Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
‘Pommel Horse Guy’ Stephen Nedoroscik will join ‘Dancing With the Stars’
NEW YORK | Fresh off the Olympics, U.S. breakout star and medalist Stephen Nedoroscik — better known to the internet as “Pommel Horse Guy” — will compete on the upcoming season of “Dancing With the Stars.”
The casting was announced on Thursday’s episode of ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Nedoroscik is the first celebrity contestant named for the season, which premieres Sept. 17 on ABC and Disney+. He’s also the first male gymnast to compete, “Good Morning America” co-host Robin Roberts said.
“I want to bring some of that gymnastics, maybe a backflip or handstand,” Nedoroscik said on the morning show. “I want to have fun with it.”
The 25-year-old picked up two bronze medals in Paris, helping the American men’s team earn its first Olympic medal in 16 years in addition to finishing third in his individual event. He became a viral star thanks to memes of his preparation before competing — no, he was not asleep — and of his Superman-like transformation before hitting the floor (he takes his glasses off, just like Clark Kent).
“The memes are hilarious and I’m loving them all,” the Penn State engineering graduate told The Associated Press in Paris.
The newest season of “Dancing With the Stars” will be the show’s 33rd. It’s co-hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough, and judged by Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough. The rest of the celebrity cast will be announced at a later date, ABC said in a release.
As for the iconic glasses that are indelibly part of Nedoroscik’s look?
“I might have fun with it. I’m scared they’ll fly off, that’s the thing,” Nedoroscik, who has an eye condition called coloboma, told the hosts. “Maybe we could do a gadget, keep them on? Maybe a new pair of glasses, match the theme?”
FS1 announces two new morning shows following departure of Skip Bayless on ‘Undisputed’
LOS ANGELES | A pair of shows will take over the weekday morning timeslot on FS1 formerly occupied by Skip Bayless of “Undisputed.”
Most of the time slot will be taken over by “The Facility,” which will feature former NFL players Emmanuel Acho, LeSean McCoy, James Jones and Chase Daniel. The show will air for two hours, beginning at 10 a.m. ET on Sept. 3. Acho, McCoy and James previously worked on FS1’s afternoon show “Speak,” while Daniel is a newcomer to the network.
“Breakfast Ball” will be FS1’s latest attempt at an early morning show beginning at 8 a.m. ET. Craig Carton, who’s had a FS1 morning show since 2022, will be joined by Fox NFL analyst Mark Schlereth and Danny Parkins, who recently hosted an afternoon radio sports talk show in Chicago.
“Breakfast Ball” will launch on Monday starting at 12 p.m. ET for the first week because “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” will be on vacation.
“Undisputed” aired Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m.-12 p.m. ET from September 2016 until Aug. 2, when Bayless announced on social media that he was leaving the show and the network. Ratings for the show had plummeted over the past year after Shannon Sharpe left for ESPN and it went to rotating co-hosts instead of one-on-one debates.
The 72-year old Bayless still has a weekly podcast, but has not announced any future plans.
The afternoon lineup of “The Herd,” “First Things First” and “Speak” remain in its same time slots. “Speak,” a two-hour program that starts at 5 p.m. ET, will have Keyshawn Johnson and Paul Pierce joining Joy Taylor.
PBS’ Woodruff apologizes for an on-air remark about peace talks in Israel
Veteran PBS correspondent Judy Woodruff apologized on Wednesday for comments she had made on the air regarding former President Donald Trump and negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Woodruff, during PBS’ Democratic national convention coverage on Monday, repeated a story she had read in Axios and Reuters that Trump had allegedly been encouraging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to put off peace talks until after the U.S. election in the belief that a deal could help Democrat Kamala Harris’ campaign.
But Woodruff said in a post on X Wednesday that she had not seen later reporting that the story had been denied by the Trump campaign and Israel. She said her remarks had not been based on any original reporting on her part.
“This was a mistake, and I apologize for it,” Woodruff said.
Woodruff’s long career in journalism has included time at CNN and NBC News. She was host of PBS’ “NewsHour” between 2013 and 2022, before stepping down for a reporting project.
Swift calls cancellation of Vienna shows ‘devastating’ and explains
her silence
LONDON | Two weeks after organizers scrubbed Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna amid a foiled terror plot, the singer issued her first statement on the cancellations.
“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” she wrote in a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”
She thanked authorities — “thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she wrote — and said she waited to speak until the European leg of her Eras Tour concluded to prioritize safety.
“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she wrote.
In the wake of the cancellations, Swift’s representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Associated Press and other news organizations and her social media pages had gone dormant.
“In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to. My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it’s with great relief that I can say we did that,” she added.
Concert organizer Barracuda Music had said it canceled the three-night Vienna run that would have begun Aug. 8 because the arrests made in connection to the conspiracy were too close to showtime. Authorities said a 19-year-old suspect had planned to target spectators outside the Ernst Happel Stadium with knives or homemade explosives, hoping to “kill as many people as possible.” Austrian officials said they appeared to have been inspired by the Islamic State group and al-Qaida.
That suspect and another 17-year-old were taken into custody on Aug. 6, the day before the shows were announced as canceled. A third suspect, 18, was arrested Aug. 8. The 19-year-old’s lawyer has said the allegations were “overacting at its best,” and contended Austrian authorities were “presenting this exaggeratedly” in order to get new surveillance powers.
Tens of thousands of Swifties from around the world had traveled to Vienna for the shows.
Swift’s Instagram post also commemorated the end of the European leg with a tribute to her five nights at London’s Wembley Stadium, which she said factored into her decision to wait to speak out and ultimately “felt like a beautiful dream sequence.”
“I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London,” she wrote the day after her last Wembley concert. “My team and I worked hand in hand with stadium staff and British authorities every day in pursuit of that goal.”
The shows in London, the next stop scheduled after Vienna, also came on the heels of a stabbing at a Swift-themed dance class that left three little girls dead in the U.K. In a statement issued after the Southport attack, Swift said she was “just completely in shock” and “at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.” News outlets reported that Swift met with some of the survivors backstage in London.
The record-smashing tour is on hiatus until October, when it resumes in Miami.
—From AP reports
