Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Netflix will carry NFL games on Christmas Day for three years
Netflix and the NFL announced a three-year deal Wednesday to stream games on Christmas Day.
The streaming giant will carry two games this year and at least one game in 2025 and ‘26. Netflix announced during a presentation to advertisers that it will have defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City at Pittsburgh followed by Baltimore at Houston.
“Last year, we decided to take a big bet on live — tapping into massive fandoms across comedy, reality TV, sports and more,” Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, said in a statement. “There are no live annual events, sports or otherwise, that compare with the audiences NFL football attracts. We’re so excited that the NFL’s Christmas Day games will be only on Netflix.”
Netflix began airing NFL programming last year with the series “Quarterback.” A series on wide receivers will premiere this year.
Netflix began airing live sports last year, but they were exhibition events in golf and tennis. It is also slated to air the July 20 bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul and next year will start carrying World Wrestling Entertainment’s flagship show, “Raw.”
The NFL has played a total of 30 games on Christmas Day since 1971, including three last year. It has stayed away from midweek games, though, until this year.
In keeping with the NFL’s longstanding policy on games that are carried on cable or streaming platforms, Netflix’s Christmas games will air on broadcast TV in the competing teams’ home cities and will be available on mobile devices in the U.S. with NFL+.
Emmy winner Hauser is ready to rumble for Major League Wrestling
Paul Walter Hauser thanked his parents, voters, agents and fellow nominees in his acceptance speech in January when he won an Emmy for his role in “Black Bird.”
Then, in a move more fitting for Sting than Stingray, Hauser cut a promo straight out of the squared circle.
“That’s a ‘what up’ to Jesus, he’s the soul owner. I own the body, I’m about to beat Matt Cardona,” he said.
Hulk Hogan or Roman Reigns sure never trash-talked a wrestling opponent from an awards show stage.
The 37-year-old Hauser lived up to his word two months later and lit a table on fire before ally Bully Ray slammed Cardona, a former WWE star, through a table at an independent wrestling show.
Much like his acting career — where Hauser is set to shake up the Marvel Cinematic Universe — his professional wrestling career is heating up, too.
Hauser has declared for the 40-man Battle Riot match on June 1 for the Major League Wrestling promotion card in Atlanta. He is among the wrestlers set to compete in a mashup of a battle royal and street fight at Battle Riot VI on YouTube.
“Paul is building something special with a two-track career driven by his passion and an unrelenting quality that separates the pretenders from the contenders,” MLW Founder and CEO Court Bauer said.
Wrestling is more than a publicity stunt for Hauser — it’s his passion.
“The dream is to go win an Oscar for writing or acting in a film and the next night, I’m in front of 2,000 people in an independent show,” Hauser said in an interview with The Associated Press. “That’s what I want to be doing. I want to be accessible to all people and show them the real me, which is, I am a fan just like the rest of you.”
Hauser is just the latest in a growing list of celebrities — everyone from Bad Bunny to Johnny Knoxville to Shaquille O’Neal — who have had WrestleMania bouts and matches across the industry worthy of the main event on any card. Hauser — who counts past and current wrestlers Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson, Sami Zayn and Kyle O’Reilly among his favorites — has been training with former WWE star Paul London to prepare for his side hustle in acting.
“I believe I’m somewhere between wanting to do the reckless, heavier-set guy stuff that a Mick Foley does, entertain people while hurting my body, but also I study the technicians,” Hauser said. “I want to be able to get somebody in a Texas Cloverleaf as much as I’m going to go through a table or a chair.”
Hauser has appeared in various wrestling promotions over the last few years, including WWE and its rival All Elite Wrestling. Hauser, the “I, Tonya” and “Cobra Kai” star, took a guitar shot to the head from AEW heel Jeff Jarrett during an AEW appearance last year. Jarrett and his bad guy cronies then stole Hauser’s Golden Globe award that he had brought to the ring.
Only in wrestling.
Hauser said he would wrestle more if not for a schedule that makes him one of the busiest — and, of late — most coveted actors in Hollywood. He’s set to play the late “Saturday Night Live” actor Chris Farley in a biopic, he’s filming a “Naked Gun” reboot with Liam Neeson, he snagged a role “that I cannot talk about” in Marvel’s “Fantastic Four,” and stars in the upcoming game show drama “Press Your Luck.”
As for his most popular role, his packed schedule means Hauser said he was just “making an appearance” in the final season of “Cobra Kai.”
“I show up, I can’t say much more than that,” he said. “It will be memorable and you’re always going to have a laugh with Stingray.”
Hauser has earned more fans in his frequent forays into wrestling — except, perhaps, among the people closest to him.
“My beautiful, patient, understanding wife and my agent are very much against it and wish that I would just buy some sidewalk chalk and go hopscotch in the driveway,” he said. “The reality is, this is always something I was going to do.”
While he’s hopeful of a long, successful acting career, Hauser said he intended to wrestle only for the next 10 years.
“I really feel like the future is bright for me between the acting and wrestling, and it’s really about scheduling and finding great opponents and finding a great story to tell,” he said.
Sheriff faces questions from lawmakers over Netflix series
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. | Arkansas lawmakers on Tuesday raised questions about a sheriff’s decision to allow a Netflix documentary series to be filmed at the county jail, with one critic saying the move exploited inmates.
Pulaski County Sheriff Eric Higgins defended the decision to allow the series, “Unlocked: A Jail Experiment” to be filmed at the county jail. The eight-episode series, which premiered last month, highlights a program giving some inmates more freedom at the Little Rock facility.
The decision has prompted scrutiny from local and state officials, who said they weren’t aware of the series until shortly before its premiere. The series focuses on a six-week experiment that gave inmates in one cellblock more freedom by unlocking their cell doors. Higgins said he did not approach Netflix or Lucky 8, the production company that filmed it, about the series.
“I took action to ensure that we have a reentry program to help those who are booked into our facility to come out and be better individuals,” Higgins told members of the Joint Performance Review Committee.
Republican Sen. Jonathan Dismang said he doesn’t have a problem with the sheriff’s reentry program or trying something new to address recidivism. But he said he was concerned with it being the focus of a show, and questioned how it could be considered an experiment if it was being filmed.
“I think it’s an exploitation of your prisoners that you allowed a film crew to come in,” Dismang said.
Another Republican lawmaker said he was worried about what the show would do to the state’s reputation, comparing it to a 1994 HBO documentary about gangs in Little Rock.
“For most of the people that watched this docuseries, this is the first time they’ve ever been exposed to Pulaski County, or perhaps to the state of Arkansas,” Rep. David Ray said. “I worry about the brand damage that our state sustains from this being the first perception of our state to other people.”
Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde — the county’s top elected administrator — said he wasn’t aware of the series until he saw a trailer before its premiere. Hyde has said that the agreement between the sheriff and the production company was illegal because Hyde didn’t sign it. The county has since returned a $60,000 check from the production company that filmed the series.
Higgins, a Democrat who was first elected in 2018 and is the county’s first Black sheriff, has had the backing of some community members. The Little Rock chapter of the NAACP has supported Higgins’ decision, and supporters of the sheriff filled a committee room for Tuesday’s hearing.
Democratic Sen. Linda Chesterfield said Higgins’ supporters are looking for “someone to provide humane treatment for people who have been treated inhumanely.”
“We are viewing this through different lenses, and it’s important we respect the lenses through which we view it,” Chesterfield said.
Jordin Sparks
to perform
national anthem
INDIANAPOLIS | Jordin Sparks, the singer-songwriter who shot to stardom on “American Idol,” will perform the national anthem before the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend.
Sparks also performed the anthem before “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” in 2015.
“We know that Jordin’s voice and performance will deliver an emotional and stirring rendition of the national anthem as part of pre-race ceremonies for the Indy 500,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway president J. Douglas Boles said Wednesday.
“The national anthem moment pays honor to the country we love, sets the stage for the hair-raising U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds flyover, and gets us one step closer to those final, dramatic and electric moments leading up to the start of the Indianapolis 500.”
Sparks has won an American Music Award and People’s Choice Award and been nominated for a Billboard Award, Dove Award, two MTV Awards and two Grammys. She made her Broadway debut starring in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway smash “In the Heights” and her film debut playing the lead role in the film “Sparkle.”
The Indy 500 historically has had some of the biggest names in music perform the anthem, ranging from Steven Tyler of the rock band Aerosmith to country star Martina McBride. Jewel performed the anthem last year.
—From AP reports
