Pride special on ABC 7 to celebrate Chicago’s LGBTQ community, June 28 – “ABC 7 Celebrates Pride: Fun and Fabulous”, an hour-long special hosted by Janet Davies and Terrell Brown, is being dedicated to Chicago LGBTQ first responders battling the pandemic. Several of these everyday heroes will share their first-person experiences. Musical performances include 16 Candles, Chicago’s premiere 80’s cover band; Katie Kadan, Chicago native and 2019 “The Voice” finalist; and Haley Reinhart, Wheeling native and former “American Idol” finalist. The hour-long special will air on Sunday, June 28, the original date for the annual parade, at 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. on ABC 7. – Read more at GoPride.com
‘Bachelor’ Arie Luyendyk Jr. reveals his wife, Lauren, had a miscarriage – A little over a month ago, we got the most exciting news and we found out that we were pregnant with our second baby. We made so many plans. We bought a new house with more space, we planned how we wanted to tell you all and we envisioned our future with Alessi’s little brother/sister. We were planning to share our journey through pregnancy with you, but unfortunately we didn’t get the happy story we had hoped for. We decided to share this part of our journey with you, because well, we share everything with you! But also because we hope that by talking about this we can make other couples going through these times a little less lonely.
National TV Advertising Fell 27% in April, But Madison Ave. Rushed to ‘Masked Singer’ – Millions of Americans forced to shelter at home are tuning in more TV. But in April many advertisers did not. Ad dollars allocated to national TV fell by 26.7% in April of this year to $2.7 billion, according to Standard Media Index, a tracker of ad spending, one of the first tangible estimates of how severely the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has affected one of the nation’s most popular mediums. SMI says ad revenue for broadcast television fell 33.4% to $907 million in April, while ad revenue for cable TV fell 24.8% to $1.66 billion. Syndicated TV, however, managed to snare new ad dollars, with revenue rising 12.1% to $140.2 million. Advertisers pulled back on scripted comedies and dramas, with SMI estimating ad revenue fell as much as 50% behind some regularly scheduled programs. In April, the most ad dollars were generated by Fox’s “The Masked Singer.” – Read more at Variety
‘American Idol’ Alum Constantine Maroulis Talks Covid’s Impact on Broadway: ‘Tons of Actors Got Sick’ – News reports suggest Broadway shows may be looking to raise its curtains in January, but Maroulis thinks that’s unlikely. “I think that’s optimistic,” he says. “Tons of Broadway actors got sick.” Among them: Maroulis’ “dear friend” and fellow “Rock of Ages” alum Nick Cordero, who’s been hospitalized for the better part of six weeks after contracting Covid-19. “He’s clinging to life,” says Maroulis. Watching the death toll climb to over 11,500 in his home state of New Jersey, Maroulis felt he had to take action, teaming up with the lifestyle television program HIP New Jersey and New Jersey News 12 to produce a virtual reality telethon raising money for the NJ Pandemic Relief Fund set for Sunday (May 31) at 8 p.m. EST. The benefit will also stream live on the HipNJ Facebook page. – Read more at Variety
VIDEO: Constantine Maroulis, Stevie van Zandt, and More Perform Nick Cordero’s ‘Live Your Life’ – Constantine Maroulis, Stevie Van Zandt, and more have teamed up for a performance of Nick Cordero’s song, Live Your Life. The group is calling itself Renegade Theater, named after the van Zandts’ Renegade Nation. The video is artistic directed by Maureen Van Zandt and Vincent Pastore. The video is directed by Sammy Semenza, with production assistance by Pamela Johnston. – Watch at BroadwayWorld.com
Lauren Mascitti Talks ‘American Idol’ and Reveals Her Grand Ole Opry Aspirations – Just the overall experience. I kind of expected people not to be so kind towards each other. Just from my experience with competitions, you know, you just get the feeling that you’re being sized up by everybody and it’s just an uncomfortable feeling. But this experience was totally different and everybody was just like a big family and we were genuinely happy whenever each other did well. [We were] cheering each other on and we became friends. That’s really the biggest surprise to me was just how kind everybody has been towards each other. – Read more at Country Now
The Profile: Gabby Barrett’s Big Year – The Singer Talks ‘Goldmine,’ Her Next Single and the Continuing Success of ‘I Hope’ – “When you write a song in a writing room, you never — even if you think a song’s good, even if you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this one’s special’ — you never know how people are gonna end up reacting to it,” Barrett told Country Now this month, going on to recall the moment that she learned it had gone No. 1 “I was actually in the car. We were coming back from East Texas, heading back to Nashville, and my manager called me,” she remembers. “It’s just an indescribable feeling. There’s so many emotions coming at one time. You wanna cry, but you’re excited, and it makes you feel even more hopeful for more of your music, and it’s just something you’ve worked extremely hard for.” – Read more at Country Now
Songland’s Mentor Ester Dean Believes Tonight’s Songs Will “Matter Because of the Changes in the World” – Ester Dean has written songs with and for the likes of Rihanna, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj and Kelly Clarkson, so when Songland was looking for songwriters with versatility to make up its panel of three mentors for Season 2, she was an obvious choice with her ability to create R&B, pop and hip hop songs that have made it to the top of the charts.Dean says she was a singer first, following in her mother’s footsteps, before she became a songwriter, but the songwriting soon followed. As someone who has always written down her feelings, Dean eventually learned how to combine those feelings with music, something she still does today. So, when she sits down to write, she doesn’t have an artist in mind that she wants to give the song to, but she has someone in mind that she is thinking about. – Read more at Parade.com
