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Luke Bryan got a little weepy during son Tate’s 10th birthday surprise

• No Comments • Country Music News

ABC/Image Group LALuke Bryan’s son, Tate, turned 10 years old this week, and his family celebrated the occasion with an unforgettable surprise. 

Luke posted a video of the special moment on social media, beginning with a shot of the birthday boy and his mom, Caroline, sitting in their kitchen. “There is one little surprise for your birthday,” Caroline tells Tate.

All of the sudden, in walks Luke’s nephew, Til Cheshire, who came home from college just to celebrate Tate’s birthday. Tate runs over and tackles Til with a hug as the two Bryan boys enjoy a sweet reunion.

But Tate wasn’t the only one who had an emotional reaction to the surprise.

“Omg. I’m crying,” wrote Luke in the caption of his post. “Tate just got his 10th birthday surprise. Til!!! Happy birthday buddy.”

In fact, the past few weeks have been bittersweet for everyone in the Bryan household, as Luke and Caroline dropped Til off for his freshman year of college in early August. On social media, Caroline admitted that although she was proud of her nephew for taking his first steps as an adult, she had “been dreading this day for years.”

The country superstar couple adopted Til and his two sisters, Jordan and Kris, after the death of the singer’s brother-in-law, Ben Lee Cheshire, in 2014. Ben was married to the singer’s sister, Kelly, who unexpectedly died in 2007.

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

NCAA chief medical officer: 'It's a very narrow path to get fall sports right'

• No Comments • Sports News

jetcityimage/iStockBy EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — As some college athletic conferences postpone fall sports and others forge ahead, Dr. Brian Hainline, senior vice president and chief medical officer at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), warned Thursday, “It’s a very narrow path to get fall sports right.”

“In April, we were envisioning that there would be a continued downward trajectory of COVID-19 new infections and deaths, that there would be a national surveillance system national testing, and national contact tracing that would allow us to really navigate this pandemic into re-socializing both in sport and then the rest of society,” he said during a media briefing hosted by the Infectious Diseases Society of America on the impact of COVID-19 on college athletics.

“That hasn’t happened, and it’s made it very challenging to make decisions as we approach fall sport,” Hainline said.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor of medicine and global health at Emory University and a member of the NCAA’s COVID-19 advisory panel, recommended “that we hold off and we control this virus.”

“My advice to organizations that I’ve talked to is: if you cannot do it safely, you shouldn’t do it,” del Rio said at Thursday’s briefing.

The U.S. has “a quarter of the world’s total number of cases,” Del Rio stressed.

“I feel like the Titanic, and we have hit the iceberg, and we’re trying to make decisions of what time we should have the band play,” del Rio went on. “I think a lot of the discussions of whether we should have sports, [or] we shouldn’t have sports, should really be focused on getting control of the pandemic.”

The Pac-12, Big Ten and Big East conferences announced this week that they’re postponing all fall sports.

The Big 12 announced Wednesday that it will move forward with fall sports this year and will give athletes in high-contact sports including football three COVID-19 tests per week.

The SEC is also moving forward. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said Tuesday, “We will continue to further refine our policies and protocols for a safe return to sports as we monitor developments around COVID-19.”

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Andrew Lloyd Webber announces he'll take experimental COVID-19 vaccine

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic(LONDON) — Acclaimed composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, like many in the entertainment industry, is looking forward to the day when theaters can reopen safely.  He also has made it known that he will do anything to save live theater. 

The Tony Award winner announced Wednesday that he’s volunteered to help in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Webber, 72, will officially join the vaccine trial helmed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca on Thursday, which has reportedly shown promising results.

“I am excited that tomorrow I am going to be vaccinated for the Oxford Covid 19 trial,” the Cats composer announced in a tweet. “I’ll do anything to prove that theatres can re-open safely.”

Webber has remained a staunch critic of theater closures in England, saying the extended blackout threatens their very survival.  

Already, there has been some casualties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In the U.S., Disney’s Frozen on Broadway — that opened in March 2018 –became the first Broadway giant to announce its permanent closure.

Thomas Schumacher, president and producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, cited the “industry-wide shutdown and resulting economic fallout” from the COVID-19 pandemic as to why the beloved show won’t return once the Great White Way’s lights turn back on in January.

Other Broadway shows that also announced their closures include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Hangmen.

By Megan Stone
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

CBS renews 'Tough As Nails'; host Phil Keoghan says the show's authenticity is the key to its success

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Monty Brinton/CBS 2020 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.(LOS ANGELES) — CBS has announced it has renewed the reality competition series Tough as Nails for a second season, a month after it debuted.

The Phil Keoghan-hosted show salutes everyday heroes, from fishermen to firefighters, by having them compete in a series of real-world physical, mental and skills challenges.

Keoghan tells ABC Audio that even though the show was conceived and shot before the COVID-19 pandemic brought home the importance of essential workers, Tough As Nails was conceived to celebrate the people that have always provided for us. The multiple-Emmy winning Amazing Race veteran explains the authenticity of the new series, and the contestants they choose, are key to the show’s success.

“You’re competing for real money,” says Keoghan.  “And believe me, these people understand the value of a dollar. Every single one of them, because they work really hard.”

Keoghan adds, “They’re competing on real job sites. We haven’t…built sets, or it’s not an obstacle course or anything like that. It’s it’s real job sites. So we go to farms and we go to factories, we go to a pick-a-part. They are competing in real job sites, doing real jobs, building fences. And that’s to me what has gives the show its authenticity.”  

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Viral Trump impersonator Sarah Cooper lands Netflix special

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Credit: Mindy Tucker(LOS ANGELES) — Author/comedian Sarah Cooper, who has become a viral sensation with her impersonations of President Donald Trump on TikTok, has landed her own Netflix special, titled Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine, the streamer announced on Wednesday.

The special, directed by Orange Is the New Black alum Natasha Lyonne and executive produced by Saturday Night Live vet Maya Rudolph, will feature a “vignettes dealing with issues of politics, race, gender, class and other light subjects,” according to Netflix.

Cooper, 42, will also be “joined by a fantastic array of special guests who will participate in short interviews, sketches and more shenanigans.”

Cooper, whose satirical lip-sync impressions of the president have gained mainstream attention over the past several months, have earned her praise from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Stiller, Halle Berry, Cher and Jerry Seinfeld, among others.

Prior to that, Cooper was a writer and correspondent on the CBS All Access pilot Old News, which was produced by Stephen Colbert, and wrote the best-selling books 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings and How to be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings.

She also guest hosted Tuesday’s edition of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine is set to premiere sometime in the fall.

By George Costantino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.