October 27 - November 2, 2024
“The Diplomat” is back with a second season Thursday, Oct. 31, on Netflix. Keri Russell (“The Americans”) returns as ambassador Kate Wyler. David Gyasi and Keri Russell in “The Diplomat”
celebrityupdate
BY JAY BOBBIN
Jerry O’Connell OF THE TALK ON CBS Q: How did Jerry O’Connell get the hosting job when Julie Chen Moonves was absent from “Big Brother” recently? A: A combination of factors played into it, one of the biggest being O’Connell’s quick availability for the CBS show when a substitute was needed for Chen Moonves since she was continuing to test positive for COVID. She called in to that day’s edition of “The Talk,” the weekday CBS program of which she used to be a co-host (and of which O’Connell currently is), giving him pointers on how to handle the “Big Brother” job. The episode involved a live eviction, the first time Chen Moonves had missed such a show, and it was fortunate that O’Connell is an avowed “Big Brother” fan. That surely gave him a leg up on who the players were and what the household dynamics were, so he already had done much of his homework in a sense when he was enlisted for the fill-in spot mere hours before the episode aired. While “The Talk” – which now is in its final season, slated to be over by the end of this year – and the syndicated game show “Pictionary” have been the main examples of O’Connell (also known for many performances as an actor) as a host lately, he has filled that function a number of times. Along with wife Rebecca Romijn, he had a brief stint hosting the CBS series “The Real Love Boat” in 2022, he was a guest host of the syndicated “Wendy Williams Show” several times, and he had his own syndicated talk show titled “Jerry O’” for a short time in the summer of 2019.