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New York City postpones vaccine appointments as new shipments are delayed

• No Comments • National News

Ridofranz/iStockBy IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — As the country continues to face supply issues for the coronavirus vaccine, New York City officials announced Wednesday that it had to postpone the first dose appointments for the next three days for 23,000 people.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Health Department said they were informed by the distributor of the Moderna vaccine that a shipment of 103,400 doses that was supposed to be delivered Tuesday was delayed. As a result, first dose appointments at 15 city vaccination sites from Jan. 21 to Jan. 24 had to be postponed, according to city health officials.

“We already were feeling the stress of a shortage of vaccine. Now the situation has been made even worse,” the mayor said during his daily news conference.

Appointments at the 15 sites between Jan. 21 and Jan. 24 for New Yorkers who are scheduled for their second dose will remain as planned, Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, the city’s Health Commissioner, said during the news conference.

Patients who had their appointment canceled will be notified through an email and call from the affected vaccination site, according to the Health Department. The new appointments for those first dose shots would take place at the same time next week, the health department said.

During a separate news conference later in the day, Melissa DeRosa, the secretary to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said there were no postponements for appointments at state-run vaccination sites, which include two in New York City.

“We were incredibly conservative with the number of appointments that we set up there,” she said.

Last week, New York state expanded its vaccine eligibility list to include seniors above 65 years old, teachers and other high-priority employees.

As of Jan. 20, New York City has received 940,825 coronavirus vaccines, 688,075 first doses and 252,750 second doses, Health Department data showed. It has administered 494,596 total doses, 434,138 first doses and 60,458 second doses, the data showed.

De Blasio said he hopes to see an improved vaccine delivery and implementation under the Biden administration, which has proposed several options to increase vaccine supply, including the use of the Defense Production Act.

“The Defense Production Act is going to be absolutely critical because these two companies that are authorized right now are both U.S. based companies. And so therefore in theory you should be able, to ramp up production specifically for the U.S. population,” Dr. Jay Varma, the mayor’s senior advisor for public health, said during the news conference.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sarah Michelle Gellar wishes her 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' character a happy 40th

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Sarah Michelle Gellar, who came to fame playing the fearless titular heroine on Buffy The Vampire Slayer for seven seasons hasn’t forgotten Buffy Summers. 

In fact, the 43-year-old actress wished the character a happy 40th birthday on Tuesday.

“I just realized that today is Buffy Summers 40 bday,” Gellar said on Instagram. “I can’t even believe that.”

The actress, who is married and has two children with Freddie Prinze Jr. added of her alter-ego, “She taught that the hardest thing in the world is to live in it. So in her honor let’s all be brave. Live.”

Referencing the COVID-19 lockdowns, Gellar said, “This may not be the way we are used to living our lives, but let’s find the beauty. So we can all live long and safely. For good measure, she added the hashtags “#happybirthdaybuffy”” and “#buffy40.”

Incidentally, the lockdown is what got her two kids — daughter Charlotte, 11, and son Rocky, 8 — “like so into” the show, which ran from 1997 to 2003.

Gellar admitted on the Kelly Clarkson Show this past fall, “I had never thought to show it to them,” noting they kept requesting to watch her earlier exploits.

She also joked that “my son finally thinks I’m cool.”

Incidentally, ABC Audio asked Gellar last year what she’d think of a reboot of the series. She said, “We left it open that any girl in the world ‘who had the power, should have the power, can have the power, will have the power.’ And I think that does leave it open to continue a story because that’s how it works right?”

However, she added, “Don’t *reboot* Buffy — if you want to continue the story of Buffy’s legacy, of The Slayers, of all of those – we’ve left that open for you.”  

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Russell Dickerson takes fans behind the scenes of his immersive 'Southern Symphony' mini-movie

• No Comments • Country Music News

ABC/Image Group LAWhen Russell Dickerson put out his new album, Southern Symphony, he paired the project with a unique album experience video, which featured a snippet of each song on the record paired to a larger, cohesive visual element.

Now, the singer is sharing a video explaining how he came up with the idea for the video, and how he managed to tie his songs together.

“The Southern Symphony experience started as the tiniest little idea of, I wanted to just combine the entire album into one video,” he says at the start of the clip. “So from top to bottom, every single song, one clip, that’s all I wanted.”

The singer brought his idea to director Spencer Combs, who had the idea to use an old Nashville motel as the backdrop of the video. The location’s different rooms and different characters all correspond to different songs on the album, Russell explains.

In one moment that the singer describes as his favorite to shoot, the story line turns to Russell and his real-life family — his wife Kailey and baby boy Remington — as they check into the motel and head to their room to get settled.

“When ‘Home Sweet’’s playing, it’s me, Kailey and Remington, and we fall back on the bed, and the camera continues through the wall,” he recalls, describing a moment when the focus shifts to the next room in the motel. “The sound fades out, and there’s this girl [in the next room over] on her phone.”

“That to me is when it goes from kind of a music video to full-on cinema, Hollywood production,” Russell adds.

Southern Symphony is Russell’s sophomore album. It arrived in December.


By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Alex Trebek's final 'Jeopardy!' episodes were number one in syndication

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Jeopardy! Productions/Sony Pictures Television(LOS ANGELES) — Alex Trebek may have died in November, but he still ranked number one in the ratings in January.

The beloved game show host’s last Jeopardy! episodes to run, which wrapped up the week of January 10, were the No. 1-rated shows in all of syndication, according to Nielsen numbers quoted by The Wrap. 

Trebek had many episodes “in the can” before he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer.

Trebek’s final episode, which aired on January 8, drew 14 million viewers — making it the most-watched installment of the long-running quiz show in 419 days — when James Holzhauer’s winning streak finally came to an end.

All-time Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings is currently hosting the show in Trebek’s stead. When his six week stint is up, the player-turned consulting producer for the show will be followed by the show’s longtime executive producer, Mike Richards, who will step in front of the camera as host for two weeks’ worth of the pre-recorded shows.

Following Richards will be four celebrity guest hosts, including journalist Katie Couric, Big Bang Theory vet and real-life neuroscientist Mayim Bialik, NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, and 60 Minutes mainstay Bill Whitaker. 

A permanent successor for Trebek has yet to be announced.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Chris Young got the idea to shout out “Famous Friends” from another one of his hits

• No Comments • Country Music News

Monarch Publicity/Sony Music NashvilleChris Young’s upbeat new duet with Kane Brown is an ode to the hometown heroes they knew and loved growing up. An award-winning school teacher named Megan, a star high school quarterback named Brandon and more are the stars of this song.

Chris, who co-wrote “Famous Friends” with Cary Barlowe and Corey Crowder, says that the names listed in the lyrics represent real people, many of whom are buddies of his from his hometown in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

But he might never have gotten the idea to spotlight his not-so-famous friends without the help of his 2019 single, “Raised on Country.”

“With ‘Raised on Country,’ what we were trying to write was an anthem about the music I grew up on,” Chris explains to Billboard. “And obviously, when you start talking about how you grew up and what shapes you outside of your town and the music you listened to, it’s definitely your friends.”

From there, the connection was clear. “I think that was kind of the seed in ‘Famous Friends,’” the singer adds.

“Famous Friends” is the third single off Chris’ upcoming album, following “Raised on Country” and “Drowning.” He hasn’t shared an exact timeline for the project’s rollout, but has hinted that the release day may be nearing. Last weekend, he posted a photo of himself to Twitter, captioning the image, “Feeling album cover, might delete later” along with the hashtag “#FamousFriends.”


By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.