ABC(LOS ANGELES) — Derek Hough is known for his moves on the dance floor and for leading many of his dance partners to victory on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. But this season, he’s shaking things up as a judge.
Hough, who left DWTS in 2016, was on the show for nine years and 17 seasons, during which he won six mirrorball trophies — the most in DWTS history. He said returning to the ballroom has always been something that he’s wanted to do.
“The show has been and will always be incredibly special to me,” Hough said in a statement announcing his return. “Coming back feels like coming home and I couldn’t be more excited to be back in the ballroom.”
Hough joins longtime judges Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli. Due to current circumstances with the pandemic, Len Goodman will be unable to judge this season live in the ballroom, though he’ll share his ballroom expertise remotely from the U.K.
Hough’s addition to the judges’ table will make him the second person in his family to be a Dancing with the Stars judge. His sister, Julianne Hough, stepped in as a guest judge in season 19 of DWTS and held that position until 2017.
Hough’s new role comes as many changes are already slated for the new season, including the addition of supermodel Tyra Banks as a new host and executive producer.
The new season of Dancing with the Stars premieres on Monday, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT, on ABC.
The time-bending thriller, starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Kenneth Branagh, and Elizabeth Debicki, debuted with an impressive $7,189 per-theater average over the long holiday weekend.
Tenet was initially slated to arrive in theaters on July 17, but was later postponed until July 31, then August 12, and finally August 28 — though only overseas, where it has pulled in $126 million over two weekends for a total of $146.2 million.
Finishing in second place was Fox’s The New Mutants, which opened with a disappointing $7 million last weekend. The X-Men spin-off grabbed an estimated $3.6 million over the Labor Day weekend. It’s now collected $12.35 million here in the States, with an additional $8.5 million overseas for a worldwide total of $20.85.
In third place was the Russell Crowe thriller Unhinged, delivering an estimated $2.2 million in its fourth week of release. The film has earned a total of $11.83 million from 2,754 theaters stateside and $12 million overseas, bringing its global earnings to $23.83 million.
Bill & Ted Face the Music, the third chapter in the Bill & Ted franchise, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, pulled in an estimated $809,794 from 953 theaters, bringing its total U.S. gross to $2.3 million.
Rounding out the top five was The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, which delivered an estimated $470,000 from 304 theaters. The animated feature’s total domestic earnings total $3.44 million. It has yet to open overseas.
(NEW YORK) — Amid the smiling fans seen as cardboard cutouts supporting their favorite baseball team during a crowdless season due to the coronavirus pandemic, one stands out.
The face of Joaquin Oliver, a 17-year-old victim of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and staff members, has been seen in the crowd at 14 different ballparks this season — from Oracle Park in San Francisco to Citi Field in New York.
The cutouts of Joaquin were placed in baseball stadiums by Change the Ref, the nonprofit organization formed by his parents, Manuel and Patricia Oliver, to raise awareness about mass shootings and bring an end to gun violence.
The MLB initiative is called “83 Strikes and No Outs” because, according to Change the Ref, there have been “83 additional school shootings and zero changes to federal gun laws,” since a teen gunman walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, and killed Joaquin and 16 of his fellow students, teachers and coaches.
“It’s very sad, but I guess that’s the point,” Manuel Oliver told ABC News’ Good Morning America of seeing his late son’s image amid cheering fans in baseball stadiums.
“I need to let everybody know that this random tragedy that hit our family, it could hit you tomorrow,” he said. “I need to go beyond sadness and be strong enough, because I have to, and have this story told that explains how this kid isn’t able to be there anymore watching the games that he loved so much unless he’s printed on a cardboard.”
Seeing Joaquin’s face in baseball stadiums across the country is particularly poignant for Oliver, who always supported his son’s passion for baseball despite not playing or following the game himself.
Two years before Joaquin’s death, he and Oliver had started an annual tradition of flying to a city, renting a car and then driving to all the nearby baseball stadiums.
“You have to fall in love, or at least support, the passion of your kids,” said Oliver, an artist who has also painted murals across the country featuring Joaquin. “Imagine if I hadn’t done that [with Joaquin and baseball]. How would I feel today?”
“Every minute that I spent with Joaquin, on the baseball field, in the baseball park, in trainings, it’s one of the most valuable treasures that I hold today,’ he said.
Oliver said he hopes the sight of Joaquin in the crowds inspires people to take action and join the fight against gun violence, whether it’s by voting, educating themselves, joining Change the Ref or even getting to know kids in their community who may be in need of help.
“I didn’t see a message like this one before Feb. 14,” he said. “Maybe if someone had the brave attitude of doing something like this before Parkland, maybe I would have been one of the lucky ones to see that, and maybe I would have done something before Joaquin was murdered. [I would have been] part of the solution.”
More than two dozen school shootings happened in the U.S. in 2019 alone, according to an ABC News analysis of incidents at K-12 schools. And school shootings represent just a tiny fraction of the firearm crimes in the U.S., with more than 185,000 aggravated assaults with a firearm in 2018 alone, according to FBI data.
Oliver said he is hopeful that things will change when it comes to gun violence and gun reform in the U.S., and he is hopeful that Joaquin will continue to lead the way for change.
“My son is not a kid who died and you can visit him every Sunday in the cemetery and that’s it,” said Oliver. “No, my son will be a main element in the change that this nation is screaming for, and that makes me feel a little better than just remembering my son as the kid who went to school and never came back home.”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events: MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE Washington 6, Tampa Bay 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE Minnesota 6, Detroit 2 Seattle 8, Texas 4 Cleveland 5, Kansas City 2 Toronto 12, NY Yankees 7 Oakland 6, Houston 0 NATIONAL LEAGUE Philadelphia 9, NY Mets 8 Miami 5, Atlanta 4 Chi Cubs 5, St. Louis 1 San Francisco 4, Arizona 2 San Diego 1, Colorado 0
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS Boston 111, Toronto 89 (Boston leads 3-2) LA Clippers 113, Denver 107 (LA leads 2-1)
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS Tampa Bay 8, NY Islanders 2 (Tampa Bay leads 1-0) WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION Connecticut 85, Phoenix 70
Howard BooksIt’s been nearly twenty years since Sara Evans topped the chart with her CMA Award-winning hit, “Born to Fly.” Now, the inspirational title takes wing again, as the ACM Top Female Vocalist releases her autobiography of the same name.
However, the Missouri native admits she initially had reservations about putting her life down on paper.
“At first I thought, ‘I don’t want to write an autobiography. The kids are too young,'” Sara tells ABC Audio. “And I didn’t think that I could write it to where it would be juicy enough.”
“So I initially wanted to write a book about, sort of, unsolicited advice,” she explains, “Like, ‘I don’t know how she does it, raising kids on the road, having this career, being a stepmother to four, being a wife, trying to be everything to everyone.'”
But Sara soon figured out that advice and autobiography work hand-in-hand.
“The more we wrote the book, the more we realized, ‘Well, I need to tell some stories about my life that will relate to the advice,'” she recalls. “Because otherwise, why am I just giving advice if I’m not talking about [the fact that] I went through hard times, this is how my mother raised us?”
Finally, Sara dismissed her co-writers and tackled the project herself.
“I sat down with a computer, rewrote the whole book,” she reveals. “And I love it so much more than what it was initially, because it was just not — it wasn’t funny. It wasn’t in my voice.”
“This book is like me just sitting down with you and telling you about my life,” she adds. “And if we had, y’know, five hours to sit over dinner, this is what I would accomplish telling you.”
ABC(LOS ANGELES) — Derek Hough is known for his moves on the dance floor and for leading many of his dance partners to victory on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. But this season, he’s shaking things up as a judge.
