KENAN THOMPSON

The highly transmissible variant has again upended life in the U.S., as officials warn of a coming spike in cases and people race to get booster shots and coronavirus tests during the winter holidays.

NBCSaturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” had a lot of ground to cover this week—especially given that Ice Cube, a celebrity whom Kenan Thompson has perfectly impersonated before, lost out on a $9 million acting gig in the Sony comedy Oh Hell No! because he refused to get vaccinated. (“My loss? Your loss!” he insists. “Oh Hell No! was gonna feature the greatest comedy duo of all time—Ice Cube, Jack Black.”)But the real stand-out was Goober, a clown played by Cecily Strong and styled to look a lo

This week’s new entertainment releases include an album from the superstar duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson.

Dallas Cowboys star Ezekiel Elliott was portrayed on the latest episode of “Saturday Night Live.”

“Saturday Night Live” returns for its 47th season this weekend with a bit of a surprise.

It's a year of diversity and firsts in the nominations for the 73rd Emmy Awards.

This combination photo shows key art for the Acorn TV series "Bloodlands," premiering March 15, left, key art for the Apple TV+ film "Cherry," center, and key art for Nickelodeons "Kids Choice Awards," hosted by Kenan Thompson and airing on March 13. (Acorn TV/Apple TV+/Nickelodeon via AP)Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. Ad—AP Film Writer Jake CoyleMUSIC— The 2021 Grammys will hand out 84 awards Sunday, but what’s more exciting? Other performers include Chris Martin, John Mayer, Doja Cat, Maren Morris, DaBaby, HAIM, Lil Baby, Brandi Carlile, Roddy Ricch, Brittany Howard, Miranda Lambert, Mickey Guyton and Black Pumas. Ad— Grown-ups don’t have a lock on awards shows, as Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards proves once again.

This image released by CBS shows Queen Latifah in a scene from the series "The Equalizer." Latifah's drama, “The Equalizer,” was the most popular scripted show on television last week, the Nielsen company said, trailing only first-place “60 Minutes” and giving CBS a strong one-two punch on Sunday. CBS won the week with an average of 4.6 million viewers in prime time. ABC had 3.9 million, NBC had 3.5 million, Fox had 2.6 million, Univision had 1.6 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 1 million. ABC's “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 10.2 million viewers.

This image released by NBC shows, from left, Dani Lane as Aubrey, Kenan Thompson as Kenan, and Dannah Lane as Birdie in a scene from the comedy series, "Kenan," premiering on Feb. 16. (Casey Durkin/NBC via AP)Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. The album has 13 tracks including “Tigress & Tweed,” an original Day wrote with veteran singer-producer Raphael Saadiq. Ad— “Saturday Night Live” cast member Kenan Thompson, who two decades ago co-starred in “Kenan and Kel,” is headlining his own sitcom. It details the African American church’s history, from enslavement to emancipation, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement to today.

NEW YORK – During this year's Super Bowl, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers reigned supreme on the field. Overall, this year's crop of Super Bowl ads focused on light humor that strove to entertain and connect. Bud Light Seltzer LemonadeBud Light used lemons as a metaphor for everything that went wrong in 2020 to introduce its new Seltzer Lemonade. Michelob was likely hoping to drive people to repeat views online with the celebrity lookalikes, but during the fast-moving Super Bowl the conceit was confusing. With its first-ever Super Bowl ad, Scott's was looking to keep that momentum going, but the overstuffed ad ended up being distracting.

The latest news on Super Bowl commercials. ___10 p.m.Smartphone-based stock market investment service Robinhood bought its Super Bowl spot in December after a successful year, unaware that it was about to make global headlines. Ad___9:45 p.m.Jeep starred iconic singer Bruce Springsteen in his first ever ad promoting the idea of unity. Most brands that have money to spend on Super Bowl ads are already household names, but the big game is also a chance for upstarts to make a big splash. ___7:15 p.m.General Motors used humor in a Super Bowl ad to promote its ambitious push to get more Americans to buy electric vehicles.

This photo provided by Cadillac shows a scene from Cadillac's 2021 Super Bowl NFL football spot. They aimed to connect to the estimated 100 million viewers who tune in to the Super Bowl broadcast each year. Perhaps the most striking effect: Virtually none of the ads featured people in masks, a public-health priority but also a grim reminder of the ongoing pandemic. AIMING TO ENTERTAINIn an effort to be light, advertisers stuffed -- and sometimes overstuffed — their ads with celebrities. “I like Springsteen and heartwarming ads like this generally, but this one feels too forced given the current political climate,” he said.

It might not have seemed likely early in the pandemic, but the 55th Super Bowl Sunday is upon us yet again. Amazon shows off a sexy new body for its Alexa assistant, Dan Levy apologizes for eating M&M's and Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade makes a downpour of lemons a metaphor for 2020's troubles. AdInspiration4 “ Join Us "In what is surely a first in Super Bowl history, an ad for Inspiration4, a SpaceX supported all-civilian space mission touts a chance for viewers to join the mission. Dan Levy of “Schitt’s Creek” apologizes to the M&M anthropomorphic characters that are Super Bowl mainstays and says he promises not to “eat any more of their friends." And E-Trade, famous for the talking baby ads it ran in the Super Bowl from 2008 until they “retired" in 2014, is back in the big game with an undisclosed ad.

NEW YORK – Super Bowl ads each year offer a snapshot of the American psyche. The chance to break into the psyche and (virtual) watercooler talk of an estimated 100 million viewers who will be watching the CBS broadcast of Super Bowl LV on Sunday. This year’s Super Bowl will showcase more than 20 first-time advertisers — more than double the 8 from last year if you exclude campaign ads, according to a tally by research firm iSpot. It’s a bellwether when a brand can afford the estimated $5.5 million cost-of-entry for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl. In stark contrast to last year's Super Bowl, which featured campaign ads from both Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg, politics is out of sight this year.

(AP Photo/Bill Wippert, File)CBS' James Brown knows what it is like to host Super Bowl pregame shows when the day transcended beyond the teams competing for a championship. Brown hosted Fox's pregame for the 2002 Super Bowl, which occurred nearly five months after 9/11. With the coronavirus pandemic still at the forefront, Brown realizes Sunday's “Super Bowl Today” show could offer the same opportunities, but in a different manner. This is a different kind of backdrop where many people have just been fatigued, given all of the challenges that we’ve had to endure during this time.”AdThis will be a record 10th Super Bowl pregame hosted by Brown and his sixth for CBS. He became the pregame host for Fox in 1994 when they outbid CBS for the rights to the NFC package.

This image released by NBC shows, from left, Don Johnson as Rick, Chris Redd as Gary, and Kenan Thompson as Kenan in a scene from the comedy series "Kenan," premiering on Feb. 16. (Casey Durkin/NBC via AP)LOS ANGELES – Don Johnson is getting his funny on with help from a couple of “Saturday Night Live” stars. Johnson's most recent forays into series work came in ABC's “Blood and Oil” in 2015 and HBO's “Watchmen” in 2019. “Kenan and I got on the phone and I felt instant chemistry with Kenan,” Johnson said. Thompson will juggle shooting the series in Los Angeles and doing “SNL” in New York.

Kate Hudson arrives at the 2019 Baby2Baby Gala on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)CULVER CITY, CA – Chrissy Teigen said she felt honored to receive an award at the Baby2Baby Gala, but her acceptance speech wasn't all about her achievement: "No kid should go hungry. "I feel honored to be honored," Teigen said. Legend praised Teigen for being an advocate for children through Baby2Baby. The nonprofit organization looks for high-profile celebs to highlight their mission of helping provide basic necessities to children living in poverty. Teigen said she and Legend have tried to instill the importance of giving to the less fortunate in their young children, Luna and Miles.