All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

If you’re a sports fan, ESPN is the go-to hub for year-round live sporting events, including Monday Night Football, NBA games and even March Madness. The channel’s official streaming platform, ESPN+, increased its price by $1 going from $11 to $12 a month, while the annual plan jumped $10 to $120 a year, which went into effect on Thursday (Oct. 17). You don’t have to rely on the streamer to catch the latest games and analyses though — there are more options that’ll let you watch most games live.

ESPN is one of the easiest ways to get access to games and analysis, but sports fans who have become cord-cutters don’t have to re-invest in cable if they want to watch ESPN. There are a variety of affordable streaming options that can give you access to watch ESPN online.

These days, there are a number of live TV streaming platforms that include ESPN as well as hundreds of other channels that’ll get you access to NHL, UFC and more online at home. Plus, most of the platforms include promos and free trials that’ll help save you additional money while allowing you to watch ESPN online for free.

Keep reading to learn how to watch ESPN at home without cable.

How to Watch ESPN Online Without Cable

ESPN+ is the official streaming platform for ESPN, and a subscription includes instant access to games and more exclusive content for $11.99/month. You can save 17% off by purchasing an annual subscription for $119.99/year. There is no free ESPN+ trial, but it does include exclusive on-demand videos and access to content from what was formerly known as ESPN Insider.

$10.99/month

get espn+ here

In addition to live sports, ESPN+ has original shows to stream on-demand, plus game recaps and analysis hosted by Peyton Manning, a shorter version of NFL Primetime and full replays of historic NFL matchups.

To expand your savings and content offerings, you can also bundle ESPN+ with Hulu and Disney+ for a single monthly price of just $16.99 for all three services.

How to Watch ESPN Online Free

While ESPN+ doesn’t currently offer a free trial, there are other streamers that offer ESPN online free. If you want access to ESPN and additional channels, you can take advantage of Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV and Fubo, which are all offering free trials or promos right now. Some of them can give you free access to ESPN for up to a week.

Here are all the ways to watch ESPN online, including ways to stream ESPN online for free.

DirecTV Stream

DirecTV Stream is offering $15 off the first two months when you bundle one of its four packages with a Sports Pack. New users who sign up will also receive a five-day free trial, which will let you watch CBS Sports and more for free. ESPN is included in all of the streaming packages with the cheapest option being the Entertainment + Sports Pack for $87 (reg. $102). Once the two months are up you’ll be charged the subscription price based on what package you choose at checkout.

In addition to unlimited DVR storage, you’ll get access to local channels and the ability to stream on as many devices as you want.

Sling TV

Sling TV is providing new users half-off their first month when they sign up for one of the three packages available. ESPN is only included in the Orange and Orange + Blue packages, which you can get for as low as $20 for the first month (reg. $40). After your first month you’ll be charged the full package price.

$20 for first month $40/month 50% off

get sling tv here

The Orange package includes 32 channels and can be streamed on one device at once. For even more channel options including FS1 and the NFL Network, you can combine both plans for $30 for the first month (reg. $60/month) and get access to all 48 channels.

Fubo

Fubo is another affordable option you can take advantage of to watch ESPN online. The streamer offers a seven-day free trial that’ll give you access to ESPN free and more than 100 live TV channels. The streamer is also offering a promo that’ll get you $20 off the first month, which can get you access to ESPN and more for as low as $60 (reg. $80).

After your free trial and promo is over, Fubo’s Pro Plan is its cheapest option at $79.99/month and it comes with 202 channels, unlimited DVR storage and the ability to watch content on up to 10 screens at once. Sports fans may want to upgrade to the Elite with Sports Plus Plan for $99.99/month and includes 306 channels and NFL RedZone all in 4K definition. For the most options, can also upgrade to its Deluxe Plan for $109.99/month, which includes everything in its Elite Plan with 13 additional channels, international Sports Plus and MGM+.

Hulu + Live TV

For the most content options, Hulu + Live TV gives you access to the entire Hulu library in addition to more than 95 live TV channels — including ESPN for just $82.99/month. Plus, the streamer is offering a limited-time promo that’ll get new users three months for just $59.99/month. Once the promo ends, you’ll be charged the regular fee of $82.99 a month.

$59.99/month $82.99/month 28% off

get hulu + live tv here

And, unlike the rest of the options, you can also expand your content library by bundling Hulu + Live TV with Disney+ and ESPN+. You’ll not only have all of the Hulu library to watch, but also exclusive and original programming available exclusively on ESPN+.

This story originally appeared in the Aug. 24, 2024, issue of Billboard.

“I’m like a dirty s–thead raver. I come from throwing illegal parties — and not that long ago.”

So says The Blessed Madonna over Zoom one evening from her home in London — roughly 4,000 miles from the Chicago club scene where she made her name, and just as far from her native Kentucky, where she grew up “poor as hell” and first immersed herself in the scene. “Then when you’re talking to people who work in offices about what they think about your music, and suddenly there’s actual money involved,” she continues, “that just seems crazy.”

Weeks away from the release of her debut album, Godspeed, the 46-year-old artist born Marea Stamper is in the midst of such madness. After years of releasing remixes and singles on independent labels, including her own We Still Believe imprint, The Blessed Madonna signed with Major Recordings/Warner Records during the pandemic. The move placed an artist with subversive tendencies — sharing political opinions on social media, still frequenting illegal parties — squarely within the industry.

“Somebody has to get inside,” she says. “And if I’m to be put inside this system that has all these levers of power, my job is to be a little shard of glass in somebody’s foot.”

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Out Oct. 18, Godspeed — 24 tracks long, culled down from more than 100 hours of music — started during the pandemic. During this time, The Blessed Madonna would diagram songs she considered perfect, breaking down Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run” to their essential elements to better understand their power.

This self-taught music theory continued during what the producer calls “super-lockdown,” when she was confined to her London home due to her virally triggered asthma. During that time, she had been tasked with transforming Dua Lipa’s 2020 album, Future Nostalgia, into the Club Future Nostalgia “megamix” — a project in which she welcomed everyone from dance legend Moodymann to Madonna herself.

Unable to work with a studio engineer, The Blessed Madonna handled all of the technical aspects of the megamix herself, poring over YouTube tutorials and getting instructions from friends over the phone. Then, sadly in the midst of it all, her father died of COVID-19. She had to ID his body over email. “It was f–king awful,” she recalls. The ordeal not only elevated her ability to “get the thing out of my head that I wanted to say,” but reinforced her goal of making a dance record that wasn’t just excellent, but personal.

On Godspeed, The Blessed Madonna and a gaggle of collaborators she calls “the God squad” deliver fresh, soulful, often joyous and occasionally challenging takes on club music. Kylie Minogue sings about being “six deep in the bathroom stall” on the piano-laced party anthem “Edge of Saturday Night.” (RAYE was originally set to feature but had to drop out as her own career blew up.) Chicago house royalty Jamie Principle purrs about nights in the city’s mythical Warehouse on “We Still Believe.” And her late dad expresses how her success “fills my heart up with joy” in a voice message sampled on “Somebody’s Daughter.” In interludes, she and her collaborators giggle through unscripted silliness caught on hot mics.

“I feel like most dance records have nothing of the maker in them,” The Blessed Madonna says. “They’re kind of, like, engineered in a lab … But somebody has to make a decision.”

So she decided to make the antithesis to what she often hears while moving through the world as a heavily touring DJ. “There are songs I only hear in the Uber and I can’t tell them apart, and I don’t know who any of the girls are, and they’re all Auto-Tuned into the f–king grave,” she says. “That is bad for art, and bad art is bad for culture and for thinking.”

Writing sessions happened across London, Chicago, Los Angeles and at Imogen Heap’s home in Essex, England. There, The Blessed Madonna and her husband, along with a group that included electronic duo Joy (Anonymous), gathered over the 2021 holidays. The pair appears on “Carry Me Higher.”

She is also friends with Fred again.., with whom she collaborated in 2021 on “Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing),” a hit that reached No. 33 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart and soundtracked the final scene in 2022’s Academy Award-nominated Triangle of Sadness. The Blessed Madonna says witnessing “the Beatlemania that exploded around Fred” (whom she calls “so smart, so good at what he does and also so nice that it sort of makes you want to kill him, because it’s all real”) made her question her own goals. “I thought, ‘Am I supposed to want that?’ And I had a little breakdown,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Is this record going where I want it to go? Am I reinforcing the status quo in dance music or am I pushing back against it?’

To wit, as the dance music community stays conspicuously quiet in the midst of the U.S. election season, I suggest the scene’s de facto party line about dance as a place for escapism can feel like a cop out in midst of world events.

“It’s not a cop out, it’s boring,” The Blessed Madonna says. “It’s rich people who want to stay rich. It’s people who have already secured the bag, but nothing will ever be enough. And I understand that. I am from Kentucky. I grew up poor as hell, and there’s a part of me that will always be afraid that I am going to run out of money and food and something is gonna go wrong. I went to a Salvation Army daycare center. The food bank came to us and gave us powdered milk, Karo Syrup and pancake mix, and that was it. I grew up in a house where the water froze in the f–king toilet bowl. And it f—ing sucked.

“I fear not working constantly,” she continues, “because no matter how much security I have, I will never feel like it’s enough. And even if it’s enough for me, I have friends in America. What if something goes wrong? What if we have to go get them? That kind of s–t happens. So I do understand the desire not to f–k with your bag. But the only thing I fear more than that is being an enormous f–king piece of s–t.

“We’re all just supposed to get rich and go to Ibiza and stop caring about politics and saying things that will upset people,” she continues. For a self-described “s–thead raver” though, that fate is unlikely.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Taylor Swift‘s The Eras Tour is ready for a comeback! After announcing a forthcoming tour book and The Tortured Poets Department on CD and vinyl, completing the European leg of her tour and dropping the Eras Tour movie on Disney+ earlier this year, Swift is officially “back in the office” as her heavily anticipated tour resumes in Miami on Friday (Oct. 18).

Now that she’s back on the road, the second leg of the Eras North American tour kicks off with three nights at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

In August, Swift returned to Wembley Stadium after kicking off a mini-residency in the U.K. in June. The Grammy winner performed at Wembley on Aug. 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20, with Raye, Paramore and Suki Waterhouse as openers.

For the second half of the North American tour, the “Anti-Hero” singer will perform in the U.S. and Canada — including New Orleans, Toronto and Indianapolis. Swifties got a chance to score presale tickets through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program last summer.

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The Eras Tour, Swift’s first tour in five years, was announced in November 2022. Presale tickets for the tour went on sale via Ticketmaster that month. Another batch of presale tickets for her 2024 tour stops in Vancouver and new tickets for Australia and Sweden went on sale late last year.

Swift partnered with Capital One on exclusive tickets available for Capital One cardholders. As can be expected, passes to see Swift live remain one of the hottest concert tickets on the market, so we’re breaking down what you need to know so you can secure a seat.

See below for information on how to get last-minute tickets to the final stops on Swift’s Eras Tour. Check out the new list of tour dates here.

How Much Do Last-Minute Eras Tour Tickets Cost?

Resale tickets for The Eras Tour are currently available online for concerts in New Orleans, Miami and other locations.

How much are last-minute tickets? There’s more than one way to score Eras Tour tickets, but expect to spend several hundred bucks on a ticket, depending on the seats and date of the show.

Fans can find last-minute tickets to The Eras Tour at StubHub and Viagogo. Prices range from around $700 to more than $5,000 for select concerts. You’ll find cheaper tickets for dates that have less demand, but tickets are selling fast, which raises the demand. Right now, tickets for most of the remaining shows are available at StubHub for approximately $824 and up for select dates, but you’ll have to act fast to find the best prices and seats.

Swift is slated to perform at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans from Oct. 25 to 27. Tickets are scarce and selling fast — especially in the last hour (more than 81,000 people were looking at tickets when we last checked). Prior to circling back to the U.S., the Eras Tour has stopped in Spain, Sweden, Portugal and Japan, France, Poland, Austria, Australia and the U.K.

Tickets for the North American leg are currently available at StubHub, Vivid Seats and Seat Geek, although pricing usually starts at around $700-$800, demand is extremely high at the moment, so while tickets currently start at $703 at SeatGeek and over $824 at StubHub, most of the good seats could cost you more than $1,000 depending on the date of the show. Other resale ticket sites will cost you around the same price but for fans who want to catch Swift’s opening night in Miami on Oct. 18, tickets prices start at $708 at Vivid Seats and just over $800 at StubHub.

Looking for the cheapest tickets? Searching different sites will give you a better chance of landing tickets at a lower price point, but we did some of the digging for you.

At press time, most of tickets to Miami start at around $700-$1,400, although some of the in-demand and VIP tickets are priced above $2,000 at StubHub, which is around the same prices that you might find on sites such as Ticketsmarter and TicketNetwork. To score a discount, use code BB2024 and save $20 off purchases of $200 or more at Vivid Seats. Used code BILLBOARD150 to save $150 off $300 or more and code BILLBOARD300 to save $300 off $1,000 or more at TicketNetwork.

The Eras Tour is a celebration of all 10 of the studio albums Swift has released since 2006. The massively successful tour has reportedly raked in over $1 billion, according to Forbes. But with the launch of a new album era, Swift has been incorporating Tortured Poets into the tour for a section dubbed, “Female Rage: The Musical.”

In 2022, Swift shared a poster advertising the tour’s initial 27-date U.S. leg on Instagram featuring a collage of photos of herself through the years, from the time of her self-titled debut to Midnights, which dropped less than two weeks prior to the tour news.

“I wanted to tell you something that I’ve been so excited about for a really long time. I’ve been planning for ages and I finally get to tell you: I’m going back on tour,” Swift said on GMA, announcing the news. “The tour is called the Eras tour and it’s a journey through all of the musical eras of my career.”

Megan Thee Stallion loves spooky season. Ahead of taking the stage in Chicago for Hottieween to close out October, the Houston rapper announced plans for her Megan deluxe album Megan: Act II on Friday (Oct. 18).

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“MEGAN: ACT II OCTOBER 25,” she captioned the social media post. The Pen & Pixel-inspired cover art features the rapper growing butterfly wings and the title written out in diamond-encrusted letters.

Fans were very excited to hear more music was on the way for next week. “THIS COVERRRR COME ON MONEY MAKIN MEG,” one person wrote.

Megan Thee Stallion had teased that she was working on a mixtape earlier in October, but it’s unclear if this deluxe edition is related to the tape she referenced.

Megan will hit the stage for 2024’s Hottieween at Chicago’s United Center on Oct. 31. Tickets for the Halloween show sold out last week; all proceeds will be going toward supporting Megan’s Pete and Thomas Foundation.

Halloween is going to be a busy day for the Hotties. In addition to her Hottieween concert, Meg’s In Her Words documentary is slated to arrive on Prime Video the same day.

TIME Studios, Roc Nation and Amazon MGM Studios are all onboard to produce the revealing documentary surrounding the Grammy winner and her most vulnerable moments.

Megan arrived in June, and the project debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 64,000 total album units sold in the first week.

After channeling Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, late Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan, Evanescence’s Amy Lee, David Bowie, Cher and other iconic stars as part of her countdown to upcoming album The Great Impersonator (Oct. 25), Halsey tapped into one of their biggest childhood influences on Thursday (Oct. 17).

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To preview the 16th track on the album, the Spears-sampling “Lucky,” Halsey, 30, morphed into In the Zone-era Britney Spears, posting an image of herself with wind-tousled, blonde-streaked hair standing in a blue void while staring intently at the camera with a steely look.

“It’s Britney, b–ch!!!,” Halsey wrote of the eleventh preview of her fifth studio album. “The first superstar who ever inspired me,” they wrote of Spears. “There were infinite Britney looks to choose from, but I had to do this iconic album!,” they added of Spears’ 2003 fourth studio album, which featured the Madonna collab “Me Against the Music,” as well as the Billboard Hot 100 No. 9 hit “Toxic.” The accompanying image comes as Halsey promised to be “impersonating a different icon every day and teasing a snippet of the song they inspired.”

So far that’s meant the gauzy pop tune “Panic Attack” in honor of Nicks, the twangy Parton homage “Hometown,” as well as the Harvey take on turbulent rocker “Dog Years” and tips to the enigmatic British pop star Bush on the chilly “I Never Loved You,” Cher with the aching “Letter to God (1974),” rock chameleon Bowie on the spooky “Darwinism” and Lee on the churning “Lonely Is the Muse.”

The pitch perfect look/sound experiment continued earlier this week with Halsey sporting a short copper-toned hairstyle for the O’Riordan rager “Ego,” rolling up their sleeves, picking up a guitar and posing in front of an American flag for the confessional “Letter to God” as The Boss and going acoustic for the lo-fi Linda Rondstadt tribute “I Believe in Magic.”

On Thursday, the Grammy-nominated singer booked an intimate Nov. 21 show at the 1,400-capacity Regency Ballroom in San Francisco; the show is a exclusively for Wells Fargo Autograph Credit cardholders.

See Halsey’s Britney Spears-inspired look below.

Simon Cowell is remembering Liam Payne following the 31-year-old singer’s death.

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In a statement posted to Instagram Friday (Oct. 18), the X Factor creator — who gave Payne his start on the show in 2010 by placing him in One Direction — wrote that he feels “devastated” and “heartbroken” over the loss of his former mentee. “You never really know how you feel about someone until a moment like this happens,” Cowell wrote. “I feel empty.”

“I want you to know how much love and respect I have for you,” the mogul continued. “Every tear I have shed is a memory of you.”

Payne died Oct. 16 after falling from the third floor of his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A preliminary autopsy concluded that the star was potentially under the influence of substances when the fall occurred, moments before which a hotel manager had placed a 911 call to report that a guest was “destroying [their] entire room.”

In the wake of his death, Payne’s former One Direction bandmates each shared individual statements mourning the musician in addition to releasing a joint statement Thursday (Oct. 17). In his own message, Cowell shared that people would often ask him what Payne was like in real life, and he “would tell them you were kind, funny, sweet, thoughtful, talented, humble, focused. And how much you loved music. And how much love you genuinely had for the fans.”

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The former American Idol judge also reminisced on the first time he crossed paths with Payne when the singer auditioned for The X Factor U.K. in 2008 but was sent home; two years later, he’d audition again and earn his spot in 1D. “I had to tell you when you were 14 that this wasn’t your time,” Cowell wrote. “And we both made a promise that we would meet again. A lot of people would have given up. You didn’t.”

“You came to see me last year,” Cowell continued. “Not for a meeting. Just to sit and talk. And we reminisced about all of the fun times we had together. And how proud you were to be a Dad. After you left, I was reminded that you were still the sweet, kind boy I had met all of those years ago.”

Cowell’s statement marks the first time the producer has spoken about Payne’s passing. Earlier in the week, Cowell’s auditions for Britain’s Got Talent — another of his talent shows — were postponed “due to the tragic passing of Liam Payne,” according to a statement posted by Applause Store Thursday (Oct. 17).

Cowell was instrumental in Payne’s career, assigning the singer to One Direction with fellow X Factor hopefuls Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson in 2010. The band went on to dominate pop music for six years after that, scoring four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and six Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits before disbanding in 2016, after which Payne and his bandmates each pursued successful solo careers.

Cowell also reflected on the similarities between Payne and the singer’s 7-year-old son Bear, whom he shares with ex Cheryl Cole. Wrote the producer, “He has your smile and that twinkle in his eye that you have. And he will be so proud of everything you achieved. And how you achieved it.”

He concluded his tribute “And now Liam, I can see the effect you had on so many people. Because you left us too soon. Rest in peace my friend.”

See Cowell’s full statement about Payne below.

Presented by Imagen and Morado 

Artist and DJ Alex Sensation moderates a discussion about the rise of Colombia’s most exciting new music movement, with a marquee group of artists and producers (Luis Alfonso, Paolo Jara, Pipe Bueno and Yeison Jimenez) at Billboard’s Latin Music Week 2024.

Artista y DJ, Alex Sensation moderada una discusión sobre el ascenso del nuevo movimiento de música colombiana, explicado por algunos de sus artistas y productores más relevantes.

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Charli XCXxc’s Brat has finally topped the U.K.’s Official Albums Charts, four months after its original release.

The release of remix album Brat and It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat, which had star turns from Ariana Grande, The 1975, The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas and more, gave a well-timed boost to the original record to help it land at the summit. She faced stiff competition back in June when the original was beaten to No. 1 by Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department.

This is Charli’s second No. 1 album in the U.K. following 2022’s Crash. The record also is named the bestselling album on vinyl, and the LP was the most purchased in independent record shops this week. She already had a No. 1 on the Official Singles Chart in the summer with the remix of “Guess,” which features Billie Eilish.

The former Housemartins singer Paul Heaton lands at No. 2 with The Mighty Several. Heaton had a string of No. 1 albums in the 1990s with his band The Beautiful South, and two further chart-toppers with fellow Beautiful South vocalist Jacqui Abbott in 2020 and 2022.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet still has a hold on the British public as her album lands at No. 3, while Coldplay’s Moon Music and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess round out the top five.

Elsewhere in the top 10, there are appearances from James Blunt following the reissue of his 2004 album, Back to Bedlam, which landed at No. 7. Following a fan vote, the singer had promised to legally change his name to Blunty McBluntface if his album went to No. 1. Back to Bedlam originally spent 10 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 and is one of the bestselling albums in British music history. 

Lady Gaga’s Harlequin, which is a companion album and featured songs from Joker: Folie à Deux, also had a boost following the shipment of physical LPs and finished at No. 11. 

Records continue to tumble for Sabrina Carpenter as she lands another week at No. 1 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Charts. The singer is the first artist in 71 years to spend 20 weeks at No. 1 on the charts in a single calendar year.

Carpenter’s “Taste” spends an eighth consecutive week at the top of the charts and becomes the longest-running No. 1 single of the year, toppling Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season.” Between “Espresso” (seven weeks) and “Please Please Please” (five weeks), Carpenter becomes only the second artist in chart history to spend that long at No. 1.

The only other artist to achieve a similar feat was Frankie Laine‘s 28-week reign back in 1953. The American crooner spent 18 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 with “I Believe,” which remains the U.K.’s longest-running No. 1 single ever, two weeks with “Hey Joe” and a further eight with “Answer Me.”

There’ll be happy faces all around for Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars as their collaborative single “Die With a Smile” rises to a new peak of No. 2, and could soon become a challenger for the top spot in coming weeks.

Elsewhere, Gracie Abrams lands her first top 10 single with “I Love You, I’m Sorry” at No. 4, and Sonny Fodera, Jazzy and D.O.D complete the top five with “Somedays.”

Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go!” hits a new peak at No. 6, while Charli XCX and Ariana Grande’s “Sympathy Is a Knife” remix ends the week at No. 7.

KSI and Trippie Redd’s “Thick of It” rises six spots to No. 8, and becomes KSI’s ninth and Trippie Redd’s first top 10 single.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

The Billboard Family Hits of the Week compiles what’s new and worth your family’s time in music, movies, TV, books, games and more. Forget the mind-numbing scrolling and searching “what to watch for family movie night” … again. The best in family entertainment each week is all in one place, in this handy guide. Isn’t it satisfying to cross something off your list?

Before moving forward with recommendations of how to keep your family entertained this week, I want to acknowledge it’s been a devastating few days for the pop music community with the untimely passing of One Direction‘s Liam Payne. Having formed in 2010 and gone on hiatus by 2016, One Direction mostly pre-dates the youth of today’s main experience with pop music, but their impact on the genre holds steady. Payne’s family is heartbroken. His peers in music are grieving the loss of a dear friend. Parents reading this, especially the younger set who were coming of age at 1D’s peak, are likely feeling the heaviness. Kids on the internet might have seen the news, or they might be picking up on your sadness, and they might ask questions. I suggest reading Billboard‘s tribute to Payne and his indispensable contributions to One Direction, as well as a great summary of his highlights on the charts to queue up a playlist, whether it’s for yourself or to share with your family.

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And now, a swerve into lighter and brighter news: The Eras Tour returns. Taylor Swift will be on stage (and our small screens, assuming someone live streams) Friday, Oct. 17 in Miami for the first concert of the end of Eras. The summer leg of the show got a Tortured Poets Department refresh. Will there be more surprises from the stealthy Swift before she takes her final bow of 2024?

On TV this weekend, I recommend tuning in to see Billie Eilish as SNL‘s musical guest. No word on whether the “Birds of a Feather” singer will star in any sketches on the Michael Keaton-hosted episode, but I foresee funny things if she does. Eilish previously hosted SNL in 2021, when she became the first-ever celebrity host born in the 21st century — just another mind-boggling milestone this young talent hit before the age of 21.

I’m currently streaming Prime Video’s The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh, a new half-hour family comedy series surrounding an Indian family that’s newly navigating life in America. Episode one, opening in an interrogation room with the entire Pradeep family of five, pulls you in right away. How did this family get here?

Family game collections should grow with this week’s release of Super Mario Party Jamboree from Nintendo. I think we’ll save this one for the holidays, when the kids can open it as a gift and have ample time to quarrel over which of the 110 mini-games to play first. The Mario Party series has a history of inspiring spirited competition in our home.

Here’s a rundown of our picks for the latest rendition of Billboard Family Hits of the Week: