‘Suits LA’ To Get Litt Up As Rick Hoffman Sets Return In NBC Spinoff

EXCLUSIVE: NBC’s Suits LA will welcome Rick Hoffman later this season, reprising the role of Louis Litt, who originated in the mothership series, USA Network’s Suits. Sources close to production confirm he will appear in one episode this season with the potential to return for more if NBC picks up the Aaron Korsh-created legal drama for a second season.

Hoffman is the second actor from Suits to return to the universe following Gabriel Macht who will appear in three episodes this season. Litt and Macht’s Harvey Spector will not coincide in any episodes, we hear.

Louis Litt is an attorney specializing in corporate finance who provides the series with comedy relief. He’s the character you love to hate because he has a tough outer core but he is actually a sensitive softie on the inside. Louis is famous for using the catchphrase “You Just Got Litt Up,” which means you just got owned by Louis Litt.

Suits LA is centered on Ted Black (Stephen Amell), a former federal prosecutor from New York, who has reinvented himself by representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles. His firm is at a crisis point, and to survive, he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career.

The series also stars Lex Scott Davis, Josh McDermitt, Bryan Greenberg, Troy Winbush, Rachelle Goulding, Azita Ghanizada, Maggie Grace and Alice Lee.

New episodes air on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. This Sunday, the episode is titled “He Knew” and will follow Ted and Kevin (Winbush) deal with a bombshell about Lester’s (Kevin Weisman) motive for killing his producing partner. Erica (Davis) and Leah (Lee) try to fulfill an unorthodox request for a celebrity client. In the past, Ted drags his old friend Stuart (McDermitt) into his mob case. Brian Baumgartner and Patton Oswalt guest star.

On NBC and across Peacock, Suits LA and Grosse Pointe Garden Society saw gains vs. their linear telecasts during their second week. Both shows jumped nearly 2X in total viewers (+87%/+90%) and more than 3X in the 18-49 demo (+213%/+216%), according to NBC.

Aaron Korsh is the creator and executive producer of Suits and Suits LA. David Bartis, Doug Liman, Gene Klein, Anton Cropper, Genevieve Sparling, Rick Muirragui and Jon Cowan also executive produce. The series is produced by UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group.

Hoffman is an actor best known for his fan-favorite role as eccentric and endearing lawyer Louis Litt on all nine seasons of USA’s popular legal drama Suits. He was recently seen starring in Showtime’s award-winning series Billions opposite Paul Giamatti and Damien Lewis. On the big screen, he starred in Eli Roth’s hit film Thanksgiving alongside Patrick Dempsey.

Hoffman’s other notable film credits include Hostel, also directed by Roth; Blood Work directed by Clint Eastwood; and Battleship directed by Peter Berg. Additional TV credits include HBO’s Ballers, ABC’s Samantha Who?, FOX’s The Bernie Mac Show, and ABC’s Philly.

He is repped by Paradigm Talent Agency and Impression Entertainment.

Tracy Morgan and Tina Fey Reunite for NBC’s Next Comedy Gold

Hollywood’s latest power play feels like the entertainment equivalent of getting the Avengers back together – minus the spandex, plus a whole lot more laughs. Tracy Morgan, the comedic force who once had us crying with laughter on ’30 Rock,’ is making his way back to NBC. And darlings, he’s not coming alone.

In what might be 2025’s most delicious casting coup, Morgan’s bringing along the creative dream team that turned Thursday nights into must-see TV nirvana. We’re talking about none other than comedy queen Tina Fey herself, whose razor-sharp wit helped ’30 Rock’ rack up more Emmy nominations than a Real Housewife has designer handbags.

The new single-camera sitcom (because honey, multi-cam is so 2010) sees Morgan stepping into the shoes of a fallen football star trying to rebuild his reputation. It’s the kind of meaty role that could rival his iconic Tracy Jordan character – you know, the one who gave us such pearls of wisdom as planning to “get everybody pregnant.”

Let’s dish about the creative powerhouse behind this venture. Robert Carlock and Sam Means are bringing their writing magic, while Eric Gurian and David Miner are producing. If those names don’t ring a bell, sweetie, they should – they’re basically the Meryl Streeps of television production, having crafted seven seasons of ’30 Rock’ that served up more jokes per minute than a caffeinated stand-up on opening night.

Speaking of numbers (and who doesn’t love a good stat?), ’30 Rock’ averaged 7.44 jokes per minute. That’s not just impressive – it’s mathematical proof that lightning can strike repeatedly in the same writers’ room. As Tina Fey spilled to CinemaBlend, the show worked because it captured “all different kinds of American humor.” Darling, that’s like saying Beyoncé is “pretty good” at performing.

The project’s being helmed by Rhys Thomas, whose directing credits read like a “Best of TV” list – ‘SNL,’ ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,’ and now this gem-in-making. While NBC’s keeping additional casting under wraps (typical network teasing), the creative pedigree alone has industry insiders buzzing louder than a TikTok trend.

Universal Television’s backing this baby, with Little Stranger, Bevel Gears, and 3 Arts producing. For those keeping score at home, that’s essentially the same recipe that cooked up 103 Emmy nominations and enough awards to fill a small museum.

For the devoted fans who’ve been sustaining themselves on ’30 Rock’ reruns and working “I want to go to there” into casual conversation, this news is better than finding out your favorite discontinued lipstick is making a comeback. The ingredients are all there – now we wait to see if this comedy soufflé rises to the occasion.

And darling? In the current landscape of endless reboots and tired retreads, this fresh take feels like finding vintage Chanel at a thrift store price – absolutely priceless.

An Okinawan bone digger searches for remains from one of the fiercest battles of World War II

ITOMAN, Japan (AP) — Takamatsu Gushiken turns on a headtorch and enters a cave buried in Okinawa’s jungle. He gently runs his fingers through the gravel until two pieces of bone emerge. These are from the skulls, he says, of an infant and possibly an adult.

He carefully places them in a ceramic rice bowl and takes a moment to imagine people dying 80 years ago as they hid in this cave during one of the fiercest battles of World War II. His hope is that the dead can be reunited with their families.

The remains of some 1,400 people found on Okinawa sit in storage for possible identification with DNA testing. So far just six have been identified and returned to their families. Volunteer bone hunters and families looking for their loved ones say the government should do more to help.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Gushiken says the bones are silent witnesses to Okinawa’s wartime tragedy, carrying a warning to the present generation as Japan ups its defense spending in the face of tensions with China over territorial disputes and Beijing’s claim to the nearby self-governing island Taiwan.

“The best way to honor the war dead is never to allow another war,” Gushiken says. “I’m worried about Okinawa’s situation now. … I’m afraid there is a growing risk that Okinawa may become a battlefield again.”

An island haunted by one of the deadliest battles of World War II

On April 1, 1945, U.S. troops landed on Okinawa during their push toward mainland Japan, beginning a battle that lasted until late June and killed about 12,000 Americans and more than 188,000 Japanese, half of them Okinawan civilians. That included students and victims of mass suicides ordered by the Japanese military, historians say.

The fighting ended at Itoman, where Gushiken and other volunteer cave diggers — or “gamahuya” in their native Okinawan language — have found the remains of what are likely hundreds of people.

Gushiken tries to imagine being in the cave during the fighting. Where would he hide? What would he feel? He makes a guess about the age of the victims, whether they died by gunshot or explosion, and puts details about the bones in a small red notebook.

After the war, Okinawa remained under U.S. occupation until 1972, 20 years longer than most of Japan, and it remains host to a major U.S. military presence to this day. As Japan enjoyed a postwar economic rise, Okinawa’s economic, educational and social development lagged behind.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Gushiken says when he was a child growing up in Okinawa’s capital, Naha, he would go out hunting bugs and find skulls still wearing helmets.

A slow search for remains

Nearly 80 years after the end of World War II, 1.2 million Japanese war dead are still unaccounted for. That’s about half of the 2.4 million Japanese, mostly soldiers, who died during Japan’s early 20th century wars.

Thousands of unidentified bones have been sitting in storage for years waiting for testing that could help match them with surviving families.

Gushiken says the government’s DNA matching efforts have been too little and too slow.

Of the estimated 188,140 Japanese killed in the Battle of Okinawa, most of their remains had been collected and placed in the national cemetery on the island, the health ministry says. Around 1,400 remains found in recent decades sit in storage. The process of identification has been painfully slow.

It was only in 2003 that the Japanese government started DNA matching after requests from the families of the dead, but tests were limited to the remains found with teeth and manmade artifacts that could provide hints to their identities.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

In 2016, Japan enacted a law launching a remains recovery initiative to promote more DNA matching and cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense. A lear later, the government expanded the work to civilians and authorized testing on limb bones.

In all, 1,280 remains of Japanese war-dead, including six on Okinawa, have been identified by DNA tests since 2003, the health ministry said. The remains of around 14,000 people are stored in the ministry mortuary for future testing.

Hundreds of American soldiers remain unaccounted for. Their remains, as well as those of the Koreans mobilized by the Japanese during the war, may yet be found, Gushiken says.

Locating and identifying decades-old remains have become increasingly difficult as families and relatives age, memories fade, artifacts and documents get lost, and the remains deteriorate, says Naoki Tezuka, a health ministry official.

“The progress has been slow everywhere,” Tezuka said. “Ideally, we hope to not just collect the remains but return them to their families.”

The burden of history

Japan is undertaking an accelerating military buildup, sending more troops and weapons to Okinawa and its outer islands. Many here who have bitter memories of the Japanese army’s wartime brutality view the current military buildup with wariness.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Washington and Tokyo see the strong U.S. military presence as a crucial bulwark against China and North Korea, but many Okinawans have long complained about noise, pollution, aircraft accidents and crime related to American troops.

Okinawa today is home to more than half of the 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan, with the majority of U.S. military facilities on the small southern island. Tokyo has promised to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps air station that sits in a crowded town after years of friction, but Okinawans remain angry at a plan that would only move it to the island’s east coast and may use the soil possibly containing the remains for construction.

Gushiken says the Itoman caves should be protected from development so that younger generations can learn about the war’s history, and so searchers like him can complete their work.

Like him, some Okinawans say they fear the lessons of their wartime suffering are being forgotten.

Tomoyuki Kobashigawa’s half-sister Michiko was killed soon after she got married. He wants to apply for DNA matching to help find her. “It’s so sad … If she would have lived, we could have been such good siblings.”

The missing remains show the government’s “lack of remorse over its responsibility in the war,” Kobashigawa says. “I’m afraid the Okinawan people will be embroiled in a war again.”

___

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.

Roy Ayers, ‘Everybody Loves the Sunshine’ Musician and ‘Coffy’ Composer, Dies at 84

Roy Ayers, ‘Everybody Loves the Sunshine’ Musician and ‘Coffy’ Composer, Dies at 84

Steven J. Horowitz

March 6, 2025 at 2:05 AM

Roy Ayers, the legendary jazz vibraphonist known for his hit “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” and sampled by countless artists, died at the age of 84.

In a statement shared with Variety, the Ayers family said that he died yesterday after suffering from a long illness. “It is with great sadness that the family of legendary vibraphonist, composer, and producer Roy Ayers announce his passing which occurred on March 4, 2025 in New York City after a long illness,” they said, describing him as “highly influential and sought after as a music collaborator.”

Throughout his career, Ayers established himself as a pioneer of jazz-funk and was largely influential on the neo-soul movement. As a solo artist, he released dozens of albums over the years, dating as far back as 1963, and scored his biggest hit “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” with his group Roy Ayers Ubiquity. The musician’s songs have been sampled by everyone from Mary J. Blige and Common to Tyler, the Creator and Kanye West, and he collaborated with musicians including Erykah Badu, Fela Kuti and Rick James.

Ayers was born in Los Angeles in 1940 and grew up in a musical household. He was inspired to take up the vibraphone after seeing Lionel Hampton’s Big Band at the age of five, and took piano lessons and sang in the church choir. At 17, he was gifted his first vibraphone and attended Los Angeles City College to study advanced music theory. He made his recording debut with saxophonist Curtis Amy in the early 1960s, and signed his first contract with United Artists to release his debut album “West Coast Vibes” in 1963.

He teamed with jazz flutist Herbie Mann to record three albums for Atlantic Records — “Virgo Vibes,” “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “Daddy Bug” — before partnering with Polydor, where he continued to release music. In 1973, he wrote and produced the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film “Coffy” starring Pam Grier. During this era, he formed Roy Ayers Ubiquity and scored his biggest hit with “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” the title track from their 1976 album. To date, that song has more than 130 million Spotify streams, and has been covered by a range of artists including D’Angelo, Jamie Cullum and Robert Glasper.

In the decades that followed, he released records and formed two labels, Uno Melodic and Gold Mink Records. His last solo album “Mahogany Vibe,” came out in 2004, and featured guest appearances from Betty Wright, Kamilah and Erykah Badu. In 2015, he made a guest appearance on Tyler, the Creator’s track “Find Your Wings” and two years later performed at the rapper’s Camp Flog Gnaw festival.

Ayers is survived by his wife Argerie, and their children Mtume and Ayana Ayers.

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Okinawan bone digger searches for the remains of WWII dead and worries their lessons are unheard

ITOMAN, Japan (AP) — Takamatsu Gushiken turns on a headtorch and enters a cave buried in Okinawa’s jungle. He gently runs his fingers through the gravel until two pieces of bone emerge. These are from the skulls, he says, of an infant and possibly an adult.

He carefully places them in a ceramic rice bowl and takes a moment to imagine people dying 80 years ago as they hid in this cave during one of the fiercest battles of World War II. His hope is that the dead can be reunited with their families.

The remains of some 1,400 people found on Okinawa sit in storage for possible identification with DNA testing. So far just six have been identified and returned to their families. Volunteer bone hunters and families looking for their loved ones say the government should do more to help.

Gushiken says the bones are silent witnesses to Okinawa’s wartime tragedy, carrying a warning to the present generation as Japan ups its defense spending in the face of tensions with China over territorial disputes and Beijing’s claim to the nearby self-governing island Taiwan.

“The best way to honor the war dead is never to allow another war,” Gushiken says. “I’m worried about Okinawa’s situation now. … I’m afraid there is a growing risk that Okinawa may become a battlefield again.”

An island haunted by one of the deadliest battles of World War II

On April 1, 1945, U.S. troops landed on Okinawa during their push toward mainland Japan, beginning a battle that lasted until late June and killed about 12,000 Americans and more than 188,000 Japanese, half of them Okinawan civilians. That included students and victims of mass suicides ordered by the Japanese military, historians say.

The fighting ended at Itoman, where Gushiken and other volunteer cave diggers — or “gamahuya” in their native Okinawan language — have found the remains of what are likely hundreds of people.

Gushiken tries to imagine being in the cave during the fighting. Where would he hide? What would he feel? He makes a guess about the age of the victims, whether they died by gunshot or explosion, and puts details about the bones in a small red notebook.

After the war, Okinawa remained under U.S. occupation until 1972, 20 years longer than most of Japan, and it remains host to a major U.S. military presence to this day. As Japan enjoyed a postwar economic rise, Okinawa’s economic, educational and social development lagged behind.

Gushiken says when he was a child growing up in Okinawa’s capital, Naha, he would go out hunting bugs and find skulls still wearing helmets.

A slow search for remains

Nearly 80 years after the end of World War II, 1.2 million Japanese war dead are still unaccounted for. That’s about half of the 2.4 million Japanese, mostly soldiers, who died during Japan’s early 20th century wars.

Thousands of unidentified bones have been sitting in storage for years waiting for testing that could help match them with surviving families.

Gushiken says the government’s DNA matching efforts have been too little and too slow.

Of the estimated 188,140 Japanese killed in the Battle of Okinawa, most of their remains had been collected and placed in the national cemetery on the island, the health ministry says. Around 1,400 remains found in recent decades sit in storage. The process of identification has been painfully slow.

It was only in 2003 that the Japanese government started DNA matching after requests from the families of the dead, but tests were limited to the remains found with teeth and manmade artifacts that could provide hints to their identities.

In 2016, Japan enacted a law launching a remains recovery initiative to promote more DNA matching and cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense. A lear later, the government expanded the work to civilians and authorized testing on limb bones.

In all, 1,280 remains of Japanese war-dead, including six on Okinawa, have been identified by DNA tests since 2003, the health ministry said. The remains of around 14,000 people are stored in the ministry mortuary for future testing.

Hundreds of American soldiers remain unaccounted for. Their remains, as well as those of the Koreans mobilized by the Japanese during the war, may yet be found, Gushiken says.

Locating and identifying decades-old remains have become increasingly difficult as families and relatives age, memories fade, artifacts and documents get lost, and the remains deteriorate, says Naoki Tezuka, a health ministry official.

“The progress has been slow everywhere,” Tezuka said. “Ideally, we hope to not just collect the remains but return them to their families.”

The burden of history

Japan is undertaking an accelerating military buildup, sending more troops and weapons to Okinawa and its outer islands. Many here who have bitter memories of the Japanese army’s wartime brutality view the current military buildup with wariness.

Washington and Tokyo see the strong U.S. military presence as a crucial bulwark against China and North Korea, but many Okinawans have long complained about noise, pollution, aircraft accidents and crime related to American troops.

Okinawa today is home to more than half of the 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan, with the majority of U.S. military facilities on the small southern island. Tokyo has promised to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps air station that sits in a crowded town after years of friction, but Okinawans remain angry at a plan that would only move it to the island’s east coast and may use the soil possibly containing the remains for construction.

Gushiken says the Itoman caves should be protected from development so that younger generations can learn about the war’s history, and so searchers like him can complete their work.

Like him, some Okinawans say they fear the lessons of their wartime suffering are being forgotten.

Tomoyuki Kobashigawa’s half-sister Michiko was killed soon after she got married. He wants to apply for DNA matching to help find her. “It’s so sad … If she would have lived, we could have been such good siblings.”

The missing remains show the government’s “lack of remorse over its responsibility in the war,” Kobashigawa says. “I’m afraid the Okinawan people will be embroiled in a war again.”

Okinawan bone digger searches for the remains of WWII dead and worries their lessons are unheard

ITOMAN, Japan (AP) — Takamatsu Gushiken turns on a headtorch and enters a cave buried in Okinawa’s jungle. He gently runs his fingers through the gravel until two pieces of bone emerge. These are from the skulls, he says, of an infant and possibly an adult.

He carefully places them in a ceramic rice bowl and takes a moment to imagine people dying 80 years ago as they hid in this cave during one of the fiercest battles of World War II. His hope is that the dead can be reunited with their families.

The remains of some 1,400 people found on Okinawa sit in storage for possible identification with DNA testing. So far just six have been identified and returned to their families. Volunteer bone hunters and families looking for their loved ones say the government should do more to help.

Gushiken says the bones are silent witnesses to Okinawa’s wartime tragedy, carrying a warning to the present generation as Japan ups its defense spending in the face of tensions with China over territorial disputes and Beijing’s claim to the nearby self-governing island Taiwan.

“The best way to honor the war dead is never to allow another war,” Gushiken says. “I’m worried about Okinawa’s situation now. … I’m afraid there is a growing risk that Okinawa may become a battlefield again.”

On April 1, 1945, U.S. troops landed on Okinawa during their push toward mainland Japan, beginning a battle that lasted until late June and killed about 12,000 Americans and more than 188,000 Japanese, half of them Okinawan civilians. That included students and victims of mass suicides ordered by the Japanese military, historians say.

The fighting ended at Itoman, where Gushiken and other volunteer cave diggers — or “gamahuya” in their native Okinawan language — have found the remains of what are likely hundreds of people.

Gushiken tries to imagine being in the cave during the fighting. Where would he hide? What would he feel? He makes a guess about the age of the victims, whether they died by gunshot or explosion, and puts details about the bones in a small red notebook.

After the war, Okinawa remained under U.S. occupation until 1972, 20 years longer than most of Japan, and it remains host to a major U.S. military presence to this day. As Japan enjoyed a postwar economic rise, Okinawa’s economic, educational and social development lagged behind.

Gushiken says when he was a child growing up in Okinawa’s capital, Naha, he would go out hunting bugs and find skulls still wearing helmets.

Nearly 80 years after the end of World War II, 1.2 million Japanese war dead are still unaccounted for. That’s about half of the 2.4 million Japanese, mostly soldiers, who died during Japan’s early 20th century wars.

Thousands of unidentified bones have been sitting in storage for years waiting for testing that could help match them with surviving families.

Gushiken says the government’s DNA matching efforts have been too little and too slow.

Of the estimated 188,140 Japanese killed in the Battle of Okinawa, most of their remains had been collected and placed in the national cemetery on the island, the health ministry says. Around 1,400 remains found in recent decades sit in storage. The process of identification has been painfully slow.

It was only in 2003 that the Japanese government started DNA matching after requests from the families of the dead, but tests were limited to the remains found with teeth and manmade artifacts that could provide hints to their identities.

In 2016, Japan enacted a law launching a remains recovery initiative to promote more DNA matching and cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense. A lear later, the government expanded the work to civilians and authorized testing on limb bones.

In all, 1,280 remains of Japanese war-dead, including six on Okinawa, have been identified by DNA tests since 2003, the health ministry said. The remains of around 14,000 people are stored in the ministry mortuary for future testing.

Hundreds of American soldiers remain unaccounted for. Their remains, as well as those of the Koreans mobilized by the Japanese during the war, may yet be found, Gushiken says.

Locating and identifying decades-old remains have become increasingly difficult as families and relatives age, memories fade, artifacts and documents get lost, and the remains deteriorate, says Naoki Tezuka, a health ministry official.

“The progress has been slow everywhere,” Tezuka said. “Ideally, we hope to not just collect the remains but return them to their families.”

Japan is undertaking an accelerating military buildup, sending more troops and weapons to Okinawa and its outer islands. Many here who have bitter memories of the Japanese army’s wartime brutality view the current military buildup with wariness.

Washington and Tokyo see the strong U.S. military presence as a crucial bulwark against China and North Korea, but many Okinawans have long complained about noise, pollution, aircraft accidents and crime related to American troops.

Okinawa today is home to more than half of the 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan, with the majority of U.S. military facilities on the small southern island. Tokyo has promised to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps air station that sits in a crowded town after years of friction, but Okinawans remain angry at a plan that would only move it to the island’s east coast and may use the soil possibly containing the remains for construction.

Gushiken says the Itoman caves should be protected from development so that younger generations can learn about the war’s history, and so searchers like him can complete their work.

Like him, some Okinawans say they fear the lessons of their wartime suffering are being forgotten.

Tomoyuki Kobashigawa’s half-sister Michiko was killed soon after she got married. He wants to apply for DNA matching to help find her. “It’s so sad … If she would have lived, we could have been such good siblings.”

The missing remains show the government’s “lack of remorse over its responsibility in the war,” Kobashigawa says. “I’m afraid the Okinawan people will be embroiled in a war again.”

Tom Llamas will succeed Lester Holt as anchor of ‘NBC Nightly News’

NEW YORK — Tom Llamas will be the next anchor of “NBC Nightly News” after Lester Holt departs the role this summer.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Llamas, 45, will be the first Latino to anchor a weekday English-language broadcast network evening newscast, a role that will make him one of the signature personalities of NBC News.

Llamas will remain anchor of the nightly program “Top Story,” which streams on NBC News Now at 7 p.m. Eastern. “Nightly” is fed to NBC stations live at 6:30 p.m.

Holt announced his plans to leave “Nightly” last week after a 10-year run. He will remain with NBC News as anchor of the true crime newsmagazine “Dateline.”

Llamas, a Miami native, was recruited to NBC News from ABC and had been rumored to be the “Nightly” heir apparent since he arrived.

“Tom has the winning combination of journalistic excellence, passionate storytelling and unyielding integrity — all characteristics that have long been trademarks of ‘NBC Nightly News,’” Janelle Rodriguez, executive vice president of programming for NBC News said in a statement.

Llamas started his journalism career as a 15-year-old intern at the local Telemundo station in Miami. After graduating from Loyola University New Orleans, he landed a job in 2000 as a production assistant at NBC News. He worked his way up as a correspondent for NBC’s Miami station and a local anchor for WNBC in New York.

Llamas jumped to ABC News in 2014, where he raised his profile covering the 2016 presidential campaign, and the following year was named Saturday anchor of “ABC World News.” He returned to NBC in 2021 and became anchor of “Top Story” in September of that year.

The anchor chair at “NBC Nightly News” has been the most stable of the three network newscasts in recent years. Tom Brokaw took over the solo anchor role in 1983 and stayed for 22 years. Brian Williams took the reigns at the end of 2004 and held the job until a scandal over a false statement he made about his Iraq reporting ended his run in June 2015. Holt replaced him.

David Muir is the longest running evening news anchor, taking over “ABC World News Tonight” in September 2014. “CBS Evening News” recently switched from Norah O’Donnell to the duo of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois.

While the programs no longer have the influence they did before 24-hour news channels and streaming videos were available, they are still among the most watched programs on traditional TV and remain the flagship broadcasts of their networks.

Surprise! Gabby Windey Married Robby Hoffman in a Secret Wedding — and She’s Ready to Gab About It

When Gabby Windey walks into her Cosmopolitan shoot, she’s harboring a secret.

It’s not that she’s a Traitor, although some of her fellow contestants on The Traitors season 3 seem to think so. When she steps a manicured toe off an escalator and is immediately recognized by a fan — maybe from her time as the face of The Bachelorette season 19, maybe from her five years as a Denver Broncos cheerleader, or maybe from nearly winning Dancing With the Stars season 31, take your pick — she has to deflect. “I had to yank my sleeves down to cover my hands,” she says to me. “I hope they didn’t notice.”

The secret? That would be the beautiful Cartier wedding ring on her finger because…surprise: Gabby Windey and her girlfriend Robby Hoffman are married!

The television star and the comedian quietly tied the knot in a 20-minute Las Vegas ceremony earlier this year, complete with a disengaged minister in red sneakers (“Shout-out to Reverend Nature!”) and a dance down the aisle to Chappell Roan.

“We had just evacuated from the fires. Literally cue Rihanna, ‘We found love in a hopeless place,’” Gabby shares. “What better time to get married than right now? Because if the world is ending, we want to be with each other.”

Before Cosmopolitan’s 2025 Love Ball, Gabby and Robby penciled me in for dinner at Maison Premiere’s heart-shaped table during Valentine’s Week — where the newlyweds sat curled into each other, snacking on complimentary oysters sent to Gabby from a couple across the way (“We love you on Traitors!”) — to spill the details of their surprise engagement and marriage.

Their wedding story hits recognizable beats — the intimate proposal, the white dress, the aforementioned Cartier rings — but begins rather unusually: with Gabby and Robby fleeing Los Angeles amid devastating wildfires, cat in tow.

Robby: It all started when she smelled the smoke.

Gabby: I’ve been in a fire before in Colorado where I was evacuated, so I was familiar with the process. Seeing smoke inside our house was alarming, but of course we weren’t getting any of the government-aided text messages. We weren’t getting any guidance. It all happened so fast.

Robby: Suddenly, the fan was letting in ash. A very thin dusting of ash.

Gabby: It was the middle of the night. There was ash everywhere. I defaulted to you because I didn’t want to be too pushy or get you out of your comfort zone. I was like, “Do you think we should go?”

Robby: It could have been stressful evacuating, especially with our cat. I got one of my grandfather’s paintings. She took keepsakes from childhood —

Gabby: — I took my podcasting equipment. I’m like, If everything burns down, I have a contract. Who knows what kind of lawsuit they’re gonna hit me with? I need a way to make money if everything burns down.

Robby: Good point. She looked at me — and I was so tired. I had just done a show, business as usual — and she was like, “You think we should go?” And her asking me that, I just went, “Yes.” We were on the same page about this. Better safe than sorry.

Gabby: It’s my mentality with everything. I’m a nurse — safety is always first, and a lot of harm can be prevented if you act prophylactically. We packed up the car in an hour and a half.

Robby: We could’ve been fighting. We could’ve been bickering. It’s very stressful deciding what to take in a moment’s notice. Our fence was blown over. The wind was apocalyptic. We were exhausted, and once we were on the road, we were calling places.

Gabby: We called Palm Springs. Nobody answered. We were like, “There’s a fire.” And they were like, “Sorry, we can’t help you.” So we just kept driving east. To Vegas.

Robby: I was like, “What place has hotels 24/7 no matter what? Vegas! An hour and a half longer a drive? Well, we’re already in the car.” So we did it, and as we were driving out, we saw the fire.

Gabby: We were like, “L.A. is burning down. There goes the industry, there go the studios.” It was so crazy to think of all those things at once, but it’s what brought us closer.

Robby: We got to Vegas. She went, “Maybe I have a connection” and started emailing.

Gabby: Palm Springs had no problem saying no even with the word “evacuation.”

Robby: So Gabby sent an email with the truth, like, “Hey, we’ve evacuated, do you have any recommendations?” We got a call a half hour later, “Oh my god, no problem — stay as long as you want.” We got to Vegas at 7:30 in the morning, and they gave us the penthouse suite.

Gabby: It was like out of a movie.

Robby: It looked like a wedding suite. Gabby turned to me and she went, “Should we get married?” And look: I’ve been proposing since the day I met her. We got to this room and it’s like out of a mafia movie, 12-foot ceilings, a separate bedroom from the living room, that type of hotel. And we were like, “Whoa.” And then Gabby floated getting married.

Gabby: It was nice, it being my idea. Robby was literally ready to propose three weeks in and I’m always the one pumping the breaks, but when something feels right, it just feels right. I think it was better for the both of us that it was my idea. She kept checking in like, “Are you serious?”

Robby: And, by the way, we kept checking the news. We weren’t able to go back to L.A. and the fire was coming closer to our house.

Gabby: We were really living in fear.

Robby: So we were half checking the news, half clutching each other. We could have been fighting, but we felt like even through the process of maybe losing everything, we had each other. So it felt braggadocious when she said we should get married. I hate when people are suffering and then we’re having a celebration, and it wasn’t that. It was like, No, we actually want to be married.

Gabby: It’s giving Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey when they divorced and came back together after 9/11. They were like, “No, actually, we do want to be together because the world is ending.” It was just us two. We did everything in two days. We were just going to show up to a chapel, but then I said, “Oh, no. If it’s okay, I actually want you to ask me.”

Gabby: She was going to propose in six months anyway, so she actually had a plan. We do the New York Times crossword, Wordle, and Connections every morning together over a cup of coffee. That’s our thing.

Robby: I was going a mile a minute at this point, because every day we were in Vegas, we couldn’t go home. So there was that timeline, very bizarre. And at the same time, I was like, Is she serious? Because my dream is coming true. I want to be married to her — I don’t care how. Finally by the third or fourth day of being like, “Should we do this?” we realized, we get a lot of attention — as a couple, as individuals, for what I do for work, for what she does for work — we get a tremendous amount of attention. It’s something we appreciate and we love. But you know what? Having this moment just for us? It felt right.

Gabby: Totally, just us. Both of us have atypical, non-totally-nuclear families, so we wanted it to be just us anyway. But back to the proposal: In the morning, we went to do the crossword, but it wasn’t the New York Times.

Robby: I had a friend make a crossword. I gave him the clues and the answers, and I said it had to say, “WILL YOU MARRY ME, GABBY.”

Gabby: Robby was like, “Oh, I have a streak with The Atlantic,” and I said, “Okay, whatever.” Nothing was clicking. I thought we were going on a walk later and that’s when everything —

Robby: That was my foil, the afternoon walk. My red herring.

Gabby: She’s always two steps ahead. So I thought nothing of the different crossword.

Robby: She wasn’t thinking the proposal was coming in the morning. She was thinking it was coming in the afternoon.

Gabby: So I was doing this off-brand crossword thinking, Whatever, fine, she’s got a streak. We started and the first clue was “a document signed when someone dies.” I was like, “Maybe a deed.” And she said, “How about a will?” So the crossword went on, but the downs didn’t make sense. I was like, “There’s no way this is a word down — it’s YLEB.” The last clue was “a chatty or talkative person,” and I said, “Cathy. A chatty Cathy.”

Robby: And I was like, “I think it could be GABBY.” At this point, it was like a farce. We were in an I Think You Should Leave sketch. I didn’t know what’s going on — I was so nervous. And at the end, she went, “MYREB?” She’s always a step ahead of what I’m solving in our crosswords, so if I get something across, I know she’s already figured out the down.

Gabby: She was answering the horizontal clues so fast that I basically tuned them out and tried focusing on the downs.

Robby: We literally got to the final one where she said, “Cathy,” and the rest of it — WILL YOU MARRY ME — existed. And she was like, “LYREB?” I finally had to just say it. When you plan, God laughs. And she went, “Baby??” and I had the ring.

Robby: All you can eat, and it was too delicious. I have this picture I love of Gabby with crab legs. We had the best engagement.

Gabby: We did some shopping around for chapels. Robby is really good at admin, and she found the same chapel that Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, and Kelly Ripa and what’s-his-name —

Robby: I just looked up what couples, good couples, used. I didn’t want to do the Britney — and I love Britney! We share the same birthday, my God, December 2, but she was married 72 hours — that’s not the energy you want to bring. But the chapel I found had longer-standing relationships.

Gabby: You found the chapel, and the day you went ring shopping, I went dress shopping.

Robby: Our wedding was $799. That included the limousine. That included the photos. That included the minister.

Gabby: At first I wanted to go full Kourtney Kardashian, where she went in casual leather and Prada sunglasses, but we wanted to do our own thing. I went into department stores and the first dress I saw on the mannequin was off-white lace, and I was like, “This is gonna be it.” It was the only one they had in stock. It was a little tight and made my butt look huge, but it was perfect. Everything just fell into place so naturally. It felt so serendipitous and so precious and so meant to be.

Robby: I actually can’t believe how perfect it was. It was the best wedding I’ve ever been to. And by the way, we got the most expensive wedding package they offered — they have one for $99! Have yourself a good night. We got to spend our wedding truly together. We love to be together.

Gabby: It was literally the best night of my life. We were dancing, taking pictures. We got maybe 15 minutes flat with Reverend Nature.

Robby: Shout-out to Reverend Nature!

Gabby: She was our minister. She wore red sneakers. She was pretty disengaged, which is how we like it because we don’t need too many people paying attention to us. She said a couple things, left the room, and then we got some time with the photographer, Big Nate.

Robby: My grandfather’s name was Nathan, so to have him there was just an unbelievable feeling for me. I wore all my own clothing.

Gabby: Big Nate captured our essence. We walked down the aisle to “H-O-T T-O G-O,” Chappell Roan. He was directing us the whole time. He’d tell Robby, “My man, move an inch this way. Now hit a pose.” But Robby, she always has so much swagger that he was like, “You do you.”

Robby: It was just for us.

Gabby: There was no performance about it. I feel like there can be so much pressure on whoever’s watching you at weddings. We were so nervous just having it be us, too. Even our vows, I’ve never heard you talk so fast.

Robby: We had to reread our vows because I was so excited and nervous.

Gabby: It was the best. In a weird way, it was giving Bachelor because there were roses everywhere. I never envisioned my wedding as a kid or anything, but that’s part of what made this feel so right. Actually being there and feeling it, it was so us.

Robby: We had no expectations. We just had love and openness.

Gabby: I just love being with Robby, so knowing that I got her one-on-one to celebrate this beautiful night, I could cry. It was joy.

Robby: And then we were married. And on the way back, we had to pick up air purifiers with our cat. Our house survived and we were returning married to whatever the state of the neighborhood was. We got so lucky. We really didn’t know how our house would turn out. All we knew was we had each other and felt home in each other.

Gabby: People are like, “How does it feel after you’re married? Does it feel the same?” And the answer is honestly no — it feels better. I feel more committed. This is my wife.

Robby: I think we just feel more comfortable.

Gabby: There’s a comfort that comes with knowing you want to be together forever. Having Robby in my corner and believing in me, she’s helped me so much in the two years we’ve been together. This is the person I want next to me my whole life. I wish it was just us two all the time.

Robby: We have the same cadence. I know it seems to people we’re so different, but it gels. We have the same core. I love her for her, and she loves me for me.

The Last of Us Season 2 Cast Adds Six Names Ahead of April Premiere

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HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 is filling out its cast list with six more names ahead of its premiere this April.

Details on how the live-action adaptation will expand on the source material were revealed by Variety today. The full list of actors coming to the show includes Joe Pantoliano (Memento, The Matrix), Alanna Ubach (Euphoria, Bombshell), Ben Ahlers (The Gilded Age, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Hettienne Park (Don’t Look Up), Robert John Burke (RoboCop 3), and Noah Lamanna (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds).

The last-minute additions to the show’s upcoming retelling of The Last of Us Part II reveal the names that will play both characters included in the original games and new faces, too. Newcomer Pantoliano, for example, is set to play Eugene. You’d be forgiven for forgetting that Eugene already exists in The Last of Us universe as Ellie and Dina’s pot-smoking friend. He originally only exists as little more than a moment in the lengthy single-player sequel, but in The Last of Us Season 2, the character will get a bit more screen time.

Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann explained to Variety that, in a way that is similar to what gaming fans saw with Bill in Season 1, audiences can expect Eugene’s background to be expanded upon in Season 2.

“I get excited when I see these opportunities,” Druckmann said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t know Eugene that well!’ The story we told [in the game] was somewhat superficial. The way this character comes in really gets to the heart of Joel and Ellie and their relationship.”

Burke, meanwhile, has been tapped to play The Last of Us Part II bar owner and bigot sandwich-giver, Seth. Lamanna rounds out the cast of familiar faces as Kat, who is said to have dated Ellie before The Last of Us Part II’s story begins. Meanwhile, Ubach, Ahlers, and Park have been picked to play new characters named Hanrahan, Burton, Elise Park, respectively.

The group of fresh faces joins the already stacked cast for The Last of Us Season 2, including Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Isabela Merced as Dina, Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, and Gabriel Luna as Tommy. The showrunners had previously suggested that the events of Part II would be told throughout multiple seasons, so expect more surprises to be revealed when as episodes roll out.

The Last of Us Season 2 brings the events of The Last of Us Part II into the live-action universe April 13. For more on HBO’s follow-up season, you can read up on why it sounds like the show is primed to tell its story over the course of four seasons. You can also check out more from Druckmann, who says Season 2 will feature some “pretty brutal” cut content from the original sequel video game.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

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Tom Llamas Tapped to Replace Lester Holt as NBC Nightly News Anchor. What to Know About NBC’s Rising Star

Meredith Kile is a Digital News Writer-Editor at PEOPLE. She has been an entertainment and political journalist for more than a decade, previously working for Entertainment Tonight, VICE and Al Jazeera America.

Tom Llamas is taking over for Lester Holt as the new anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News.

The 45-year-old journalist joined NBC in 2021 and currently hosts Top Story with Tom Llamas on NBC News NOW. Llamas will continue to host the hour-long primetime streaming news program when he takes over for Holt, whose departure was announced on Feb. 24.

NBC Nightly News is the network’s flagship evening news program, airing seven days at week at 6:30 p.m. ET.

“Tom has the winning combination of journalistic excellence, passionate storytelling and unyielding integrity — all characteristics that have long been trademarks of NBC Nightly News,” said Janelle Rodriguez, NBC News’ executive vice president, in a press release announcing the news. “Additionally, he’s been instrumental in growing NBC News NOW into the leading streaming news network, helping to introduce NBC News to a new generation of viewers.”

Holt, meanwhile, will be moving to Dateline as the full-time host. The turnover is expected to happen this summer.

“Anchoring NBC Nightly News is a profound honor and one that carries tremendous responsibility. I look forward to working with the world-class journalists at Nightly News and Top Story to bring viewers the most important stories every night,” says Llamas, adding, “Lester Holt is a great man and one of the most trusted broadcasters of our time. Just like Lester, I promise to be devoted to our viewers and dedicated to the truth.”

Below, five things to know about NBC journalist Tom Llamas, a fast-rising talent at the network.

Llamas was born and raised in Miami after his parents immigrated from Cuba. He attended Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami before graduating with a degree in broadcast journalism from Loyola University. He also completed a program at the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies, which focused on Raul Castro and Cuban American voters.

After interning at a local Telemundo network, Llamas began his broadcasting career with NBC News and MSNBC 2000 to 2005. He moved to ABC News in 2014, serving as a substitute for David Muir on ABC World News Tonight before returning.

Llamas covered Republican candidates like Donald Trump and Jeb Bush during the 2016 presidential campaign. As a son of immigrants himself, he criticized the use of the term “anchor baby” and was later called a “sleaze” by Trump for questioning his finances.

Llamas and his wife, Jennifer, share three children and he documents some of their family fun on his Instagram page. Cute moments include a father-son outing to a New York Yankees game and a happy Halloween — where Llamas was a good sport as the Doc Brown to his son’s Marty McFly!

In addition to election and debate coverage, Llamas has reported from events around the world, including the New Orleans terror attack, the Israel-Hamas war, the invasion of Ukraine, the assassination attempt on President Trump in Pennsylvania, the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse, the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Tokyo and Paris Olympics and numerous natural disasters.