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For the second straight year, officials at Ultra Music Festival has reportedly canceled their upcoming showcase as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The news was shared by Billboard just ten months after the festival canceled its 2020 show. After Ultra Music Festival canceled last year’s show, organizers for the festivals did not reveal a new lineup for their 2021 edition which, according to Billboard, led many to believe that a festival this year was very unlikely. The festival’s hope is that they will be able to make a return next year as they’ve already begun working with the city of Miami to secure a new date.

“We anticipate that the City will again invoke the Force Majeure clause. We respectfully request the rescheduled dates to be March 25, 26, and 27, 2022,” the festival’s attorney Sandy York said in a statement shared by Billboard. York added that Ultra’s payment obligations to Miami “be deemed modified to correspond with the rescheduled dates.” The plan for the 2022 festival is for it to take place at the Bayfront Amphitheater on March 25-27.

Ultra’s 2020 cancellation resulted in a class-action lawsuit from ticketholders who were upset that the festival opted to rollover tickets to 2021 rather than offer refunds. In November, a judge in Florida’s district court reportedly ruled that the lawsuit filed against the festival to go into arbitration where it has remained ever since.

One of the biggest surprises when Breaking Bad premiered on AMC back in 2008 was how incredibly good the guy from Malcolm in the Middle was in a heavy drama about a high-school teacher (with cancer), who turns to a career in meth to take care of his family. It seems very obvious now that Bryan Cranston — currently starring in Your Honor — is one of the best television actors of his generation, but that wasn’t nearly as obvious when he took the lead in Breaking Bad. In fact, some of those early viewers initially tuned in to see the novelty of a sitcom actor starring in dark drama.

It obviously worked out well for not only Bryan Cranston, but the extended Breaking Bad universe, which is still operational 13 years later with Better Call Saul. However, as Bryan Cranston recently revealed on the Smartless podcast — hosted by Sean Hayes, Will Arnett, and Jason Bateman (the latter of whom created a very Breaking Bad-like series in Ozark) — Breaking Bad nearly didn’t come together for him because of Malcolm in the Middle.

“Fox said, ‘Keep the sets up. We might do an eighth season of Malcolm In The Middle,” Cranston said on the podcast. “And everyone was like, ‘Yeah that’d be great.’ In late April and early May, they called when the upfronts are going on, they said, ‘Nope, we had a very good pilot season. Thank you guys, you did well. You’re on your own.’ So we thought, ‘Ahh, that’s too bad.’”

It probably was too bad for the rest of the cast (has anyone seen Christopher Masterson lately?), but it worked out splendidly for Cranston.

“Later that month, I get the call to go see a guy called Vince Gilligan. ‘Do you remember him from X-Files?” they asked.

“Kinda,” he replied.

“He wants to see you about a new project called Breaking Bad,” they said.

Cranston read the script and thought, “Oh my god this is amazing.” He met with Gilligan, who told him that he wanted to “turn Mr. Chips into Scarface and I think you’re the guy to do it.”

Cranston shot the pilot a few months later.

“So had we got that eighth season of Malcolm In The Middle, I would not have been available to shoot that pilot and someone else would be talking to you.” That someone else might have been Matthew Broderick or John Cusack, both of whom were reportedly also up for the role of Walter White. It’s hard to imagine, however, that anyone else is well suited to the role than Cranston.

“It is absolutely my belief, I dogmatically believe this,” Cranston added, “that a career in our business cannot be fully realized without a healthy dose of luck sprinkled throughout.” In other words, the best thing to ever happen to Bryan Cranston’s career was the cancellation of his Malcolm in the Middle.

Source: Smartless

When The Walking Dead set an end date for the series (late 2022) and extended Season 10 another six episodes, fans probably starting thinking about the end game. There are only 30 episodes remaining, and on a show like The Walking Dead, we can probably expect a number of people to die between now and the end. The only two people we know will survive are Carol and Daryl, who will get their own spin-off, and if cost-saving measures are part of the reason that The Walking Dead is ending now, it’s probably safe to assume that the show’s other two biggest remaining stars, Maggie and Negan, may not make it to the end, either.

In fact, it’s possible that one of those characters may not even make it until Season 11, or at least that’s what a number of fans fear after the latest The Walking Dead trailer. Those fans have reason to be concerned because there are a number of red-flags in the trailer.

“He asked how his daddy died,” Maggie says in the trailer, referring to his son Hershel (who also makes a brief appearance). “I told him that a bad man killed him. And he wanted to know if that bad man got what he deserved.”

That bad man is Negan, and so far as Maggie is concerned, he most certainly has not gotten what he deserved. She’s along with her mask-wearing ninja friend, and she may decide that now is the time for Negan to get his just desserts.

There’s another clue, too, that suggests Negan’s days may be numbered. At the end of the trailer, Negan sees a hallucination of himself delivering his iconic TWD line, “Little pig, little pig. Let me in.” Viewers of the series know that hallucinations often accompany death scenes.

Fans of the series, and especially fans of Negan, are worried about what’s to come.

The worry is warranted. The extended Season 10 does feature the Negan origins story, which is exactly the kind of story that precedes a big death on this series. Moreover, while Negan is not dead in the comics, he more or less disappears from the storyline after The Whisperer War, so there’s no source material that follows Negan to The Commonwealth. On the other hand, Robert Kirkman has written a one-shot story called “Negan Lives,” which fills readers in on Negan’s whereabouts after The Whisperer War and into the future, which could make an excellent premiere installment of The Walking Dead anthology series.

The Walking Dead returns on February 28th.

Swizz Beatz and Timbaland are just two months away from the one-year anniversary of their Verzuz platform. It began when the duo hopped on Instagram live in March 2020 for a beat battle that saw them reach into their respective catalogs to play some of their best-produced records. Swizz and Timbo went far past the 20 record limit that Verzuz now carries, but their initial battle led to some fan favorite head-to-head matchups which include Babyface vs. Teddy Riley, Erykah Badu vs. Jill Scott, and Jeezy vs. Gucci Mane. Fresh off Keyshia Cole and Ashanti’s Verzuz, Swizz and Timbo shared a pair of matchups they hope to make a reality in the near future with Verzuz.

During a recent appearance on an episode of ESPN’s Jalen And Jacoby, the Verzuz creators were asked what their “holy grail” matchup would be. Swizz replied with Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. saying, “My dream one, I want to figure out how to do Pac and Biggie in a way that the people is gonna really love it.”

Timbaland co-signed the idea and said, “I’ma call you later, Imma text you.” In addition to that battle, Timbo added that a matchup between Michael Jackson and Prince would be ideal for him.

Whether either of the aforementioned battles will happen remains to be seen, but for the time being, fans can expect a matchup between Bun B and 8Ball & MJG in the near future as the former act announced it was in the works earlier this month. Watch Swizz and Timbo’s interview on Jalen And Jacoby above.

Gucci Mane is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

For weeks after the presidential election in November, Ted Cruz parroted Donald Trump talking points and played a part in stirring up his supporters with misinformation that culminated in a riot at the US Capitol that left five people dead. That hasn’t stopped the senator from Texas from continuing bad faith arguments and online feuds even after Trump left office. And so it seems Seth Rogen is more than happy to continue telling Cruz to f*ck off on Twitter.

The actor and pottery enthusiast has spent the last few weeks occasionally replying to messages Cruz sends online with profane rebukes, and Cruz seems more than happy to pick a fight with the guy who starred in Pineapple Express. The arguments usually go something like this: Cruz says something silly, like incorrectly suggesting the Paris Climate Accords is bad for America because it was written by Parisians, or something. Then Rogen tells him to f*ck off.

Cruz usually calls Rogen a Hollywood elite, or disparages the nature of his movies, and Rogen tells him to f*ck off again.

This happened again over the weekend, with Cruz getting mad about foul language while playing in stereotypes about Tourette’s syndrome. That didn’t sit well with plenty of people watching the exchange unfold.

And Rogen felt the same way, pointing out the stereotype and telling Cruz to f*ck off once again.

As another viral tweet put it plainly, Rogen’s life online has a very specific rhythm these days and no one but Cruz seems to be complaining.

It seems unlikely that Cruz will actually just go away: he’s still an elected official and thus far has seen no real consequences for the role he played in the MAGA coup attempt. But Rogen is certainly trying his best to make life online for the senator a bit tougher. And it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t deserve that at the very least.

Conor McGregor was a healthy favorite in his return to the Octagon after a year’s absence on Saturday night, as he faced Dustin Poirier for the second time in his career, having scored a knockout in their first fight. However, the fight world has a funny way of humbling folks, particularly those past their prime, and it certainly seems like McGregor has reached that threshold in his career.

The former pound-for-pound king got demolished in the second round, with Poirier lighting him up with a flurry of punches that turned out the lights on McGregor in an absolute stunner.

It was one of those nights where Twitter was at its finest, as nothing brings people together better than seeing someone who talks a lot of sh*t get knocked out, and the jokes were just tremendous. It also helps when there’s a perfect shot of the person in question out cold, and McGregor became an instant meme because of it.

There were lots of crossovers of the McGregor sleeping meme and Bernie Sanders at the inauguration from this week, but one stood above the rest, and everyone else delighted in watching McGregor get folded like a chair and then slumped by the cage.

You had about a million different variations of jokes about “what I look like after [insert thing that makes you fall asleep]” and truly they were all a joy.

Are you an adult human who barely understands TikTok like me? Or are you an adult or teen human who is obsessed with TikTok for its powers of endless entertainment and cultural trendsetting? Either way, there’s nothing that has happened before or after this moment in time that can possibly be weirder than the following sentence: The TikTok sea shanty crazy has reached Nickelback’s 2005 hit “Rockstar.” What does that mean? Let me break it down.

A viral trend is currently possessing people to remake popular and/or modern songs in the style of old-fashioned sea shanty songs, a staccato, loosely Irish-influenced musical style that feels nautical only in the way a pirate chant does. But, as everyone is stuck indoors due to the pandemic, and/or underemployed and seeking to avoid the scary reality of COVID-19, this kind of imaginative disassociation makes sense. Combine it, though, with the oft-derided early 2000s rock band Nickelback, and their biggest hit, and the results are pretty much peak 2021. Yes, we’re only a few weeks in, and yes, we’ve already hit that moment. That is, unless someone also finds a way to combine this with the “Buss It” challenge and add the Bernie mittens meme in. Oh no, was that a challenge?

Anyway, apparently it was the group the UK group The Lottery Winners who initially had the idea of doing “Rockstar” in this style, but when Nickelback heard it they liked it and joined in, adding their own vocals for a remixed supergroup version of the sea shanty-styled early 2000s hit. Check it out below, if it’s your thing.

Dustin Poirier (27-6) knocked out Conor McGregor (22-5) in the main event Saturday night at UFC 257 from Fight Island.

McGregor opened the first by walking down Poirier, landing a slew of strikes. Poirier went for the takedown less than a minute into the fight, taking McGregor down for momentary control on the ground. McGregor made his way back to his feet without expending too much energy and the two traded shoulder strikes from the clinch. Back in the middle of the Octagon, McGregor continued to walk Poirier down, landing at will and stuffing a takedown attempt before the end of the round.

Poirier opened the second attacking McGregor’s calf before turning his attention up top and knocking the former champion out.

McGregor hadn’t fought since he TKO’d Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds in January. With no opportunity to make good on his promise to fight three times in 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he settled with an opportunity to climb right back into title contention with his fight against Poirier.

This was Poirier’s second fight since losing via submission to retired lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in their titles unification bout in 2019. He earned a decision victory over Dan Hooker, who lost to Michael Chandler in the co-main event Saturday night, in his only other bout since losing to Nurmagomedov.

Poirier’s first fight against McGregor came in 2014, where he suffered a first-round knockout at the hands of the former two-division champion.

With the win, Poirier is in contention for a bout against lightweight champion Nurmagomedov, who said he wanted to be impressed by the UFC 257 contenders before thinking about returning. Should Nurmagomedov chose not to step back into the Octagon, Poirier is a choice for UFC president Dana White should the organization vacate the title, with a potential showdown against Chandler or Charles Oliveira, who dominated Tony Ferguson in December.

Steph Curry continued his climb up the NBA’s all-time three-pointers made chart on Saturday evening in the Golden State Warriors’ 127-108 loss to the Utah Jazz. Curry did it in style, too, slicing through the Jazz’s defense, whipping a pass out to the perimeter, and relocating the corner to hit the 2,561st triple of his career.

He still has a way to go to catch Ray Allen atop the list — he’s at 2,973 — but Curry was able to pull slightly ahead of Reggie Miller with this one. As someone who is aware of his place in basketball’s history, Curry made it a point to shout Miller out when he pulled into a tie on the all-time list earlier in the game, tossing a 3 and a 1 up with his hands in honor of Miller’s jersey number back in his playing days.

Miller must have appreciated this and, well, all of Curry’s excellence as a shooter, because after the game, Miller and his son, Ryker, made a surprise appearance on Curry’s postgame press conference. Ryker started out by saying congratulations to “Mr. Curry” before his old man popped in and offered up praise.

“I know you’re chasing Ray, but you are an inspiration to so many little ones, like mine, and I’m just so proud of all the work, because I know what goes into that, I know the countless hours when it’s easy to go hang with your boys, hit the club, sleep, do other things,” Miller said. “But you’re in the lab getting your work done.”

Miller praised Curry for being a family man and a father off the court, then said that his entire family is proud of how he blends being a player on the court with a father off of it and a member of “Dub nation.” Curry then took some time to praise the two men for who, before Saturday’s game, sat ahead of him on the all-time chart.

“If I’m chasing any record, to have two guys that have reached back and encouraged me the way that y’all have, it means a lot,” Curry said of Allen and Miller. “I’ll pass that torch on as well, but I appreciate you, man.”

The two ended with a little back-and-forth at the end, with Miller warning Curry that Ryker could come gunning for his record somewhere down the line. No pressure, kid.

Michael Chandler (22-5) earned a first-round TKO against Dan Hooker (20-10) in his UFC debut Saturday night at UFC 257 from Fight Island.

Hooker took advantage of his range advantage early on, tossing calf kicks and staying just outside Chandler’s heavy hands. Chandler opened up midway through the first and stunned the former title contender with a right hand body shot followed by a huge left hook, before ground-and-pounding his way to a TKO victory.

Chandler is a three-time lightweight champion in Bellator, concluding his run with the promotion with back-to-back knockout wins over Sidney Outlaw and Benson Henderson.

Hooker entered the Octagon looking to get back into the lightweight title picture following his decision loss to Dustin Poirier back in June. Prior to that loss, Hooker had rattled off three-consecutive wins over the likes of Al Iaquinta and Paul Felder.

With the win, Chandler is potentially in contention for a return bout against lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who admitted he wanted to be impressed by the UFC 257 contenders. Should Nurmagomedov chose not to step back into the Octagon, Chandler is a choice for UFC president Dana White should the organization vacate the title, with a showdown against the winner of Conor McGregor-Daniel Poirier or Charles Oliveira, who dominated Tony Ferguson in December.