NBC(NEW YORK) — NBC has given a contract extension to Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, an insider tells The New York Times. His previous deal ran through 2021. Further details were not revealed of the extension were not revealed.
Meanwhile, the network officially announced on Monday that Jamie Granet-Bederman, a longtime producer on the NBC late-night show, will become its third showrunner in as many years. Once the #1 show in late-night, The Tonight Show has dropped to third place in its time slot.
ABC/Eric McCandless(LOS ANGELES) — With The Real host Jeannie Mai forced to withdraw from the competition due to emergency surgery, competitors weren’t staring down the promised threat of a double elimination on Monday’s Dancing with the Stars. However, that didn’t ease up the pressure because, also that night, everyone had to master two dances for the very first time.
The additional dance was a relay challenge where couples vied over a potential three extra bonus points for performing a certain dance to the same song back to back. The competitors were divided into groups of three and were tasked to memorize a new routine to either the cha-cha, Viennese waltz or the samba.
Unfortunately, Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause wasn’t able to rise above the added challenge and the audience sent her to the bottom two alongside Disney Channel star Skai Jackson.
Judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough, while disappointed over the audience vote, unanimously decided to keep Jackson in the competition.
Rising to the challenge of performing an additional dance, however, were two individuals who earned perfect scores on Monday and ended the night at the top of the leaderboard.
Catfish host Nev Schulman and Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir both earned a final score of 30 out of 30 by not only obtaining the top scores for their first routine, but clinching the maximum amount of bonus points for their subsequent relay challenge.
Schulman danced to two Ariana Grande collaborations on Monday, the first being her duet “Stuck With U” featuring Justin Bieber. His charismatic Viennese waltz impressed the judges, who eagerly handed him straight nines.
Then, Schulman kicked it up a notch on the ballroom with his vivacious cha-cha to Grande’s collaboration with Lady Gaga, “Rain on Me,” earning three additional points to finish the night with a perfect score.
Weir’s first dance was an extremely smooth foxtrot to Shawn Mendes’ “Wonder” and it dazzled the judges, who readily handed him straight nines, as well.
However, it was the relay challenge where Weir truly shined — a Viennese waltz to Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.” The figure skater’s raw and emotional mastery of the romantic routine earned him the maximum amount of bonus points, 3, allowing him to join Schulman at the top of the leaderboard.
Another dancer that rose to the double dance challenge was One Day at a Time actress Justina Machado, who was tasked to perform two divergent routines. The actress’ first performed a lively Samba to “Magalenha” before slowing things down when competing against Weir with her flowing Viennese waltz. She earned two out of the 3 possible bonus points.
The most emotional moment of the night came when Jeannie Mai spoke directly to fans to express how heartbroken she is that her journey on DWTS ended the way it did. The television personality explained that she had a throat abscess that became so infected, her throat would have closed up had she not undergone immediate emergency surgery.
“I‘m just so thankful I had the experience on Dancing with the Stars. It was, hands down, one of the best journeys of my life. So thank you so much,” Mai emotionally conveyed to the camera. “I love you guys.”
Dancing with the Stars pays homage to the biggest names in music next week for “Icon Night,” where dancers will perform routines inspired by the most beloved artists in history. The episode airs next Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Here are the current standings:
First Place: Nev Schulman, host of Catfish, with Jenna Johnson — 30/30 Johnny Weir, Olympic figure skater, with Britt Stewart — 30/30
Justina Machado, One Day at a Time star, with Sasha Farber — 29/30 Kaitlyn Bristowe, former star of The Bachelorette, with Artem Chigvintsev — 28/20 A.J. McLean, member of Backstreet Boys, with Cheryl Burke — 27/30 Skai Jackson, Disney Channel star, with Alan Bersten — 27/30
Lowest score: Nelly, Grammy Award-winning rapper, with Daniella Karagach — 23/30
Anthony Matula for SpotifyReba and Barbra Jean are back together again! This time, the country superstar and actress Melissa Peterman aren’t assuming their Reba alter-egos — they’re co-hosting Reba McEntire‘s new Living & Learning podcast.
The two forged a friendship on the sitcom that intensified when Reba took Melissa out to do stand-up.
“When you’re spending so much time together,” Melissa explains, “and having time to sit on a plane… and just talk about your families, your relationships… I think that’s where it really deepened. And vacationing together, you really get to know people when you’re on a vacation together.”
With podcast guests that’ve already included Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, Kristin Chenowethand more, Melissa admits she’s been starstruck.
“I had to check myself before almost every time,” she confesses. “It’s like, ‘Melissa hold it together. Don’t start to fangirl on every single person.'”
Tackling topics like aging, cancel culture and faith, Living & Learning probably isn’t the star vehicle you might expect.
“The beauty of it is…we didn’t always want to talk about what you normally would talk about with a celebrity,” Melissa tells ABC Audio. “We were talking about the topics that we wanted to learn more about. So we got to see an interesting side.”
“We wanted to offer up something that was a little bit of joy and maybe some inspiration,” she reflects, “maybe open up your mind, your heart — and learn a little.”
One of the things listeners learned is that Reba is dating actor Rex Linn.
“I was there at one of their first dinners… So I just was like, ‘Just say it! Just say it out loud!'” Melissa jokes.
With several more episodes to come on Spotify, Melissa’s already dreaming of having Lizzo, Vince Gill, Dan Levy and Kate McKinnon on season two.
(NEW YORK) — As business owners in Washington, D.C., and New York City board up their storefronts to protect against potential election unrest, law enforcement from New Jersey to California is working to ensure that Americans who show up at the polls have their voice heard and their vote counted.
In the swing state of Ohio, Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp told ABC News that they are aware there could be issues percolating on Election Day and beyond, including possible concerns at polling places.
“We’re patrolling on the periphery of polling stations; we’re not placing people right at the polling site to oversee and watch and stand guard,” Tharp said. “We’re not doing that and there are obvious reasons why we’re not. It could be intimidating to some voters. Some voters would not appreciate that or feel that there’s something’s going on when there’s not.”
Concerns at the polls
Law enforcement officials ABC News spoke with across the country said that they have been working on plans with state and local election leaders. In Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Chief Edwin Roessler told ABC News that the police department works hand-and-hand with the commonwealth’s attorney to make sure that in the event something does happen at a polling place, election laws are followed.
“We want to be sure that what we’re doing is correct,” he said.
Roessler said that having well-trained poll workers is key to responding to issues that may arise.
“It’s training election officials and volunteers to be the eyes and ears and to understand what the election laws are and what they are not, and to have a triage system in place,” he said.
In California, Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud told ABC News that voters will not see police officers “immediately outside of polling places.”
She told ABC News that early voting could end up alleviating some issues that might otherwise arise at polling places.
“It provides for less people in one place at one time,” said Renaud, who was just elected the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
John Nesky, who serves as the police chief in Bowie, Maryland, told ABC News that police presence at the polls requires a “delicate balance.”
“It’s a delicate balance between presence and perceived intimidation, depending on how you feel about law enforcement. We have to really be careful about how we position ourselves and what kind of optics we put out or we provide,” he said, adding that their primary duties are ensuring traffic flow and keeping watch over ballot boxes.
In another battleground state, Texas, Frisco Police Chief David Shilson told ABC News that the role of law enforcement on Election Day is to build confidence in the process.
“Our role here in the election process is really just to maintain the integrity of the process and make sure that people have confidence in the process and that we’re there to mitigate issues that come up,” Shilson said. “Certainly, we will not have a constant presence at polling locations, because I know some people are intimidated by the uniform or they may find it intimidating.”
He said his officers are prepared — but that they don’t expect any problems to arise.
Potential post-election unrest
In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker announced on Monday that he was activating the state’s National Guard to address potential unrest after Election Day.
Law enforcement leaders say that there has been no credible information regarding threats of unrest following Election Day, but that they remain vigilant.
Elections are run by the states, so federal departments like the Department of Homeland Security have a limited role in the physical security of polling places.
“The American people can rest assured that this election will be decided by American voters,” said DHS spokesman Chase Jennings. “Working alongside our federal, state, local, tribal and territorial partners, the Department of Homeland Security is fully prepared regarding election night safety and security. To be clear, the Department of Homeland Security has limited authorities regarding physical security — our jurisdiction covers only federal property.”
In the Fairfax County, the police department’s action plan for election security includes contingencies for staying in a heightened posture for potentially a month.
“If we need to extend this mode of operation for days, weeks and or a month or so, we’re very flexible to do that,” Roessler said.
In New Hampshire, where there are a large number of militia groups, the New Hampshire Department of Public Safety reports no credible threats on or after Election Day.
“The New Hampshire Department of Safety will continue to work with the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office and the New Hampshire Department of Justice to support another successful election,” Department of Public Safety spokesman Paul Raymond told ABC News.
Renaud said that officials are focusing on a “whole of government” approach — working together to ensure safety and security.
“Law enforcement is certainly prepared nationwide to provide that that safety and security tomorrow and leading into the remainder of the week,” she said.
Although no law enforcement officials ABC News spoke with identified known credible threats leading up to Election Day, one official said that recent events in Michigan have made him extra wary.
In October, the FBI foiled a plot by extremists to kidnap and kill Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Jared Maples, Director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, told ABC News that the Michigan plot made him concerned.
“We protect everyone’s rights, whether it be the right to protest, the freedom of speech, et cetera,” Maples said. “But when it interrupts and becomes more than that, and starts moving from bias and hate crime into a potential attack scenario, that’s what we’re really focused on, stopping and interjecting to hopefully deter an attack. But I say all that to say we definitely are concerned with the outcome of this.”
“I know that we don’t assign one particular outcome. I think we’re seeing extremism really in multiple areas across the board.”
NBC(NEW YORK) — NBC has given a contract extension to Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, an insider tells The New York Times. His previous deal ran through 2021. Further details were not revealed of the extension were not revealed. 
