ABC/Jeff Lipsky(LOS ANGELES) — The Emmys air Sunday night on ABC, with Jimmy Kimmel serving as host for what will be first major awards show during the pandemic — a position he never could’ve imagined when he agreed to the gig.
“They asked me to host the Emmys well before the pandemic occurred, and it seemed like it would be fun at the time, and now it seems like it’s going to be less fun,” he admits.
“Hopefully it will be entertaining for the people at home, adds the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host, who points out, “you have nothing to do” anyway.
Kimmel, who’ll get his third shot at hosting the show, says putting together the Emmys broadcast is already “a massive undertaking,” but not nearly as hard as this year’s telecast.
“Just think about having a zoom with your family and how complicated that is. Even just getting grandma to look at the camera, get her whole face on camera. Multiply that by like a million, and that’s what we’re dealing with here.”
To insure things go as smoothly as possible, “we are sending out…a box and it has a camera in it and it will connect you right to the Emmys,” says Kimmel, who sees a potential downside to the plan.
“I guess the hope is that after the Emmys, people will send this stuff back. I don’t know. I don’t think I would if I won,” he jokes. “If I didn’t win, I would keep it. That would be my award for the night.”
Kimmel calls Los Angeles’ Staples Center, where he’ll be hosting from “a perfect place to do it.”
“There won’t be…as many people as there usually are,” but “we’ll have the whole crew and…select celebrities on hand to infect me,” he says.
(MADISON, Wisc.) — A day after the Big Ten decided to resume the football season, local officials announced University of Wisconsin, Madison has had over 40 football players and staff test positive for COVID-19 so far.
On Wednesday, the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors announced that the conference’s football season will resume next month, after previously voting to postpone it until the spring. That same day, officials in UW-Madison’s county released a statement advising students and people living in Dane County, where the university sits, not to gather to watch Badger football games.
“Of course it’s disappointing that something as well-loved as gathering to watch Badger football games can’t happen this year,” Janel Heinrich, director of Public Health Madison & Dane County, said in the statement. “But the reality is that it’s not possible to have a traditional football season without substantially increasing COVID-19 transmission. We value people’s health and lives over sports, and we hope that UW does as well.”
Since students began returning to campus in late August, the university has seen a “record” number of cases, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi noted in the statement. UW-Madison has paused in-person instruction for two weeks, through Sept. 25, to address a “rapid increase” in COVID-19 cases among students living both on and off campus. Parisi warned that festivities around football Saturdays “are going to serve as new spreading events within our community.”
The city’s mayor voiced similar concerns. “The increase in cases we are seeing is predominantly due to parties. Adding football parties into this mix is only going to make the situation worse,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said in the statement.
On Thursday, UW-Madison reported 190 new positive COVID-19 tests among students and employees from on- and off-campus testing. As of Thursday morning, 400 students were in on-campus isolation, it said. There have been nearly 2,400 confirmed cases among UW-Madison students and employees since July 28, according to Public Health Madison & Dane County.
As of Wednesday, 42 players and staff on the football team had tested positive for COVID-19, noting the risks posed to student-athletes during the pandemic, according to the county health department. “Emerging evidence and research is showing that even though athletes recover from COVID-19, serious long term health issues can persist, including myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, which can lead to heart failure,” the statement said.
The university started testing student-athletes and staff in June.
New medical protocols announced by Big Ten officials this week include daily antigen testing for student-athletes, coaches, trainers and others on the field for practices and games. The 14 Big Ten institutions will also establish a cardiac registry to examine the effects on COVID-19-positive student-athletes, they said.
In its statement, the county health department said it does not have authority over the university’s campus, including Camp Randall football stadium, but that it will continue to enforce its public health orders in partnership with the Madison Police Department when it can. Per an executive order, mass gatherings indoors are limited to 10 people, and those outside are limited to 25, not including employees.
UW spokesperson Greg Bump said in a statement to ABC News that the university would “further coordinate with local agencies and public health regarding game days.”
“Saturdays at Camp Randall will look very different,” the statement said, noting that Big Ten officials are not allowing any fans in the stands or public ticket sales. The university is currently working on plans to allow the families of student-athletes to attend the games, Bump said.
“Game day usually means getting together but now, in order to protect the season and our community, we all need to cheer the Badgers responsibly and in accordance with public health guidelines,” the statement said.
The Big Ten has yet to release the schedule for the season, which is set to start the weekend of Oct. 23.
Brent Harrington/CBSMickey Guyton made history at the 55th ACM Awards Wednesday night.
The 37-year-old performed “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” with Keith Urban on piano, making her the first Black female country artist to play her own song at a major awards show.
Many were taken by the emotional lyrics and the message of the song.
“She thinks life is fair and / God hears every prayer / And everyone gets their ever after,” Mickey sings. “She thinks love is love and if / You work hard, that’s enough / Skin’s just skin and it doesn’t matter / And that her friend’s older brother’s gonna keep his hands to himself / And that somebody’s gon’ believe her when she tells.”
“But what are you gonna tell her / When she’s wrong,” the lyrics continue. “Will you just shrug and say it’s been that way all along / What are you gonna tell her / When she figures out / That all this time you built her up just so the world could let her down.”
Following the performance, Mickey was praised on social media by viewers and fellow country artists.
Kelsea Ballerini wrote, “Wow. @MickeyGuyton that is a performance that will make people listen, think, and change. Me included. You are a force.”
Trisha Yearwooddescribed the performance as “beautiful.”Tenille Townes said Mickey’s debut was “incredible.” Many attached the hashtag “#MickeyMakesHistory” to their comments praising the singer.
“What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” is just one of the tracks from Mickey’s recently released Bridges EP.
ABC NewsBY: MATT GUTMAN, IGNACIO TORRES, JAKE LEFFERMAN, and HALEY YAMEDA, ABC News
(LOS ANGELES) — The ambush of two Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies this weekend shocked the country, but it was only the latest incident during a summer of unrest that included nightly stand-offs between police and protesters against police brutality.
While the details and motive for this weekend’s ambush remain unknown, the incident illustrates the fears of many of those in uniform. These fears have only been exacerbated by a series of shootings and killings of Black men, including George Floyd, that have soured the public’s attitudes toward police.
“There is much work to be done, but we can’t do it alone. We need to have our community members join with us so that we can see a positive future in American policing, so that we can start to change some of the things,” said police captain Yulanda Williams.
The sheriff’s deputies shot over the weekend were taken to an emergency room in south LA, where a small group of protesters gathered outside to heckle the officers. The shooting follows rising tensions between police and civilians in the area after sheriff deputies shot and killed Dijon Kizzee in broad daylight on Aug. 31. Police and eyewitnesses said Kizzee appeared unarmed at the time of the shooting.
“People wouldn’t be out here, the outpouring wouldn’t be out here if this wasn’t murder. Look at all the outpouring. It wouldn’t be like this if this wasn’t murder. This was murder,” said Reggie Cole, Kizzee’s friend.
Cole was with Kizzee just before he was killed last month, and says he’s a survivor of the gang wars in the Westmont neighborhood of LA, where he says there’s still a heavy handed presence by the LA sheriffs.
“The classic definition of a police officer — to serve and protect — has no meaning around here,” said Cole.
Cole was wrongfully charged and convicted of murder in 1994. He spent 16 years in prison and 10 of those years in solitary confinement before being exonerated in 2009.
“In my opinion, law enforcement should be held more responsible than a layman — than a person in the streets. You’re supposed to know the law,” he said. “You should have a higher accountability than a normal person because you’re there to uphold the law. Our whole thing is that we want justice for families. We just want justice. Where is the accountability?”
Compton Mayor Aja Brown believes the way to build trust between communities and police is to increase accountability in law enforcement.
“There’s just, I believe, a disconnect between community and law enforcement and there is an overarching feeling of not feeling safe in regards to law enforcement,” said Brown. “There are so many instances of unanswered justice for our community, and it’s really hard to tell someone to heal when there hasn’t been any form of restitution or reconciliation or atonement.”
As of now, one of the ambushed LA officers remains in the hospital and the FBI is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the gunman.
“We’re out here to protect and the fact that somebody would do that, it’s kind of a hurt feeling,” said Ron Hernandez, the president of the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. “Like why would somebody do that to us? It’s personal, it’s heartbreaking that somebody would try to kill one of us?”
Hernandez said both officers are recuperating. But the 36 year veteran of the LA Sheriff’s Department insisted that while the ambush might make deputies more cautious it would not otherwise change their behavior or protocol.
Williams said she is worried that videos of both Black men and officers being shot are getting politicized.
“We need to be respectful of life, and we need to recognize when you kill someone, they’re not going to come back,” said Williams.
As an officer of color herself, Williams said that this summer, she has found herself navigating between the hurt in her community and the frustration of her colleagues.
“We want to be able to establish a much better relationship, but right now, many officers are afraid of the unknown,” said Williams. “My brothers and sisters in blue need to recognize that we can’t take this personally. However, we can use this moment in time where people are angry… We can use it as an opportunity to be better, to be stronger.”
Corporal Ryan Tillman, of the Chino Police Department, is trying to “rebrand” the message police officers are sending into their community.
“When I put that uniform on, my goal is to go out there, change a perception of how people view police officers,” said Tillman. “What really goes in my mind is really wanting to be a change agent for our community and rebranding what law enforcement looks like.”
Tillman is the founder of Breaking Barriers United, a group aimed at repairing the bond between law enforcement and the community through workshops and mentorship.
“I was not a fan of police officers. Once I became a police officer, I saw the job completely different, and so one of the things I’ve done from early on is acknowledge our wrongs,” he said. “I’ve told people I’m sorry on behalf of a lot of bad policing you’ve seen out there. And then what that has allowed me to do is now it lays the foundation of honesty, transparency and empathy.”
Even as programs like Breaking Barriers United work to build trust between the two communities, some believe making amends needs to extend to structural change.
Cole said on behalf of his community, “The only way we can change this situation is for us to change the way [law enforcement] deals with us: through legislation.”
Harris, 21, has been accused of contacting two underage boys on social media and repeatedly asking them to produce and send sexually explicit videos and photographs of themselves, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
The complaint also states that one of the victims, who said that he was first contacted by Harris in December 2018, informed Harris during a conversation on social media that he was 13 years old.
An attorney for Harris did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. His attorneys also declined to speak to reporters while leaving court on Thursday.
Harris is scheduled to appear in court for a detention hearing on Monday. If convicted, the TV personality could face 15 to 30 years in prison.
USA Todayreported Monday that the FBI had executed a search warrant at Harris’ home in Naperville, Illinois, amid allegations that he’d solicited sex and sexually explicit photographs from minors. At the time, a representative for the FBI would only confirm that the organization was conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activity in the area,” and offered no additional comment.
“We categorically dispute the claims made against Jerry Harris, which are alleged to have occurred when he was a teenager,” the spokesperson said. “We are confident that when the investigation is completed the true facts will be revealed.”
The alleged victims and their mother filed a lawsuit on Monday in Texas against Harris, Varsity Brands, the U.S. All Star Federation and the Cheer Athletics gym where Harris cheered.
ABC/Jeff Lipsky(LOS ANGELES) — The Emmys air Sunday night on ABC, with Jimmy Kimmel serving as host for what will be first major awards show during the pandemic — a position he never could’ve imagined when he agreed to the gig.
