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  • Luke Bryan, Jelly Roll upstaged with their own songs

    Luke Bryan, Jelly Roll upstaged with their own songs

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    Island living looks good on the “American Idol” 2025 contestants.

    The Top 24 singers no longer look dead on their feet after putting in the work to make it through Hollywood Week. And they’ve made it far enough into the competition to be part of the show’s annual tradition of overt cross-promotional marketing efforts at Disney’s Aulani Resort.

    On Sunday night, half of the remaining contestants put the advice they received from artist-in-residence Jelly Roll and mentor Ashanti to use. And for the first time, the aspiring stars sang for the audience’s vote as judges Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Carrie Underwood gave verbal pats on the back.

    Of the dozen performances, nearly all knocked it out of the park. Here were the top moments from “American Idol” Episode 8.

    Jelly Roll and Luke Bryan admit contestants’ covers were better than their original songs

    “Luke, we’re 0 for 2,” artist-in-residence Jelly Roll yelled back at Bryan after watching Mississippi’s Jamal Roberts “beat up” Jelly Roll’s own song, as Richie put it.

    Both Jelly Roll and Bryan seemed humbled after watching these aspiring stars one-up them with their own songs. Jamal brought Jelly Roll’s “Liar” to the stage in dramatic fashion with a stool kick, an uncompromising attitude and grit to his voice. As Richie put it, whenever Jamal goes on stage, he performs “like it might be the last time you ever sing.”

    “I would feel disrespectful to call this my song in this moment,” Jelly Roll said after Jamal’s performance. “This is now Jamal’s song. I was singing Jamal’s song tonight.”

    Bryan had some attitude about the situation, though: “I am mad at Jelly Roll. He has over-mentored,” the country star said.

    Earlier, Illinois’ Victor Solomon boldly took on Bryan’s “That’s My Kind of Night” — and the risk paid off. The judges were up on their feet early on in the performance, as Victor massively upstaged Bryan with his hip-swinging, foot tapping moves.

    Wearing a cowboy hat, suspenders (that soon came loose due to the aforementioned dancing) and tight jeans, Victor showed impressive voice control as he worked the stage while not missing a single note.

    The fast-food director from Peoria was the last person Bryan would’ve guessed would take on his country rock music, and “You can truly out-dance me” at that, Bryan said. So much so that Ryan Seacrest encouraged the judge to come up on stage and learn some new moves ahead of his summer tour.

    “Your voice is perfect for every genre of music, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that before — or heard that before,” Underwood said.

    Kolbi Jordan makes roaring comeback after sickness

    Sinus infection who?

    Platinum ticket winner Kolbi Jordan brought some “New Attitude” (Patti LaBelle’s, that is) to the stage after suffering from an illness during Hollywood Week’s Showstoppers round. Because she had something to prove.

    Kolbi’s voice is like a rubber band; it makes you want to play with it and see how far it will stretch. Her vocals went high, they went low, and she left it all out on the field. Hers was the first performance that the judges stood for, with Bryan commenting, it was “one of my favorite performances I’ve seen on this island.”

    “America, she is back,” he said.

    Who is in the ‘American Idol’ Top 24?

    1. Canaan James Hill
    2. Gabby Samone
    3. Zaylie Windsor
    4. Mattie Pruitt
    5. Thunderstorm Artis
    6. Drew Ryn
    7. Ché
    8. Grayson Torrence
    9. Penny Samar
    10. Josh King
    11. MKY
    12. Victor Solomon
    13. Amanda Barise
    14. Kyana Fenene
    15. Slater Nalley
    16. Baylee Littrell
    17. John Foster
    18. Filo
    19. Kolbi Jordan
    20. Isaiah Misailegalu
    21. Olivier Bergeron
    22. Desmond Roberts
    23. Jamal Roberts
    24. Breanna Nix
  • ‘The Breakfast Club’ stars reunite for the first time in 40 years

    ‘The Breakfast Club’ stars reunite for the first time in 40 years

    No need for a Saturday detention to get “The Breakfast Club” alumni back together.

    The stars of John Hughes’ ’80s coming-of-age classic — Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy — reunited on Saturday at the C2E2 convention in Chicago for the first full cast reunion in 40 years.

    “I feel really very emotional,” Ringwald, 57, told the crowd, jokingly adding that it was Estevez’s first appearance at a reunion. “We don’t have to use the cardboard cutout anymore because he’s here. I feel really moved that we’re all together.”

    While addressing his absence from past reunions, Estevez, 62, said the anniversary get-together “was something that finally I felt I needed to do just for myself.” He also noted the fittingness of reuniting in the Windy City, where “The Breakfast Club” was filmed.

    “It’s obviously the 40th anniversary, and it just felt like it was time,” Estevez explained. “Somebody told me that Molly said, ‘Well, does Emilio just not like us?’ And that broke my heart. And (I went), ‘No, of course, I love all of them.’ And that just made sense, so here I am.”

    Released in February 1985, “The Breakfast Club” centers on a group of adolescents from different school cliques who bond during a weekend detention session. The film grossed $45.9 million at the global box office and became part of the iconic Hughes canon of teen dramas, which includes “Sixteen Candles,” “Pretty in Pink” and “Weird Science.”

    The movie has since been recognized for its enduring appeal. In 2005, the film was honored at the MTV Movie Awards with the Silver Bucket of Excellence award, and in 2016, was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. It’s also landed on The New York Times’ “Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made” and Entertainment Weekly’s “50 best high school movies” rankings.

    Why fans shouldn’t count on a ‘Breakfast Club’ remake

    The cast of “The Breakfast Club” also paid tribute to the film’s director-writer Hughes, who died in August 2009.

    Nelson, who played rebel John Bender, said Hughes’ death was “profound for me,” in part because of the film’s open-ended conclusion. Following their time spent in detention, the Shermer High School students are seen departing campus, leaving viewers to ponder the possibility of their continued friendships.

    “I always felt in a weird way that the work was half done, that at some point we would all get back together because there were too many questions by everyone, ‘What happens on Monday?’ The film is about the fact that everyone has to make that decision for themselves,” Nelson reflected.

    He added: “Hughes explained to us the differences between the young and old. So, now is the time for him to show us where we meet in the end because we’re all older now, but we’re not going to get that, which is sad. But in a way, Hughes has been telling us, ‘Think for yourself.’”

    While a “Breakfast Club” sequel is not in the cards, Nelson’s co-star Ringwald, who played queen bee and Bender’s foe-turned-love-interest Claire Standish, weighed in on the possibility of remaking the classic film.

    “I personally don’t believe in remaking that movie because I think this movie is very much of its time,” Ringwald said. “It resonates with people today, but I believe in making movies that are inspired by other movies but build on it and represent what’s going on today.”

    The “Feud” star highlighted the film’s lack of diversity in its main cast as a jumping-off point for future homages.

    “It’s very white, this movie. You don’t see a lot of different ethnicities,” Ringwald said. “We don’t talk about gender, none of that, and I feel like that really doesn’t represent our world today. So, I would like to see movies that are inspired by ‘The Breakfast Club’ but take it in a different direction.”

  • ‘Last of Us’ Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey on Season 2 infected secrets

    ‘Last of Us’ Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey on Season 2 infected secrets

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    LOS ANGELES ‒ Roman colosseum battles for the movie masses in “Gladiator II” got physical.

    So when Pedro Pascal laid down his Roman sword for Joel’s rubber-grip revolver in HBO’s “The Last of Us,” the rugged actor admits he wasn’t entirely ready to rumble.

    That’s a big deal as Pascal, 50, portrays the LeBron James of killing zombies (known as the “infected”) in the TV adaptation of the popular post-apocalyptic video game. Yet, series creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann weren’t too bothered when Pascal gave his war wound update.

    “I came in very injured,” Pascal tells USA TODAY during a joint interview with co-star Bella Ramsey. “And I remember Craig Mazin telling me, ‘Well, that’s certainly appropriate for where Joel is at. The more broken you are, the more right it is for Joel.’”

    Wearing reading glasses and hiding a hand injury, Joel lives up to his banged-up billing in the Season 2 premiere of the Emmy-winning series (Sundays, 9 ET/PT on HBO and Max) that shot Pascal into leading-man superstardom. Tasked with bureaucratic jobs in the relative safety of the walled Wyoming compound, Joel cedes the warrior stage to emerging forces like his surrogate daughter Ellie (Ramsey) and her best friend Dina (series newcomer Isabela Merced).

    Bella Ramsey mastered jiu-jitsu for Ellie’s action emergence

    The new season jumps ahead five years after the jaw-dropping events of the Season 1 finale, which aired in March 2023. Joel mowed down the rebel Fireflies to save unconscious Ellie, whose brain, immune to infection, was about to be lethally harvested for a humanity-saving zombie cure.

    Grown-up Ellie and Dina act like the infected-killing personification of their favorite action movie ‒ the show’s fictional “Curtis and Viper 2.” Ellie backs up the swagger with skills. Before shooting near Vancouver, the 5-foot-1-inch “Game of Thrones” star, 21, trained for two months in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Ellie’s showcase fighting method. “You don’t have to be big or tall for jiu-jitsu,” says Ramsey. “So there’s fighting, falling through a floor. I got to that in the first episode, my favorite things this season.”

    Joel has guilt, a shrink and troubled teen Ellie in ‘The Last of Us’

    It’s not just physical injuries for the greying Joel. He suffers alone with the secret reality of saving Ellie and then lying ‒ assuring Ellie that the Fireflies gave up looking for a cure when other immunes started showing up. This profound deceit cracks their relationship. Season 1 was all about Ellie trying to ingratiate herself with Joel, her protector. But the roles switch after the lie: Joel is desperate to reach Ellie, who can sense the deception.

    “Ellie knows, deep in her heart,” says Ramsey, looking at Pascal. “But I can’t face it or think about it too much because the idea that you would lie is too painful.”

    Joel’s guilt and parenting issues prompt a visit to what’s possibly TV’s first post-apocalyptic shrink, Gail (Catherine O’Hara), who naturally takes payment in marijuana. A trauma tune-up specialist is part of the video game, and Pascal was bummed when a therapy scene was cut from Season 1.

    “Last season, Joel was in the quarantine zone with a therapist that he paid for with contraband, and they took that scene out. I grieved it,” says Pascal. “Then Craig and Neil brought it into Season 2 in a much more appropriate way. But not because I asked. I didn’t ask for it. This was just like a gift.”

    Joel’s therapy with the mourning Gail is, well, complicated. And it’s ineffective in helping his strained relationship with Ellie, which veers into a post-apocalyptic, surrogate-father-daughter story fit for a Lifetime movie.

    “It’s like a misunderstood father and some brat,” says Pascal, needling Ramsey.

    “Oy!” Ramsey retorts. “I’ll truck you out.”

    Bloaters and vengeful Abby in Joel and Ellie’s perilous ‘Last of Us’ future

    Even with that personal conflict, Season 2 opens in a remarkably stable place, with structure, housing, dances, and budding love between Ellie and Dana. These moments are precious in a dystopic world where the life of every character (including those played by big stars) is tenuous. Episode 1 shows the gathering storm, even from the non-infected, as Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) starts hunting Joel to avenge the Firefly deaths. The Season 2 trailer features infected mayhem, which makes it clear that the evolving beasts will not be walled out.

    There’s even another incoming bloater, a hideous manifestation seen in Season 1. “The bloater is this incredible opponent in the first and second game,” Mazin says. “We dream about using them, saying things like, ‘If it was just you versus a bloater, what would you use? How would it go?’ And we take it from there.”

    Last season’s fleeting moments of bonding between Joel and Ellie, and even the dysfunctional first episode, marked the Golden Age for the stand-in father and daughter. Ramsey yearns for the times when Ellie read terrible puns to Joel from a recovered bad joke book.

    “I wish we had another season of being, like, happy,” Ramsey says.

    “I want to reverse everything,” Pascal says. “I want to take it all back. Go back to Season 1 and just stroll through the apocalypse. Together.”

  • ‘The Last of Us’ stars talk season 2Entertain This!

    ‘The Last of Us’ stars talk season 2Entertain This!

    ‘The Last of Us’ stars talk season 2Entertain This!

  • New episode release date, time, schedule

    New episode release date, time, schedule

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    “The Handmaid’s Tale” returned earlier this week with three episodes for its sixth and final season and June (Elisabeth Moss) already has had a lot to deal with from reuniting with her mother to helping her husband and best friends escape.

    After escaping Gilead, June (Elisabeth Moss) finally finds calm in Alaska where she is reunited with her mother Holly (Cherry Jones). However, her peace is short-lived, and she returns to No Man’s Land to successfully help husband Luke (O-T Fagbenle), and best friend Moira (Samira Wiley) escape a Mayday mission gone bad. On the other hand, Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) is attempting to build New Bethlehem, Gilead’s new, reformed community where refugees are welcomed back.

    In the final season of Emmy-winning drama series, June will fight to take down Gilead, according to Hulu, with Luke and Moira joining the resistance. Serena, meanwhile, “tries to reform Gilead while Commander Lawrence and Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) reckon with what they have wrought, and Nick (Max Minghella) faces challenging tests of character.”

    “This final chapter of June’s journey highlights the importance of hope, courage, solidarity, and resilience in the pursuit of justice and freedom,” the season’s synopsis says.

    Adapted from Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel of the same name, “The Handmaid’s Tale” tells “the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly the United States,” according to the series synopsis.

    June/Offred, one of the few fertile women in the oppressive Republic of Gilead, known as Handmaids, “struggles to survive as a reproductive surrogate for a powerful Commander and his resentful wife” in society.

    Here’s what to know about Season 6 of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” including full episode schedule and cast.

    We’ve got room on the couch! Sign up for USA TODAY’s Watch Party newsletter for more recaps of your favorite shows.

    When do new episodes of the ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ come out? Release date, time

    New episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 6 drop every Tuesday on Hulu at midnight ET (or 9 p.m. PT the previous day).

    That means Episode 4 of Season 6 will be available to stream at 12 a.m. ET Tuesday, April 15 (9 p.m. PT Monday, April 14).

    ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: Stream on Hulu | Watch on Sling

    Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle

    ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6 episode schedule

    Season 6 of “The Handmaid’s Tale” premiered with the first three episodes on April 8. The final season of the series will have 10 episodes. Here’s what the upcoming schedule looks like:

    • Episode 4 “Promotion”: April 15
    • Episode 5 “Janine”: April 22
    • Episode 6 “Surprise”: April 29
    • Episode 7 “Shattered”: May 6
    • Episode 8 “Exodus”: May 13
    • Episode 9 “Execution”: May 20
    • Episode 10 “The Handmaid’s Tale”: May 27

    How to watch ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6

    “The Handmaid’s Tale” will be available to stream on Hulu, starting April 8.

    Hulu offers membership options ranging from $7.99 a month to $17.99 a month for normal streaming services and $75.99 a month to $89.99 a month for plans with streaming and live television. New users can also sign up for a free trial.

    Watch every season of The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu

    ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6 cast

    Cast members for “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 6, as per Hulu, include:

    • Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne / Offred
    • Yvonne Strahovski as Serena Joy Waterford
    • Bradley Whitford as Commander Joseph Lawrence
    • Max Minghella as Commander Nick Blaine
    • Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia Clements
    • O-T Fagbenle as Luke Bankole
    • Samira Wiley as Moira Strand
    • Madeline Brewer as Janine Lindo / Ofwarren / Ofdaniel / Ofhoward
    • Amanda Brugel as Rita Blue
    • Ever Carradine as Naomi Putnam
    • Sam Jaeger as Mark Tuello
    • Josh Charles as High Commander Wharton

    Watch ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6 trailer

    We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.

    Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.

  • ‘White Lotus’ star Aimee Lou Wood slams ‘SNL’ for ‘White Potus’ sketch

    ‘White Lotus’ star Aimee Lou Wood slams ‘SNL’ for ‘White Potus’ sketch

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    Aimee Lou Wood isn’t laughing about the “Saturday Night Live” parody of “The White Lotus.”

    The actress, who played Chelsea on the HBO series, took to Instagram on Sunday to criticize an “SNL” sketch based on “The White Lotus” that included a joke about her teeth.

    “I did find the ‘SNL’ thing mean and unfunny,” Wood, 31, wrote in an Instagram story, adding that she “felt righteous” but “might delete” her post later.

    USA TODAY contacted representatives for “SNL” and Wood for comment.

    The “SNL” sketch, which aired Saturday, imagined “The White Lotus” Season 3 starring President Donald Trump and his allies. At one point, host Jon Hamm played Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was slotted into Walton Goggins’ “White Lotus” role and ranted about how he wants to take fluoride out of drinking water. “What would that do to people’s teeth,” he asked.

    The sketch then cut to “SNL” cast member Sarah Sherman, who wore fake teeth and was made to look like Wood’s “White Lotus” character, Chelsea.

    On Instagram, Wood described the sketch as “such a shame” and said that while she’s fine with “SNL” making fun of her, there “must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way” to do so.

    She also criticized the accent Sherman used in the sketch, writing, “At least get the accent right seriously. I respect accuracy even if it’s mean.”

    Wood later followed up and said she received “thousands” of messages from people agreeing with her about the sketch. “Glad I said something,” she wrote.

    The “Sex Education” star also shared several supportive messages, including one that said the way “SNL” mocked her “appearance/accent” was “uncalled for.” Wood replied, “Correct.”

    In another reply to Wood, a follower encouraged her not to delete her original callout. “I have a big gap in my teeth and an overbite and you’ve genuinely made me feel so much better about myself,” the comment said.

    Speaking with GQ in an interview published last week, Wood said the conversation about her gap teeth makes her “a bit sad” because this has received so much attention that “I’m not getting to talk about my work.” She also told the outlet that after learning that “The White Lotus” creator Mike White fought to cast her in the show, her reaction was to think, “HBO didn’t want me. And I know why HBO didn’t want me, it’s because I’m ugly. Mike had to say ‘Please let me have the ugly girl!’”

    In an Instagram story Sunday, though, Wood clarified that “nobody at HBO called me ugly,” noting she was only expressing her “own paranoid thought.” She told fans that the network has been nothing but “kind and supportive,” in contrast to “SNL,” which she dubbed “mean.”

    This week’s “SNL” sketch wasn’t the show’s first time referencing Wood. Earlier this season, a sketch depicted President Donald Trump telling Secretary of State Marco Rubio that he wants to purchase Thailand because “I’ve been watching ‘White Lotus’ and it looks beautiful. How about the girl with the teeth?”

  • 'Dazed and Confused' star Nicky Katt dies at 54, reports sayCelebrities

    'Dazed and Confused' star Nicky Katt dies at 54, reports sayCelebrities

    ‘Dazed and Confused’ star Nicky Katt dies at 54, reports sayCelebrities

  • Gabriel Macht talks ‘Suits LA’ role, Duchess Meghan and his new career

    Gabriel Macht talks ‘Suits LA’ role, Duchess Meghan and his new career

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    NEW YORK ‒ Gabriel Macht is thrilled with the resurgence of the USA Network legal drama “Suits,” which aired from 2011 to 2019. The actor talks about clips of the show going viral on social media. He marvels at how the series took off when it hit Netflix in 2023. He even mentions that “Suits” was one of the most illegally downloaded TV shows of its time, according to rankings from a website that publishes news on copyright and file sharing.

    And yes, the fact that his paralegal on the show was played by an actress then known as Meghan Markle, now Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, might have played a role, too.

    “I don’t know the logistics; I don’t know the numbers,” Macht, 53, tells USA TODAY. “But possibly. I mean, she’s quite known around the world these days, right?”

    Macht says “never in a million years” did he think he’d be fielding questions about the royal family because of a former colleague. Thankfully, for “Suits” fans, they didn’t have to wait a million years to see him back as Harvey Specter. The actor reprises his role as the fast-talking lawyer on NBC’s spinoff “Suits LA” (Sunday, 9 ET/PT). Macht says returning to the character, which he played in all 134 episodes of the original series, was like figuratively hopping back on a bike.

    “There’s a couple different stages; one is putting the suit on,” he explains. “You feel like, ‘Oh, I’m back in it.’ Another is, ‘Let me get in touch with all the stuff that I’m not crazy about myself.’ That’s pretty easy. And then the third is learning the lines. Once you sort of absorb the double negatives and all the rhythms, then you’re good to go.”

    New coast, same Harvey Specter on ‘Suits LA’

    The original series, set in New York, starred Macht and Patrick J. Adams, who played Mike Ross, a chronic underachiever with a photographic memory who never attended law school. Despite this, Specter is impressed with Ross and brings him on as an associate in his law firm.

    The new series shifts the action to Los Angeles. Macht was first seen in the March 16 episode, “Batman Returns.” Through flashbacks, we learn of Specter’s friendship with the lead of the new show, Ted Black (Stephen Amell). Over drinks at a bar, Specter insists that he is Batman to Ted’s Robin.

    “I think it’s probably the narcissistic element that Harvey’s got, where he’s gotta be the one and center,” Macht says. “I don’t think Harvey ever sees himself as a sidekick, whether it’s Mike being Robin or Ted being Robin. (Harvey’s) definitely not Robin.”

    April 13’s eighth episode, “Acapulco,” continues a three-part story arc for Specter in the present world of “Suits LA.” It’s the second time he’s reprised the role: He also appeared in the short-lived 2019 spinoff “Pearson,” which centered on the law firm’s co-founder Jessica Lourdes Pearson (Gina Torres).

    “There was so much banter in the original,” he says of “Suits.” “You get an audience in by making it light and witty. People like that interplay. And then you bring out slowly but surely their personal histories that have some darkness. And you punch them in the gut with that and then you make them feel like, ‘Oh, I gotta care for this person.’ I think ‘Suits LA’ has more of that.”

    Where does Macht live? ‘I’m a citizen of the world’

    Macht was born in the Bronx and lived in New York’s Westchester county until he was 5 before relocating to Los Angeles. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, the actor bounced between the two coasts. He and his wife, Australian American actress Jacinda Barrett, share two kids. The actor is coy about his home base. And while he won’t rule out a return to Hollywood, he says he’s satisfied with his professional role: co-founder and creative director of Bear Fight Whiskey. Seth MacFarlane is also a founding investor.

    “Harvey likes whiskey and I like whiskey,” he notes of his character, while clarifying that Specter’s weapon of choice is Macallan scotch. “I’m able to create some of the storylines and the narratives and what the messaging is. What’s your bear fight? Everyone has one.”

    But when it comes to extending his stay in the “Suits” universe, there doesn’t seem to be much conflict in Macht’s mind. “I had a really wonderful time,” he says of his role as a guest actor. “They all welcomed me. It was really sweet. Never say never, but I think they’ve got their legs.”

  • Gabriel Macht talks Harvey Specter, 'Suits LA'Entertain This!

    Gabriel Macht talks Harvey Specter, 'Suits LA'Entertain This!

    Gabriel Macht talks Harvey Specter, ‘Suits LA’Entertain This!

  • How to watch Katy Perry, Gayle King head to space

    How to watch Katy Perry, Gayle King head to space


    Blue Origin and USA TODAY will provide a livestream for the roughly 11-minute spaceflight.

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    The next group of celebrity space tourists are days away from blasting off above Earth’s atmosphere on a Blue Origin rocket to witness a view only a few other civilians have ever seen.

    The all-women crew includes pop artist Katy Perry and journalist Gayle King, who co-hosts “CBS Mornings.” If Blue Origin’s spacecraft gets off the ground as planned Monday morning, Perry, King and four other women will experience a few minutes of weightlessness while gazing upon Earth from the edge of space.

    The vehicle they’ll ride to orbit, Blue Origin’s New Shepard, is the same one that 48 others have rode to space on 10 previous human spaceflights from the company’s west Texas facility. The New Shepard’s maiden voyage in July 2021 with a crew even included billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns the space technology company.

    New Shepard is composed of both a rocket and a crew capsule, which is outfitted with large windows for its passengers to gaze out of during the roughly 11-minute spaceflight.

    But for the rest of us, we’ll have to content ourselves with watching the launch on solid ground. Fortunately, Blue Origin will provide a livestream for a launch and spaceflight that is sure to grab plenty of headlines.

    Here’s what to know:

    When is the Blue Origin launch from Texas?

    New Shepard’s launch window opens at 9:30 a.m. ET Monday, according to Blue Origin.

    Like all of Blue Origin launches, the vehicle will lift off at Launch Site One, a private ranch in rural West Texas more than 140 miles east of El Paso.

    How to watch Gayle King, Katy Perry go on all-female spaceflight

    Blue Origin will provide a livestream of the takeoff beginning prior to the launch window opening on its website.

    The company has yet to share any specific webcast details, but a YouTube simulcast is scheduled to go live on launch day. Blue Origin will also be covering the launch live on X starting at 8 a.m. ET.

    CBS will also provide coverage of the launch on its network and through its streaming service Paramount+. Coverage begins at 7 a.m. EDT during “CBS Mornings” and continues at 9 a.m. with a special segment, “Gayle goes to Space.”

    A livestream of the launch will also be available to watch via USA TODAY.

    Who are the celebrities heading to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard?

    Six women were selected to be part of the next Blue Origin commercial spaceflight, a mission known as NS-31.

    Here’s a look:

    • Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist, CEO of engineering firm STEMBoard and founder of LINGO, which teaches students technology skills.
    • Amanda Nguyen, a prominent civil rights activist and bioastronautics research scientist who worked on the last NASA space shuttle mission, STS-135, and the U.S. space agency’s exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope.
    • Gayle King, a journalist and television personality best known as a co-host of “CBS Mornings.”
    • Katy Perry, a pop music artist and former host of “American Idol.”
    • Kerianne Flynn, a film producer known for her contributions to “This Changes Everything,” a 2018 documentary about sexism in Hollywood.
    • Lauren Sánchez, an Emmy Award-winning journalist who is the fiancée of Bezos.

    Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

    This story was updated to add new information.