The biggest pop culture news stories of 2023

When in November 2022 after a tumultuous two-year stint, they turned to a familiar figure in hopes of righting the ship: former CEO Bob Iger, who had overseen Disney through a period of steady growth from 2005 to 2020. The company was probably expecting Iger to come in and fix Chapek’s mess, including exorbitant theme park fees, antagonistic relationships with creatives, and a general decline in public perception. Too bad Iger apparently spent his two years away growing more curmudgeonly and out-of-touch. Once seen as one of the most creative-friendly CEOs in Hollywood, came as a surprise. Combined with Marvel and Star Wars fatigue, Disney made some surprising unforced errors in 2023—and it seems like Iger might not be the saving grace the company hoped for. [Jen Lennon]

In 2023, than the wins of the and The two major unions, representing writers and actors respectively, brought the industry to a halt . Their months-long ordeal, which included picketing almost every day and the pause TV and film productions, shed light on the importance of labor rights. It was amazing to see WGA and SAG members come together to and emerge triumphant at the end. It lasted from May to November this year, but the impact of these strikes is certainly going to be felt for a long, long time in Hollywood. [Saloni Gajjar]

There has been no shortage of praise heaped on this year (including from this site) but there is no denying it was the best-performed show of its scale in 2023. When it kicked off in Stockholm in May, it immediately became clear through social media footage and on-the-ground reports that the reigning queen of music was nowhere near content to stop improving. Renaissance the album may still be lacking formal visuals, but it did get a pretty splendid live performance—not to mention the instantly , “You are the visual baby.” [Drew Gillis]

2023 was a tough year to be a talk show host, but probably a pretty vindicating one for any staffers who had been bullied by said hosts or their production teams over the years. and both caught heat from dozens of current and former staffers this year, in a series of in-depth exposés alleging toxic and hostile behavior on set. (While the blame on Late Night fell on Fallon himself for his “erratic” behavior behind the scenes, staffers from The Kelly Clarkson Show were largely concerned with the production’s executive producer, rather than its effervescent host.) Controversy also befell The Drew Barrymore show, as Barrymore attempted to in September and bring her show back amidst the strike, drawing the ire and of all three writers employed on the series. The strike ended up concluding only two weeks later, so Barrymore essentially shot her reputation in the foot for nothing. [Emma Keates]

As with any year, 2023 saw multiple , and Tina Turner’s was one that still stings months later. The hurdles in Turner’s personal life—largely, her abusive marriage to former bandmate Ike Turner—came into relief once again with the news of her passing. “It wasn’t a good life. The good did not balance the bad,” she said in her 2021 documentary Tina (via ), a quote that made the rounds again this year. But there is no denying the positive impact Turner’s life had on other musicians and the people around her; at a London stop on her Renaissance tour, with a performance of “River Deep, Mountain High,” telling the audience, “I wouldn’t be on this stage without Tina Turner.” [Drew Gillis]

Sunday, May 28 should be a national holiday. On that fateful night, we said our final goodbye to the Roy family and with it , , as we left Kendall (Jeremy Strong) staring out over the Hudson into an . But it wasn’t just that ended that night. As mourned and pondered the future of Waystar Royco, Bill Hader’s also quietly turned in one of the better in recent memory. Sunday nights will never be the same. [Emma Keates]

The tragic Titan implosion in June, which caused the death of all five people onboard, quickly became the talk of the town, bringing the terms submersible, OceanGate, and Stockton Rush into our collective conscience. The events were so shocking that there was no way to escape thinking about how a shit ton of money was spent on sending this compact tin box to tour the Titanic wreckage (and then recovering the Titan wreckage). The reveal of the events preceding Titan’s launch, including the safety concerns of the vessel, made things so much worse. And then, the stepson of one of the dead passengers decided to make the submersible disaster all about him , as if the memes and jokes weren’t enough already. Hopefully, anyone with common sense will never choose to do something like this voluntarily again. [Saloni Gajjar]

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. might’ve been during its run, but now, there’s no idea when the show will return for the rest of season five. Whenever it does, the series’ most noteworthy star will be absent. Kevin Costner parted ways with Yellowstone earlier this year, inevitably leading to a final season announcement. The news invited a bunch of drama, in April, probably to avoid answering Costner-related questions. In September, .First of all, the behind-the-scenes fighting is far more exciting than anything Yellowstone whipped up. Secondly, there’s no exact timeline on when Costner said “Enough!” to playing John Dutton, but what we do know is (At this point, is anything/anyone capable of that?). His Yellowstone spin-offs will continue, with . Let’s see if that one sees the light of day. [Saloni Gajjar]

At long last, an in the unsolved murder case of Tupac Shakur, which has frustrated both authorities and the public for nearly three decades now. Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a known passenger in the car that staged the rap icon’s drive-by shooting in 1996, was charged with murder with use of a deadly weapon by Las Vegas police. Earlier this year, investigators raided Davis’ home looking for evidence “concerning the murder” and confiscated multiple computers, a hard drive, several .40-caliber bullets, and more. “It’s so long overdue,” said Greg Kading, a detective who worked for years on the case. “It’s never been unsolved in our minds. It’s been unprosecuted.” [Emma Keates]

This July, a potential turned into a , which turned into the , which turned into a for AMC and other theater chains, not to mention Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, and everyone else involved in both films. While we’re still not sure a back-to-back double feature was the best way to view either of these great movies, it’s hard to deny that this was a singular event that was, at least for a little while, pure, unadulterated fun. [Emma Keates]

Perhaps the most fun, bizarre single moment in 2023 pop culture, in July—the same weekend as Barbenheimer, no less— in Florence, Alabama. Seemingly with nothing to promote but her own disarming disposition, the singer donned a uniform and name tag and served up orders. Later, in September, that she had just been killing time in the diner when some of the staff offered her a uniform shirt, and she started handing out orders. “I wish my album had gone as viral,” she quipped to The Hollywood Reporter. Maybe she just needs to figure out how to make her albums even more cryptic and surreal. [Drew Gillis]

The second year of Elon Musk’s ownership of social media platform Twitter hasn’t been much less rocky than the first—most notably demonstrated when Musk took the Twitter brand name (so potent that “tweet” has entered the regular vernacular in multiple languages across the planet) and . Musk’s decision to rebrand the platform as X (a name he’s been hung up on since the days he got kicked out of running in favor of Peter Thiel, who changed it to the far more marketable “PayPal”) does have one major benefit, though: If you’re ever in a conversation with someone and they unironically refer to Twitter as “X,” you know you’re talking to a Pod Person, and must swiftly make your escape. (Case in point: New “X” CEO Linda Yaccarino, who spent the second half of 2023 serving as Musk’s acolyte/straight man, trying to put out fires in the advertising community while her boss at people trying to give the company money.) [William Hughes]

In May, That 70s Show alum Danny Masterson was found guilty of two counts of rape and was in September. That alone would be a disturbing story, but it was the events of the following days that blew the situation into a much bigger deal. The day after Masterson was sentenced, it was revealed that his 70s Show costars had submitted letters to the judge asking for leniency in the disgraced actor’s sentencing. Social media had a field day unpacking the dynamics on the set—particularly the fairly disturbing working conditions a then-teenage Kunis was subjected to. When she and Kutcher released an explanation video days later—looking, frankly, pissed—the reputational damage was done. [Drew Gillis]

Love it or , The Golden Bachelor is certainly a show that happened this year. Refreshing the beleaguered franchise with a septuagenarian twist, The Golden Bachelor was initially lauded for its unexpected vulnerability and sensitive representation of the struggles older singletons face within the dating scene. But as time went on and some about the star, Gerry Turner, began to emerge, the show lost more than a bit of its initial luster. Wherever you stand on Golden Bachelor mania, the series isn’t going anywhere soon. Gerry and his winner plan to , and ABC is already . [Emma Keates]

If someone gave you a Christmas present covered with, you’d probably smile at them, thank them effusively, and then find their nearest relative to express concern about their well-being. That is, in a nutshell, how people have been reacting to Sphere, Las Vegas’ newest, brightest, most mind-boggling attraction. The 366-foot-tall dome-shaped arena is covered in a single ultra-high-res LED screen that projects all sorts of dystopian images onto its surface, from a to a series of. But it’s not just an object to be observed from a distance; inside, it’s a multi-purpose entertainment venue that’s currently hosting U2 for a six-month concert residency. It’s weird enough that it’s made international news, which is a pretty big feat in Las Vegas. The city’s antics, like the inaugural Las Vegas Formula 1 Grand Prix that shut down the Strip in late November and pissed off nearly everyone that lives in the Vegas area for months ahead of its debut, usually don’t get nearly as much attention, because weirdness is expected in Vegas. So when something gets attention for being outlandish even in Las Vegas, you know it’s got to be pretty out there. [Jen Lennon]

Britney Spears has been incredibly famous for far more than half her life at this point, but it wasn’t until the past couple of years that we learned the truth about what living that life was actually like. After being released from her controversial conservatorship, Spears was finally free to tell her story and did so this year with the release of her memoir, The Woman In Me. The book made waves, more for the way it contextualized already well-known events as opposed to shocking revelations. Justin Timberlake, in particular, did not come away from the tome looking particularly great, thanks, at least in part, to a withering impression courtesy of Michelle Williams. [Drew Gillis]

s sudden passing in October caused a wave of grief not just across the U.S., but globally, given the popularity of his 10-season sitcom, . His death hit especially hard in the light of his 2022 memoir. The book was honest and vulnerable in sharing his struggles with substance abuse and alcohol addiction over the years, relived memories from his time on the NBC comedy’s set, and shared other personal Hollywood anecdotes. Perry was remembered by his , and people from across the world as tributes started pouring in online. The skilled star was born to command the screen with his comedic skills. Thank you for the laughs, friend. [Saloni Gajjar]

After animating, completing, and audience testing their movie, the team behind Coyote Vs. Acme looked down to find the ground had been sawed away beneath their feet. The culprit? Not a really really fast bird, but WBD CEO David Zaslav, who decided to for a measly tax write-off—the same trick he used for both and the last year. The difference here is that the at the decision actually seems to have worked. In response to the backlash, WBD announced that they would be around to other potential distributors. Maybe Coyote Vs. Acme will have its day in court after all. [Emma Keates]

The Scream revival that kicked off with 2022's seemed to be trucking along quite nicely over the last two years, with 2023's earning strong reviews and a hefty return on its modest initial investment when it hit theaters back in March. (This despite the absence of series star Neve Campbell, .) But then, on November 21, producers Spyglass Entertainment abruptly announced it was getting rid of its new series star, too, announcing that it was over accusations of “hate speech,” pegged to statements she made denouncing the Israeli government over the current conflict in Gaza. The idea that Spyglass’ decision was simply a spontaneous expression of principle got a little murkier the next day, though, when news broke that Barrera’s co-star, Jenna Ortega, —and apparently hadn’t been part of plans for Scream 7 for some time. (Ortega had a very good 2023, between Scream and Netflix’s Wednesday; maybe too good, we suspect, from a point of view.) The final kicker came on December 23, when director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day) announced that he was , calling Scream 7 “a dream job that became a nightmare.) Take notes, potential Ghostfaces: That’s how you stick a knife in a franchise that never wants to die. [William Hughes]

In November, Sean “Diddy” Combs was accused of rape by R&B singer Cassie. What followed was a staggering list of accusations from other women; within four weeks, he was facing five lawsuits total from different women, including a then-17-year-old in 2003. The lawsuits were part of the final weeks of New York state’s Adult Survivors Act, which allowed a one-year window for survivors to file lawsuits against alleged perpetrators, even after the statute of limitations had expired. [Drew Gillis]

Jonathan Majors was on the verge of peak stardom. After stellar performances in Lovecraft Country, Devotion, and Creed III in recent months, he was about to embark as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next big supervillain, Kang. It all fell apart when—right after Ant-Man 3’s release, no less—Majors was accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. In the months since his March arrest for strangulation and harassment, Majors has been in and out of court for the trial. His shoddy PR stunts (like ) have also garnered attention, just not the kind he was hoping for. In December, the actor was found guilty of reckless assault and harassment and acquitted on a different assault charge. It’s safe to say that if his rising career hasn’t come to an end, it’s at least come to a halt. [Saloni Gajjar]