Morgan, Haddish bring chemistry to ‘Last OG’

Ingraham will return: Fox News

LOS ANGELES, April 3, (Agencies): TBS’ “The Last OG,” starring Tracy Morgan as a man just out of prison and learning his way around a changed world, also holds a lesson in comedy chemistry.

Morgan’s Tray has it with “Girls Trip” star Tiffany Haddish, who plays the ex-flame who built a successful life and marriage instead of waiting out his 15-year sentence for dealing drugs.

There are sparks as well when Tray tries to mentor his cousin, Bobby, played with freewheeling glee by Allen Maldonado, or trades coarse one-liners with Cedric the Entertainer as Mullins, a halfway house manager.

Morgan, who had a difficult recovery from injuries suffered in a 2014 highway crash, generously shares “The Last OG” (as in “original gangsta”) as a showcase for all, not one. The TBS comedy debuts 10:30 pm EDT Tuesday.

“Maybe I’m just a better man now since the accident,” the former “Saturday Night Live” player said during a Television Critics Association Q&A. “I know it ain’t about me. It’s bigger than me. I thank God for that.”

Created by Jordan Peele, the Oscar-winning “Get Out” filmmaker, and John Carcieri (“Eastbound & Down”), “The Last OG” gives Morgan room to play the goofy bombast he perfected in “30 Rock” and the yearning of a man desperate for another chance.

The returning Tray finds his Brooklyn neighborhood is gentrified, his cronies are gone or turned into legit businessmen and his adored Shay (Haddish) is living the affluent dream with nice-guy husband Josh (Ryan Gaul) and teenage twins — which, doing the math, Tray figures were fathered by him.

Tray doesn’t want to claim the title of dad or upend Shay’s family, Morgan said. But he does want to be part of a parental trio and have a role in the lives of Amira (Taylor Mosby) and Shazad (Dante Hoagland).

“I could have come home and been a problem in her (Shay’s) life, but then I had to look at (her husband) and I had to look at my kids,” he said. “And I see they were in good hands. So that’s what we also want to get across in the show, that it’s about the babies.”

And while the cast is predominantly African-American (aside from Shay’s white husband), the show is meant for all, Morgan said.

“This isn’t a black show. This is a show about humanity. This is the show about second chances. This is a show about redemption,” he said. “Who are we to say others don’t matter?”

Laura Ingraham will return to Fox News Channel, despite a spate of recent defections by advertisers from the program she hosts there each weeknight.

“We cannot and will not allow voices to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts,” said Jack Abernethy, co-president of the 21st Century Fox-owned cable outlet, in a statement. “We look forward to having Laura Ingraham back hosting her program next Monday when she returns from spring vacation with her children.”

The note is unusual for a corporate executive to issue on behalf of a program host, but the situation swirling around Ingraham is anything but normal. She announced Friday on her 10 p.m. program, “The Ingraham Angle,” that she would take a planned vacation even as scrutiny of her program intensified and more sponsors announced they were moving their ads out of the show.

Ingraham set off an imbroglio Wednesday with a Twitter post mocking Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg, one of the students who has spoken out about gun control prominently since a Feb. 14th shooting incident at the Parkland, Fla. school left 17 people dead. Her tweet linked to a report noting Hogg had been rejected from four California colleges, and also said Hogg “whines about” the rejections. In response, Hogg posted on social media a list of recent advertisers in her program culled from Media Matters, a left-leaning watchdog group, and urged followers to pressure them to remove their commercials from Ingraham’s show.

NBC’s exclusive window to negotiate an extension to its deal for television rights to the Golden Globe Awards has expired, freeing other networks to bid on the annual program.

“The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Dick Clark Productions value our 25-year relationship with NBC and will continue to have discussions with them about extending our television deal,” Dick Clark Productions, which produces the awards show for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, said in a statement Monday. “However, as the exclusive negotiation period with NBC has ended, we are evaluating offers from other interested parties.”

NBC has held broadcast rights to the Golden Globe Awards since it first began television the show in 1993. It has been a solid ratings draw, even in recent years beginning to rival numbers for ABC’s Academy Awards telecast, as that show has faced continuous ratings declines. This year’s show averaged 19 million total viewers, down roughly 1 million viewers from last year.

The CW has renewed 10 of its current series, the network announced Monday.

The renewed series are: “Arrow” (Season 7), “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (Season 4), “Legends of Tomorrow” (Season 4), “The Flash” (Season 5), “Jane …” (Season 5), “Riverdale” (Season 3), “Supergirl” (Season 4), and “Supernatural” (Season 14). In addition, freshman shows “Black Lightning” and “Dynasty” have been picked up for second seasons. Specific premiere dates for each series will be announced at a later time. The network will make decisions on their originals “Life Sentence,” “Valor,” “iZombie,” and “The 100” in May.

“As The CW expands to a six-night, Sunday through Friday schedule next season, we are proud to have such a deep bench of great returning series for 2018-19,” said CW president Mark Pedowitz. “By picking these ten series up for next season, we have a terrific selection of programming to choose from when we set our fall schedule in May, with more still to come. And I’m especially happy that we’ll continue to work with the incredibly talented casts, producers, and writers who create the series our fans are so passionate about.”

The network announced back in February that they will launch a two-hour Sunday primetime block for the 2018-19 broadcast season, expanding its linear lineup of original programming from five nights a week to six.

The “Jane …” renewal comes after series star Gina Rodriguez hinted that the show’s fifth season will be its last. The CW has yet to officially announce if the Golden Globewinning series will continue beyond Season 5. Fellow Golden Globe winner “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” is also rumored to be wrapping up after next season.