Super Bowl Breakdown, Country Music Takeover & My Worst Date Ever

Happy Valentine's Week, homies! This episode we're covering everything the Super Bowl gifted us with this week, largely from a pop culture standpoint (NFL has you covered on the dirty deets). We're talking the strangest Super Bowl prop bets including the infamous Drake Curse, commercials, halftime performance and yes, Travis Kelce & Taylor Swift.

Bach Nation news regarding the Golden variety is shared and discuss why host Maddy McClain thinks this may be the last season of Vanderpump Rules. And in honor of the day of love, Maddy giving us a storytime treat of her very worst date ever...that happens to take place in a stadium.

Cheers homies! Follow on IG @easilyentertainedpod and share with a friend 🤠

Resources/Sources:
- Nickelodeon Super Bowl broadcast (The Guardian)
- The Weirdest and Silliest Super Bowl 2024 Prop Bets (The Athletic)
- Super Bowl 2024 Coverage (The New York Times)
- Drake Wins $2.3M To Give Away to Lucky Fan (People)
- Beyonce Announces New Album, Part II (Pitchfork)

Transcript

 Hello homies and welcome to another episode of Easily Entertained with Maddie McClain. You friggin guessed it. I am your favorite pop culture chirpa, your dutiful host Maddy McClain.  It still doesn't get entirely natural to introduce myself in such a manner, but  you gotta have fun with it. Am I right? 

What a pop culture packed week it has been  Now that the Super Bowl has had E! News post about it as much as it truly has on Instagram it might as well have been another Grammys or  People's Choice Awards, or even a collaborative montage video of celebrities singing The Beatles to soothe our plebeian plebeian souls during a global pandemic. 

You guys remember that?  That was a trip. I mean, everything about early 2020 was a trip. But, uh, Gal Gadot and like, I don't know, Courtney Cox and all of these big time celebrities each sang a portion of a Beatles song. Uh, like telling us it's all going to be alright and we'll get through this and  They seemed fine from the comfort of their mansions, but anyways, that was tone deaf and  also hilarious to think back upon. 

Today, we have a jam packed lovely episode for you. We will, of course, be talking about the Super Bowl from the most bizarre prop bets. Which, for those of you, honestly, like myself, that learned about this not too long ago,  That is just the random, crazy, unique bets that are, like, outside of the actual football game.

Cause there was also a football game played, and um, spoiler alert! Kansas City Chiefs won. It was a crazy game. And of course we'll get into the ins and outs of that very shortly, but, um, so much went on and we will talk about those crazy random bets that were the most interesting to the millennials, uh, wet dream of the halftime performance and yes.

We do, and will, talk a bit of Taylor and Travis because we just simply can't not. It's like, we're watching this real life movie unfold, and we know all the characters, like, maybe not a movie, like a TV series, really, you know, we're committed here. We're committed. We want to know what happens. So, um, they have to be talked about too.

Uh, although truthfully,  I, I could use a little palate cleanser when it comes to all of the media channels, but we'll get that. I mean, it was literally just a Super Bowl where her boyfriend just like won this, you know what I mean? Like not alone, obviously. But anyway, so yeah, we will also talk a little bit about an exciting piece of Bachelor Nation news.

And a little bit of Vanderpump Rules, but we will also talk about what's going on in the music industry. We've got some new music, and a lot of it is in the tune of, uh, Country Jams, you know? And last but not least,  I buried the lead, you guys, which is bad podcasting. It's bad etiquette in general, you know, but especially in this format.

Because Happy Valentine's Day!  Happy V Day, lovers! I hope you guys are, uh, feeling sexy, lovey dovey,  all of the things. And it doesn't have to be romantic, so you don't, you know, it can be self love, honey. It can be best friend, soulmate love. It can be your adorable cockapoo named Mac kind of love. It can be all of those things. 

You know,  um, I won't keep listing, like, different roles that people can play in our lives and say that you can love them, but, uh, cause it's starting to sound a little bit like Anchorman.  I love lamp. Anyways, I'll be telling you, uh, Valentine's. A little, a little love story. It's not a love story. I'm gonna tell you one of my most, uh, my worst dates I ever went on.

That's a little gift I am bestowing upon to you guys because I love you all. Because it's V Day. Why not? Why not share a fun story?  As many saw coming,  this year's Super Bowl had one of the largest viewerships in quite a while. This comes to no surprise, but according to the New York Times, an audience of 123.

4 million viewers watched the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers. which easily eclipsed last year's record high of 115. 1 million when Kansas City defeated the Philadelphia Eagles. Um, also according to the skim, this little nugget, the game comes only second in viewership. To  the 1969 moon landing. 

Oh, what? That's wild. Who would have thought? Well, I mean, moon landing's pretty  astronomical. I'm so sorry. I could not, I simply could not resist. Um, yeah, so lots of people watching. It's that, it's that I, you know, not included in either of these.  These great sources of journalism is that it most definitely was the Taylor Swift effect.

I'm just saying, a large part of it. Not that anyone needed any reminders of that. And I was really thinking of those that played the game, uh, Take a Shot Every Time the Camera Pans to Taylor. I hope you guys are doing okay if you're still with us. Um,  yeah. But anyways, the 123. 4 million  People, viewership number.

That figure is the total who watched on CBS, uh, who was streaming, had the rights. As well as Paramount Plus, where it was streaming, and the Spanish language channel Univision. As well as my personal favorite, Nickelodeon, which aired a child friendly telecast. The other NFL captured this year were Um, so I had to go check it out for myself, as I said, after hearing the internet go off on this.

And, wow. First of all, as a marketer, honestly, and media planner myself, this was brilliant. Okay.  And secondly, Just generally truly entertaining for any human being and I think I learned some actual things about the game of football Which is pretty tight  Tight tinned. I don't know anyways So basically what they did is they had four hosts in a real commentator booth that was overseeing the Allegiant Stadium in Vegas with two Well, they were all like real humans, two being Noah Eagle and Nate Berlinson on the left, and then, who, to be totally honest, I don't know who they are, but, um,  they're real, and they commentate.

And then on the right, is Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke, which are the voice actors for Spongebob Squarepants and Patrick Star, respectively. So what they did is they used reality augmented animation, so, Tom and Bill, the voices of Spongebob and Patrick, they showed up as the characters and, um, You know moved around like using like going into VR and you see  You know little little avatars dancing about so that was hilarious and throughout the whole thing they'd have like Dora the Explorer pop up to explain the rules and You know They had superimposed like floating pineapples and bubbles and they even you know Put a pirate's hat on Patrick Mahomes and things like that.

My personal favorite You know how they use the Jumbotron and, and make sure they pick out all of the big, the big names and the celebrities that are there watching the game. Well, they panned over to these animated versions of Doja Catfish,  Lapron James, and Oprah Finfrey, so.  If you've listened for the last few minutes, you will,  you will know and recognize that I do love a good pun.

So I personally loved that. But obviously, you know, there was another aim here like,  Of course, of course, it's the NFL. It's a money making machine, honey. So they had another aim, and that is, you know, I wanted to look up on this. The Guardian said this was to stir a younger generation's interest in the sport, which had seen a 13 percent decline in youth participation from 2019 to 2022, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.

That reason is probably CTE, and all the Documentaries and horrifyingly tragic stories, real stories, behind major football players and head injuries. But,  I mean, I don't know, maybe a cute animated broadcast of the Super Bowl that keeps your kids busy while, you know, you can eat your nachos and your chardonnay while in peace is enough to convince you to allow Jimmy to play in his junior football league, so. 

I don't know. I don't have kids, but that sounds, that sounds like a good trade off. I don't know.  I'm sorry, nothing to joke about there, but um, it's comedy, so get over it. Anyways,  to many, also, the Super Bowl is just as much about football as it is about the Delicious American cuisine,  you know, that comes with this game, as well as  the commercials and the ads, of course.

Um, but when it comes to food,  you know what, let's do a ranking, okay? We love a food ranking. My personal favorite and what I went for was, I like a good chicken wing, okay? Or,  I'll do, I'll do bites, I know, I know, but Preferably a chicken wing like mama wants to get a little dirty with it, right? So Chicken wings like buffalo medium  Maybe a few other fun sauces in the mix.

I don't know i'll try other but i'm gonna stick largely with  Buffalo medium, okay hot but not too hot  And, you know, not a mild little bitch, right? So, that and like dipped in just  poodles, poodles?  I couldn't decide to say pools or oodles? I, I don't know. Just a shit ton of ranch, okay? That's what I want. I want to drink it, right?

I want to stick the chicken wings in there and then need to go for a swim, okay? I'm a saucy gal, what can I say?  And preferably alongside, there needs to be something like, we need something carb y, preferably cheesy to go with that.  I mean, I'm partial to mac and cheese, or I would do a tots and waffle fries situation.

Whatever you got, right? Queso and chips is assumed to be at this party, okay? And um,  Yeah, maybe number two I'd go with like, a classic cheeseburger situation,  and maybe pizza last, but yeah.  Sound off, bitches. Tell me what y'all's favorite Super Bowl food is. What did you make? Did you make anything? Did you buy something? 

Did you buy something for yourself? Did you order takeout? Like, I want to know. Um, but now that I've got you nice and hangy, the commercials Let's talk commercials. Let's talk commercials, okay?  They just didn't, they didn't slap for me this year like they have in the past. There are a few standouts  and um,  but really just felt like each brand was just dishing out buckets of money to get as many celebrities in their ads as possible. 

You know,  that's, there were tons of celebrity appearances in ads. The one that I feel like was genius and where they did. I think it all started before the Super Bowl even aired, but that was, that was a good strategy here, because I'm talking about it now.  Was the Michael Cera and CeraVe ads. So CeraVe, CeraVe,  I think it's CeraVe.

I've always, I think I ask every single one of my friends whenever I see it, and um, we've never come to a conclusion really. So, I'm gonna go with Sarah Vey. You tell me. And, um, Paparazzi snapped a photo of him carrying around this clear plastic bag full of Sarah Vey products around. And, um, they put out some content, or Michael Cera did too, that made it seem like, Oh shit, Michael Cera.

Is, possibly, is he the owner of Saravay? Like, Michael Sara vay? Saravay? That's crazy. Maybe it is. It's spelled the same way. I guess it's all we needed was the spelling of his last name in there for, for that to convince me. But, basically for them to reveal in the Super Bowl ad that he's not, but he was part of it.

And Michael Saravay is. It's just makes everything he's involved in, like,  infinitely better. I enjoyed that. I mean, Michael Ceras is just a likable dude. I suppose I just gave other brands shit for hiring just a ton of celebrities for their ads, but. At least there was a story arc there, you know, some suspense, which reminds me, too, of the Snoop Dogg commercial that fooled us all, I think,  uh, yeah, where he basically came out on Instagram saying that he was done smoking.

Said he's going smokeless now and everybody was flipping out like art of news articles came out about it like Snoop Dogg's not gonna Smoke weed anymore. Holy shit, and that kind of rocked my world, too Until we then saw an ad  that was released fairly soon after he dropped that news of him selling the smokeless  Fire pits and, um, solo stoves, there it is.

But then, about a few months later, I also see the headline of an article that said, Despite, like, all of the virality of that campaign that happened, they didn't see any uptick in sales. So,  you win some, you lose some. And as a marketer, it's not 100 percent guaranteed. You can have a super incredible, I mean, an incredibly strong marketing campaign will obviously help your business.

But,  who knows? Could be other shit that went wrong there. So,  we're not going to have that discussion here. We won't. The other ad, I suppose? I don't know, the trailer that was released during the Super Bowl was the highly anticipated Wicked trailer. This is infamous because this is where pop star Ariana Grande  met her new boyfriend, uh, who also happens to  have been married at the time, and his wife.

His high school sweetheart and wife just had given birth and then he had enough. I mean, it's pretty allegedly They had an affair You know, they don't, they're saying the timelines didn't cross over, but like, they did. And he's like,  I, I don't get it. Nobody gets it, really. Um, but this is the now infamous, a la Mr.

and Mr., Mr. and Mr. That one should come out, uh, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, where Brad Pitt and Ange  I can't talk, you guys. We're, we're Brangelina became Brangelina. That's what I meant to say.  You just hear the defeat in my voice.  Oh, I don't even know if I'll edit this out. I don't know. Shows I'm a little quirky, right?

Makes you kind of like me more? I don't know. One can hope. We'll see if that does the, does the trick.  But yes, it's giving Mr. and Mrs. Smith energy. From Ariana and Ethan Slater. The Wicked trailer was good, and there was no Ethan Slater in the trailer. But, of course, there was Ariana. She's playing Glinda the Good Witch. 

Oh, irony abounds. I love irony. Irony, irony, irony. One of my favorite tools of humor. Comedy. Woof, what next? I'll tell you what's next. We got to talk about the halftime performance. You know, we got to talk about it. And if I'm being honest, at first when they announced that Usher was going to be the halftime performer,  I was a bit of a hater, okay?

I was a little bit of a hater, feeling a bit disappointed because he's, he doesn't scream relevance.  To me, really.  The last time he dropped an album was like four or five years ago. He's been involved in other songs and singles and such, but he will be releasing a new album, so hints why he took the  halftime show.

And by the way, the performers are not paid. So it's a it's an unpaid internship if you will, but of course they make a lot of money in a bunch of other different avenues Because they're so huge and because you know what? Usher is a damn icon. I guess I needed a little bit of reminding  But that's okay.

You know, I can't be good at everything you guys  His halftime show  I mean, the Millennials obviously ate that up, right, and the Millennial in me also ate that up. His opening song was unexpected, it's more expecting a little bit of, you know what I  mean, to kick it off, but no, he started with Caught Up, still, still an iconic song that I kind of forgot, kind of forgot about.

He had many guest artists come up on stage that kept the Millennial vibes going. Including, of course, Alicia Keys, who,  honestly it was a little, it gave me a little bit of a chuckle. And I think all of us did, because obviously Alicia Keys is an incredible singer. Her voice could end wars. Alicia Keys was brought on stage, amazing singer.

Talented. No doubt about it. The first note was really, really off. Like her voice cracked and then, you know, she picked it right back up. But everybody was talking about how now on the NFL's YouTube clip of her performance or of the whole, you know, halftime show.  They auto tuned it and corrected it. So now  she doesn't have that voice crack in the beginning anymore.

And that takes me back to the Mandela Effect. Has it, all of those Mandela effect the things that we look back in time we're like, no, I could have sworn. That the logo had a bowtie in it, but it never really did what if it there was a time We're all being fooled here.  I guess in this case would be the NFL, but I don't know how the NFL  Get back to me and I'll start on a better theory to propose to you all but it's simply I don't like it I think that's what it is. 

I don't like That we're doing that there, you know, it's a it's a moment. She's real. She's human. Alicia Keys voice cracks, and that's okay We still love her.  Uh Anyways, she did great  The and he was also Usher was, you know, hugging her down from behind But and people were like, oh my god, Alicia Keys is married.

They're gonna freak out Well, so Usher got married after the halftime show  cute. I guess they are in Vegas, so it makes things like that a little bit easier. But  yeah, people are flipping out. It's like they're artists. They're, they've sung together many a times. Relax, relax. Then, uh, Usher also brought out her Will.

I. Am Jermaine Dupri, Lil Jon, and Luda. So he had a whole crew with him.  A lot of people didn't love the performance, they said, you know, his voice was a little low, or hard to hear, and he didn't actually sing that much, but like, he did a lot of other shit too, like skating, where he almost fell for a second there, dancing, you know what I mean, he's a performer, okay, let the man do his art, alright, okay, Kelly sitting behind your, your keyboard, eating your TV dinner,  Usher did pretty good.

Can you do that? I don't know why I got so defensive of Usher. Um, I guess I'm a hater turned lover and  hate is not the opposite of love, right you guys? This is a little Valentine's Day reminder.  Apathy is. So,  I don't know, I guess use that as you may today on Valentine's Day.  And of course, now we're going to talk a little bitty, little bitty titty about some of the weirder prop bets that were made in this year's Super Bowl.

Which I find to be highly intriguing. I should have learned about this a long time ago, but ya girl is It's not, uh, better. Although I have to say, I mean, it was definitely beginner's luck, but when I was finally legally able to gamble in Vegas, as one does, you know, I didn't do too bad. I did take home some winnings, nothing crazy, but still something.

This year's prop bets included the coin flip at the beginning of the game and the result was heads. Which was the over. Then there was also a bet on Reba McEntire's National Anthem length. So this is It's a really popular bet that happens every year, um, and probably in a lot of different games. The over or under is 86.

5 seconds for the National Anthem. She, in fact, did not go over, so. Another mainstream, I suppose, prop bet is the color of the Gatorade that's poured on the winning coach. So this year they had anything you can do, like clear slash water, yellow, blue, red. You get the gist, the colors that Gatorade comes in.

Which, by the way, for me,  I'm uh, I don't drink Gatorade that much, but the obvious favorite, uh, for myself, I suppose, is the ice blue. That one's delightful. Or yellow. Those are my two faves, I guess. Does anyone, does anyone have their favorite as red? I must know. I'm not an orange girl, so. But this year the color was purple! 

Purple. Nobody saw that coming, but apparently there was insider information passed along, so people did see that coming, allegedly. But maybe it was the purple in the Super Bowl 58 logo this year. That was the dead giveaway, if you will. This year, the newer prop bets that came alive, of course, were regarding Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

One of them being if Taylor Swift would be shown on the CBS broadcast during the National Anthem, and she was not. And another one is if Taylor and Travis would either announce they have a baby was one. Skipped over a few things there. Uh, one was of course if Travis would propose, and obviously none of that shit happened.

Otherwise, we'd be talking about it, and you would be hit. over the head with that information. Also, I think that would be what breaks the camel's back. between NFL fans and Swifties, you know, you know, I think it's a good thing that the season is coming to a close  because,  you know, I don't know, I don't think the tensions could handle that. 

And a few more prop bets are regarding the halftime show, like, What Usher's first song and last song would be, and the number of songs or the total number of songs performed during the halftime show, which is another one that happens pretty much every year. And um, by the way, little, little rule here is that the song must include lyrics to be counted.

So not like an overture that features a song, and that, I guess the average or what they bet over is over or under 8.5 songs. And, uh, Usher performed more, which was the, uh, favored result. There were also some commercials, uh, that were specific to this. And then, of course, actual football stats and players and stuff, so.

Um. But this is not a sports podcast and the last time that I attempted, I made so many errors in my reporting. So, apologies. We have, um, made a mental note and really actioned on doing more research on the things we're not so sure about. So, I'm gonna go ahead and take accountability for that.  One. That I learned of, this was news to me, is there is the so called Drake Curse.

So, according to The Athletic, the Drake Curse has become a mythical legend among sports fans, with some believing that a successful team's fate is doomed when Drake jumps on its  bandwagon. Given Drake's front running nature and the chief star studded cast, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelsey, and of course, Swift, Kansas City has the better odds.

at negative 170. There are photos from years past with Drake wearing a 49ers jacket, so plus 130 could be a good value. However,  history has changed. There are many history making events that went down in this year's Super Bowl, but Drake has officially destroyed his curse. Yay for Drake. Um, yeah, he's quite, he's had quite a, uh, long Oh,  Drake has been in the news a lot lately, but I'm not mad about it.

He also ended up placing a huge 1. 15 million dollar bet on the Kansas City Chiefs that they would beat the 49ers, and when he did end up winning, he, the total amount Came to something over 2. 3 million dollars and he let everybody know on his IG that Some lucky random winner or fan at the next concert in st.

Louis, Missouri Would win this crazy amount of money. So yay Yay  for Drake last but certainly not least on the Super Bowl coverage Is, of course, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. They were obviously a huge focus, and I mean it simply wouldn't make sense for the Chiefs not to win after this huge, like, live action movie arc that we've all been following and progressing through in this public love story.

Um, so I have to say, quite thrilled with that. I don't really have a stake in the game when it comes to 49ers. Or the Chiefs, but this feels like something we haven't seen, at least in a long time, see such a public  viewing, almost, of.  A relationship develop and, like, really bloom and blossom and all that stuff, like, it's,  it's pretty interesting.

It's almost like that of the royal family, in my humble opinion, but they definitely gave us a lot to talk about and a lot to witness. And I'm sure we've all seen it by now, so I won't spend too much time on it, but I have to say, the crew that Taylor came with was a wee bit unexpected with Ice Spice, a relatively new rapper on the scene, and they've They've done a song together where Ice Spice was featured on a Taylor Swift song, and Taylor's brought her out, but we haven't seen her as part of the crew.

You know, Taylor Swift has a  notorious girl gang, and I mean, the gals come from all over, right? You've got models, um, like Cara Delevingne. You've got Blake Lively. We all know, hopefully, Blake Lively. I have to say, she may have been my One of my first girl crushes from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, like, I mean, if you know, you know.

Taylor has been bringing some of these friends to previous football games. Ice Spice was not one of those, and um, of course, she's got her longtime friends with her and such, and the cameras are really enjoying it. The first kind of real shot we get of Taylor is her chugging a beer. Up in the skybox, a million dollar skybox, mind you, with the Kelseys and their family.

I mean, we get the iconic  shots of them after the pretty crazy win in overtime of them on the field again. And NFL  I guess one of their social media channels waited a while to kind of report this out because there had been, I mean, a million different angles and videos catching the two of them trying to hear what they were saying.

But basically Travis was saying, this is crazy, like, why are you, oh my god, you can't believe you made it from Tokyo, like, thank you for coming, thank you for coming. Which, first of all, adorable. Green flag. I mean, you just, like, this is his big day, you know? We get this, this audible, How do you not have jet lag?

And Taylor Swift iconically responds, Jet lag is a choice.  I mean, mic drop, right? Like, what a fucking queen. I agree. I think it is. I mean, having like a private plane would probably really help the jet lag prevention out, you know?  It's probably a lot more cozy comfy, but that's okay. It's still iconic. Then of course we get videos from the after parties of Taylor Swift singing to Marshmello's remix of her own songs, You Belong With Me and Love Story.

To Travis Kelce, like, what? Swifties are freaking out all over the world, and luckily we're getting all the footage. I mean, they're in just a Vegas club, like, we haven't really seen Taylor party before, so, also love this for her. She's really finally experiencing  I feel like some rites of passage.

Definitely clubbing in Vegas is one of them.  But, uh, Jason Kelce is the real mascot, I feel like. Jason Kelce,  I wanna, I wanna club with Jason Kelce. Probably more than Travis SirTaylor. I'm sorry, I said it! Uh, he's wearing a, he's the one wearing a luchador mask. Just vibing. Just dancing out there with a marshmallow and I mean, that, that tracks, doesn't it?

That'll be it for the Super Bowl on this episode.  In other Bachelor Nation news, it has officially been confirmed That the Golden Bachelorette will be premiering later this year in 2024. And they have yet to announce who the Golden Bachelorette will be, but it has been officially confirmed. We have not gotten that confirmation yet, just, just some hopeful guessing, but I mean, they would be,  they would be dumb not to do it.

Because the Golden Bachelorette was their highest viewed Uh, series of the entire season and within Hulu itself, it was the number one unscripted series premiere ever  on Hulu. So that's pretty crazy. Of course, we are waiting to figure out who will be named the Golden Bachelorette, but it's pretty safe to say the way that they typically do it is that will probably be announced at the end of Joey's season.

of the Bachelor, maybe the Women Tell All, or the After the Final Rose, once he's chosen his winner, so. That's exciting, and um, we'll obviously have a Bachelorette next, too. We'll see who that'll be. You know, definitely, there's so much to talk about on this season of The Bachelor. Everybody is way more into it, as they should be.

They finally chose a really great Bachelor. But I love so many others, it's just Okay, it's, it's not fun when I'm super PC, but he's been my, he's definitely my favorite for a long time. They kept choosing contestants that nobody, nobody was asking for. So, that's exciting. But what I want to update you all on is that we will have a special, dedicated episode to the Batch Nation fans out there with my, one of my very close friends and guest co hosts that will be coming on next week.

So get excited for that and we'll do, we'll talk all things Bachelor. So catch on up if you aren't yet and we'll have an exciting kind of dedicated episode for that.  Next topic of our very, very important meeting today.  Sorry, I just wanted to switch it up, you know what I'm saying? Vanderpump Rules. We have seen now three episodes, and while I won't ruin, ruin, I guess spoil, I won't spoil a ton of things.

We're just gonna talk a little bit about what we've seen so far. Nothing's really spoil spoilable, I suppose, but just for a forewarning, this specifically will kind of touch on the first two episodes of this new season of Vanderpump.  So, if you don't want that, I'd skip ahead.  Okay, I have to say, and this is, I mean, there's been rumblings, people have been talking about this, but there really is this kind of aura, I suppose, for lack of a better word, of finality to the season. 

There are speculations that this will be the last season of Vanderpump Rules, which is very sad, and it's been going for a strong, this is the 11th season.  And I mean,  it's always been really good. For me, it's been, you know, we've got like the O. C.  Laguna Beach, no, the O. C. Hills, I would say, and then I would put Vanderpump Rules of like iconic L.

A., not L. A. really, but iconic Southern California reality TV shows. It's a very niche  Subgroup here, but still,  I like it. Okay,  the vibes of finality really start stankin up the place when they feature a lot of the closing of one of Lisa Vanderpump's restaurants. It's Pump in 2023, so in episode 2, they spend a good chunk of time on this, like, farewell party for Pump.

And they flash back to the beginning, like, first seasons, ten years ago, of all of the OG cast, like, working in Pump, and it is, uh, nostalgic as hell. It's in, like, black and white, but their focus is starting to shift a bit. They have, well, first of all, the Vanderpumps, Lisa and Ken. are no novice. They've owned over 30 restaurants and bars for over 30 years.

And both here in the U. S. and in England, or back in the U. K. But the restaurants that have been heavily featured in Vanderpump Rules, where it all, and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, where Lisa came from,  you know what I mean, in the Bravosphere, where she originated from, um, we had Villa Blanca, Pump, and Sir.

And now both Villa Blanca and Pump have been closed down. So we only have in terms of restaurants, SUR is still there, which by the way stands for Sexy Unique Restaurant, which I find incredible. Um, and then of course they've got the bars Tom Tom. And the attention is also starting to shift to Vanderpump Villa, which, I don't know, feels a little scandalous because it's not going to be broadcast on Bravo, but it will be broadcast on Hulu.

So it kind of feels like that would be a little bit of a slap in the face to Bravo and Andy Cohen. From Little Miss Lisa, but I mean the show, they showed the trailer recently and it looks really good. It looks like OG  Vanderpump Rules. So my guesstimate is that it will be the last season and Vanderpump Villa will kind of become the next, the, the focus.

So a little, a little sad because that probably means a new cast of characters, but  I don't know. That's just, that is not confirmed. That is my theory, and a kind of amalgamation of what other people are whispering about too, so. In terms of this season though of Vanderpump Rules, I gotta say,  where we are picking up from is arguably from one of the most talked about, written about scandals in reality TV history, recent history.

Quick recap is just  Tom Sandoval had been dating co star Ariana for nearly 10 years. They lived together, shared a house together. They have been, I mean,  a stand in couple the whole time and Tom cheated with one of Ariana's friends and another co star's ex girlfriend, James Kennedy's ex, Raquel Rachel Levis. 

And they had an affair, and it was all in front of our faces and the cameras. So that's the little TLDR. But, um, so we're picking up from that. Also, yeah, I don't think they're gonna beat what we just witnessed with Scandal Ball. I mean, they made so much money off of that.  It hit us all over the head about it.

I mean, Obviously the fans wanted to hear all about it, but  to others, probably was overkill. Similar to Taylor and Travis coverage, you know? It's like, if you have a crush on somebody, then something that would regularly annoy you doesn't with them, but if it was anybody else, like, Chewing incessantly in your ear.

He'd be like  Okay, never again. You know what I'm saying? But uh, yeah, I don't know how they're gonna beat it So this season it's a little slow so far But I feel like it'll pick up and it's still very intriguing to see They are still living in the same house, Ariana and Tom, now exes, for very contentious reasons, and just live in separate floors, and they have poor, sweet assistant Anne being this middleman between the two,  in a go between.

So we see Tom wanting to celebrate his birthday party, and, uh,  Tom can't, you know, speak to Ariana, so Anne goes and asks and Ariana says, Oh, hell no. But, um, that ends up changing and  I think that was one of my, my most fond scenes from episode two of Vanderpump, was seeing  Sandoval's birthday party at the house and James Kennedy comes because, poor guy, this was his ex girlfriend that one of his best friends, Tom, cheated with, who he called like an older brother. 

And Tom hasn't really given James any.  any validation for his feelings. So rightfully so, James is pissed, and he's also just hilarious, and having a British accent also helps, you know, with the comedy. Like, it just does. And he just, he's the only Only other cast member that shows up. He walks in and there's like a decent, I don't know, 15, 15, I don't want to give him too much, 15 people there.

James walks in and cuts to the confessional of him to the cameras. He goes, Who the fuck are these people? And he's never seen any of them. And this guy walks over to him and starts casually chatting up. James, and James is just like, I have no idea who, who this guy is, but anyway,  basically you'll have to watch the season and we can catch up and we can recap once there's been four episodes.

If that sounds like a good plan to you, my friends, it is all what you want to do. But I, I would, I would still stick it out, you know, I would recommend it if you're wondering if you should watch it or not, but regardless, I'll be talking about it. So you can also just listen to me.  Your fave.  In terms of that new new, we have lots of music news to talk about, so wanted to break down for ya.

Everything's looking country. It's, it's our time to shine, Texas. It's our time to shine. Beyonce's two new singles from her newly announced upcoming country album is coming out. This is the next In the supposed trilogy from her renaissance album that was released in, in late 2022, obviously a banger and she kind of teased this country leaning aspect at the Grammys when she wore a big cowboy hat and honestly, I did not recognize her for a moment.

People are talking about it. Uh, she looks, she, I don't want to say she's pulling a Michael Jackson, but  I don't want to not say that either. So, we'll leave it at that. It's odd. But, um, they're incredible, if you have not heard it yet, which I'm sure you have. Sixteen Carriages is a beautiful, beautiful song.

My favorite is Texas Hold'em. Maybe for obvious reasons, but I love it. I can't stop playing it. That's something exciting to look forward to, and that will come out March 29th. So get ready, get excited. We've got a new Beyoncé album on the way. And the ladies keep coming, the ladies  keep hitting us with the albums, okay.

Kacey Musgraves, who is just already, you know, country queen,  has released a new single, Deeper Well, and  I won't say I didn't tear up listening to it, okay? It's a good one. Casey, I love her style of country music. It's everything. She's everything. And I'm very excited for her new album. That will be released on March 15th.

That's exciting. And we also received an exciting gift in the form of Lana Del Rey's upcoming country music album as well, expected to drop in September of this year, 2024. And that is  Quite a huge diversion. I don't know if diversion is the right word, but quite different from her current Genre, I love that country is getting its moment you know, we've had artists like Diplo and DJs and producers start to kind of Add a little country twang.

So, that's exciting. We love to see it. And I think we'll see far more, we'll continue to see cowboy boots. Being in style. And I'm a huge fan of that. So I will not complain. 

And I simply, I couldn't leave you without a little bit of a Valentine's Day gift. Because you all deserve it. You know, you deserve it. I also believe in a Valentine's month. I actually don't practice that, but for this, for this purpose of this podcast being recorded on Valentine's Day, you likely won't hear it till after.

Just rock with me, roll with me here for a moment and, you know, get in that love vibe.  Jump right back into that love din with me, okay?  This week I wanted to share a little bit more about, about your girl.  And I figured, what better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than tell you about my worst date ever? 

Huh?  Huh?  Okay. Jump on a board. Let's, let's do this. So  I had lived in LA for  somewhere around two and a half years, I suppose, two years. And I decided it was time to, you know, check out what the, the dating scene's like in LA.  A little scary, it's a big place, you know, I've heard of Peter Pan syndrome, I'd heard of all of it.

But everyone kind of thinks that dating is the worst in their city, whatever city they live in, I feel like. You know, so it's all, it's all relative at this point. But I thought that it would be fun to finally go out on my first dating app date. I'd like, you know, messed around with the apps, but I hadn't ever actually gone on a date through the dating apps.

So, I, I went with Hinge. It seemed to be the most promising. That and Bumble, you know, we love an Austin startup. So, shout out Bumble. But for this case It was Hinge. And I started talking to this guy, and the conversation was flowing, and it was good, so we decided we would meet up for a date. And I was excited, but also very nervous, like, how does this work, da da da da, scary.

This is, I don't know, this is years ago. And  so we chose a great first date spot. It was a nice like rooftop bar thing. The first date went really well. We ended up talking for like over three hours or something like that. Just be, we were there for a long time, had a good time. So second date comes and goes and this goes well.

You know, we escalated things to dinner and drinks and not just drinks. Highly recommend. And if you don't drink, you know, insert other fun activity here. I found activities for sure are the most fun where you're experiencing something like arcade or I don't know, something like that. But what I also will now tell you is don't do what I did.

And go to a baseball game, go to any sports ball game  because you're stuck there now. Like you're committed once you get to that game,  you're committed. Just not so early. So this is our third date, which the third date is, it's a pivotal number, right? This is where you decide yay or nay. Things could we could pursue this thing  or not.

So  the pressure is already on but it's exciting  If you've been to LA, you know that getting somewhere already takes forever So already get in the car and have like a 45 minute drive. Just sober Sally's just Just chatting, you know, still don't know each other that well. We get to the game, but I'd won these tickets from the ad agency that I was working for.

So, and he had told me that he loved, he loved the Dodgers, it's been his favorite team for a while. I was like, uh, okay, going out on a limb here.  I mean, go me, whatever, but, uh, probably regret that a little bit now. So we get to the game, and we're a little bit late, but we're like, let's grab a drink first, and we could either go up to the bar, or we could go take our seats after, like a bar lounge that the tickets had access to.

We're like, no, and just, this matters, just wish we had chosen differently. And so we get our beers, and we go take a seat, and  we're not there for more than five minutes when the kiss cam comes on. And what do you know, after it lands on a few couples before us, it lands on us.  And,  look, I am, I'm not a prude, per se, but I am Southern, right?

I believe in, let's give it a 90 10, in the early stages, if we're gonna kiss, I want, I want the man to go 90 and I'll go 10, okay? We can, we can disagree. It's fine. It's fine. So, I'm sitting there, like, Alright, like, let's go!  Holding my beer, and, cause, I would kiss my girlfriend. You know what I mean? Like, the kiss cam.

We're having a good time here. The man is, is frozen. He's not moving. Now, people all around us are starting to boo. Boo!  Mixed with kiss her, kiss her. Little kids are booing us, around us, and I'm like, holding my beer, kinda look at him, just take a sip. He's not moved. He's not moved. Um. And I'm kind of just sitting there and decide to, I guess, kiss my beer instead.

I am horrified. The kiss cam leaves us, but people are still booing, like, What? Kiss her. Like, why? What? Like, So I turn to him, like, Wow, you, you, you choked there, didn't ya? He's like, Uh, yeah, I don't even remember what he said. Because there wasn't enough time because the kiss cam Came right back and landed on us.

And what do you know? Same thing happens. I'm horrified. It's so awkward. I'm like, why are we on a third date then? Like, why? What? So weird. But the game's not over and he drove me here. And we have another 45 minute drive home. So after that I was like, what? He's like, I'm sorry. I just got so nervous. Uh, like, uh.

So after that we proceed to Well, I do. And he drives this back, me back, so That was an experience. Definitely provided for a story. For sure.  You know, running theories are he had a girlfriend, maybe? And He didn't want, you know, now we're on the Jumbotron, or whatever, I,  I don't know, I don't know, fam, but uh, safe to say we didn't have a date after that. 

Although, I did end up dating,  ironically, one of his I guess Pledge Brothers or something? They went to a small school, and uh, they knew each other, so.  Ah, don't worry you guys, there are plenty more stories that I've got if you're interested in, uh, any more stories from the Vault.  And if you're not, that's fine, too.

We'll just keep talking about pop culture.  Happy Valentine's Week.  Happy Valentine's Month. Happy Love Day. I love y'all. Thanks for tuning in. We've got so much more ahead of us. And I'm excited to keep this train rockin Follow at  easilyentertainedpod on Instagram or at Maddieiseasleyentertained on TikTok and the website will be coming soon.

So look out for that. Rate, review, rate, rev, rev, rev, rate, review, subscribe, all that shit. Love you. Bye!