The It List: 'Survivor' welcomes 18 new castaways for Season 46, Jennifer Lopez reflects on 2004 Ben Affleck breakup, Tommy Orange returns with new novel, 'Wandering Stars'
Plus, on "Deal or No Deal Island," the briefcases are back and the stakes are raised.
The It List is Yahoo's guide to what's new in pop culture. Each week, we share staff picks for the latest releases that we can't wait to watch, stream, listen to, read and binge.
What’s new this week: Torches will be snuffed on the new season of Survivor, Jennifer Lopez drops truth bombs in a new doc, Tommy Orange releases a highly anticipated sophomore novel.
What to watch
?? Survivor's newest castaways hit the beach
When: Survivor Season 46 premieres Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and streams Feb. 29 on Paramount+.
What to know: It's still on. Survivor is back for its 46th season, where 18 new contestants will try to outwit, outplay and outlast each other on the shores of Fiji for the title of Sole Survivor — and that $1 million prize.
Host and reality TV icon Jeff Probst is once again at the helm of the show with his signature blue button-down shirts and classic catchphrases.
The series may look different from what you remember. The competition now lasts for a total of 26 days instead of the traditional 39 days, which means that gameplay unfolds at an accelerated — and borderline berserk — pace.
Among this season's intriguing crop of new players are a "parent coach" who first applied to compete on the show 20 years ago, a real estate agent who has 16 siblings and a man who's already dislocated his shoulder 10 times. (Maybe he should swap stories with Stephenie LaGrossa) — Lily Herman, the Yodel newsletter writer
?? Jennifer Lopez tells The Greatest Love Story Never Told
When: The Greatest Love Story Never Told streams Feb. 27 on Prime Video.
What to know: The documentary is about the making of Lopez's new personal album (This Is Me...Now) and film (This Is Me...Now: A Love Story). However, it shows a vulnerable side that fans of the superstar fans have never seen and takes a deep dive into her 20-year journey to self-love.
"I've been married four times now. I'm sure people watching from the outside were like, 'What is this f***ing girl's problem?'" Lopez opens the doc. "You saw kind of a compulsive behavior. What I portrayed to the world was, 'Oh this didn't work out, and it's fine, and I'm good, and they're good, and they were great, and I was great, and all of that was kind of bullshit."
Ben Affleck, who inspired Lopez's love album, shows up throughout the doc. The two have some sweet, light-hearted moments while they also reflect on their first breakup. — Taryn Ryder, entertainment reporter
Read more: Jennifer Lopez on what she'd go back and tell herself during 1st Ben Affleck split
?? Deal or No Deal Island
When: Deal or No Deal Island premieres Feb. 26 at 9:30 p.m. ET on NBC and streams Feb. 27 on Peacock.
What to know: Hosted by Joe Manganiello, this new reality competition show is Deal or No Deal meets Survivor — and is offering the biggest prize in No Deal history: a whopping $200 million.
The show is different from the original Deal or No Deal, which saw contestants try their luck each episode at finding a briefcase containing $1 million from 26 presented to them.
In Deal or No Deal Island, 13 contestants will spend a full season vying for the ultimate prize. Each episode, players will try to “get their hands on the highest-value briefcase for a chance to gain immunity and choose a fellow player to enter The Temple, where they must play a high-stakes game of Deal or No Deal,” the series synopsis reads. At the end of the season, the final player will face the Banker.
One former Deal or No Deal briefcase model, Claudia Jordan, is among the contestants — and so is Survivor superstar “Boston Rob” Mariano. – Nicole Darrah, news editor
What to read
?? Wandering Stars illuminates trauma through history
When: Wandering Stars is available for purchase Feb. 27.
What to know: In his new novel, Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange (Cheyenne and Arapaho) follows up the critical success of his 2018 debut There There by taking readers on a multigenerational journey through Native American history and its devastating effects on the children and grandchildren of those who survived tragedy.
Orange opens his story with the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, when the U.S. Army attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho community in Colorado, killing more than 200 Native people. Jude Star survives the massacre only to be taken to a prison where he will be forced to learn English and subvert his own identity by a guard who later goes on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School — a place where white staffers were encouraged to “kill the Indian in him and save the man.”
Star later has a son who must also endure life in the Native boarding school system.
This generational trauma is absorbed and eventually passed down to other relatives — those we met in the Pulitzer finalist There There — who inhabit a modern existence of violence and addiction. — Laura Clark, internet culture editor
What to binge
?? Untangle the mystery at the center of American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders
When: All four episodes of American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders stream Feb. 28 on Netflix
What to know: After the August 1991 death of journalist Danny Casolaro was ruled a suicide, filmmakers unearth a bombshell story he’d been reporting on involving a hidden crime network with ties to the Reagan administration.
Casolaro’s body was found in a hotel bathtub in Martinsburg, W.V. Not only was there blood all over the hotel room, but he’d also told his brother that if anything happened to him, it wouldn’t be an accident.
In the four-part docuseries, Casolaro’s friend Christian Hansen and director Zachary Treitz review the journalist’s reporting. They go through his handwritten notes and contacts to try to put together pieces of the puzzle. They find that Casolaro had discovered alleged drug deals, unsolved murders, stolen software and other nefarious acts allegedly committed by people in the CIA and other government agencies during the Regan administration.
Was Casolaro’s death a suicide? Was he killed? That's what the docuseries asks. — David Artavia, entertainment reporter
We'll be back next week with our latest picks. Want more It List? Click here.
