On Monday night, twelve more solo artists or groups performed on American Song Contest for week three.  After the live show, the press attended a virtual red carpet to talk to contestants about their performances as well as Snoop Dogg about hosting the competition. We were curious about what kind of song Snoop would enter into a competition like American Song Contest if he were a contestant himself. “I don't even know if I have a song that I've written that qualifies for this,” he told SciFi Vision. “I would probably take my time to write what I've been through and what I'd like to see the world become.”

Watch our interview below, and for interviews with the contestants of week three, stay tuned, and look for more coverage next week!

The tension is building as Chicago P.D. races toward its season finale. Last night’s episode (9.17, “Adrift”) was a rough one for Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger); they are both still reeling from Makayla’s abduction, and it’s anyone’s guess what will happen with this fan-favorite couple. Meanwhile, Voight (Jason Beghe) took a break from the Escano investigation to support Ruzek with a drug case. With only five episodes to go, you can be sure that Voight and Anna (Carmela Zumbado) will be back in the bakery soon. Voight has a lot of confidence in his informant, but if she’s found out, Escano will surely kill her. 

SciFi Vision caught up with Jason Beghe last week at NBC’s One Chicago press day. We asked him about Voight’s obvious soft spot for Anna and what it is that draws him to her.

“I think that they're both lonely,” Beghe observed, “and so that's one thing. She has Rafa, her son, but that's about it. She's lost all her family, like Voight, and she is very, very single minded and focused and willing to do whatever at her own peril. She's an emotionally invested person, for sure; so is Voight.”

ALERT THE CLONE CLUB!
AMC NETWORKS GREENLIGHTS ORPHAN BLACK: ECHOES
 
New Series Produced by Boat Rocker Set in Orphan Black Universe to Premiere in 2023
 
NEW YORK – April 6, 2022 –  AMC Networks today announced that it had greenlit Orphan Black: Echoes, a long-awaited new series set in the world of the landmark series Orphan Black, to appear on AMC+ and the company’s linear networks in 2023. Produced and distributed globally by Boat Rocker, the company behind the original series, Orphan Black: Echoes will have a 10-episode first season. Anna Fishko (Pieces of Her, The Society, Fear the Walking Dead) is creator, writer, showrunner and executive producer with John Fawcett, the co-creator of the original series who also directed 17 episodes across all five seasons, on as director and executive producer. David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg, executive producers from Boat Rocker on the original Orphan Black series, return as executive producers on the new series. Katie O’Connell Marsh, Nick Nantell, and Kerry Appleyard will also executive produce for Boat Rocker.
 
Set in the near future, the new Orphan Black takes a deep dive into the exploration of the scientific manipulation of human existence. It follows a group of women as they weave their way into each other's lives and embark on a thrilling journey, unravelling the mystery of their identity and uncovering a wrenching story of love and betrayal.

***The following interview contains spoilers for 11.15***

This week, on an all-new episode of The Walking Dead, we saw Mercer reflect on what he did, killing two Commonwealth soldiers and covering it up. According to Michael James Shaw who plays the character, in the moment, Mercer felt that was his only choice. “I think from from the moment where he finds out in the house safe room that Sebastian (Teo Rapp-Olsson) has been behind the whole thing, he's pretty upset and a little shaken that it all transpired under his nose,” Shaw told SciFi Vision during an exclusive interview. “It's the only action that I think he feels he has the power to take in that moment, because you can't take out the root of the problem. The only way to eliminate the cancer is to take out the soldiers that were involved.

“…[Y]ou see him act. You see him react, as opposed to making a calculated move. He just he reacts. When he hears that they sent forty other civilians and Commonwealth soldiers into this house to get money, I think that's baffling to him, that they would have that kind of disregard for these Commonwealth lives.”

***The following interview contains spoilers for 11.15***

On tonight’s all-new episode of The Walking Dead, Princess, played by Paola Lázaro, gets closer to Mercer (Michael James Shaw) and gets him to open up. “I think they tear each other’s walls down,” Lázaro told SciFi Vision during a recent exclusive interview. “They disarm each other, and I think that's how they connect, and I love that.”

“Princess has always seen more to Mercer than what lies behind his armor, which is a very vulnerable and beautiful human being,” added the actress, saying that Mercer sees what’s behind Princess’s comedic behavior as well. “He sees a really interesting, vulnerable woman that he's actually interested in getting to know more.”

The actress went on to talk about how Princess doesn’t question it when Mercer admits killing the soldiers and covering it up. “I think Princess is such a loyal character,” said Lázaro, “and she would do anything for her friends, if she knows they're good people. I think at this point, she knows that he's a good person. So, she's willing to sit down with him and go through the logistics of why this event happened…She's a very tough woman, too, so she's ready to sit down and hear the nitty gritty of what happened and willing to support him if she believes that it was warranted.”

Yesterday, Prime Video released the first season of the successful BBC series from creators Stephen Merchant and Elgin James, The Outlaws. The series, which has already been renewed for season two, is a comedy thriller about a group of seven strangers, who after breaking the law, agree to complete community service in leu of jail time. The unlikely group, who are all from different backgrounds and would have otherwise likely never met, are forced to work together to renovate a community center, and in doing so find that they may have more in common than they realize.   

The idea for the series started from memories Merchant had growing up, with his parents being involved in community service looking after criminals. “They would tell me about the sort of people that came through the doors, and it was such an unlikely mix of people,” Merchant told SciFi Vision during a recent roundtable. “In fact, one of them was a kid I went to school with, Dave, who was the world's laziest thief. He one time got caught stealing a TV from someone's house, and the homeowners came back, and they went, ‘Dave, what are you doing?’ And he went, ‘I’m not Dave.’ And they went, ‘Yeah, you are; you live next door.’ He couldn't even go a block over. He literally was stealing from his next-door neighbors. There was Dave and there were other people that would come through the doors, and my parents were talking about these people. It just seemed like a recipe for a drama or a comedy, because you had such unlikely groups forced to work together; sparks could fly. It always seemed like an interesting backdrop. So, I didn't really have more than that. So, I went [and] met up with Elgin, and we kind of started brainstorming.”

Last week, NBC premiered it’s new music competition series, American Song Contest. The series, which is based on the hugely successful Eurovision Song Contest, features live music performances from across America, representing all fifty states, as well as five U.S. territories and the nation’s capital. In the end, the best hit song will be chosen from a solo artist or group.

On last week’s episode, eleven contestants each performed a song, and Monday night on the show it was announced that three contestants, in addition to Rhode Island’s Hueston, who had already advanced into the semi-finals, would be moving on to the next round of the competition, including Michael Bolton, who is representing Connecticut.

On Monday night, the Grammy Award-winning singer talked to the press during a roundtable interview about performing his song “Beautiful World” on the series and moving on.

Young Rock, which is based on the life of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, airs Tuesday nights on NBC. Recently, SciFi Vision talked to Ana Tuisila, who plays Johnson’s grandmother, Lia, and Matthew Willig, who plays Andre the Giant, about any pressure they might feel about playing characters based on real people.

For Willig, it was all just about using Johnson’s perspective. “It starts with the way that Dwayne perceived Andre,” the actor told SciFi Vision, “because that's so important when I'm playing with Adrian [Groulx] as an eleven year old boy. He’s playing Dwayne; that’s Dwayne’s perspective. It really starts with that…To Dwayne, Andre was Uncle Andre…Then, obviously, later on in life, he did impart his wisdom. So, that's kind of where it starts. If I can get that right, then I'm ahead of the ballgame.”

***The following interview contains spoilers for 11.14***

On tonight’s all-new episode of The Walking Dead it was revealed that Annie, played by Medina Senghore, who fans were introduced to in last week’s episode as part of the Riverbend community, is actually not only Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)’s wife, but she is pregnant with his child.

During the episode, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is shocked to find out that Annie actually already has been told by Negan about the atrocities he committed and is still with him. Seeing what he did and being told about it, however, are two different things. Senghore recently told SciFi Vision that she does believe Annie knows how bad it really was. “I think Negan and Annie are both pragmatic enough,” said Senghore. “I think they're two people who are at a place of acceptance of their flaws, and I think that maybe is part of the cement that binds them. So, I think she really does know.”

Will their conversation impact Maggie at all with how she still feels towards Negan? “I know that Annie sure as heck hopes it does,” said the actress, “because I think Annie’s survival and Negan’s survival, from any perspective, depends on figuring out a way for Negan and Maggie to occupying the same planet. So, I know that is sure what Annie hopes.”

Today, Netflix drops the second season of its highly-anticipated series Bridgerton. Inspired by the best-selling novels by Julia Quinn, the series follows the Bridgerton siblings in each of their quests to find love in Regency London. Season two focuses on Lord Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) looking for a wife. When the viscount decides that love is not important in his match, things do not go as he expected.

Recently, a press conference was held to discuss season two that SciFi Vision took part in. During the conference, creator and showrunner Chris Van Dusen answered the site’s question about balancing what to pull from the books versus creative additions when developing the characters. To the showrunner, who fell in love with the books as soon as he read them, there were certain things he wanted to get right. “I think that with any adaptation, there's always going to be differences from the source material,” said Van Dusen. “What was important, for me, was to really stay true to the essence of these books. I wanted to capture the spirit of this family that loves each other. There's so much love apparent within this family. I wanted to capture the banter between the siblings, the brotherhoods, and the sisterhoods that you see. I think those were the most important things to get right, and I think we were able to do that on the seasons.”