Holt wants to tell new stories for NBC Nightly News sign off

Foy delivers vengeance in ‘Girl’

LOS ANGELES, June 9, (RTRS): Lester Holt greets viewers of “NBC Nightly News” in similar fashion every night, delivering what NBC News believes is the most important story of the day. When it comes to winding up the broadcast, however, Holt is about to expand his range of options.

“Nightly” viewers are already familiar with segments like “Inspiring America” (once known as “Making A Difference”) and “Those Who Serve.” Now audiences will start to see Holt lead a Tuesday segment called “Snapshot” that examines how everyday and even extraordinary Americans are leading their lives; a Thursday vignette known as “Spotlight” that looks at celebrities and popular culture of the moment; and a Friday report called “Above and Beyond” showcasing people who rose to a moment or went the extra mile. “Inspiring America” and “Those Who Serve,” will run on Mondays and Wednesdays, respectively.

“Sometimes the story that people will be talking about most at the end of the broadcast may not be one of the stories in the first seconds,” says Holt in an interview. “It may end up being the story at the end.”

The nation’s evening newscasts have long featured signature segments that help end the broadcasts with a note of optimism. At ABC’s “World News Tonight,” David Muir has put more than 250 segments of “Made in America” on the air, during which he travels to different US communities. He also does many of the broadcast’s “America Strong” and “Person of the Week” features. The pieces often generate personal messages from viewers sent via social media. At “CBS Evening News,” Friday night’s “On The Road” segment led by Steve Hartman, which has its roots in the pieces Charles Kuralt used to file for the network, is one of the program’s most popular elements. “NBC Nightly News” will now feature a different one of these each weekday night.

The NBC News evening mainstay has been locked in an intense ratings battle with ABC’s “World News” — the ABC evening program has in the past two weeks won more of the viewers between 25 and 54 that advertisers covet — but Holt says his team is focused on the “Nightly” audience. “We know what our brand is. We know what our viewers expect from us,” he says. Season to date, “NBC Nightly News” is leading ABC in the advertiser demo, as well as among viewers between 18 and 49.

In these days of frenzied news cycles and seismic global happenings, viewers are seeking a little respite, suggests Holt. With headlines yelling about relations with North Korea and investigations into Russian interference with US voting procedures, “I’ll fully admit that I’ll walk off the set some nights and say, ‘That was tough,’” says Holt. “These are difficult stories to chew on, and we can all use some kind of affirmation.”

There are new signs that American news aficionados are seeking a little respite. The Pew Research Center, citing responses from more than 5,000 US adults surveyed in late February and early March, found 68% of Americans feel worn out by the amount of news they get, with just 30% saying they liked the amount of news they regularly consume. A majority of Republican and Democrats felt the same way — meaning that this sentiment may be something everyone can agree upon.

NBC’s various end segments were usually assigned to different correspondents, but Holt says he will play a larger role in these new franchises. He was already heavily involved in the “Inspiring America” series.

“I’ve taken this on as my project,” he says. At the very least, he will provide the voice overs for the segments, and in as many cases as possible, he will visit with and interview the subjects of the various stories. “To the extent I can, you will see me on the ground reporting on scene,” he says. It may be possible for him to get to Cleveland and back between “Nightly” broadcasts if an interview is there, for example, or he may be able to break away from on-the-ground coverage at a particular scene to talk to someone for another segment. “Nightly” has under his tenure increased its broadcasts from Los Angeles, giving Holt another opportunity to do interviews for the finales.

“There is a real appetite for more of these stories,” Holt says, noting that people often approach him and tell him that the end segments, “make me cry, make me smile and thank you for doing them.”

A tattooed Claire Foy is delivering vengeance as Lisbeth Salander in the first trailer for Sony’s “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”

The trailer showed Foy — best known for portraying Queen Elizabeth in Netflix’s “The Crown” — as she uses an intricate trap to capture a villainous husband, and then coldly telling him as he hangs upside down that he will turn over his assets to his abused wife.

“I’m a fan of yours — the CEO who beat up two prostitutes, but then got acquitted in court yesterday,” she says. “I’m transferring 20% of your cash to these two girls, the rest I’m transferring to your wife.”

She then tells the wife, who’s also been beaten up, “He won’t hurt you again.”

The studio decided two years ago to replace Rooney Mara with Foy as the precocious Swedish computer hacker for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” sequel, seven years after the original opened. Fede Alvarez, who helmed 2016’s “Don’t Breathe” for Sony, is directing.

The new trailer features plenty of chase scenes and gunplay amid snowy landscapes and warns “The past never forgets.”

The film also stars Claes Bang, Sylvia Hoeks, Cameron Britton, Lakeith Stanfield, Stephen Merchant, Synnove Macody Lund, Vicky Krieps and Andreja Pejic. Alvarez began shooting in Berlin in January. The story is based on the bestseller written by David Lagercrantz. Alvarez directed from a script he wrote with Steven Knight and Jay Basu.

“The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” produced by Sony and MGM, opens Nov. 9. Producers are Scott Rudin, Ole Sondberg, Soren Staermose, Berna Levin, Amy Pascal, Elizabeth Cantillon and Eli Bush.

Charles Krauthammer, the longtime columnist and Fox News commentator, says that his cancer has returned and doctors have said he has only a few weeks left to live.

“This is the final verdict. My fight is over,” he wrote in a statement released on Friday.

Krauthammer wrote that he has been recovering from surgery last year to remove a cancerous tumor in his abdomen, and while he has been “gradually making my way back to health,” recent tests showed that cancer has returned and it is aggressive and spreading rapidly.

He wrote, “I wish to thank my doctors and caregivers, whose efforts have been magnificent. My dear friends, who have given me a lifetime of memories and whose support has sustained me through these difficult months. And all of my partners at The Washington Post, Fox News, and Crown Publishing.

“Lastly, I thank my colleagues, my readers, and my viewers, who have made my career possible and given consequence to my life’s work. I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking. I am grateful to have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide this extraordinary nation’s destiny.”

Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of Fox News and 21st Century Fox, said in a statement that Krauthammer “has been a profound source of personal and intellectual inspiration for all of us at Fox News.

“His always principled stand on the most important issues of our time has been a guiding star in an often turbulent world, a world that has too many superficial thinkers vulnerable to the ebb and flow of fashion, and a world that, unfortunately, has only one Charles Krauthammer. His words, his ideas, his dignity and his integrity will resonate within our society and within me for many, many years to come.”

Krauthammer, 68, has been a columnist at The Washington Post since 1984, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1987, but gained particular fame for nightly commentary on Fox News. He also had stints at The New Republic and Time.

Before pursuing a journalism career, he was a speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale in 1980 and, before that, had been in medicine. He worked on psychiatric research for president Jimmy Carter’s administration, and practiced as chief resident in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was paralyzed from a diving accident during his first year at Harvard Medical School.

On Fox News, Chris Wallace said that “in all the years I knew, Charles ever heard him express any sense of pity, why me. He led his life fully, vibrantly. Yes, he was very badly disabled. No use of his legs, almost no use of his hands, and yet he lived a full life. He had a car outfitted so he could drive the streets of Washington. He loved his Washington Nationals. He lived a life of passion and great consequence.”

Wallace also talked about Krauthammer’s “honesty, his values, his conviction. He could be lacerating and going after the excesses of liberalism, he could be just as tough as going after the betrayals of his conservatism.”

David Harbour may portray the emotionally hardened and nigh-invulnerable Sheriff Hopper on “Stranger Things,” but in a recent segment on Variety’s “Actors on Actors,” presented by Shutterstock, Harbour opened up about the pain he went through during shooting with “Twin Peaks” star Kyle MacLachlan.

“The first season was the most miserable time in my life,” Harbour said. “It was sort of the greatest time in my life, too, but I just wanted to work on it so hard.”

He told MacLachlan that, for much of the first season, he pushed himself too hard, knowing he had a “shot at the pro ball,” so much so that he was depressed whenever he wasn’t working on the show.

“We went down to Atlanta to shoot it, and I had very little interaction with anyone,” Harbour said. “I just would sit in my house, and be very depressed. I would rarely go out. I started to learn the ukulele a little bit, so I’d play weird songs on the ukulele and just sit.”

“Stranger Things” is currently available for streaming on Netflix, and has been renewed for a third season.

The Emmy Award-winning “Actors on Actors” series will air in two episodes on PBS SoCal KOCE, the first on Tuesday, June 19 at 7 pm and the second on Thursday, June 21 at 7 pm Both episodes will stream on pbssocal.org following their premieres.

ABC has apologized for a recent episode of drama series “Quantico” that generated controversy on social media.

June 1 episode “The Blood of Romeo” featured a storyline in which Indian terrorists plot an attack with the goal of framing Pakistan in an effort to thwart upcoming peace talks. Series star Priyanka Chopra, who is Indian, became the target of criticism, particularly from Indian viewers.

“ABC Studios and the executive producers of ‘Quantico’ would like to extend an apology to our audience who were offended by the most recent episode, ‘The Blood of Romeo,’” an ABC spokesperson said in a statement. “The episode has stirred a lot of emotion, much of which is unfairly aimed at Priyanka Chopra, who didn’t create the show, nor does she write or direct it. She has no involvement in the casting of the show or the storylines depicted in the series.”

The statement continued: “’Quantico’ is a work of fiction. The show has featured antagonists of many different ethnicities and backgrounds, but in this case we inadvertently and regrettably stepped into a complex political issue. It was certainly not our intention to offend anyone.”