Country singer-songwriter HARDY will join forces with comedian-actor Bert Kreischer to cohost New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash, which will air live on Wednesday, Dec. 31, on CBSand stream on Paramount+ from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET/PT and 10:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m. ET/PT.

“Celebrating New Year’s Eve in Music City is always a blast,” HARDY said in a statement. “It’s great to be back playing NASHVILLE’S BIG BASH and I’m stoked to cohost this year with one of the funniest dudes I know.”

“You hear people say, ‘I’m honored and privileged to be working with a certain group of people,’ but in this case, I am blown away that I’m allowed to work with these people. This lineup is insane,” Kreischer said in a statement. “This event, which I was a very small part of last year, is so much fun. To be working with my buddy HARDY … it feels like I should be paying CBS to do this. I can’t wait. I hope I keep my shirt on, and I promise not to drink until the stroke of midnight, unless you want me to drink earlier.”

Social media star Haley Baylee will serve as a correspondent from New York City and will count down with the East Coast at midnight for new York City’s ball drop, while HARDY and Kreischer will keep the party going strong through midnight CT, featuring Nashville’s Music Note Drop at the Bicentennial Stage.

In addition to performing, HARDY will also perform live at Bicentennial Park in Nashville, with previously announced headliners Jason Aldean, Lainey Wilson and Bailey Zimmerman, along with special guests CeCe Winans and the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The five-hour special will also be highlighted by performances from Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Rascal Flatts, Riley Green, Marcus King, Megan Moroney, Zach Top, Keith Urban, Gretchen Wilson and Stephen Wilson Jr., performing from various venues across the city. Other special appearances will be made by comedian Dusty Slay, Entertainment Tonight’s Cassie DiLaura, SiriusXM’s Buzz Brainard and UFC champion Kayla Harrison.

Dwight Yoakam and Marcus King will perform at Luke Combs’s Category 10, serving as the home of the official New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash watch party, with guests Cody Alan and Caylee Hammack. The watch party is free and open to fans 21 and older, with a first-come, first-serve basis, with doors opening at 6 p.m.

Ariana Grande loves Christmas & Chill, but maybe not that much chill. In a hilarious new promo video ahead of her Saturday Night hosting stint this weekend, the singer gets all prepped to face the New York City cold before her plans to enjoy some holiday magic go astray.

In the video posted Wednesday (Dec. 17), cast member Ashley Padilla swings by Ari’s dressing room to invite her to “throw snowballs at Ben Marshall” and go admire the Rockefeller Center’s massive, iconic Christmas tree. Grande then proceeds to bundle up, adding more and more layers as she notices the temperature continues to drop to comically low levels.

Eventually, Grande reaches Randy in A Christmas Story levels of winter gear — just to find out that access to the tree has been cut off. Luckily, SNL boss Lorne Michaels has the best seat in the house, and the two-time Grammy winner and Padilla sneak into his office to look at the tree and Rockefeller ice-skating rink from above.

The Christmas magic of the moment, however, is broken when Grande admits: “I have to pee.”

Grande will host the Dec. 20 episode of SNL, with Cher serving as her musical guest. It will mark the third time the Wicked actress has helmed an episode, having last served as host in 2024 after making her debut in the role in 2016, when she pulled double duty.

The upcoming SNL episode comes about a month after the premiere of Wicked: For Good in theaters, marking the close of the massive Universal Pictures franchise in which Grande starred as Glinda opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba. Next year, she’ll hit the road to finally tour in support of her 2024 Billboard 200-topping album, Eternal Sunshine.

Watch Grande enjoy Christmas at 30 Rock in the new SNL promo above.

Forget your troubles, come on, get happy — because Lady Gaga is celebrating her Harlequin LP with the first-ever screening of a concert film shot last year, presented by the Grammy Museum.

In honor of the 2024 Joker: Folie à Deux companion album earning a nod for best traditional pop vocal album at the 2026 awards, Mother Monster will premiere LADY GAGA IN HARLEQUIN LIVE – ONE NIGHT ONLY at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Thursday (Dec. 18). In addition to a screening, the event will feature a discussion about the project.

The film was shot at Gaga’s intimate performance at The Belasco in L.A. last year and has never before been shared on screen. In front of just a handful of lucky fans, the 14-time Grammy winner performed Harlequin in its entirety, including her renditions of American Songbook classics such as “Get Happy” and “Good Morning.”

Tickets to the Grammy Museum event are now on sale online. Gaga also appeared to tease the film on Wednesday (Dec. 17) by sharing a video slowly zooming in on a “Harlequin” drum set on her Instagram Story.

Released in October 2024, Harlequin reached No. 20 on the Billboard 200. It accompanied the Joker sequel, in which Gaga starred as Harley Quinn opposite Joaquin Phoenix as the titular character.

And while the jazzy, conceptual full-length was soon arguably overshadowed by the release of Gaga’s acclaimed, Billboard 200-topping Mayhem album in March, the singer-actress has maintained how proud she is of Harlequin. “Harlequin is one of my proudest pieces of production,” she wrote on TikTok in April after she refrained from playing any of the album’s tracks at her Coachella set.

YouTube will have exclusive global rights to the Oscars beginning in 2029 with the 101st Oscars ceremony and running through 2033. The Oscars have been telecast on ABC continuously since 1976. This year, the show also streamed on Hulu for the first time.

The Oscars, including red carpet coverage, behind-the-scenes content, Governors Ball access and more, will be available live and for free to more than 2 billion viewers around the world on YouTube, and to YouTube TV subscribers in the United States. YouTube will help make the Oscars accessible to the Academy’s growing global audience through features such as closed captioning and audio tracks available in multiple languages.

The partnership also will include worldwide access for film fans to other Academy events and programs exclusively on the Oscars YouTube channel. This will include the Governors Awards, the Oscars nominations announcement, the Oscars Nominees Luncheon, the Student Academy Awards, the Scientific and Technical Awards, Academy member and filmmaker interviews, film education programs, podcasts, and more.

In addition, through this holistic partnership, the Google Arts & Culture initiative will help provide digital access to select Academy Museum exhibitions and programs and help to digitize components of the Academy Collection—the largest film-related collection in the world, with more than 52 million items. It will be a true hub for film fans and will be accessible from around the world.

“We are thrilled to enter into a multifaceted global partnership with YouTube to be the future home of the Oscars and our year-round Academy programming,” Motion Picture Academy CEO Bill Kramer and president Lynette Howell Taylor said in a joint statement. “The Academy is an international organization, and this partnership will allow us to expand access to the work of the Academy to the largest worldwide audience possible — which will be beneficial for our Academy members and the film community. This collaboration will leverage YouTube’s vast reach and infuse the Oscars and other Academy programming with innovative opportunities for engagement while honoring our legacy. We will be able to celebrate cinema, inspire new generations of filmmakers and provide access to our film history on an unprecedented global scale.”

“The Oscars are one of our essential cultural institutions, honoring excellence in storytelling and artistry,” said Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube. “Partnering with the Academy to bring this celebration of art and entertainment to viewers all over the world will inspire a new generation of creativity and film lovers while staying true to the Oscars’ storied legacy.”

The Academy’s domestic partnership for the Oscars will continue with Disney ABC through the 100th Oscars in 2028, as will the international partnership for the Oscars with Disney’s Buena Vista International.

The Oscars were first televised on NBC in 1953. They remained with that network through the 1960 ceremony, moved over to ABC from 1961-70, moved back to NBC from 1971-75 and have aired on ABC continuously since 1976.

The Oscars aren’t the only EGOT-level show that is on the move. The Grammys announced last year that the 2026 telecast will be their last with CBS, which has broadcast the show continuously since 1973. The show will move to ABC/Disney in 2027. Of the two other EGOT-level shows, the Tonys have aired on CBS continuously since 1978. The Primetime Emmys alternate between the three legacy networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) and FOX.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs that included sensational claims involving NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. and comedian Druski.

Ashley Parham sued Diddy last year, including not just accusations of sexual assault but also kidnapping, stabbings, gunshots and bribery. In March, she added Beckham and Druski – claims the two men vehemently denied as fabrications.

But in a ruling on Tuesday, Judge Rita Lin dismissed the case on the grounds that Parham had never actually litigated it. The accuser wanted more time to find new lawyers after her old team withdrew in September, but the judge suggested that no lawyer would want to touch her case.

“It has been over two months since plaintiffs’ counsel’s withdrawal, and plaintiffs describe consulting an array of potential counsel, who have each declined to take the matter,” the judge wrote. “The barrier to obtaining counsel therefore does not appear to be plaintiffs’ capacity to seek counsel, but the willingness of counsel to be retained in the matter. There is no indication that this barrier is likely to resolve.”

In a statement to Billboard on Wednesday, Druski said the evidence in the case “overwhelmingly showed that I was innocent” and that he had never even met Parham. He thanked his supporters for standing by him as the accuser “attempted to destroy my reputation for greed.”

“From the beginning, I knew these disgusting lies would be exposed as nothing more than a malicious money grab,” the star said. “I pray for the real victims of assault. We can’t allow these clout-chasing antics to deter true survivors from coming forward and speaking out against their abusers in the future.”

In his own statement to Billboard, Beckham’s attorney Andrew V. Jablon said the football star was pleased that “these scurrilous allegations can finally be put to rest” and that the ruling “confirms the reality that this case never should have been filed.”

“There certainly was no reasonable basis for maintaining the action against him once plaintiff’s attorneys had been provided with uncontroverted evidence that Mr. Beckham – who has never met Plaintiff and never been to the area in question – was hundreds of miles away at the time of the alleged assault,” Jablon said.

Representatives for Diddy did not return a request for comment on Wednesday A representative for Parham, who is no longer represented by lawyers, could not immediately be located.

Parham filed her case in 2024, one of dozens of civil lawsuits brought against Combs over the past two years alleging sexual abuse and other forms of wrongdoing. The embattled mogul was convicted in July on criminal prostitution charges and sentenced to four years in prison, but was cleared of more serious charges that could have sent him to prison for life.

Many of the civil lawsuits against Diddy included scandalous claims, but the Parham case stood out. She claimed she had been drugged, kidnapped, and violently raped in a 2018 incident in which both Beckham and Druski participated – then had gunshots fired at her as she fled after confronting Combs with a knife.

Druski, who was not yet famous in 2018, strongly denied the claims — calling the case a “fabricated lie” and that his inclusion was “truly outlandish.” Beckham similarly denied the allegations, saying that his “name will be cleared.”

Both men later sought legal punishment against Parham and her lawyers for naming them in the case. Druski’s lawyers cited phone records showing that their client was at home in Georgia on the day of the alleged assault, thousands of miles from the alleged attack in Northern California. Beckham’s filings say he was at home in Los Angeles, where he was “widely seen and photographed” the next day at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards.

In her ruling, Judge Lin rejected the case merely for inaction. Parham has “still not served” the lawsuit on the defendants and had repeatedly blown procedural deadlines, the judge said. After months of waiting, the judge said it was time to close the case.

“The Court has warned Plaintiffs several times that the case would be dismissed … if they continued to miss the required deadlines,” the judge said, though she said it could be refiled if Parham finds new lawyers willing to take on her case.

The judge denied, however, the motions by Druski and Beckham seeking to sanction Parham. She ruled that such punishment is typically denied, and that a lawsuit merely needs “some plausible basis, even a weak one.”