Actor, activist and Eisner winner George Takei headlines the honorees at this year’s Eagle-Con, a virtual sci-fi and fantasy conference hosted by Cal State LA and the Art Directors Guild.
This year’s Eagle-Con theme, “Possibilities Imagined Here,” celebrates diversity and addresses accessibility, underrepresentation and pushing boundaries in science fiction and fantasy genres over a series of three days, March 11-13.
Takei (Star Trek, They Called Us Enemy) joins celebrated production designer Wynn Thomas (Mars Attacks!, Hidden Figures) and best-selling author Nnedi Okorafor (the "Binti" trilogy, "Black Panther: Long Live the King") as this year’s awardees. They have long been barrier breakers for other writers and artists, building impressively varied careers that have impacted millions.
Takei will be honored with the Prism Award for outstanding contributions to diversity in science fiction and fantasy across media on March 12, Thomas will be presented the Imaginator Award for wondrous achievement in visual conceptualization on March 13 and Okorafor will receive the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Award on March 11.
This year’s free event also features an online exhibition spotlighting the work of Art Directors Guild members including the work of Imaginator Award honoree Thomas, with drawings from movies such as Mars Attacks!, Hidden Figures and Get Smart.
Eagle-Con is co-founded by the College of Arts and Letters and the University-Student Union at Cal State LA and the Art Directors Guild. Together they work to educate the students of Cal State LA and members of the Greater Los Angeles community about the history, impact and continued necessity of the contributions of women, BIPOC, the LGBTQIA-identified, the differently abled and the variously aged to the science fiction and fantasy genres.
ABC will air 6 additional “Monday Night Football” games starting this week with Bills-Jets
ABC will simulcast six more ESPN "Monday Night Football" games, including Monday's AFC East matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets.
The addition of the six games means ABC will air 17 this season — 14 simulcasts with ESPN (including two playoff games) and three games exclusively on ABC.
The decision to simulcast more games was a joint decision between the NFL and Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC and ESPN.
The other added games are Baltimore at Tampa Bay (Oct. 21), Tampa Bay at Kansas City (Nov. 4), Houston at Dallas (Nov. 18), Baltimore at Los Angeles Chargers (Nov. 25) and New Orleans at Green Bay (Dec. 23).
The only two Mondays the rest of the regular season where ABC will not have a game are Nov. 11 and Dec. 2.
ABC had games all 18 weeks last season due to an agreement with the NFL since there was no new original fall programming due to the Hollywood writers and actors strikes. With more games on network television, "Monday Night Football" averaged 17.36 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, a 29% increase over 2022.
It was the best audience numbers for the league's seminal prime-time package since 2000. The Super Bowl 57 rematch between Philadelphia and Kansas City averaged 29.03 million.
Coming into the season, ABC had eight scheduled simulcasts, including two Saturday Week 18 games and two playoff games, and three exclusive MNF games when there were doubleheaders.
It also continues Disney's move toward putting more sports programming back on ABC. Super Bowl 61 from Los Angeles in 2027 will be on the network and the College Football Playoff championship game will also move to ABC the same year.
More games on ABC will also boost the ratings. Kansas City's 26-13 victory... Read More