From the Piano Man's final bow at MSG to drama off the NBA court, here are your top entertainment headlines.
Billy Joel Leaving MSG
After performing a staggering 150+ shows at the world-famous Madison Square Garden, Billy Joel's ten-year residency is set to end.
Joel, who holds the record for most shows at MSG, announced that his final show at the venue will take place in summer 2024. Over the course of his stay at the Garden, he sold more than 1.6 million tickets.
"The greatest arena run of all time is coming to an end. The historic sold-out monthly residency at the World's Most Famous Arena will conclude in July 2024 with his 150th lifetime performance," the official account for Joel said in a tweet.
Joel's first-ever performance at MSG was in December 1978. The singer is such a staple at the iconic arena that in 2006, following his 12th consecutive show, a banner in his name was raised above the New York Knicks home court – a sight the team had not seen since 1999 when they won the Eastern Conference Finals.
Speaking of the NBA Finals, the first game between conference champions Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat is set to tip-off tonight but it will be without a familiar face.
Referee Eric Lewis, who has worked the finals for the last four seasons, is currently embroiled in controversy. In the midst of the NBA post-season he was accused of maintaining a secret Twitter account that appeared to support calls he and other refs were making on the court. Now the league is investigating.
"Regarding Eric Lewis and the social media posts, we are continuing to review the matter and he will not be working the Finals," NBA spokesman Mike Bass told the Associated Press.
Critics have compared the potential scandal to that of Tim Donaghy, a former ref who pleaded guilty in 2007 to two felony conspiracy charges for his role in a gambling scheme.
In Other Sports News...
The once-upon-a-time dynamic duo of Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe will no longer exist after the 2023 NBA Finals.
Fox Sports and Sharpe apparently reached a buyout deal that will end his seven-year run at the network. The writing has been on the wall for some time now and became even more clear in recent months when debates around Tom Brady and DaMar Hamlin seemed to get personal between the two. What's next for both talking heads remains to be seen and neither addressed the elephant in the room during Thursday's broadcast.
Tupac's Star
Tupac Shakur has been deceased for nearly three decades but his impact continues to be felt today. Now, the late rapper and activist is set to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The news comes during the success of FX's Dear Mama docuseries, which highlights the unique relationship between he and his mother, the late Afeni Shakur. It's the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce's 2,758th star and according to Ana Martinez, producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Tupac's impact will continue to be felt.
"This iconic artist has continued to be part of the zeitgeist for decades after his passing and will continue to be an important cultural figure for many years to come," she said in a statement.
Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini joined Cheddar's Kristen Scholer to discuss plans for the future even as COVID-19 upended Barstool's sponsorship of the Arizona Bowl featuring the Boise State Broncos and the Central Michigan Chippewas due to the spreading omicron variant. "In our case as a company, coronavirus has been a big boom for us," she noted. "We've been able to create a lot of new programming, launch a lot of different personalities, and frankly take share from traditional media, and that's what we've done the entire pandemic." While she admitted to taking a hit on the canceled Bowl game, live events aren't completely off the table for Barstool in 2022. Nardini also talked about potential sports betting expansion following its partnership with Penn National Gaming.
Five women have been named to the U.S. short-track speedskating team for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Among those five, there was only one returning Olympian of the group, Maame Biney, who competed in the 2018 Olympics as the first African-American woman to ever qualify for the U.S. short-track speedskating team. JD sat down with Biney to discuss how she's preparing for the games.
Eric Mitchell, Sports Analyst and President & CEO of LifeFlip Media, breaks down the updated rules around testing in the NFL and outlines how vaccinated players are impacted by new return-to-play guidelines.
Carlo and Baker kick off the weirdest week of the year with all the news you missed over the holiday weekend, including calls for the CDC to shorten its isolation window as Omicron sweeps through the country.
The 2022 Winter Olympics will be without some of hockey's biggest players. The NHL and the NHL Player's Association have agreed to not participate in the men's hockey tournament at the Games in Beijing next year. The league has been forced to postpone some games because of a rise in COVID-19 cases among players. Washington Post sports reporter Samantha Pell joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what this could mean for the Winter Olympics and the sport of hockey.
Former professional tennis player Patrick McEnroe joined Cheddar to discuss the troubling issues surrounding player Peng Shuai who appeared potentially to have been silenced following her social media post accusing former Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. Shuai's subsequent disappearance, reappearance, and apparent retraction of the accusation in an interview only added to worries. "When this happened, all of us in the tennis community were very concerned. And, by the way, another thing Peng said in this interview was that she doesn't speak very good English," McEnroe noted. "Well I can assure you, she speaks darn good English, 'cause I spoke to her on many occasions over the last 15 years."
Carlo and Baker cover the heartening news on the Covid front ahead of the holiday, plus President Biden punting student loan repayments again, a new space telescope and Love, Hate, Ate: Christmas Eve Eve Edition!
