Justin Hartley‘s Tracker is going through a big change by relocating from Canada to Los Angeles for season 4 after a nearly $50 million tax credit.

News broke on Monday, May 4, that Hartley’s hit CBS series is moving production after three seasons in Vancouver. Deadline reported that the show was on a list that revealed that Tracker got awarded $48 million on $129 million in qualified expenditures.

Tracker is 20th Television’s biggest series to be brought back to California with the help of a tax credit. Before that, Prime Video’s Fallout moved from New York to Los Angeles, while Dan Fogelman’s upcoming NFL drama, The Land, was given a $42.8 million tax credit.

“I’m proud of what we built in Vancouver. I’m also very excited we’re bringing Tracker to L.A.,” Hartley, 49, said in a statement on Monday. “I’m looking forward to continuing to tell these stories alongside the new, fresh places we’ll be heading to next. Most importantly, I want to thank the fans for showing up for us every step of the way. We couldn’t do this without you.”

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When it comes to breaking TV records, there is no denying that Justin Hartley knows what America wants — just look at his hit show Tracker. Based on Jeffery Deaver‘s novel The Never Game, Tracker follows a survivalist named Colter (Hartley) who travels the country helping people and law enforcement tackle a variety of mysteries. […]

TV shows can earn an additional 5 percent tax credit bonus — on top of the 35 percent base credit — for qualified expenditures incurred outside the 30-mile zone that covers the Greater Los Angeles area and surrounding communities, according to Deadline.

Tax credits for relocation are being awarded to shows for their projected outsized economic effect, with jobs being created for Los Angeles-based crews and local businesses being boosted by returning production.

“Location is a huge part of the storytelling on Tracker,” showrunner Elwood Reid told Deadline. “We’re so grateful to the crew and people of Vancouver who made the first three seasons of this hit drama possible, and are simultaneously thrilled to be able to kick off the fourth season of Tracker by filming in Los Angeles, thanks to the tax incentive program that supports bringing production back to California.”

Based on Jeffery Deaver‘s novel The Never Game, Tracker follows Colter around the country as he helps to find missing people and solve mysterious cases. Hartley, who is also an executive producer, has hinted at how far the show will push his character.

“I just love that when you watch a show like that and you tune into season 1 and then you tune into the last season, you see the development of the character and you go, ‘Wait a minute, are they playing different roles?’ But then if you watch it throughout the years, you experience those things with the characters,” he told TV Insider in September 2024. “As competent and confident as Colter is, I don’t at all think for a second that he doesn’t have a ton to learn, especially about himself and his family and all that.”

Hartley continued: “Going forward, I think that will be how the show lives on a long runway, is that we keep developing this character and he becomes better at what he’s doing. He’s a restless man, and for an audience member, at least shows that I love to watch, you love to see that growth of a character and we have that.”

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Hartley also warned that the character could die in the future.

“It’s important to keep upping the stakes. I like being Colter as a hero, finding people and all that. I also really like seeing him in a suspenseful thriller and a dangerous situation,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in April 2025. “I don’t want our audience to forget that this man is mortal, he’s not a superhero. He can die! The things he is doing are very, very dangerous.”

Tracker airs on CBS Sundays at 9 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Paramount+.

Hayden Panettiere is looking back on her 12-year age gap romance with Heroes costar Milo Ventimiglia, revealing that she’d considered marrying him before their breakup.

“Every relationship I’ve ever been in, I invested my whole self in,” Panettiere, 36, exclusively tells Us Weekly in this week’s cover story while discussing her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, out May 19. “I saw him as my partner and that it was going to hopefully keep going and evolving and lead to marriage.”

She goes on, “It was a point of contention that I was unable to put the ‘I’ in front of ‘love you’ and at the time, I didn’t realize or understand why it made me feel so uncomfortable. I could only say ‘love you’ in a casual way. Being older, he was much more aware of what that meant. And that said a lot.”

The large age gap between the costars — Panettiere was 18 and Ventimiglia was 30 when they started dating — generated lots of public chatter during the two-year relationship.

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Panettiere and Ventimiglia originally got together in 2007 before going their separate ways in February 2009. At the time, a source exclusively told Us that there was “a lifestyle conflict” and that the Heroes costars were in “very different places.”

Looking back on that tumultuous time, Panettiere shares with Us that the final days of her relationship with Ventimiglia were hectic, as he broke up with her and then immediately took her back when she started “hysterically” crying. The two ultimately split for good a short time later.

Asked whether she thought Ventimiglia only took her back because of her tears, she admits to Us, “One hundred percent it was only because I was over the toilet, hysterically crying. It was like my world had crumbled.”

“It was so out of left field, nothing that big or explosive had happened. Nothing had really gone wrong. Nobody cheated,” she points out. “I remember the look on his face being pure shock at how visceral and massive my negative reaction was, and he immediately took it back.”

Panettiere met boxer Wladimir Klitschko not long after splitting from Ventimiglia and they were ultimately together on and off from 2009 to 2018. (They welcomed a daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, in December 2014.)

The Nashville alum officially comes out as bisexual in her memoir, revealing that she never felt comfortable discussing her attraction to women until recently.

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“It was always the fear of not being perfect, and what my team was going to think about it, what the public’s opinion was going to be about it,” she tells Us. “It was just never the right time, and it was a very difficult topic to articulate properly. I wanted to make sure that I really sat down and chose my words carefully and was able to tell my story in an honest way, that people understood. On one hand, it’s sad that I had to wait till I was 36 years old to share that part of me, but better late than never, right?”

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Rollercoaster romance. Hayden Panettiere and Brian Hickerson’s relationship has been marred by legal trouble since the couple were first linked in August 2018. The Nashville alum moved on with Hickerson after her split from fiancé Wladimir Klitschko. Panettiere and the former professional boxer began dating in 2009. The pair briefly broke up in 2011 but got engaged […]

Panettiere adds, “Now that I know that this book is coming out, and that I’ve chosen to share it with the world, I’m comfortable saying I’m bisexual. I’m comfortable to confidently say that, yes, I am bisexual. I said it!”

This Is Me: A Reckoning hits shelves on Tuesday, May 19.

Erin Cahill is pulling back the veil and revealing what she’d change about her own wedding day after hosting Hallmark’s new Mom’s the Bride series.

“Oh, my gosh, I loved my wedding so much. It was so perfect,” Cahill, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, May 5, while promoting the upcoming Hallmark+ show premiering on Thursday, May 7.

After giving the question some thought, Cahill did admit that there was one aspect of her “perfect” day she would change if given the chance.

“I wish I had a videographer,” she confessed to Us. “Because these families are gonna have so much documentation.”

The actress noted that with every episode of Mom’s the Bride — a docuseries where daughters plan their mother’s nuptials — there were three to five cameras, which gave Cahill a little bit of wedding envy.

“They have so much stuff [on film] and their own videographers and stuff,” she said. “So that is one thing that I’m like, ‘oh, [I should’ve done that].”

The Hallmark star explained that when she married Paul Freeman in 2016, the couple had a few friends use their phones to capture their romantic moment.

“Mine was so tiny, it was 20 friends and 15 family,” she said of her wedding day. “So [I have] some iPhone footage that’s, like, so grainy.”

Outside of better video coverage, Cahill said she wanted to keep her party going — and shouldn’t have cut it off so early.

“I wish that we had arranged for people to stay later at ours,” she added of her second wedding dream doover.

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Cahill’s look back at her nuptials comes after she traded in her acting cap for the role of wedding planner and overall hype woman for Hallmark+’s Mom’s the Bride series.

On the show, Cahill lends her expertise and becomes a sounding board for daughters planning their mom’s dream weddings.

Every episode highlights a different mother-daughter duo and a completely unique wedding to execute, from a Christmas-themed affair to a country-focused ceremony. The thing they all have in common? Love … and maybe some tears.

“I didn’t hold it together. I cried every single wedding,” Cahill told Us of filming the show, which started in October 2025 and wrapped just last month. “But somewhere between, like, mist and then just full on, [heavy breathing].”

She confessed, “At one of the weddings, I had to fully collect myself, because I was like, ‘This is so beautiful.’ It [shows] what’s possible in relationships. So no, girl, I didn’t hold it together at all.”

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Cahill explained that amid the emotional stories highlighted there are some struggles associated with trying to pull off the perfect event in such a short period of time. The Journey to You actress noted that for the premiere episode, they filmed the weekend before Christmas 2025, which she called “the best way to kick off Christmas,” but it was a lot of work.

“Logistically, they were all challenging in their own ways,” she teased. “Just for our crew, and making sure that we elevated and added to every wedding and made sure that they came off without a hitch.”

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While Hallmark does lend a helping hand with every wedding, Cahill told Us that “it’s a long process” and “real weddings” with “real mothers and daughters.”

She added that unlike reality shows, Mom’s the Bride is formatted as an “unscripted docuseries where we heighten the love.”

Mom’s the Bride premieres on Hallmark+ Thursday, May 7, with new episodes airing every week.

Hayden Panettiere is opening up about a deeply personal part of her life, revealing publicly for the first time that she is bisexual. The “Nashville” alum shared the news while discussing her upcoming memoir, explaining that years of pressure in the spotlight made it difficult to fully embrace that side of herself publicly.

Speaking candidly about her sexuality, Panettiere admitted she wishes she had felt comfortable opening up sooner. “It’s sad that I had to wait till I was 36 years old to share that part of me, but better late than never, right?” she told Us Weekly. “I’ve chosen to share it with the world. I’m comfortable saying I’m bisexual. I’m comfortable to confidently say that, yes, I am bisexual. I said it!”

Growing up in Hollywood came with intense scrutiny, something Panettiere says shaped how much of herself she was willing to share publicly. Despite paparazzi “always outside waiting” for her, she revealed she privately dated women over the years, and admitted she had been attracted to women from a young age.

“[I was] much more into women,” she explained. Still, fear and insecurity kept her from fully exploring those relationships openly. “I didn’t really have the courage to throw myself fully, emotionally into it,” she said. “Because then if I did fall in love, that wasn’t something that I wanted to ever have to hide.”

Fear Of Judgment Kept Panettiere Silent

Panettiere also revealed she worried about how the public would perceive her if she came out earlier in her career. She explained that during one period in Hollywood, bisexuality among female celebrities was sometimes dismissed as a “fad,” making her hesitant to speak openly. “I didn’t feel confident enough, and I was too afraid to really let that part of me explore that part of me,” she admitted.

The actress says she decided to be “completely brutally honest” while writing her upcoming memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” which is set for release on May 19. The book will reportedly explore not only her sexuality and personal relationships but also the darker side of growing up in the entertainment industry.

New Memoir Promises Raw Look At Hayden Panettiere’s Child Stardom

Panettiere writes about navigating tabloid culture, public pressure, and taking on acting roles that “mirrored her real-life trauma,” while simultaneously dealing with her own struggles behind the scenes.

She has also made clear that the memoir digs deeper than the headlines fans may remember, examining what it truly cost her to grow up under constant public attention and how that pressure affected her mental health long before the public fully understood what she was going through.

Panettiere Reflects On Trauma, Addiction, And Recovery

In “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” Hayden Panettiere reportedly opens up about navigating tabloid scrutiny while taking on acting roles that “mirrored her real-life trauma,” all while privately battling struggles away from the spotlight.

The actress has previously been candid about her journey with opioid addiction and alcohol abuse, speaking openly in a 2022 interview about her recovery and how far she’s come. More than anything, Panettiere said she hopes her story can serve as encouragement for others facing similar battles. “I want to let them know that there is a time when you get over the hill,” she said at the time. “Recovery is real. It can happen, and you can be happier than you’ve ever been before in your life.”

She continued, “When you’re an addict, it’s really hard to believe that you can feel relief, so you’ve just got to hear from people who have come out the other side, people who can tell you that it is possible and that they can do it.”

Hayden Panettiere’s Highly Publicized Relationships

Over the years, Panettiere has only publicly dated men, including former fiancé Wladimir Klitschko, with whom she shares daughter, Kaya. She also previously dated Milo Ventimiglia, Jesse McCartney, and several other high-profile figures.

Most recently, she split from Brian Hickerson in 2020 following multiple domestic violence-related arrests involving him. Now, with her memoir on the horizon, Panettiere appears ready to reclaim her narrative, and finally share the parts of herself she once felt forced to hide.

Chaos hit at the worst possible moment for West Wilson, turning an already tense day into something far more overwhelming.

Just as he prepared to face cameras for the “Summer House” reunion, a deeply personal situation exploded online.

What followed was a mix of shock, frustration, and reflection, as Wilson tried to process everything happening at once.

West Wilson didn’t shy away from addressing the situation head-on. Speaking on his “Show Me Something” podcast, he opened up about how the leak unfolded and how he chose to deal with it publicly.

“I know my f-cking nudes leaked, OK. But guess what? It’s, like, the sixth worry of mine right now. I have a lot of s going on, and I’m gonna own it,” West Wilson said per Us Weekly during the episode.

He even tried to downplay the content itself, adding, “They’re not even sexual. They look medical. I’m soft in all of them.”

He went on to explain the context behind the photos, saying, “I don’t know how old it is, but it’s from my old apartment. I had a sauna by my bathroom, and I would always get out of the sauna and double check. Or check progress.”

Despite the humor he attempted to inject into the situation, it was clear the experience rattled him.

West Wilson Reveals Emotional Toll Behind The Scenes

Wilson admitted that laughter was more of a defense mechanism than a genuine reaction.

Beneath the jokes, there was a clear sense of frustration and vulnerability.

“I know I’m laughing, because if I don’t laugh, I’ll fing cry about all of this,” he said.

He also used the moment to send a message to others, adding, “Don’t leak people’s nudes or hack people’s sh-t. It’s, like, not fun.”

Even in the middle of the chaos, he managed to crack a joke, saying, “Manscaped partnership down the road, hopefully.”

The incident didn’t just catch him off guard but also hit at a moment when he was already dealing with mounting pressure from multiple directions.

Nude Leak Hit Wilson Minutes Before Reunion

The timing of the leak made everything worse. West Wilson revealed that the situation unfolded just as he was heading into one of the most intense filming moments of the season.

According to him, the discovery came almost instantly before stepping on stage.

“I was like, ‘Motherf-cker.’ I know that I’ve had the worst day of my life already, which is good to know,” he said. “Also, if you see it, report it.”

He also shared that his social media accounts had been compromised earlier that day, adding to an already stressful situation.

The realization that something so personal had gone public moments before filming left him scrambling to keep it together.

West Wilson Reflects On ‘Summer House’ Fallout

Beyond the leak, Wilson also spoke candidly about the emotional weight of the “Summer House” reunion itself.

The gathering forced him to confront the consequences of his actions within the group after previously revealing that he was dating Amanda Batula, one of the best friends of his ex, Ciara Miller.

“These are my friends, and I’ve caused a lot of damage, which f-cking sucks,” he admitted. “It’s gonna take time, for sure. Doing the reunion was one step. Got through [it], and we’re on the other side of it. Reunions aren’t fun.”

He described the experience as intense and uncomfortable, explaining, “It’s the darkest form of therapy. You don’t normally get that much feedback on how your actions impact other people.”

The Bravo star made it clear that he is trying to learn from the situation, even if the process has been difficult.

Controversy Around Wilson Continues To Grow

West Wilson’s challenges didn’t stop with the reunion or the leak.

His personal life has also drawn attention, particularly his relationship with co-star Amanda Batula.

Batula’s estrangement from her husband, Kyle Cooke, further intensified the situation.

Per The Blast, Cooke later criticized West publicly, accusing him of failing to support Batula during the reunion. He described the experience as a “brutal beat down” and claimed, “I can’t recall a moment when he had Amanda’s back.”

At the same time, another troubling headline emerged involving West’s family.

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Reports revealed that his cousin, Dakota Sweeney, had been arrested in connection with a fatal shooting. The incident, which involved a dispute over household chores, added more stress to an already overwhelming period.

Through it all, West Wilson acknowledged that change is necessary.

“The only way you can make experiences like this worth it, as dark as it gets, is to be better from it later,” he said during the podcast episode. “Obviously, I have a lot to learn from and be better for, but it’s absolutely the only way you can turn it positive.”

While the fallout continues to unfold, his comments suggest he is trying to take accountability and move forward, even as the spotlight remains firmly fixed on him.

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Amanda Bynes just added a metallic twist to her ever-evolving style.

The former actress, 40, debuted a pair of bright blue brows in a Monday, May 4, video shared via her Instagram Stories, one day before she was spotted on a rare public outing with boyfriend Zachary Khan.

Bynes showed off her cobalt-lined arches while doing her makeup in the car.

“Cigarette stains >,” she captioned the video.

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The former child star, who was also sporting bleach blonde hair in the new video, gave a close look at her heart face tattoo and nose piercings, which includes a sparkling septum ring.

On Tuesday, May 5, Bynes stepped out with Khan to grab a bite to eat in Los Angeles. She wore a white T-shirt with a vibrant design paired with jeans and black lace-up sneakers, while he opted for a monochromatic ensemble, rocking black from head-to-toe.

Photos obtained by the Daily Mail showed the two holding hands and chatting during their rare outing.

Khan and Bynes seem to be going strong after ringing in 2026 together. “Best new year’s with my love,” she gushed alongside a photo of the couple saying goodbye to 2025.

Bynes also opened up about losing weight in December, revealing she shed 28 pounds with the help of the controversial diabetes-turned-weight loss drug Ozempic and was “down to 152 [pounds.]”

Following her weight loss update, Bynes showed off her latest tattoo — “Trap Star” written in bold print on her left hand — in January. Her fresh ink was placed in between the “Beauty” tattoo on her forearm and heart on her middle finger.

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More recently, Bynes released her new song “Girlfriend” on April 10. The former Easy A star joined forces with Zabba and rapper Fenix Flexin after signing with Create Music Group.

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“Built around a strong hook and confident, flirt-heavy energy, [the song is] designed for repeat listens and wide playlist appeal,” her label shared in a statement to Us Weekly at the time. “Featuring [hip-hop artist] Fenix Flexin, it taps into a familiar L.A. sound while staying fresh and accessible.”

Bynes also told Us in a statement, “My inspo was a lot of EDM [electronic dance music] as well as rap.”

She sings on the track, “My friends love hearing about you / I love everything you do / I wanna be your girlfriend.”

The Other Bennet Sister‘s Dónal Finn is joining the ranks of other iconic fictional regency men who yearn — including Bridgerton‘s Jonathan Bailey.

Finn, 39, spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about TV fans who have compared his character, Mr. Tom Hayward, to Bailey’s Anthony Bridgerton, joking, “I hadn’t heard of the Bridgerton school of yearning but I should enroll.”

Despite not being familiar with season 2 of Bridgerton, Finn has been a big fan of Bailey’s work.

“I love Jonathan Bailey. He is a pretty inspiring man — and pretty easy man to fall in love with after I watched Wicked,” he told Us, referring to Bailey’s role as Prince Fiyero. “I have to confess I haven’t watched Bridgerton so I haven’t been to the school of yearning yet.”

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Finn continued: “Given that we have finished this project, I will probably need to fill that void with another Regency show. So maybe I will now get around to watching Bridgerton.”

Based on Julia Quinn‘s book series, the show follows a different sibling from the Bridgerton family in every season on their journey to find love in the Regency era. Season 2 adapted The Viscount Who Loved Me, which followed Anthony Bridgerton (Bailey) finding love with Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) to resounding success.

The Other Bennet Sister, meanwhile, is based on the novel by Janice Hadlow which follows the events from Pride and Prejudice from Mary Bennet’s (Ella Bruccoleri) point of view. The story then departs from that to follow Mary as she travels to London and the Lake District and the overlooked sister from the big Bennet family has a romantic adventure in Regency England.

In addition to Bruccoleri, The Other Bennet Sister stars Ruth Jones, Richard E. Grant, Indira Varma, Richard Coyle, Róisín Bhalla, Reggie Absolom and Jasmine Sharp. Laurie Davidson and Finn play Bruccoleri’s love interests while Varada Sethu, Aaron Gill and Maddie Close also appear on the show.

After premiering in the U.K. in March, The Other Bennet Sister became an overnight success due to clips going viral on social media. Romance fans in the U.S. have been awaiting The Other Bennet Sister‘s arrival on BritBox, with the first three episodes premiering on Wednesday, May 6.

“Hopefully [viewers] fall in love with an awful lot of people on the show. I read the scripts and I knew that there was humor in there — as well as lots of sincerity,” Finn gushed to Us. “But it wasn’t until I got on a Zoom and I met Ella and we started doing these scenes that I totally understood the tone.”

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Finn praised his onscreen scene partner, adding, “She just made the whole piece just sing. I got such an immediately clear picture of who Mary Bennet was. And she’s obviously the lead of this and has this ability to work with so much enthusiasm every day. She’s also the most prepared person and has so much generosity to the other actors, the crew and is making sure that everyone is having fun and being looked after.”

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He added: “I was just really inspired by her as a leading actor. I can’t believe that this was her first time leading a project. She made it just seem so natural.”

While teasing the show’s premiere in the U.S., Finn poked fun at the praise his character has gotten for his looks, saying, “I didn’t pay much attention to my forearms at all [until this]. I think it’s better that I didn’t overthink any of that stuff. I’m just glad that people like the content that’s out there. I find it a funny thing to talk about.”

New episodes of The Other Bennet Sister air Wednesdays on BritBox.

Padma Lakshmi has put dating on the back burner while raising her teenage daughter and continuing to foster her culinary career.

“It’s really difficult to navigate, you know, being a single mom and being lucky enough to have the full career that I do and also dating,” Lakshmi, 55, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting America’s Culinary Cup. “I think dating at my age is precarious.”

The America’s Culinary Cup host and executive producer confessed she’s “much more guarded” about letting someone new into her world now that she’s older.

“I don’t know, do I let this person in my house? Do I ask them for a background check? Like, you know, I’m not sure,” Lakshmi said. “I know that seems rude, but you know, I’m very risk-averse, so it’s difficult.”

The professional chef confirmed she’s “still single” before teasing, “I’ll leave it at that.”

Lakshmi noted that aside from being a bit guarded, she has her “hands full” working on America’s Culinary Cup after publishing her latest cookbook, Padma’s All American: Tales, Travels, and Recipes from Taste the Nation and Beyond: A Cookbook, last November.

She also told Us she’s busy “taking care of my family and my mother, my daughter,” but that doesn’t mean Lakshmi is done with romance forever.

“I think when it’s the right time and the right person, it’ll just happen,” she concluded.

Lakshmi shares her only child, daughter Krishna, 16, with ex Adam Dell, whom she dated following her divorce from Salman Rushdie in 2007. Lakshmi and Dell, 56, dated from 2009 to 2012 before rekindling their romance in 2017. They split for good in 2021.

While Lakshmi sparked romance rumors with Top Chef alum Melissa King in fall 2025, Us confirmed in November 2025 that they are “just close friends.”

Lakshmi, meanwhile, told Us earlier this month that she is focused on being a mom and businesswoman more than anything these days.

“No two days are alike with a teenager at home. So I never know, you know, what she’s gonna come home from school with,” she shared of life as a single mother. “She’s very happy. I’m lucky she’s doing well. And you know, it’s a joy to watch her grow every day.”

When it comes to work, Lakshmi said season 1 of America’s Culinary Cup has become like her second baby.

“The biggest thing [I wanted to bring to this show] was really just to give the chefs every ingredient, weapon, appliance that they would need to sort of take away all of the tricks and gimmicks that sometimes [happen] in reality programming,” Lakshmi explained to Us. “Just to make it more exciting, we throw obstacles in their way [on other series]. We ask them to cook with children’s instruments or something like that. And I just wanted to see what they could do when it was only about the cooking.”

Lakshmi said that making the show solely about the contestants’ talents has helped it become the No. 1 food competition show on TV.

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“I’m proud of all my producers and the chefs, frankly, they cook their hearts out,” she gushed. “We took a risk, you know, to say, ‘No, this is going to be about the purity of cooking,’ and it was a gamble. And luckily, people are watching.”

Lakshmi added that because of the high calibre of chefs on season 1, she “didn’t get a bad meal,” which fans can see by her reaction week after week with the final dishes.

America’s Culinary Cup airs on CBS Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET with the season finale airing on Wednesday, May 13.

On March 4, 2018, Sergei Skripal (Wayne Swann) and his daughter, Yulia (Jill Winternitz), were poisoned with Novichok, a Russian nerve agent, in the quiet, sleepy town of Salisbury, England. The attack took place just months before Russia hosted the World Cup, an event overshadowed by the international crisis, and saw Russian diplomats expelled and numerous world leaders weighing in. Fear and paranoia were heightened to a level few had seen in a long time, as it appeared a nuclear power — Russia — had committed a chemical attack on a fellow atomic power — Britain — to assassinate a former Russian spy. Yet, for the people who directly suffered as a result, these emotions were more devastating than anyone could imagine, and that is exactly what the three-part miniseries, The Salisbury Poisonings, portrays so poignantly.

Now, with the three-part documentary Salisbury Poisonings: The Untold Story surging up streaming charts and featuring previously unheard testimonies from those involved, there’s renewed attention on the case — making it the perfect moment to revisit the earlier dramatization.

Through The Salisbury Poisonings, we primarily follow Tracy (Anne-Marie Duff), the head of public health for Salisbury and wider Wiltshire, and Nick Bailey (Rafe Spall), a police officer who accidentally became exposed to the nerve agent whilst investigating. Not only does this miniseries show just how large a task was undertaken to prevent further contamination, but the focus on Bailey, Tracy, and other victims, such as Dawn Sturgess (MyAnna Buring), empathetically portrays the suffering ordinary people faced in a far larger geopolitical game that governments and world leaders, on both sides, seemed somewhat unfazed by.

‘The Salisbury Poisonings’ Uses the Stories of Average People to Portray Devastation

What can always be difficult in weaving a narrative through real-world events is making the audience care about something when they know the outcome. Many might not know about the Novichok poisonings, but they do know there hasn’t been a war between Russia and the UK, so it can be argued that, on the international level, the stakes aren’t high for the viewer. That is where the genius of The Salisbury Poisonings shines through, as it uses individuals’ stories to make us feel the emotional stakes of fear, loss, and paranoia.

Through Nick’s poisoning and recovery, we see how his family is put through an emotional wringer, constantly terrified of losing their husband and father as well as being shown Nick’s horrifying symptoms, such as driving a car before blacking out for a few seconds, which the real-life Bailey told an inquiry made him feel like his life was “in frames.” Furthermore, the subplot of Dawn’s struggles as a mother in shared accommodation builds our connection to this woman who only wants a better life for her and her daughter, only to be killed when, in the most unlikely of circumstances, she comes into contact with the nerve agent. It’s heartbreaking because we see these people, with their own lives, families, and dreams, being dragged into a geopolitical conflict they had no intention of ever joining. They weren’t killed because they did something wrong. They were killed by accident as collateral damage by people who didn’t care who else got hurt.

‘The Salisbury Poisonings’ Shows Unsung Heroes Who Deserve the Most Credit

Image via BBC

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With all the tragedy, one could be forgiven for refusing to watch The Salisbury Poisonings because they worry it would be overwhelmingly depressing. However, the strength of our protagonist, Tracy, and her willpower in the search for the source of Novichok and her commitment to making Salisbury safe again for its inhabitants are key to giving us a character whom we can admire and root for. Far from being an archetypal detective/investigator, Tracy is not some kind of confident veteran, nor does she have some kind of dark past where she is fighting inner demons. She is just someone trying to do the best she can.

In the show, she admits she has never done anything like this before and might not be qualified, reminding us of the scale of the issue. Working to decontaminate the sites identified by Tracy, where Novichok was found, took so long to clear that officers got hyperthermia. Scenes such as Tracy having to brace herself in front of a mirror before giving briefings or her constant fidgeting remind us of how this is a normal human being with flaws and anxieties of her own. Yet, this only makes the character more likable, and the final scene, where it is stated and reaffirmed that she is a hero, makes for thoroughly satisfying moments where we can choose to still believe in humanity, even after what has happened.

‘The Salisbury Poisonings’ Focus Means It Slightly Downplays Government Failings

By focusing on the victims rather than turning this into a geopolitical thriller, The Salisbury Poisonings emphasizes the personal human cost of the attack. By doing so, they engage audiences on a far more emotional level. However, for those who might not do their own research, the show does not truly cover the ways governments responded or the failings that occurred. On the latter, both in the case of the Skripals and Sturgess poisonings, the UK government certainly failed to act as it should have. Speaking at a 2024 inquiry into the matter, it was heard that police investigating the incident found that counter-terrorism was “dismissive” of claims that a Russian spy had been poisoned, and they even told them there was no Russian spy living in that area.

Furthermore, in the case of Dawn Sturgess, The Salisbury Poisonings displays how members of Whitehall, a government agency, are mostly focused on reducing panic and moving on from the incident, and in real life, people were not given a warning to not pick up discarded waste, despite health officials at the time considering this to be done. Though The Salisbury Poisonings acknowledges these failings through its portrayal of Whitehall characters, it could have delved deeper into the government’s shortcomings.

Going beyond the UK government’s response, The Salisbury Poisonings also put limited focus on Russia or other allies’ responses to the incident. We are only told via radio and news channel clips, and we are shown Americans heavily sympathizing, while Russia reportedly denies it. Putin not only denied involvement but also called Sergei Skripal a “scumbag” and a “traitor”, highlighting the animosity held and showing why it was so likely civilians like Yulia, Nick, and Dawn would become victims. The Salisbury Poisonings tried to present the West as united in its opposition against Russia.

However, the then-president, Donald Trump, greatly downplayed the significance of the incident. According to the BBC, at a meeting in Chequers, Trump and Theresa May’s team “were arguing about how bad and destabilizing that was – he asked why,” and when the point was made, it was chemical warfare between two nuclear powers, Trump only quipped, “I didn’t know the UK had nuclear weapons.”

This isn’t to say that The Salisbury Poisonings failed in its mission. It succeeded in what it set out to do. This was to make people understand the human suffering that occurred because of an international incident, displaying how civilians live every day with the fear they may be accidentally targeted in a far larger game than they even know is at play. The Salisbury Poisonings display the victims and heroes of the ground level brilliantly, and that makes this a show more than worthy of a watch to truly understand what happened in Salisbury that fateful day. However, viewers must understand the wider context surrounding these events. The tension between English local and national services, as well as international enemies and allies, skyrocketed in the wake of these poisonings, and in all of this lie the innocent victims we witness suffer because of this tension.

The Salisbury Poisonings is available to stream on Prime Video.

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Release Date

2020 – 2020-00-00

Network

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BBC One

Directors

Saul Dibb

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Writers

Declan Lawn

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  Anne-Marie Duff

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  Tracy Daszkiewicz

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  Duncan Pow

  Dr James Haslam

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  Rafe Spall

  DS Nick Bailey

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  MyAnna Buring

  Dawn Sturgess

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