Members of the media are taken on a tour during the transformation taking place inside Vivint Arena before the start of the NBA basketball All-Star weekend Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, in Salt Lake City. More than 60 players are making their way to Salt Lake City for All-Star weekend, some of them for the first time, one of them for the 19th time. And while some events will tout the league's future, many will be celebrating the past.(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
NBA All Star Gam3 '23 - TNT/TBS
Picked by Reporter Lawrence Banton
It's the midpoint of the NBA season and that means it's time for the league's best to gather for their annual exhibition game. Weeks ago LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo were named team captains. The league switched its approach to the game this year and have upped the stakes. Teams will be selected less than an hour before competition commences. It should be noted that Team LeBron is 5-0 in the All-Star Game and has not lost since the league made the format switch in 2018. The big game tips off on Sunday at 8:30 pm. Other events like the celebrity game and three-point contest begin today and run through the weekend.
Star Trek: Picard: Season 3 - Paramount+
Picked by Digital Editor Mike Nam
The saga of the iconic Starfleet admiral concludes in the third season of Picard, which is streaming now. The final season draws together the original cast members of Star Trek: The Next Generation, prompting folks online to quip that it's essentially the eighth season of THAT show. In any case, join Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, and Brent Spiner for one last trek across the stars with the beloved classic cast.
Love and Monsters - Amazon Prime Video
Picked by Reporter Alex Vuocolo
This Amazon Prime Video original — released early in the pandemic to little fanfare — is about a post-apocalyptic world in which gigantic, carnivorous monsters reign over the surface and humans live in underground bunkers. The plot begins when a young survivor decides to leave the safety of the bunker and travel miles across a dangerous landscape to reunite with his girlfriend from before the world ended. The cast is strong; the CGI imaginative and convincing; and the pace pleasantly brisk. So if you're looking for something to hold you over before the next The Last of Us episode, Love and Monsters hits many of the same notes.
Throwback Picks
Shrek 1 & 2 - Prime Video
Picked By Growth Associate Keara O’Driscoll
This series is one of the few "children's" movies that truly can be enjoyed by all ages. Both choices are great to throw on in the background for the kids in your life, and you won’t find yourself banging your head against the wall to the tune of We Don’t Talk About Bruno.
The Freshman - HBO Max
Picked by Senior News Editor Dina Ross
Marlon Brando knocks off Marlon Brando playing The Godfather in this 1990 comedy, which also stars a young Matthew Broderick playing a bright-eyed film student who gets a rough-and-tumble welcome to New York City. Broke and alone, Clark (Broderick) is offered a job that is too good to be true that leads him on a wild ride involving the mafia, an eye-roll-inducing academic advisor, and a pesky komodo dragon. If you haven't seen it in a while, or ever, it's worth an easy watch.
Podcast Pick
Let’s Make a Rom-Com - CBC Podcasts
Selected by Newsletter Impresario Graison Dangor
Perhaps you’ve heard about BuzzFeed’s new AI quiz that generates the plot of a romantic comedy. (Mine is called Life's a Fire, starring Henry Golding and Christina Aguilera as love interests, set in Winnipeg. Agents: Get in touch anytime.) The CBC’s approach to making a rom-com is much more fun: Have three podcast hosts try to create a script that’s actually good. To get help over the eight-episode series, the trio turn to screenwriters who have worked on iconic rom-coms like Legally Blonde and 10 Things I Hate About You. Their approach worked in the podcast’s first season: The New Yorker called Let’s Make a Sci-Fi one of 2022’s best shows.
Hyperice is a technology company that specializes in physical recovery for athletes, and it's now partnering with the NFL. Christian McCaffrey, Carolina Panthers running back and Hyperice athlete-investor, and Jim Huether, Hyperice CEO, joined Cheddar News to discuss the partnership. "It's definitely for both for performance and for recovery, as somebody who plays a brutal sport and have to go through some of the unfortunate realities of injury," McCaffery said of the products. "You're always fighting for that 0.1 percent difference between winning and losing and and the little things and every second matters."
Showtime series 'Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber' tells the roller coaster ride of Silicon Valley's most successful and most destructive company, Uber. 'The Battle For Uber' is the first of the 'Super Pumped' anthology series in which each new season will explore a true business story that changed our culture in one way or another. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, joins Cheddar News to discuss the series.
The Super Bowl is only a few days away, and the game is currently tracking to be the most expensive one ever.
Gametime, a website and app for last-minute tickets, says the average ticket price for the NFL's championship game is $9,502.50, with the most expensive seats costing nearly $38,000. That's a far cry away from the average ticket price of the first-ever Super Bowl in 1967, which was only $12. The average ticket price increased by more than $8,000 in just the past decade. Matt Rados, Senior Operations Manager at Gametime, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Miller Lite is opening the first branded bar in the metaverse, by way of Decentraland, as a way to advertise during the Super Bowl this year without buying an expensive TV commercial slot. Sofia Colucci, global vice president of Miller Family of Brands, joined Cheddar to talk about the new marketing concept. "We have a lot of great partnerships with NFL teams throughout the year but were shut out of advertising during the Super Bowl game, so this pushes us to think creatively and also think of what feels really relevant right now," Colucci said. "There's no question that there's a lot of excitement with the metaverse, and we wanted to participate but in a way that felt right for Miller Lite."
David Tafuri, Former Obama Campaign Foreign Policy Advisor & Former State Department Official, joined Cheddar News to break down the latest geopolitical stories from Beijing, amid China's human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and yet another Russian doping scandal.
Americans placing bets on the Super Bowl is expected to reach a record high due to multiple states legalizing sports gambling. Hana Ostapchuk, the host of Cheddar Bets, joined Baker Machado on Between Bells to discuss the action on the Big Game.
trivago reported its last earnings of 2021 yesterday, marking the end of a rollercoaster year. The online hotel search site was forced to cut costs during the pandemic as the travel industry shut down entirely, instead pivoting its strategy to meet customer demand in other ways. Matthias Tillmann, CFO of trivago, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the company's results and why he's optimistic about the future of the travel industry in 2022.
The Winter Olympics showcase our favorite and most picturesque winter sports: from ski jumping, to figure skating, to ice hockey. But don't forget about doubles luge, the internet's favorite Olympic sport. Join us as we explore the history of this intimate display and reveal why doubles luge is so much more than a meme.
Youth sports coaching service MOJO has partnered with Major League Baseball, named the "trusted grassroots coaching app" of the MLB. The app provides content for parents and coaches to help young players grow their skills. Ben Sherwood, founder & CEO of MOJO joined Cheddar News to talk about how his app works to improve coaching to keep players interested. "The number one reason that kids drop out of sports and all of the surveys is that sports aren't fun, and one of the big reasons that sports aren't fun is that the coach doesn't know what she or he is doing," he said. "We think there's a great coach in everyone, and we just have to have the right resources and tools and inspiration."
The U.S. women's hockey team came up short in its highly anticipated game against the Canadian women, favorites for gold, in the preliminaries of the Winter Olympics tournament. The competition now enters the medal rounds where the U.S. team still has a shot.
