'The Penguin' and Marvel sweep Critics Choice Super Awards

I closed 'Shogun' leads Action Series at the Super Awards with a program note: "That completes my series on the Critics Choice Super Awards nominations. I plan on returning with the winners next month." Here is the press release: Winners Announced For the Critics Choice Association’s 5th Annual “Critics Choice Super Awards” Honoring Superhero, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Horror, and Action Movies and Series.

“The Penguin” was the standout among this year’s television winners, taking home wins in all four of its nominated categories including Best Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-For-TV Movie. “The Penguin” star Colin Farrell also won Best Actor in a Superhero Series, Limited Series, or Made-For-TV Movie, as well as Best Villain in a Series, Limited Series, or Made-For-TV Movie, while Cristin Milioti was awarded Best Actress in a Superhero Series, Limited Series, or Made-For-TV Movie.

“Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” and “Sinners” lead this year’s film winners, having earned two wins each. “Deadpool & Wolverine” was named Best Superhero Movie, while Hugh Jackman earned Best Actor in a Superhero Movie. “Dune: Part Two” was recognized as Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie, with Timothée Chalamet honored as Best Actor in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie. “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” took home Best Action Movie, with its star Tom Cruise winning Best Actor in an Action Movie. In the Horror categories, “Sinners” won Best Horror Movie, and Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor in a Horror Movie.

Since the Critics Choice Association (CCA) showcased the leading television winner first, I'll follow suit with the relevant passages from 'The Last of Us' leads TV nominees at the Critics Choice Super Awards.

The most nominated show purely in superhero categories is The Penguin with four, followed by Agatha All Along and The Boys tied with Fallout and The Last of Us at three each and Superman & Lois with two. The Last of Us is almost certainly the favorite, but The Penguin has a very strong chance to upset. It helps that it has great nominated actors.

I was right to call for an upset; The Penguin won.

Pascal will have a much harder time repeating in this category than for horror actor. He's up against Colin Farrell as The Penguin himself...I think Farrell is the favorite to win this award...

As I predicted, Farrell won.

Like Farrell, Cristin Milioti won Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television at the main Critics Choice Awards, won Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series at the Saturn Awards, and leads the Gold Derby odds for Outstanding Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie at this year's Primetime Emmy Awards...my choice is Milioti.

I made the right choice, Milioti won.

I think Farrell is the favorite to win as a villain protagonist...

And he did, winning two Super Awards!

Now for the horror categories in that post.


The Last of Us won Best Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-For-TV Movie. I implied it was most likely to win when I wrote "True Detective: Night Country [is] my choice to upset The Last of Us..." It didn't, not here. I also wrote "I think Pedro Pascal has [Best Actor in a Horror Series, Limited Series, or Made-For-TV Movie] in the bag." He won. I'm also claiming the next category.

I don't think Bella Ramsey is assured of winning this, despite her carrying the current season. I picked Jodie Foster to win Best Actress in a Television Series at the Saturn Awards and I would have done so in a field with Ramsey. I won't have to, but the Critics Choice Association members do.

As I expected, Foster won Best Actress in a Horror Series, Limited Series, or Made-For-TV Movie.


Now for the superhero movies, which I covered in 'Deadpool & Wolverine' and 'Thunderbolts*' lead movie nominees at the Critics Choice Super Awards where I wrote "I think the advantage goes to Deadpool & Wolverine in large part because it already has a Critics' Choice Award for Best Comedy Movie. Remember, electorates matter." It won. I didn't fare as well in the next category, where I called the right movie, but favored the wrong actor: "I think this between Saturn Award winner Jackman and Saturn Award nominee Reynolds, with the edge to Reynolds for being the lead and playing two versions of himself on screen simultaneously. Regardless, whoever wins, Marvel will, too." It went to Jackman.


 Marvel won the next category, which I was even more ambivalent about: "I wouldn't put it past the Critics Choice Association to vote for Lady Gaga to recognize a good performance in a bad film or Pugh as the other female lead nominated, but my personal choice is Emmy winner Corrin, who also earned a nomination for this role in the next category." They voted for Pugh, making this a sweep for (Disney) Marvel.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the winners.

Yahoo! News asks 'How does the 25th Amendment work?' A Veep Day special

Happy National Veep Day! Last year, I celebrated with A History of the US Vice Presidency for Veep Day. This year, I'm looking forward to something that hasn't happened, but definitely could, the Vice President invoking the 25th Amendment. Watch Yahoo! News ask and answer How does the 25th Amendment work?

In the wake of the violent raid on Congress by pro-Trump rioters on Wednesday, there's speculation that Vice President Pence, along with heads of executive departments, will invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to temporarily remove the president from power. Harold Hongju Koh, professor of international law at Yale Law School and co-author of a reader's guide to the 25th Amendment, explains how this unprecedented action might play out.

Inside Edition added another detail when it asked What Is the 25th Amendment?

Demands mounted Thursday from lawmakers, business leaders and former government officials for the immediate removal of President Trump after a violent mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attack that left four people dead. Many have called for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump. So what is the 25th Amendment? Here's a synopsis of the constitutional provision that allows for the president's removal under certain circumstances.

I found Margaret Brennan saying "a two-thirds majority of the House and Senate would have to be on board with doing so" ambiguous — two-thirds to sustain the President's objection or two-thirds to keep him out of office? Here's the text of Section 4 from the National Constitution Center.

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

It would be two-thirds to keep him out. That's a high hurdle for this to succeed. I don't think Congress can jump that high right now. I don't even think Vice President Vance can get eight members of the current Cabinet on board. A President Vance could get more competent Cabinet secretaries than Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump was able to, at least during his second term. Also, should an attempt fail, Hoover Cleveland would replace anyone who voted for him to be removed. It's bad for their careers either way.

Besides, Vance invoking the 25th Amendment might result in a cure worse than the disease, as Katie Phang pointed out in Trump, Vance and the 25th Amendment.

78-year-old Donald Trump, who has survived two alleged assassination attempts in the past three months, would end his second term as the oldest person ever to serve as President of the United States. Katie Phang explains the reality of what could happen in the event of an emergency where Trump becomes incapacitated or dies and JD Vance could become president of the United States.

True, Vance would be less erratic (mercurial would be a polite way of saying it) and not driven by Hoover Cleveland's obsessions with tariffs, grifts, and revenge, but he'd be more likely to implement the parts of Project 2025 that Hoover Cleveland hasn't yet. He'd also be more under the influence of Palantir founder Peter Thiel, his pet bad philosopher Curtis Yarvin, and Palantir CEO Alex Karp. They're the sources of what I called "cyberpunk villain ideas straight out of Snow Crash..." Vance can certainly learn new tricks, but I worry about the ones Thiel, Yarvin, and Karp could teach him. They might be worse.

Enough DOOM. Stay tuned for the winners of the Super Awards as the Sunday entertainment feature.

'RuPaul's Drag Race' leads nominations for Outstanding Reality Competition Program, but 'The Traitors' will likely win again

I closed 'Shark Tank' vs. 'Queer Eye' for Outstanding Structured Reality Program at the Emmy Awards by telling my readers, "Stay tuned as I take one more bite at the reality TV apple when I examine the competition shows." Here are the nominees at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

Outstanding Reality Competition Program

• The Amazing Race (CBS)
• RuPaul's Drag Race (MTV)
• Survivor (CBS)
• Top Chef (Bravo)
• The Traitors (Peacock)

The main RuPaul's Drag Race leads with eight nominations. Add in RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked and the franchise has ten total. The Amazing Race sits in second with six. Defending winner The Traitors follows with five ahead of Survivor with four. Top Chef trails the field with three.

Gold Derby's odds scramble this order with 90% of experts, 83.3% of editors, and 83.6% of users expecting last year's winner The Traitors to repeat, 10% of experts and 10.1% of users think long-time winner RuPaul's Drag Race will return to the podium, 16.7% of editors and 2.1% chose Survivor, which replaced The Voice, to come from not being nominated last year to win in an upset, 2.8% of users picked Top Chef, and 1.4% of users have The Amazing Race in the back of the pack. If I were a Gold Derby user, I'd vote for The Traitors.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the nominations earned by the nominees for Outstanding Reality Competition Program.

'Shark Tank' vs. 'Queer Eye' for Outstanding Structured Reality Program at the Emmy Awards

As I promised twice, I'm continuing my Emmy Awards coverage with the nominees for Outstanding Structured Reality Program. Queer Eye vs. Shark Tank! Here are the nominees at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

Outstanding Structured Reality Program

• Antiques Roadshow (PBS)
• Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (Food Network)
• Love Is Blind (Netflix)
• Queer Eye (Netflix)
• Shark Tank (ABC)

The nominees are the same as last year and the year before, although the number of nominations per show differs. Queer Eye leads with three nominations, Shark Tank has two, and the rest have only this one. Despite not having the lead in nominations, Gold Derby is picking Shark Tank to win, as all the editors, 75% of the experts, and 80.7% of the users have chosen it to repeat last year's surprise win. One-quarter of the experts and 11.4% of users think Queer Eye will return to the podium. Love Is Blind is the choice of 3.5% of users, followed by Antiques Roadshow with the support of 2.7% of users and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives backed by 1.7%. I'm with the sharks. Speaking of whom...

Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program

• RuPaul Charles – RuPaul's Drag Race (MTV)
• Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Kevin O'Leary, Barbara Corcoran, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Daniel Lubetzky – Shark Tank (ABC)
• Alan Cumming – The Traitors (Peacock)
• Kristen Kish – Top Chef (Bravo)
• Jeff Probst – Survivor (CBS)

The only award the sharks are likely to win is a game of "one of these things is not like the others," as they are the only hosts of a structured reality program nominated; all the rest are hosts of competition shows. Gold Derby has them in last place with only 0.2% of users placing long-shot bets on them. Alan Cumming of The Traitors is the choice of every editor and expert along with 87.2% of users. RuPaul Charles of RuPaul's Drag Race has the support of 8.2% of users, followed by Jeff Probst of Survivor with 2.3%, Kristen Kish of Top Chef with 2.1%, and the poor sharks in last.

Follow over the jump for the categories behind the camera, where Queer Eye has its other nominations.

SciShow warns 'The Potato Famine Could Happen Again'

I promised "something scientific, environmental, or historical" today and I found all three in SciShow warning The Potato Famine Could Happen Again.

The famous Irish Potato Famine was thanks to farming practices and P. infestans (among other things). But are the Colorado Potato Beetle and the climate crisis teaming up to bring about the next potato famine? Here's what research suggests.

No, Niba, you don't need to continue; we get the point. You love potatoes.

The first part of the video is one of the stories I tell my students along with the Bananapocalypse, which I've blogged about more often here. On the other hand, I've only mentioned the Irish Potato Famine directly once in Food Day News from Overnight News Digest on Daily Kos 13 years ago and indirectly in Talk like Redd for Talk Like A Pirate Day, when I wrote, "I don't know how to break it to her, but potatoes will cause the Irish a lot of misery about 100 years in the character's future." It was about time I embedded a video about potato blight here, especially one that warns about the catastrophe potentially repeating and connects it to reduced biodiversity in crop plants and climate change. I only plan on teaching for another year, but I think it might be worth showing to my students. If so, welcome to blogging as professional development.

That's a wrap for today's topic. Stay tuned as I continue my Emmy Awards coverage with the nominees for Outstanding Structured Reality Program tomorrow. Queer Eye vs. Shark Tank!

'Welcome to Wrexham' vs. 'Love on the Spectrum' for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program at the Emmy Awards

I'm resuming my coverage of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards with the nominees for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program.

• America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (Netflix)
• Love on the Spectrum (Netflix)
• RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked (MTV)
• The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (Hulu)
• Welcome to Wrexham (FX)

2022 winner Love on the Spectrum leads with five nominations, followed by defending winner Welcome to Wrexham with three, 2021 winner RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked with two, and newcomers America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives with just this one. That's pretty much the order that Gold Derby predicts for the nominees. Half of the experts, 85.7% of the editors, and 77.4% of the users have chosen Love on the Spectrum to walk off the stage with the statuette. The other half of the experts, including Joyce Eng, 14.3% of the editors, and 12.8% of the users expect two-time winner Welcome to Wrexham will repeat. RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked has the support of 6.8% of users, while long shots The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders currently have the votes of 2.2% and 0.8% of users, respectively.

I'm watching the trailers to see which would be my pick, beginning with Love on the Spectrum U.S. | Season 3 Official Trailer | Netflix.

The search for true love continues as newcomers and returning favorites navigate the ups and downs of dating on the autism spectrum.

This is sweet. It is also shot, edited, and scored more like a documentary than a reality show, which shows the fine line between nonfiction and unstructured reality, a line crossed by United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell in 2023, where Bell found the competition stiffer.

Next, Welcome to Wrexham | Season 4 Official Trailer, which is also shot like a documentary.

I wish the whole world could visit Wrexham.

Watch the official Welcome to Wrexham trailer now.

That looks like fun, especially with the added star power of Tom Brady and Channing Tatum. Will it be enough to win? Maybe.

I'm not sure RuPaul’s Drag Race Live Untucked | Season 2 Trailer | WOW Presents Plus is the trailer for the nominated series, but it looks close enough.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Live Untucked captures what really happens behind the curtain of the hottest show on the Las Vegas Strip. Premieres April 16 on WOW Presents Plus: https://hubs.la/Q03dBxBM0

Welcome to Vegas, baby! Set at the iconic Flamingo Las Vegas, Season 2 of the outrageous, 6-part docu-series stars Drag Race legends: Bosco, Derrick Barry, Kennedy Davenport, Latrice Royale, Lawrence Chaney, Mirage, and Nymphia Wind[.]

I used to be a moderator of a web forum about Survivor and other reality TV shows, and this looks like the kind of reality TV I remember from those days. So does The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives | Official Trailer | Hulu.

Starring Taylor Frankie Paul, Demi Engemann, Jennifer Affleck, Jessi Ngatikaura, Layla Taylor, Mayci Neeley, Mikayla Mathews and Whitney Leavitt.

The scandalous world of a group of Mormon mom influencers implodes when they get caught in the midst of a swinging sex scandal that makes international headlines. Now, their sisterhood is shaken to its core. Faith, friendships, and reputations are all on the line. Will #MomTok be able to survive and continue to give the rulebook a run for its money, or will this group fall from grace?

I have opinions, both about the culture and about the technology that catalyzed the situation. I'm recycling what I wrote in PBS NewsHour on Great Salt Lake shrinking during the current drought for context on the former.

I have family connections to Utah and particularly the Salt Lake City area as My father went to Judge Memorial High School in Salt Lake City, which was the only Catholic High School in Utah at the time. That led my parents and middle sister to buy houses in and around Park City for investments and retirement. My middle sister and my nephew moved to Park City permanently and my mother summers there.

I'll sum up our reaction by quoting what I wrote in 2016, "My family roots for the U, not the Y!" My nephew even attends the University of Utah. Also, this show gives me another reason to be suspicious of TikTok.

The final trailer today is AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders | Official Trailer | Netflix.

Perfection isn't always perfect. With unfiltered access to the auditions, training camp and full NFL season, this is the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders like you've never seen them before. AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders premieres June 20th only on Netflix.

I was wondering if this is connected to Cheer and it is. That's a good sign, although it won't be enough for the show to win this year.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the nominations these shows earned.

'Bankrupt - TGI Fridays' by Bright Sun Films, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse

I made a promise in the conclusion to Company Man asks 'The Decline of TGI Fridays...What Happened?' A tale of the Retail Apocalypse: "I stand by my opinion that 'I feel like no bankrupt company's story is fully told until both Company Man Mike and Jake Williams of Bright Sun Films have weighed in.' Should Jake follow through with a video of his own, I'll post it here." Jake did. Watch Bankrupt - TGI Fridays.

From its inception as a bar in New York, TGI Fridays great to become a massive restaurant brand across America and even the world. With well over 600 locations domestically and 70,000 employees company wide, it was truly an enormous chain. However despite it's meteoric growth, it would all come crashing down in just a few short years. Join me as I find out what happened to this iconic chain restaurant and how it ultimately declared bankruptcy.

Jake's take on why TGI Fridays ended up declaring bankruptcy was different from Company Man Mike's. Jake paid much less attention to competitors except at the end and much more on external factors, like the Great Recession, which initiated TGI Fridays' decline, and pandemic, which finally did the chain in. Company Man Mike also ignored private equity, which CNBC thought was behind TGI Fridays' and Red Lobster's bankruptcies. Jake made that a central part of the second half of the story, although he generally seemed to think that the private equity firms were at least trying.

That written, I think it's time to repeat my standard rant about private equity."I listed a who's who of retail chains gutted by private equity in CNN Business explains retail bankruptcies and how private equity is gutting retail, tales of the Retail Apocalypse and again in Business Insider and CNBC explain the rise and fall of Chuck E. Cheese, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse and pandemic." Add Party City, Red Lobster, TGI Fridays, Joann, Weight Watchers, and At Home to that list.

I missed Why So Many TGI Friday Restaurants Are Closing | WSJ What Went Wrong last November, which told a similar and more compressed version of the chain's story.

TGI Fridays, widely considered the first singles bar in the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November, citing a problematic capital structure and fallout from the pandemic. The fast-casual restaurant chain has closed over 200 locations across the U.S. since 2019 and have even been kicked out of its headquarters in Dallas.

WSJ breaks down how the once happy hour hot spot lost its flair.

The Wall Street Journal added two factors that both Company Man Mike and Jake missed, whole business securitization and frequent leadership changes. The first is the kind of arcane financial arrangement that I'm not surprised WSJ caught but Mike and Jake ignored or glossed over, while the second is exactly the kind of thing Mike would normally catch. Now I'm wondering if Mike did his best work last November.

That's a wrap for today's installment of the slow-motion disaster that is the Retail Apocalypse. Stay tuned as I resume my coverage of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

'Dune: Part Two' vs. 'Wicked' and 'Star Trek' vs. 'Doctor Who' among Hugo Award nominees for dramatic presentation

As I promised yesterday, I'm covering the Hugo Award nominees for dramatic presentations and video games as the first Sunday entertainment feature of August. Here are the nominees for those categories from Twitter/X and the Hugo Awards website.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Dune: Part Two, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, directed by Denis Villeneuve (Legendary Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures)
• Flow, screenplay by Gints Zilbalodis and Matiss Kaža, directed by Gints Zilbalodis (Dream Well Studio)
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, screenplay by George Miller and Nick Lathouris, directed by George Miller (Warner Bros. Pictures)
• I Saw the TV Glow, screenplay by Jane Schoenbrun, directed by Jane Schoenbrun (Fruit Tree / Smudge Films / A24)
• Wicked, screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, directed by Jon M. Chu (Universal Pictures)
• The Wild Robot, screenplay by Chris Sanders and Peter Brown, directed by Chris Sanders (DreamWorks Animation)

I'm going to be a good environmentalist and recycle from 'Dune: Part Two' at the Critics Choice Super Awards: "Picking the winner is trivial; it will be Dune: Part Two." It's won the Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation over I Saw the TV Glow and Wicked, which answers my gripe about Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie at the Critics Choice Super Awards that "This could have been a more interesting contest if the Critics Choice Association (CCA) had nominated Wicked." At least some of the writers will vote/have voted for the Hugo Award, too. Electorates matter, and I'm not expecting a different fan choice to win like last year.

[T]he Hugo Awards staged a revenge of the nerds by awarding Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves the rocket trophy. This reminded me of the Saturn Awards voters voting for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny over Barbie for Best Fantasy Film. I guess Barbie was too much of a normie movie for the nerds' and geeks' tastes.

I think the fans will vote for Dune: Part Two.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• Fallout: “The Beginning” written by Gursimran Sandhu, directed by Wayne Che Yip (Amazon Prime Video)
• Agatha All Along: “Death’s Hand in Mine” written by Gia King & Cameron Squires, directed by Jac Schaeffer (Marvel, Disney+)
• Doctor Who: “Dot and Bubble” written by Russell T Davies, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams (BBC, Disney+)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: “Fissure Quest” created by Mike McMahan and written by Lauren McGuire based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry, directed by Brandon Williams (CBS Eye Animation Productions for Paramount+)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: “The New Next Generation” created and written by Mike McMahan, based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry, directed by Megan Lloyd (CBS Eye Animation Productions for Paramount+)
• Doctor Who: “73 Yards” written by Russell T Davies, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams (BBC, Disney+)

This category poses more of a challenge. While Doctor Who “Dot and Bubble” and all of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 earned nominations at the Nebula Awards, since both franchises have two nominees, they might suffer from vote splitting. If so, it will open the door for either Agatha All Along or Fallout, winners of Best Superhero Television Series and Best Science Fiction Television Series at the Saturn Awards, respectively, to walk through and claim the rocket trophy. If so, I think it will be Fallout. If not, then I predict it will be the Doctor Who episode, “Dot and Bubble.”

Best Game or Interactive Work

• Caves of Qud, co-creators Brian Bucklew and Jason Grinblat; contributors Nick DeCapua, Corey Frang, Craig Hamilton, Autumn McDonell, Bastia Rosen, Caelyn Sandel, Samuel Wilson (Freehold Games); sound design A Shell in the Pit; publisher Kitfox Games
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard produced by BioWare
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom produced by Nintendo
• Lorelei and the Laser Eyes produced by Simogo
• Tactical Breach Wizards developed by Suspicious Developments
• 1000xRESIST developed by sunset visitor 斜陽過客, published by Fellow Traveller

1000xRESIST was the only game nominated at the Hugo Awards also nominated at the Nebula Awards, but I don't think that will sway the fans because they probably weren't playing it. Instead, they'll vote for a game they actually played. Based on watching streamers on Twitch, I think the most played games in this field were Dragon Age: The Veilguard and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Between those two, I'd vote for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, as popular and fun as the Zelda games are.

I'm making an observation on Best Related Work before I conclude this entry. I suspect r/Fantasy’s 2024 Bingo Reading Challenge will win, but I'm rooting for “The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel” by Jenny Nicholson. It's her second Hugo nomination, and it examines an experiment that apparently succeeded critically but definitely failed commercially. Since Disney is in business to make money, it closed.

That's a wrap for today's Sunday entertainment entry. I plan on following through with "something...historical" tomorrow by embedding Bright Sun Films video on TGI Fridays bankruptcy. Stay tuned for the Retail Apocalypse!

SciShow examines the pancreas, 'The Organ That Drove a Scientist to Kill'

I'm not feeling like continuing my Emmy nominations coverage today.* Instead, I'm writing about something more personal, the pancreas, which SciShow examined in The Organ That Drove a Scientist to Kill.

In 1643, Johann Wirsung was shot and killed outside his home, but not before he named one of the men responsible. One rumor that has emerged over the years is the man was paid by one of Wirsung's former assistants, who claimed Wirsung had taken credit for a discovery the assistant had made: that the pancreas actually does stuff critical to keeping you alive.

I did not know about Johann Wirsung and his research and assassination before. While I did know about some of the other historical figures, like Galen and Andreas Vesalius, I didn't know about their incorrect ideas about the pancreas. Thanks to SciShow, I learned something new, so that makes today a good day.

On the other hand, I covered the story of Sir Frederick Banting in Celebrating 100 years of insulin for World Diabetes Day 2022, which wasn't new to me then, as I wrote "Not only am I an insulin-dependent diabetic, but I read the story of the discovery of insulin in junior high school and wrote a report on it for health class. That was fifty years ago, so I could use a refresher." I still learned something new about Banting and his research from SciShow, namely the fight between Banting and James Collip, which Charles Best broke up, and the drama over Banting and John Macleod's Nobel Prize. Yikes! The story of the pancreas is one of violence and conflict!

SciShow covered another story I heard my first semester at the University of Michigan about the sequencing of human insulin, its reverse translation and transcription into the gene for insulin, and its insertion into bacteria to produce human insulin, which works better than insulin from cows, pigs, and sheep and no animals have to die to produce it. I didn't know that happened in 1978, so I can add that detail when I tell the story to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

I wrote that this subject is personal, so I close with a relevant paragraph from Today is World Diabetes Day and November is National Diabetes Month.

I'm a diabetic and I can attest that I think about my condition an average of every 20 minutes throughout the day...I consider it to be a central organizing fact of my life. Oddly enough, I think it has focused me and improved my mental health. I now have a real threat to concentrate my attention on and consider every day a small victory over death.

Not only has the pancreas driven scientists to kill, the pancreas is trying to kill me and millions of others every day. That's what makes this subject personal.

*Don't worry, I'll return to the topic on Tuesday. In the meantime, stay tuned for the Hugo Award nominees for dramatic presentations and video games as the first Sunday entertainment feature of August and something scientific or historical on Monday.

'Jeopardy!' favored to win Game Show categories at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards

Happy August! I decided to begin the month by continuing my Emmy Awards coverage with the nominees in the game show categories at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

Outstanding Game Show

• Celebrity Family Feud (ABC)
• Jeopardy! (ABC / Syndicated)
• The Price is Right (CBS)
• Wheel of Fortune (ABC / Syndicated)
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (ABC)

Strictly speaking, Celebrity Family Feud, Jeopardy!, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire tie for first with two nominations each. However, as the publicity image from Twitter/X in the upper right corner above shows, Jeopardy! claims a third nomination for Pop Culture Jeopardy! I'll agree and use it as a tiebreaker. Gold Derby's assessment matches my handicapping from total nominations, with all experts, 85.7% of editors, and 91.7% of users expecting the winner to be Jeopardy! It's the two-time defending winner, so that's a reasonable expectation. Celebrity Family Feud has the support of 14.3% of editors and 4.5% of users. Thanks to 1.9% of the users, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire sits in third. The long-shot picks of The Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune are the choices of 0.9% of users each.

Outstanding Host for a Game Show

• Elizabeth Banks – Press Your Luck (ABC)
• Steve Harvey – Celebrity Family Feud (ABC)
• Ken Jennings – Jeopardy! (ABC / Syndicated)
• Colin Jost – Pop Culture Jeopardy! (Prime Video)
• Jimmy Kimmel – Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (ABC)

Despite winning the program category both times since game shows were transferred from the Daytime Emmy Awards to the Primetime Emmy Award, the hosts of Jeopardy! have never won Outstanding Host for a Game Show. The prognosticators at Gold Derby think that jinxed streak will be broken, as every expert and editor along with 77.2% of users predict that Ken Jennings will earn his first Emmy Award. Steve Harvey, the last winner of this category at the Daytime Emmys, sits in second with the support of 11.5% of users. Colin Jost, Elizabeth Banks, and Jimmy Kimmel are the choices of 4.9%, 3.6%, and 2.7% of users, respectively.

That's a wrap for today's coverage of Emmy nominations. Stay tuned to see if I resume with the nominees for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program tomorrow. In the meantime, I close with a blast from the past, "Weird Al" Yankovic - I Lost on Jeopardy (2022 version) - excerpt.

I re-recorded a bunch of my old songs for use in the Roku Channel biopic (WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story), and this is the one that got left on the cutting room floor. I didn't record the whole song, just one chorus - the reason being that we only needed a couple seconds of it for the movie. It was originally going to be used in the drunk driving scene, where Weird Al (Daniel Radcliffe) is repeatedly changing the channels on his car radio (and all the songs are Weird Al songs). Eric Appel (the director) and I ultimately decided that we didn't need to include this song, because we hadn't introduced it previously in the movie, and also because it would have cost us several thousand dollars extra in licensing fees. But since my band and I went through all the trouble of recording this 22-second masterpiece, we figured SOMEBODY should hear it!

Sorry, "Weird Al" Yankovic - I Lost On Jeopardy (Official HD Video) won't embed, so click the link to watch it.

Previous posts about the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards

• No PSAs among nominees for Outstanding Commercial plus winners for Outstanding Promotional Announcement at the Emmy Awards
• 'I Am: Celine Dion,' 'Patrice: The Movie,' and 'The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,' Emmy nominees for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking
• 'Asia' and 'The Americas' lead nature documentaries at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards
• 'Pee-wee as Himself' vs. 'Will & Harper' for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special on Tequila Day
• '100 Foot Wave' leads Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series in nominations, but could lose to 'SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night'
• 'The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: MAGA: The Next Generation' plus the Emmy nominees for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special
• Emmy nominee 'Desi Lydic Foxsplains the Epstein Files' plus the rest of the short form nominees at the Emmy Awards
• John Oliver examines 'Gang Databases' plus 'Last Week Tonight's six Emmy nominations
• Colbert, Lydic, and Meyers take closer looks at the EPA and Epstein and Kimmel goes down the rabbit hole on 'windmills'