TV

Photo Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File

Live from New York ... it’s the return of ‘Saturday Night Live’ after last season was cut short because of the writers strike.

The long-running sketch comedy show will premiere Season 49 on Oct. 14, NBC announced Wednesday. Former cast member Pete Davidson will host, making good on a plan to have him host last May. The comedian will be joined by first-time musical guest Ice Spice.

Photo Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision

Leslie Jones wants to set one thing straight in her memoir: She is undeniable. The word pops up 11 times in the book. Indefatigable is another good word to describe a comic whose career didn’t really take off until she joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” at the age of 47, though perhaps it’s too many syllables for a standup routine.

Photo Credit: Charles Krupa

WWE’s popular television show, “Friday Night Smackdown,” will be moving from Fox to USA Network next year under a new five-year domestic media rights partnership with NBCUniversal.

“Smackdown,” a weekly two-hour live program that features wrestlers such as Roman Reigns, Charlotte Flair, Rey Mysterio and Bianca Belair, regularly performs strongly in the key 18-49 demographic. It’s also experienced strong ratings of late with regular appearances by John Cena and an unadvertised appearance by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

“Smackdown” will begin airing on USA Network in October 2024. Fox had a five-year deal for “Smackdown” that started in October 2019. Prior to that, “Smackdown” had aired on USA Network from 2016 to 2019.

Financial terms of the deal between WWE and NBCUniversal were not disclosed.

Photo Credit: Julia Nikhinson

Actor and philanthropist Michael J. Fox won this year’s Elevate Prize Catalyst Award, which the “Back to the Future” star plans to use to further his foundation’s work to find treatments for Parkinson’s disease.

Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 29 in 1991, received the award at the Clinton Global Initiative, or CGI, conference on Tuesday in New York. The annual prize, which went to Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai last year, includes $250,000 from the Elevate Prize Foundation and support to amplify the winner’s messaging.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who interviewed Fox onstage at CGI, credited him with research advances in understanding Parkinson’s. “I don’t think this work would have made the progress it has if Michael hadn’t been so open,” she said.

Fox said that once he got support from his family after his diagnosis, he did not hesitate about going public with his diagnosis.

“There’s such shame associated with this illness,” Fox said. “It’s so ridiculous, this great need to keep it secret. The cruel thing of it is it’s going to out you eventually.”

Photo Credit: Chris Pizzello

ESPN and host Sage Steele have settled a lawsuit she filed after being disciplined for comments she made about the company’s policy requiring employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Steele posted on social media Tuesday that she is leaving the Bristol, Connecticut-based company, where she has worked since 2007.

“Having successfully settled my case with ESPN/Disney, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my first amendment rights more freely,” she wrote. “I am grateful for so many wonderful experiences over the past 16 years and am excited for my next chapter!”