It's officially the hot vampire summer in New York City... and life is good. The first week of June brought a plethora of events to the local community, from TV show premieres and finals to the Emmy Awards ceremonies and the anniversary festival that has become an integral part of the city's cultural life. Here are some of the events that Gold Derby hosted in the Big Apple as the heat intensified.
Vampire Dance
All the badass vampires and seductresses headed to the Beacon Theatre on Tuesday night, where AMC hosted a raucous and dazzling rock concert to celebrate the series premiere. «The Vampire Lestat» , also known as «Interview with the Vampire, Season 3. The flagship series of the Anne Rice-inspired "Immortal Universe" franchise has enjoyed immense popularity with its devoted fans since its 2022 debut, but this event marked the ultimate test of that brand loyalty: series star Sam Reid was invited to perform a 30-minute, five-song set, fully embodying his alter ego, the beloved red-haired Lestat de Lioncourt.
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It was a move that could have backfired on the audience if they had seen through it, but from the moment he walked on stage, Reid gave them exactly What they wanted was a seductive vampire fantasy brought to life. The performance combined the energy of a theatrical teenager with genuine rock star skill, with seasoned composer and songwriter Daniel Hart masterfully accompanying his budding frontman on lead guitar. In the unlikely event that anyone in the audience had never seen an episode before, «Interview with the Vampire» Before entering the legendary Beacon Hall, Lestat's impressive performance allowed him to fully appreciate the show's atmosphere.
Before the concert, viewers watched the premiere of the third season, which teetered on the delicate balance between continuation and reboot. The film adaptation of the second installment of Rice's bestselling novel, "The Vampire Chronicles,", The Vampire Lestat series« Returns Reid to the spotlight after playing second fiddle to his up-and-coming former lover, Louis (Jacob Anderson), for the previous two years. This means some key storylines will be retold from Lestat's perspective, and there's room for a new mythology that will lay the groundwork for future seasons. This means you don't need to have watched the previous episodes to hop on Lestat's tour bus; in fact, the vain vampire preferred I wish you would just listen to his side of the story and ignore his ex.
But don't worry, Anderson is still actively involved in Broadway life this year and represented the power couple at the after-party, thoughtfully giving Reed the day off after he gave it his all on the Beacon stage. Gold Derby reporters happened to run into Michael Arden, the Tony-nominated director of the Broadway musical. «The Lost Boys» — who was eyeing his fellow vampires in hopes of introducing Lestat to David, a punk-rock vampire played by Tony-nominated Ali Louis Bourzghi. (The meeting Tuesday night didn't happen, but later that week they made their relationship official on Instagram.) Asked how he was feeling ahead of Broadway's biggest event on Sunday, Arden said he was simply thrilled to be one of two vampire musical-related moments of the week. "A vampire musical is at the Tonys," he said. "How cool is that!"«
Regarding the possibility of nomination «The Vampire Lestat» Despite its Emmy nominations, the series is still struggling to win over voters, who are traditionally reluctant to acknowledge horror films not associated with Ryan Murphy. The good news is that Hart's original songs give Lestat new categories to showcase his talent after the second season received nominations for hair and makeup. (The updated opening theme isn't to be overlooked, either.) It would be It wouldn't be a bad idea to see Reed in these leather pants at the 2027 Emmy Awards.
Tribeca is just awesome!
Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Ralph Johnson, Philip Bailey, and Verdine White
Fortunately, the blood on the Beacon stage had time to dry before the opening night of the 25th Tribeca Film Festival took place there. The film was shown in prime time. Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That's the Weight of the World) – musician-turned-director Questlove's latest documentary, following his Oscar-winning 2021 rock documentary "« Summer of Soul» . This new film chronicles the life and work of the Chicago band, which still makes audiences dance – as evidenced by the dancing in the aisles during Earth, Wind & Fire's concert after the film's screening.
«"I think The Roots was the best band for the first year [of the Tribeca Festival]," Questlove said before the premiere, referring to his own history with the festival, which launched a year after the September 11 attacks transformed the face of downtown New York. "You couldn't have predicted where the band's drummer would be in 25 years.".
Given the highly competitive festival market, the fact that Tribeca has been able to endure and even expand over the past quarter century, adapting to its place on the calendar and expanding its program beyond feature films, is no small achievement. Music has played a particularly important role in this growth: stars like Madonna, Katy Perry, Alicia Keys, Peter Frampton, Bono, and Bruce Springsteen participated in various festival events this year. And while Tribeca might not be the place you'd necessarily go to launch an Oscar or even an Emmy campaign, the debut of recent works by past winners like Questlove and Alicia Vikander lends a certain luster to the festival.
It's also a platform for emerging filmmakers to showcase their work to an audience of New York's fashion trendsetters. Gold Derby spoke with one such filmmaker, Fatma Al-Ghanim, a former athlete who is presenting her first short film at the festival. «Dream Theatre» . "Presenting it at the Tribeca Film Festival is like bringing a very personal part of my life, my country, and my story to the international stage," she says of the film, which blends documentary and fiction to tell the story of Qatar's first women's soccer team, which she captained at a turning point in sporting history.
Al-Ghanim hopes the positive reception from Tribeca audiences will be a springboard for a screening film "Dream Theater"« at other festivals in the coming months. It also helps that Tribeca is on the Academy's official shortlist of festivals that qualify short films and documentaries for the Oscars. Naturally, the director says being included on the short film shortlist for the 2027 ceremony would be an "incredible honor," but for now, she's focused on the main thing.
«For me, the dream is to «Dream Theatre» "It reached people and helped preserve a piece of women's sports history," says Al-Ghanim. "If this journey leads to discussions for an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Short Subject, it will be a wonderful milestone—not only for the film, but also for the women whose stories it celebrates.".
Kelly's World
«"Everyone thinks I'm great at this job," Kelly Clarkson joked after failing a quiz during the first taping of her final episode as a daytime talk show star. It was one of many self-deprecating remarks the icon made. «American Idol» and the multi-platinum singer made a point of speaking to audiences—including Gold Derby—about her hosting abilities as she prepares to say goodbye after seven seasons.
For example, during his conversations with the guests of this episode - Tina Fey, Will Forte and other actors of the series «Seasons» On Netflix, Clarkson gave her staff real-time feedback on which awkward moments should be cut or omitted entirely from the aired episode, such as a drawn-out monologue about artificial intelligence where she clearly lost the thread. "They might cut that, I don't know," the host said, laughing after Fey mimed cutting.
While filming a cover of Switchfoot's "Dare You to Move" for an episode of "Kellyoke," Clarkson admitted she didn't nail it on the first take. "This is the first time I've ever performed this song live," she confessed, adding that she had recently recovered from bronchitis. Calling her first performance "slow" and "sad," she performed the vocal riff without a band, bringing the audience to their feet, even without the energetic encouragement of her usual assistant, Rubin Erwin.
Moments like these prove that, jokes aside, Clarkson really is good in her work, and she has the Emmy awards to prove it. Since her debut in 2019, «"The Kelly Clarkson Show"» was the Daytime Emmy Awards champion, to the point that its rare loss last year made headlines. The host made the decision to end the show earlier this year, citing a desire to put family first following the death of her ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, in 2025. Gold Derby will return to the legendary Studio 6A at 30 Rock—the former home of« Late Night With David Letterman"» — for Clarkson's farewell special. Expect lots of tears, laughter, and... yes, Emmy-worthy mistakes.
HBO scored a hat trick?
It's now clear that HBO will win the 2026 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Comedy Series thanks to two hits: the second season of «Pitta» and the fifth, final season «"Hackers"» . But the premium cable giant also has a real chance to add Best Limited Series to its awards tally, setting the stage for another three-category triumph before its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, is absorbed by Paramount Skydance. Incidentally, the last time HBO managed such a hat trick was in 2015, when «Game of Thrones» won the award for "Best Drama Series", «"Vice- President" as "Best Comedy Series", and «"Olive Kitteridge"» — as "Best Miniseries".
Netflix has dominated the miniseries race for the past few years, and the streaming service is hoping that a second season will return. «Beef» will renew this series. But unlike the widely beloved first season of this series or subsequent miniseries phenomena such as «Baby Reindeer» и «Adolescence» , new version «Beef» fends off a strong field of contenders, including «Love Story» from FX and «Half Man» и «DTF St. Louis» from HBO. The last two series competed with «Beef» at the Gotham Television Awards on Monday night, and "River City" ended up winning.
In fact, DTF It ended up being the highest-rated show of the night, winning prizes for limited series and best supporting actor for David Harbour. HBO also won the Gotham Award for Breakthrough Comedy for "« I love Los Angeles"» — creator and star Rachel Sennott and her co-star Odessa Azion attended the awards ceremony — but were unable to complete the series with a win for Breakthrough Drama Series. That award was snatched from Apple TV by the series Pluribus , beating out two nominees from HBO: «A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms» и «"Task"» .
As the team will confirm to you One Battle After Another , Gotham's win could give it a boost at the start of awards season. And DTF St. Louis It could use some increased visibility; the series currently ranks 6th in the Gold Derby Best Miniseries list, while Half Man holds a more confident position in 4th place. Considering the unstable situation with All Her Fault from Peacock and The Beast in Me from Netflix, Emmy voters may well give preference DTF .
Limited edition
Contender
Chances
1.
Beef
Beef
100.0%
2.
Love story
Love story
86,7%
3.
The beast in me
The beast in me
80,0%
4.
Half-human
Half-human
60,0%
5.
It's all her fault.
It's all her fault.
53,3%
6.
DTF St. Louis
DTF St. Louis
53,3%
7.
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies
26,7%
8.
Something very bad is going to happen.
Something very bad is going to happen.
13,3%
9.
Death by lightning
Death by lightning
6,7%
10.
Black Rabbit
Black Rabbit
6,7%
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