Media News

Bachelorette fans left high and dry by blackout of Dallas TV station

Tayshia Adams is in the midst of her journey to find love.

Photo courtesy of CBS

UPDATE 12-20-2020: AT&T and TEGNA have made a deal. According to a statement, all 64 TEGNA-owned stations serving 51 Nielsen markets including Atlanta, Charlotte, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Phoenix, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington are now back on board. Wow, that means they were working all weekend. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

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Fans of The Bachelorette are in a tizzy due to a blackout of TV stations across the U.S., including WFAA in Dallas, KHOU in Houston, KVUE in Austin, and KENS in San Antonio.

The blackout began at 7 pm December 1, following a dispute between between AT&T/DirecTV and Tegna, a media company that owns 64 stations in 51 markets across the U.S.

Viewers were treated to a screen that said, "We hoped to avoid any interruption of this channel. Unfortunately, we are still working with Tegna, the owner of this channel, to secure an agreement. We share your frustration and regret any inconvenience."

According to a statement from Tegna, their agreement with DirecTV and AT&T expired on November 30. They kept the lights on for another day before unleashing the blackout.

"Unfortunately, DIRECTV and AT&T U-verse have not come to agreements to keep our station available on their services," the statement said. "We have successfully negotiated multi-year deals with hundreds of cable and satellite providers across the country without disruptions to service."

"We are working on and remain committed to reaching a fair deal with DIRECTV and AT&T U-verse," the statement said. "While we remain hopeful that this will get resolved quickly, our viewers should know that our channel is available on other service providers in our community as well as many streaming services like YouTube TV, Hulu Plus Live TV and fuboTV that offer instant access when viewers sign up. Viewers can watch our newscasts live on our station’s website, Roku and mobile apps."

According to AT&T, the blackout was out of their hands.

"We're working to return the Tegna stations to our lineups as soon as possible, but by law, Tegna has exclusive control over which homes are allowed to receive either ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox or CW in certain cities, regardless of what provider they choose," AT&T said in a statement.

AT&T claims that Tegna is asking for unwarranted increases over their "already high fees."

Viewers were displeased that the blackout occurred during the pandemic.

"Doing this to senior citizens who are stuck in during a pandemic is disgraceful. I've just spent the last 1/2 hour trying to explain this to my Mom. Shameful timing," said one disgruntled tweeter.

But none were hit harder than fans of The Bachelorette, for whom the timing could not have been worse. Tayshia Adams, after all, is in the midst of her journey to find love, and regulars were left wondering what would happen with frontrunner Ivan Hall, who is from Dallas.

"Sir or ma'am or non binary friend, please negotiate faster I wanna watch The Bachelorette," said one.

Another pulled the first responder card: "Thanks to you guys, my wife who is a first responder and had a day off couldn't relax and watch @BacheloretteABC on @wfaa. We have @DIRECTV so we were blind sided. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves, pulling this crap during this pandemic."

"Being stuck at home having Covid and not being able to watch @BacheloretteABC is unacceptable!" said another. "How can you two not work out your differences before prime time tv? Thanks for ruining everyone’s night!"

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Movie Review

Supergirl loses the sense of fun that Superman brought to DC Comics films

Photo courtesy of DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures

Milly Alcock in Supergirl.

The new Superman in 2025 brought with a renewed sense of optimism for, if not the concept of the comic book movie, then at least the DC Comics universe. After more than a decade of DC films that felt mostly creatively bankrupt, the leadership of James Gunn gave the story a sense of fun. That included the brief introduction of Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, who’s now getting her own showcase in, naturally, Supergirl.

When we first met her in Superman, Supergirl was in rough shape, arriving at the Fortress of Solitude visibly inebriated. Nothing has changed at the beginning of this film, save for her aimlessly traveling around the universe with her rambunctious dog, Krypto. One of her random stops puts her in the same bar as Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is looking for help tracking down Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts) and a group known as the Brigands after they brutally murdered her family.

Kara is initially loath to offer aid, but when Krem shoots a poison dart into Krypto while escaping, her motivation goes way up, especially since Krem holds the antidote. Kara, with Ruthye doggedly following her, uses every means available to her to find Krem, a journey that is hampered by galaxies having different colored suns than the one that gives her powers, the yellow sun.

Directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Ana Nogueira, the film is a big step back in the fun category, not least because Supergirl is deep in her feelings for much of the film. Her personal trauma, which is detailed in occasional flashbacks, gives a reason for her depression, but fails to land fully. The story seems to want everyone to be sad, as it includes a child trafficking ring and multiple instances of families being murdered.

Milly Alcock and Krypto in Supergirl.Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

To try to counteract that downer material, the filmmakers give Supergirl many opportunities to show off her fighting skills. While still CGI-heavy, the action scenes contain enough of a semblance of reality that they feel exciting. Unfortunately, this is undercut by the inclusion of several slow-motion sequences, giving the impression that the filmmakers didn’t trust the actors to deliver the goods on a consistent basis.

Superman (David Corenswet) makes a handful of appearances in the film, and while his presence is welcome given how well the character came across in the previous movie, it also doesn’t allow Supergirl to become her own person. Almost everything she does is colored by either her cousin or her parents, and since her powers are identical to those of Superman, there is very little that makes her story unique aside from how she’s dealing with the fallout.

Alcock (House of the Dragon, Sirens) gives an appealing performance despite her character being drunk and/or moody most of the time. She definitely sells what Supergirl is going through, so if given a better story in a future film, she’s proven her capability. Schoenaerts makes for a pretty good villain, although he’s aided by a look that includes a face full of studs. Jason Momoa has a memorable supporting role as the bounty hunter Lobo, even if his character doesn’t add much to the story.

While not a full-on disaster, Supergirl does not continue the momentum that Superman started. With a story that’s more concerned with showing audiences death scenes than a hero saving people, the film doesn’t seem to understand the appeal of a character like Supergirl or how to make her someone audiences will return to over and over again.

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Supergirl is now playing in theaters.

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