CBS News
The New Season: The most anticipated new movies, music, TV and more
Be on the lookout for these new entertainment offerings in the coming months, from screens to stage, from music to page.
Movies
“The Apprentice” (October 11) – In this cautionary tale set in 1970s and ’80s New York City, Jeremy Strong stars as attorney Roy Cohn who helps shape his protégé, a wet-behind-the-ears real estate figure named Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan), into a media star. Director Ali Abbasi’s examination of the young Trump, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, sparked legal threats from the Trump campaign, but that didn’t prevent a distributor from picking up the film for a pre-Election Day release.
Watch a trailer from “The Apprentice”:
“We Live in Time” (October 11) – In this romantic comedy-drama, Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield don’t exactly “meet cute” – she runs into him with her car. But the relationship that develops is truly tested when they are confronted with a medical crisis. Directed by John Crowley (the 2015 Saoirse Ronan period romance “Brooklyn”).
“The Piano Lesson” (November 8) – Denzel Washington, who starred in and directed a film adaptation of August Wilson’s “Fences,” is producing films based on the entire oeuvre of the acclaimed playwright. Following 2020’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Washington has now produced his third Wilson story, the Pulitzer Prize-winning saga of a family’s fight over a cherished heirloom. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher and Michael Potts (who appeared in the recent Broadway revival), along with Danielle Deadwyler, Skuylar Aleece Smith and Erykah Badu.
“Wicked” (November 22) – Most films being released this fall would be green with envy over the amount of audience anticipation for the big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, even though it’s only Part One. (Part Two will be released in Fall 2025.) Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo star as Galinda and Elphaba, whose youthful friendship serves as the origin story for Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West. With Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum and Jonathan Bailey.
“Gladiator II” (November 22) – “Are you not entertained?” Evidently not enough, as director Ridley Scott has returned to his Oscar-winning 2000 epic for a follow-up, set more than 20 years after the first film, in which gladiator Paul Mescal, general Pedro Pascal, power broker Denzel Washington, and Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger as co-emperors Geta and Caracalla fight over a 3rd century Roman Empire under siege from without and within.
Documentaries
“Will & Harper” (in theaters; streaming on Netflix September 27) – Comedian Will Ferrell and former “Saturday Night Live” head writer Harper Steele, longtime buddies, take a cross-country road trip after Steele announces she has transitioned to a woman.
“We Will Dance Again” (Streaming on Paramount+ September 24) – Survivors of the October 7 Hamas terror attack on the Nova Music Festival in Israel recount the horrors and heroism of that day.
“Blink” (October 4) – A French-Canadian couple embarks on a round-the-world trip with their family, after three of their four children are diagnosed with a rare and incurable disease that leads to loss of eyesight. From directors Daniel Roher (the Oscar-winning “Navalny”) and Edmund Stenson.
“Piece by Piece” (October 11) – The music producer and singer Pharrell tells his life story not with archive footage or talking-head interviews, but with Lego! Directed by Morgan Neville (an Oscar-winner for “20 Feet From Stardom”), it captures Pharrell’s creative process in brickfilm form.
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” (Fathom Events theater screening September 25; streaming on Max November 1) – This profile of the superhero actor and activist, which debuted at Sundance earlier this year, features never-before-seen home movies of his life before and after the accident that paralyzed him.
Music
Luke Bryan: “Mind of a Country Boy” (September 27) – The country singer-songwriter, one of the world’s bestselling artists, is out with album #11.
Listen to “Mind of a Country Boy” from Luke Bryan’s new album:
Samara Joy: “Portrait” (October 11) – The Grammy-winning jazz singer’s latest.
Listen to “Autumn Nocturne,” from Samara Joy’s new album, “Portrait”:
Jelly Roll: “Beautifully Broken” (October 11) – The rapper and country artist’s follow-up to “Whitsitt Chapel.”
Listen to “Get By,” from Jelly Roll’s new album, “Beautifully Broken.”
Shawn Mendes: “Shawn” (October 18) – The Canadian singer-songwriter’s first album, “Handwritten,” debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts when Mendes was just 16 years old. “Shawn” is his fifth studio album.
Listen to “Nobody Knows,” from Shawn Mendes’ new album, “Shawn”:
Michael Kiwanuka: “Small Changes” (November 15) – The English songwriter and guitarist won Britain’s Mercury Prize for his 2019 album, “Kiwanuka.”
Listen to “Floating Parade” from Michael Kiwanuka’s new album “Small Changes”:
TV/Streaming
“Matlock” (Previews on CBS September 22) – In this reboot of the 1980s legal drama starring Andy Griffith, Kathy Bates plays Madeline Matlock, a folksy defense attorney out for justice.
“The Franchise” (premieres on HBO/Max October 6) – This comedy series (executive produced by “Veep” creator Armando Iannucci) depicts the trials of a crew trying to film a superhero movie.
“Disclaimer” (Streaming on Apple TV+ October 11) – Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sasha Baron Cohen and Kodi Smit-McPhee star in this psychological thriller based on Renée Knight’s novel, and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, in which a woman finds a book that – surprise! – reveals the secrets of her own life.
“Dune: Prophecy” (premieres on HBO/Max in November) – Set in the universe of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi series, which has spawned two recent blockbuster films, this story of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood stars Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Joshi May and Travis Fimmel.
“Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” (Streaming on Disney+ December 3) – What kids wouldn’t want to join an intergalactic adventure? This latest series follows a quartet of lost youngsters who must navigate their way back home with the aid of a Force user (Jude Law).
Theater
New York City:
“Our Town” (revival) (now at the Barrymore Theatre) – Thornton Wilder’s classic is staged with stars Jim Parsons, Katie Holmes, Zoey Deutch, Richard Thomas, Ephraim Sykes and Michelle Wilson.
“Yellow Face” (now at the Todd Haimes Theatre) – Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (“M. Butterfly”) writes a farce about theater and racial miscasting.
“Romeo + Juliet” (previews begin September 26 at the Circle in the Square Theatre) – Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler star in the immortal romantic tragedy, this time with music by Jack Antonoff.
“Sunset Boulevard” (revival) (previews begin September 28 at the St. James Theatre) – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicalization of the Billy Wilder noir classic is reimagined by director Jamie Lloyd. Nicole Scherzinger, as faded film star Norma Desmond, received smashing reviews from her performance on London’s West End.
Watch a trailer featuring Nicole Scherzinger in “Sunset Boulevard”:
“Gypsy” (revival) (previews begin November 21 at the Majestic Theatre) – Audra McDonald, who has six Tony Awards on her shelf, grabs ahold of Mama Rose, one of the most celebrated roles in musical theater, created by Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents. Directed by George C. Wolfe and choreographed by Camille A. Brown, will everything come up roses?
Around the country:
“Prelude to a Kiss: A Musical” (at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Milwaukee, Wis.) – Craig Lucas has adapted his own Tony-nominated 1988 play into a musical, a romantic comedy about souls exchanged.
“Oh Happy Day!” (at the Baltimore Center Stage, Baltimore, Md.) – Jordan E. Cooper’s “play with music” reimagines the fable of Noah’s Ark.
Latrice Pace, Courtney Monét and Tiya Askia perform an excerpt from “I See God,” from “Oh, Happy Day!”:
“My Best Friend’s Wedding” (begins September 26 at the Ogunquit Playhouse, Ogunquit, Maine) – The Julia Roberts romantic comedy is the basis of a musical with classic songs by Burt Bacharach & Hal David.
“Babbitt” (October 1, at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, D.C.) – Matthew Broderick stars in this adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ political satire.
“Primary Trust” (Multiple cities) – The Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by Eboni Booth, about a young man with an imaginary friend trying to reinvent his own life, is featured in several productions this fall, including in Pittsfield, Mass., Arlington, Va., and Chicago.
Books
Washington Post and “Sunday Morning” book critic Ron Charles offers his picks from among the season’s new titles.
“The Mighty Red” by Louise Erdrich (October 1) – The latest by the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author of “The Night Watchman” and “The Round House.”
“The Message” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (October 1) – A collection of essays by the New York Times bestselling author, in which he journeys to Senegal, South Carolina and the Palestinian Territory.
“Carson the Magnificent” by Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas (November 5) – A biography of the king of late-night television, who helped shape American entertainment and culture. Written over the course of a decade by Bill Zehme, who died of cancer in 2023, it has been completed by journalist Bill Thomas.
“Lincoln vs. Davis: The War of the Presidents” by Nigel Hamilton (November 5) – From the author of the “FDR at War” trilogy, this history tells of the fight between two presidents on opposite sides of the Civil War.
“Darkly” by Marisha Pessl (November 26) – A young-adult thriller from the author of the bestselling “Night Film.”
Arts
“Lee Krasner: Geometries of Expression,” at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, Maine (through November 17), celebrates the early work of the abstract artist, from the 1930s and ’40s.
“Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment,” at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (through January 19, 2025), captures the moment 100 years ago when the artistic movement that came to known as Impression made its first impression on Parisians. The exhibit presents 130 works, from paintings by Cézanne, Monet, Morisot and Pissarro, to works by lesser-known contemporaries.
“Simone Leigh,” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (through January 20, 2025), features the artist’s ceramic and bronze works and video, as well as pieces from her 2022 Venice Biennale presentation.
“Knowing the West: Visual Legacies of the American West,” at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Ark. (through January 27, 2025), tells the diverse stories of those who shaped the West, through their lives and their art.
“Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum,” at the Baltimore Museum of Art (through February 16, 2025), re-evaluates the collection and presentation of works by Native artists.
“Edges of Ailey,” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City (September 25, 2024-February 9, 2025), featuring live performance, visual art, music and archival materials, is the first large-scale museum exhibition dedicated to the legacy of the dancer-choreographer Alvin Ailey.
Mickalene Thomas
“Mickalene Thomas: All About Love,” at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia (October 20, 2024-January 12, 2025), features the artist’s mixed-media pieces – paintings, photography, collage, silk-screen, video, and a site-specific installation – that celebrate women.
“The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970-2020,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (November 9, 2024-March 23, 2025), explores how the medium of painting has transformed over the last half-century, through the introduction and influence of technologies, such as video, computers and social media.
“Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon,” at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (November 14, 2024-March 16, 2025), is a 50-year career retrospective of the abstract artist whose travels transformed his work.
Produced by David Morgan, Robert Marston, Annie Iezzi, Sara Kugel and Julie Kracov. Editors: Chad Cardin and Carol Ross.
Legislation to expand Social Security benefits to millions of Americans passed the U.S. Senate early Saturday and is now headed to the desk of President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign the measure into law.
Senators voted 76-20 for the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate two federal policies that prevent nearly 3 million people, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers, teachers and others with a public pension, from collecting their full Social Security benefits. The legislation has been decades in the making, as the Senate held its first hearings into the policies in 2003.
“The Senate finally corrects a 50-year mistake,” proclaimed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, after senators approved the legislation at 12:15 a.m. Saturday.
The bill’s passage is “a monumental victory for millions of public service workers who have been denied the full benefits they’ve rightfully earned,” said Shannon Benton, executive director for the Senior Citizens League, which advocates for retirees and which has long pushed for the expansion of Social Security benefits. “This legislation finally restores fairness to the system and ensures the hard work of teachers, first responders and countless public employees is truly recognized.”
The vote came down to the wire, as the Senate looked to wrap up its current session. Senators rejected four amendments and a budgetary point of order late Friday night that would have derailed the measure, given the small window of time left to pass it.
Vice President-elect JD Vance of Ohio was among the 24 Republican senators to join 49 Democrats to advance the measure in an initial procedural vote that took place Wednesday.
“Social Security is a bedrock of our middle class. You pay into it for 40 quarters, you earned it, it should be there when you retire,” Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost his seat in the November election, told the chamber ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “All these workers are asking for is for what they earned.”
What is the Social Security Fairness Act?
The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — that reduce Social Security payments to nearly 3 million retirees.
That includes those who also collect pensions from state and federal jobs that aren’t covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also end a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers’ surviving spouses and family members. The WEP impacts about 2 million Social Security beneficiaries and the GPO nearly 800,000 retirees.
The measure, which passed the House in November, had 62 cosponsors when it was introduced in the Senate last year. Yet the bill’s bipartisan support eroded in recent days, with some Republican lawmakers voicing doubts due to its cost. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed legislation would add a projected $195 billion to federal deficits over a decade.
Without Senate approval, the bill’s fate would have ended with the current session of Congress and would have needed to be re-introduced in the next Congress.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Saturday is the winter solstice and 2024’s shortest day. Here’s what to know about the official start of winter.
The 2024 winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, happens on Saturday, Dec. 21, in the Northern Hemisphere. The celestial event signifies the first day of winter, astronomically.
What is the winter solstice?
The winter solstice is the day each year that has the shortest period of daylight between sunrise and sunset, and therefore the longest night. It happens when the sun is directly above the Tropic of Capricorn, a line of latitude that circles the globe south of the equator, the National Weather Service explains.
The farther north you are, the shorter the day will be, and in the Arctic Circle, the sun won’t rise at all.
How is the day of the winter solstice determined?
The winter solstice occurs because of the Earth’s tilt as it rotates around the sun.
When the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun, the nights last longer. The longest night happens on the solstice because the hemisphere is in its furthest position from the sun. That occurs each year on Dec. 21 or 22.
This year, it falls on Dec. 21 at 4:21 a.m ET, to be precise.
On the summer solstice, when the northern tilt is closest to the sun, we have the longest day, usually June 20 or 21.
National Weather Service
The solstices are not always exactly on the 21st every year because the earth’s rotation around the sun is 365.25 days, instead of 365 even.
Will days start getting longer after the winter solstice?
Yes. Each day after the solstice, we get one minute more of sunlight. It doesn’t sound like much, but after just two months, or around 60 days, we’ll be seeing about an hour more of sunlight.
When will winter officially be over in 2025?
The meteorological winter ends on March 20, 2025. Then, spring will last until June 20, when the summer solstice arrives.
How is the winter solstice celebrated around the world?
Nations and cultures around the world have celebrated the solstice since ancient times with varying rituals and traditions. The influence of those solstice traditions can still be seen in our celebrations of holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah, Britannica notes.
The ancient Roman Saturnalia festival celebrated the end of the planting season and has close ties with modern-day Christmas. It honored Saturn, the god of harvest and farming. The multiple-day affair had lots of food, games and celebrations. Presents were given to children and the poor, and slaves were allowed to stop working.
Gatherings are held every year at Stonehenge, a monumental circle of massive stones in England that dates back about 5,000 years. The origins of Stonehenge are shrouded in mystery, but it was built to align with the sun on solstice days.
Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images
The Hopi, a Native American tribe in the northern Arizona area, celebrate the winter solstice with dancing, purification and sometimes gift-giving. A sacred ritual known as the Soyal Ceremony marks the annual milestone.
In Peru, people honor the return of the sun god on the winter solstice. The ancient tradition would be to hold sacrificial ceremonies, but today, people hold mock sacrifices to celebrate. Because Peru is in the Southern Hemisphere, their winter solstice happens in June, when the Northern Hemisphere is marking its summer solstice.
Scandinavia celebrates St. Lucia’s Day, a festival of lights.
The “arrival of winter,” or Dong Zhi, is a Chinese festival where family gathers to celebrate the year so far. Traditional foods include tang yuan, sweet rice balls with a black sesame filling. It’s believed to have its origins in post-harvest celebrations.
Researchers stationed in in Antarctica even have their own traditions, which may include an icy plunge into the polar waters. They celebrate “midwinter” with festive meals, movies and sometimes homemade gifts.