Still, Lizzo said that there are still vastly fewer casting opportunities for large dancers. “I’ve seen big girls being cast in music videos almost as a joke, not as being taken seriously,” she said. “So I think it hasn’t infiltrated the actual dance industry.”Jessica Judd, who runs an organization in the Bay Area called Big Moves that focuses on making dance accessible to people of all sizes, agrees. Her group worked closely with choreographers in the mainstream dance world for years until they grew disillusioned by a pattern of fat-phobic comments and empty words around body diversity.“They absolutely know what to say — they absolutely know they probably shouldn’t say out loud that they only want a size 4 or below,” Ms. Judd said, “but then you look at who gets cast.”Jayla Sullivan, left, with fellow dancer Kiara Mooring.Michelle Groskopf for The New York TimesJasmine Loren Morrison.Michelle Groskopf for The New York TimesShe recalled comments people made about plus-size dancers being “brave” for getting onstage (“that’s not the compliment you think it is,” she said) and the sense that mainstream producers or choreographers were working with them to check a diversity box, then going back to their uniform casts.“I do not want to be a perpetual prop for the mainstream dance world trying to work out their issues around fatness and bodies,” Ms. Judd said.To Ms. Judd, Lizzo’s show is a major victory for representation, but does not necessarily portend anything for the broader dance world, where she has seen plenty of lip service paid to body positivity but little substantial change.“At the end of the day,” she said, “not a lot of presenters, directors, producers and choreographers are necessarily invested in having fat people involved in their organization.”Lizzo agrees that there is a long way to go for big dancers to be taken seriously and treated well in the dance industry. In the meantime, she is focused on her own work.“I just want people to know that more than anything this is an incredible television show,” she said, rattling off a list of the crew members who she worked with.“I’m just fat,” she added. “And I’m just making a show about what I need.” More