It should be said that Netflix has a unique method for determining its audience — its viewing audience is calculated by analyzing the number of subscribers who have watched at least two minutes of a given show. That being said, Bridgerton, based on Julia Quinn’s beloved book series, hit the #1 spot on the streaming giant’s Top 10 rankings…in 76 countries.
Bridgerton‘s success contributed to a boom for Netflix in the final month of 2020, and the final week in particular: they were the best-ever recorded for the company in terms of view hours per subscriber.
The Shondaland-produced show is set in London in the 1800s, and centers on Phoebe Dynevor’s character, Daphne Bridgerton, and her arranged marriage to the Duke of Hastings. While she initially agrees to the union to appease her family, she soon finds herself falling for the Duke.
Jeopardy! Productions(LOS ANGELES) — The final Jeopardy! episodes featuring longtime host Alex Trebek will air all this week, granting fans one last chance to say goodbye to the beloved game show personality.
Trebek, 80, died of pancreatic cancer on November 8. His final day filming Jeopardy! wasOctober 29, according to a statement from the show.
The ailing host opened Monday’s pre-taped episode with a heartwarming message about the importance of unity and compassion during the global pandemic.
“You’ll recall that about a month ago, I asked all of you to take a moment to give thanks for all of the blessings that you enjoy in your lives,” said a smiling and soft-spoken Trebek. “Now, today, a different kind of message. This is the season of giving. I know you want to be generous with your family, your friends, your loved ones. But today, I’d like you to go one step further.”
The Emmy Award-winning show host challenged the audience, “I’d like you to open up your hands and open up your hearts to those who are still suffering because of COVID-19.”
“People who are suffering through no fault of their own. We’re trying to build a gentler, kinder society and if we all pitch in, just a little bit, we’re gonna get there,” encouraged Trebek.
Friday’s episode, which will also be Trebek’s final appearance, will conclude with a tribute to the beloved and legendary television personality.
While a permanent replacement has yet to be named, guest hosts will take the reins starting January 11. The first guest host carrying on Trebek’s legacy will be all-time Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings.
narvikk/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR and ERIN SCHUMAKER, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 85.6 million people worldwide and killed over 1.8 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Here’s how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:
Jan 05, 8:19 am Arizona has world’s highest rate of COVID-19, data shows
Arizona currently has the highest rate of COVID-19 infections per capita of any region in the world, according to a graph created by 91-DIVOC, which used data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
91-DIVOC is an online data visualization project created by Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider, a teaching associate professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The graph, which is updated daily with data collected by Johns Hopkins University, shows that the southwestern U.S. state has an average of 112.1 newly confirmed cases per 100,000 people a day over the past week.
Meanwhile, the Czech Republic has the highest infection rate of any country, with a seven-day average of 96.7 new cases per 100,000 people a day. The United States as a whole has a seven-day average of 65.4, the sixth highest of any country, the graph shows.
Arizona’s Department of Health Services has reported more than 561,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including over 9,000 deaths. The state has seen a surge in new cases over the past week, which would account for the per capita ranking, according to ABC Phoenix affiliate KNXV-TV.
Jan 05, 6:52 am Retired CT state trooper who was among first to respond to Sandy Hook shooting dies of COVID-19
A retired Connecticut State Police trooper, who was among the first to respond to the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, has died of COVID-19, officials said.
Patrick Dragon, 50, of Brooklyn, Connecticut, died Saturday at Hartford Hospital in the state’s capital, according to the Connecticut State Police, which announced his death in a Facebook post Monday night.
The Foster Police Department in the Rhode Island town of Foster, where Dragon was working as a dispatcher, confirmed his death “after a valiant battle with COVID.”
Foster Police Chief David Breit described Dragon as “a great person, kind, caring and a friend to all who met him.”
“There are not enough words, to describe the kind of a person that Patrick was,” Breit wrote in a Facebook post Sunday morning.
The East Brooklyn Fire Department in the Connecticut town of Brooklyn, where Dragon served for 34 years, most recently as a deputy chief, also announced his death.
“We cannot express how deeply he will be missed and wish to extend our deepest condolences to the Dragon family,” the department wrote in a Facebook post.
Jan 05, 4:31 am Seychelles records first death from COVID-19
Seychelles has recorded its first death from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
The patient was a 57-year-old Seychellois man who was hospitalized on New Year’s Eve at a COVID-19 isolation and treatment center on Perseverance Island, just north of the capital Victoria. He died from complications of his illness on Sunday evening, according to a press release from Seychelles’ Ministry of Health.
“This is the first such death occurring in Seychelles and comes amid an uptick of new COVID-19 cases,” the health ministry said in a statement. “This first loss is deeply felt by all the health workers and community in general. It further strengthens the resolve to intensify efforts to prevent further transmission.”
In the wake of the country’s first coronavirus-related fatality, Seychellois health authorities announced a string of new restrictions at a press conference Monday, including the closure of all public swimming pools, retail stores and many restaurants. Grocery stores and hardware shops can remain open.
Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan warned that the “situation is deteriorating,” with more than a dozen new cases confirmed over the previous 24 hours.
“It is easy to put COVID-19 under control if we all take precautions,” Ramkalawan told reporters Monday. “We should all be wearing our mask, it is an easy thing to do.”
Seychelles, an Indian Ocean archipelago located off the coast of East Africa with a population of just under 100,000, has reported 322 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Jan 05, 3:20 am US reports over 180,000 new cases
There were 180,477 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Monday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Monday’s tally is less than the all-time high of 297,491 new cases, which the country logged on Jan. 2, Johns Hopkins data shows.
An additional 1,903 deaths from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide on Monday, down from a peak of 3,750 on Dec. 30, according to Johns Hopkins data.
COVID-19 data may be skewed due to possible lags in reporting over the holidays followed by a potentially very large backlog.
A total of 20,823,345 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 353,621 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
Much of the country was under lockdown by the end of March as the first wave of the pandemic hit. By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country’s cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up over the summer.
The numbers lingered around 40,000 to 50,000 from mid-August through early October before surging again to record levels, crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4 and reaching 200,000 for the first time on Nov. 27.
Jan 05, 2:45 am Mexico approves Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine
A COVID-19 vaccine developed by England’s University of Oxford and British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has been authorized for emergency use in Mexico.
Mexico’s Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS), a decentralized regulatory body of the country’s health ministry, announced its decision to approve the shot in a statement Monday evening.
Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Marcelo Ebrard took to Twitter to praise the approval, calling it “very good news.”
It’s the second COVID-19 vaccine to be approved in the Latin American nation. Mexico authorized a vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for emergency use on Dec. 11, just before the United States did so as well.
Mexico has reported more than 1.4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including at least 127,757 deaths, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION Orlando 103, Cleveland 83 Philadelphia 118, Charlotte 101 Miami 118, Oklahoma City 90 New York 113, Atlanta 108 Boston 126, Toronto 114 Milwaukee 125, Detroit 115 Dallas 113, Houston 100 Indiana 118, New Orleans 116 (OT) Golden State 137, Sacramento 106 TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL West Virginia 87, Oklahoma St. 84
ABC/Craig Sjodin(LOS ANGELES) — The Bachelor kicked off its milestone 25th season on Monday, with Matt James, a 29-year-old real estate broker, entrepreneur and community organization founder from Raleigh, North Carolina, meeting the record-breaking 32 women who are vying to be his future wife.
With the usual Bachelor Mansion in Agoura Hills, California currently being used as an Airbnb rental because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the new season was moved to The Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, Pennsylvania, which is not far outside of Pittsburgh.
Matt is also the first Black Bachelor, and he was feeling the “pressure” that comes with that.
“My mom is white and my dad is Black, and I experienced what it was like to be a product of an interracial marriage,” he explained. “And it’s tough, because you’ve got people who have certain views — old school views — on a relationship and what love looks like. And you’ve got people who are cheering for you to find love and people who are cheering for you to end up with…a specific person of a specific race.”
He remarked, “That’s something that kept me up at night. I don’t want to p*** off Black people, I don’t want to p*** off white people, but I’m both of those. How do I please everybody?”
As always, his potential suitors wasted no time in making what they hoped would be a lasting first impression.
For instance, there was Kaili, a 26-year-old hostess from Chicago who arrived wearing nothing but her underwear, explaining that she was “sitting in her hotel room figuring out what to wear” and realized she “didn’t know anything about” Matt. She brought a pair of dresses along with her and asked him to pick the one he preferred.
Then there was Katie, a 29 year-old bank marketing manager from Renton, Washington, who pulled out an adult toy that “had gotten me through the pandemic,” and would now “pass the torch” to Matt.
Victoria, 27, whose bio describes her as “a queen from Los Angeles, California,” arrived in royal fashion — carried by two men and wearing a tiara.
After the introductions and an opening prayer, delivered by Matt, the ladies jockeyed for some alone time with the eligible bachelor in hopes of scoring the first rose.
However, it was Abigail, a 25-year-old client financial manager from Beaverton, Oregon, who made Matt “go blank” as soon as he heard her name and he handed her the first impression rose.
Abigail, who was born deaf and can only hear with the aid of a cochlear implant, struck Matt as a “fighter,” who also possessed the “vulnerability” he expected from the women.
The women remaining after the first rose ceremony are as follows:
Abigail, 25, a client financial manager from Beaverton, Oregon. Alana, 26, a photographer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada Anna, 24, a copywriter from Chicago, Illinois. Bri, 24, a communications manager from San Francisco, California. Chelsea, 28, a runway model from Brooklyn, New York. Illeana, 25, a health food developer from New York City. Jessenia, 27, a social media marketer from San Antonio, Texas. Kaili, 26, a hostess from Chicago, Illinois. Katie, 29, a bank marketing manager from Renton, Washington. Khaylah, 28, a healthcare advocate from Durham, North Carolina. Kit, 21, a socialite from New York City. Kristin, 27, an attorney from Jersey City, New Jersey. Lauren, 29, a corporate attorney from Miami, Florida. Magi, 32, a pharmacist from Adwa, Ethiopia. Mari, 24, a marketing director from Odenton, Maryland. Marylynn, 28, an event coordinator from Studio City, California. MJ, 23, a hairstylist from Hudson, Ohio. Pieper, 23, a graduate student from Happy Valley, Oregon. Rachael, 24, a graphic designer from Cumming, Georgia. Sarah, 24, a broadcast journalist from San Diego, California. Serena C., 24, a flight attendant from San Francisco, California. Serena P., 22, a publicist from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Sydney, 28, a marketing specialist from Nashville, Tennessee. Victoria, 27, a queen from Los Angeles, California.
Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2020(LOS ANGELES) — Bridgerton, the latest series from TV juggernaut Shonda Rhimes, continues her hot streak. Netflix says the show from the creator of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder was seen by 63 million households since its Christmas Day launch — making it the fifth largest original series debut for the streaming service. 
