Ryan Murphy, the producer behind Emmy-winning series "American Horror Story" and "American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson," has a new television series, "Feud: Bette and Joan," which premieres Sunday at 10 p.m. on FX.

The eight-episode series gets into the juicy details of the notorious rivalry between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford (played by Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange, respectively) while shooting the 1962 hit horror film, "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"

And in doing so, the producers went to great lengths to make sure that the sets were as close to reality as possible.

Heading that huge task was production designer Judy Becker. A Hollywood veteran, Becker's most recent credits include critically acclaimed films "Joy" and "Carol."

"It's an interesting period to design for sure," Becker told reporters of her decision to take on the job during a recent visit to the "Feud" set in Los Angeles.

"It's always fun," she continued, "because we're doing different worlds and different characters. So this is like a Hollywood world and kind of over-the-top characters, and I haven't done that to this degree before. So, it was pretty appealing."

Becker uses all the tools and tricks available to her in order to re-create 1960s Hollywood, from online searches to hiring researchers, perusing prop houses, examining footage, visiting the actual sites, and tapping private collectors.

Here's an inside look at two Hollywood legends' lives from the set of "Feud: Bette and Joan":

SEE ALSO: FX is already renewing Ryan Murphy's new show 'Feud' for a second season about Charles and Diana

DON'T MISS: Watch the first trailer for FX's new show about one of Hollywood's most notorious feuds

Joan Crawford had very expensive, modern (for that time) Hollywood tastes.

"Joan lived in this very grand way, which was very fashionable in terms of design," Becker said of Crawford's home, which took two months to re-create. "She was really keeping up with the times."

"She was fashionable, Hollywood fashionable," she added.

Joan Crawford hired famed interior decorator William Haines to outfit her Brentwood-area, Los Angeles home in Hollywood splendor.

"Joan was very good friends with a well-known decorator of the time, William Haines, who started out as an actor and then became a pretty famous interior designer," Becker said.

Williams Haines' furniture would be "a fortune now" if you could find them.

Becker said that William Haines "designed all the furniture that's in the living room, the kind of tufted furniture. We made those for the show, but they're based on his designs, which cost a fortune now if you can find them."

AUSTIN — "Game of Thrones" creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff typically don't hesitate to kill off a character, no matter how beloved they are.

But they did change their mind about killing one character in season three, the showrunners Weiss and Benioff revealed onstage at SXSW. 

In season three, Weiss and Benioff had written a scene where Noah Taylor's character, Locke, would have been killed. 

Locke was known as being Ramsay Bolton's best hunter. He had tracked down Jamie Lannister, chopping off his sword hand. 

As Jamie left to go back to King's Landing, he discovered that Locke had put Brienne in a bear pit with only a wooden sword to defend herself. 

"He had a death scene in season three," Weiss said. "Nikolaj (Jamie Lannister) was going to throw Noah Taylor's character into the bear pit."

But because Noah Taylor was "too good" in the role, Weiss and Benioff changed their minds. In the scene instead, Jamie saves Brienne from the bear and Locke lives, unscathed.

"We decided after working with Noah, he should stay on," Weiss said. 

Locke's character continued into Season 4 but eventually met his death after he was killed by Bran who had warged into Hodor. His prolonged appearance on the show is remarkable given it was the only time that the showrunners delayed a character's inevitable fate.

SEE ALSO: Jon Snow warns of the 'Great War' coming in the first 'Game of Thrones' season 7 teaser

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NOW WATCH: Watch the new teaser trailer for 'Game of Thrones' season 7

MTV's new show, "Stranded with a Million Dollars," serves up a twist on the reality survival show.

On the new series, which airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m., 10 millennials from diverse backgrounds accept the challenge of living on the island of Taveuni, Fiji. But they're also given a total of $1 million to spend on a variety of food, tools, and luxuries at outrageous prices. In the end, those who are able to last for 40 days will get to divide whatever's left of the million-dollar bounty.

With its million-dollar twist and the tough living conditions, viewers get an ample look at the cast members' attitudes toward money.

"I was guilty of the preconceived notion that millennials are lazy and don't understand the value of money," "Stranded" creator Kevin Lee recently told Business Insider. "And what happened during the 40 days that we were filming in the woods is that I learned that was wrong. That notion was wrong."

Reactions to the harsh environment and the financial windfall are captured by the show's use of flying drones and automatic cameras.

"On any given day, there's approximately 30 cameras in play that don't have humans holding them," Lee said. "That made all the difference in the world... I think they headed toward more extreme behavior because they didn't feel that they were being judged by the human holding the camera. When there's just a robot camera, they don't care what the robot thinks."

Here's what the creator of MTV's "Stranded with a Million Dollars" learned about millennial spending habits while shooting the show:

SEE ALSO: Why MTV's president is stepping down after only a year

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1. The biggest strategic mistake: Contenders failed to invest their money early on, so that it could help them win later.

"I think one of the big strategic mistakes that was made on the show, at least early in the show, were the cast members who didn't understand the idea that you have to spend some money now in order to win or gain more money later on," Lee said.

"They mistakenly made the calculation that they should be frugal and not spend one penny ever," he continued. "They have to be willing to invest a small amount in their survival in order to win at the end, and they didn't realize that... And guess what? They never made it."

2. The best course correction: Some cast members did come around to realizing an early strategic purchase would really pay off.

"If you're going to spend $30,000 on a pot, you may as well do it on day one as opposed to spending $30,000 halfway through, after you've been drinking dirty water for 20 days and you're sick," Lee said. "Some cast members were smart, like, 'Hey, you know what, we're gonna get ripped off whether we buy it on day one or day 20. Let's just buy it on day one. Obviously, they didn't, but eventually they got around to that — they understood that strategic level. That was a real smart play on their part. Took them a few days, but eventually they figured that out."

3. The most "unexpected" social insight: Bonds over views around money overcame personality and cultural differences.

Lee said the cast splintered into groups that shared similar strategic plans around the money and crossed geographical or cultural divides, something the show creator called "unexpected."

"Basically, you see this cast member named Cody," he said. "He comes from a pretty conservative background and his family is very entrepreneurial. They're very willing to delay gratification for the long-term good. He ended up bonding with a girl named Makani, who couldn't have come from a more different background. She's a free spirit, alternative girl who traveled the world and is a bit of a hippie. So the conservative and the hippie girl ended up bonding over their mutual decision to not spend money and to delay gratification. And that was a huge surprise.

"In the real world they would never get along," he continued. "They would never even know each other in the real world, because they come from such different tribes. But because they both shared this notion that money's valuable and we gotta preserve it, and not spend, they bonded."

AUSTIN — The final season of "Game of Thrones" will only be six episodes, the show's creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff revealed onstage at SXSW. 

That said, there won't be a shortage of material for the eighth and final season of the hit show. The outline alone for the season is 140 pages, the directors said. 

They've split it up so that the other show writers, Dave Hill and Bryan Cogman, will take episodes one and two respectively of the season. Weiss and Benioff are dividing the remainder of the season's writing between them.

The final season will be one episode shorter than season 7, which will debut on July 16. In the trailer for the penultimate season, Jon Snow's character issues a dire warning of what's to come as the show inches toward its end. 

"There's only one war that matters: The Great War," Jon says in the season 7 teaser. "And it is here."

SEE ALSO: The 'Game of Thrones' directors changed their mind about killing a character only once

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NOW WATCH: Watch the new teaser trailer for 'Game of Thrones' season 7

New media mogul Ben Lerer is beefing up the finance and business side of Group Nine Media — the holding company he created in October that tied together NowThis, Thrillist, The Dodo, and Seeker — with a $100 million investment from Discovery.

The idea behind Group Nine was simple: consolidation worked in TV, and it would work again in digital video.

“Brands and agencies want fewer points of contact,” Lerer told Business Insider. “The idea that you can talk to one company and just do more is something that really works. It worked in the TV business.”

This thesis got some more ammunition from The Information last week, which reported that brands are looking for larger digital media deals, in a way that favors bigger publications over smaller ones.

“We’ve been hearing that for a long time,” Lerer said. “Fewer, bigger partners.”

In moving toward the goal of having Group Nine be one of those few big partners, on Monday the company announced two key hires: new CFO Judd Merkel, formerly the CFO of Droga5, and new Head of Global Business Development Miguel Burger-Calderon, formerly the president of Elite Daily.

Lerer pointed to Merkel particularly as instrumental in helping Group Nine develop into a disciplined and sustainable business.

“While we aren’t in the exact same business [as agency Droga5], there are a lot of similarities and common ground from his experience,” Lerer said. “There is a certain [financial] discipline in running agencies. Agencies grow profitably. That’s a common trait between almost every great agency … A lot of discipline around margin management.”

Lerer said he wants to make sure that what Group Nine is building will endure, and isn't just a flash in the pan.

Four cultures

So far Lerer said the plan for integrating the four brands hasn’t changed fundamentally since October.

“What we thought this was going to look like is what it’s going to look like,” he said. And he said that the integration of the tech platforms of the different Group Nine companies would be completed soon. “The data [will be] living in one place really shortly.”

That doesn’t mean that creating Group Nine has been easy, however.

“There have been tons of growing pains,” Lerer said. “It is really hard to take four cultures and then have those four cultures live together, and create a fifth culture, Group Nine, and do it when you are sprinting to put the business together, to centralize as quickly as we can.”

Thrillist pains

One painful moment was layoffs last month at Lerer-founded Thrillist, which cut over 20 staffers. Lerer characterized the layoffs as part of a change in direction of Thrillist itself, and not as part of the combination with other Group Nine brands. Group Nine as a whole expects to add 100 people to its headcount in 2017.

“When we went and built video the first time, we did some stuff wrong,” he said. “We made some mistakes I’m responsible for, other people in management [too]. We had to fix those things to grow at the speed we should … In the race for digital scale, brands can lose themselves. They’re a tech site that starts writing about politics because that’s where eyeballs are. I don’t think we were horribly guilty of that, but we extended coverage into a few areas that weren't core to the mission of Thrillist.”

Thrillist employees have also recently criticized management for being slow to respond to unionization efforts. Lerer didn’t comment on the record about the situation, but pointed Business Insider to this statement from Thrillist president Adam Rich:

“The union has asked to be recognized without a vote; however, we want to ensure that all employees have the opportunity to participate in making this choice. Ultimately this is the decision of our employees: we celebrate their right to exercise their personal power of choice, and will support their decision.”

The other side

With the integration of the Group Nine brands nearly complete on the technical side, Lerer is looked toward developing new forms of content across the brands.

One particular area of focus is in creating premium video that can make the jump between digital and traditional TV. That’s a big reason Discovery invested the $100 million in October.

“There’s a lot of work going on in super premium original [video],” Lerer said. “You’re going to see lots more of that across all Group Nine brands.” The discussions with traditional TV companies Lerer was talking about in October will soon start bearing fruit, he said.

In all, Lerer described the Group Nine integration since October as like swimming across a fast-moving and rocky river. In October they had all just jumped in, and now, Lerer said he can feel that the other side is coming.

SEE ALSO: Thrillist CEO Ben Lerer explains why Discovery just invested $100 million and made him a new media mogul

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NOW WATCH: Tony Robbins shares the simple financial advice he learned from working with the smartest financial people in the world

On Sunday's episode of "Last Week Tonight," John Oliver took a deep dive into the American Health Care Act, also already known as Trumpcare, because even though the early reaction from many pundits and politicians is that it's "dead on arrival," that might not be the case.

And that's why people need to know what's in the bill.

A big difference from Obamacare is that the AHCA will have an annual flat tax credit based on age — for those under 30 years old, $2,000; 60 or older, $4,000 — so the older you get the more money you get. But do those credits sufficiently cover the actual cost of health insurance?

With the use of a tax chart created by the Kaiser Family, Oliver points out that those with lower incomes would be particularly hurt. For example, if you live in Woodward County, Oklahoma, are 60 years old, and earn $50,000 a year, with Obamacare you would get $13,350 toward insurance but under the new bill that drops to just $4,000.

And if you're on Medicaid, it's worse. Oliver showed reports stating that the plan would cut $370 billion in federal funding to Medicaid over the next 10 years, meaning states would have to make that up, which would be impossible for most. Projections estimate that at least 15 million people will lose their health care.

"People are going to be hurt by this bill," Oliver said.

By contrast, Trump previously promised no cuts to Medicaid and said, "Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now."

Who isn't going to get hurt by the bill? The wealthy, Oliver concluded.

Incomes at the top 1% get a tax break of $33,000, and those in the top 0.1% will get a $197,000 break on average.

"This plan is literally taking money from the poor and giving it to the very rich," Oliver said.

That doesn't include recently rich lottery winners, though. Six pages of Trumpcare is dedicated to letting states dis-enroll high-dollar lottery winners. Or as Oliver puts it, "the urgent matter of what if one poor person suddenly becomes less poor."

Trumpcare will have real consequences for Americans, including Trump's voters. But as Oliver points out, its legislative path has been a tricky one. To get the bill passed, the GOP came up with something that can't get filibustered.

"The bottom line is a lot of the things Trump promised on the campaign trail are not in the bill because the AHCA is being presented as a budget bill," Oliver said, "which can simply be passed by a Senate majority. Anything that's a non-budget policy change needs 60 votes to beat a filibuster.

"This bill is in all likelihood all Trump can get passed to replace Obamacare," Oliver continued, "so it is f---ing important everyone understands what is in it."

Watch the entire "Last Week Tonight" segment below:

SEE ALSO: Who's winning and losing late-night TV under Trump

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NOW WATCH: Watch the new teaser trailer for 'Game of Thrones' season 7

John Oliver wants to teach President Donald Trump about problems with the AHCA — the Republican replacement for Obamacare. He's running an ad that will play during "Fox & Friends", a show that Trump watches. "The bottom line is a lot of the things Trump promised on the campaign trail are not in the bill because the AHCA is being presented as a budget bill," Oliver said, "which can simply be passed by a Senate majority. Anything that's a non-budget policy change needs 60 votes to beat a filibuster.

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The brand new Nintendo Switch hybrid game console is finally available, alongside a much-anticipated new "Legend of Zelda" game. And, for the most part, early adopters are happy with the Switch.

But this is a brand-new piece of consumer electronics we're talking about here — there are bound to be problems. 

Indeed, problems began showing up pretty much immediately. Some folks cited screen issues, from dead pixels to major visual malfunctions, but those seem to be relatively isolated.

Far more widespread is an issue some folks are encountering with the Switch's gamepads, the so-called "Joy-Con" controllers. These guys:

Specifically, the left Joy-Con has issues staying connected to the Switch. It disconnects mid-game occasionally, which can cause major problems in whatever game you're playing. If you're fighting a boss in the new "Zelda" game, for instance, and the controller disconnects mid-fight, you could conceivably lose the fight because of that disconnection. And that's tremendously frustrating!

This seems to be a problem with the controller's Bluetooth connection to the Switch console. The issue specifically pertains to people using the Switch as a home console — the Switch is 8-10 feet away, and has a hard time maintaining a strong Bluetooth connection to the left Joy-Con controller.

Though Nintendo previously acknowledged the issue through a bizarre message on its support page, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime offered a more specific acknowledgement of the problem in a recent interview with Time:

"We are aware of and have seen some of the reports. We're asking consumers a lot of questions. That's why we want to get consumers on our help line, so we can get as much information to understand the situation as possible. And so we are in a fact-finding mode, to really understand the situation and the scenarios. And with that information, we'll look and see what the next steps are."

That's the first direct recognition of the issue from Nintendo since the console launched on March 3. 

But reviewers were reporting on the issue ahead of the console's launch, even, as seen in the video below from popular YouTube gaming channel GameXplain:

So, what's next for Nintendo's Joy-Con issue? A recall, perhaps? That's not clear.

Nintendo says the issue with the left Joy-Con isn't as widespread as it may seem: "The number [of Joy-Con replacement or repair requests received] is not significant, and is consistent with what we’ve seen for any new hardware we have launched," a company rep told Time.

That said, the issue doesn't seem to be one of some Joy-Con controllers having issues, so much as all Joy-Con controllers having a relatively weak Bluetooth connection to the Switch console from afar. It's still early days for the Switch, and this is assuredly far from the last time we'll hear about the Joy-Con issue. Stay tuned!

REVIEW: Nintendo's new game console is a fast, competent piece of hardware without enough software

DON'T MISS: This 12-minute viral video shows all the issues people are having with the Nintendo Switch

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NOW WATCH: Unboxing the Nintendo Switch — here's everything you'll get with the new console

Kim Kardashian delivers an emotional description of being robbed in Paris on her E! show, "Keeping Up with the Kardashians."

E! Online posted a preview from next Sunday's episode in which Kim Kardashian tells her sisters, Kourtney Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian, that she feared for her life during the October 2016 robbery.

"They ask for money. I said I don't have any money," Kim said of the men who were dressed as policemen when they broke into her Paris rental property. "They dragged me out to the hallway, on top of the stairs. That's when I saw the gun like clear as day. I was kind of looking at the gun, looking down back at the stairs.”

Kim went on to tell her worried sisters that she tried to come up with an escape plan, but ultimately decided it was too dangerous to attempt.

“Am I gonna run down the stairs and either be shot in the back?" she said in tears. "Either they're gonna shoot me in the back, or if they don't and I make it, if the elevator does not open in time, or the stairs are locked, then like I'm f---ed."

In January, Paris police said it was investigating at least three suspects in the crime. The robbers made off with Kim's engagement ring from her current husband, rapper Kanye West, and other jewels worth $9.5 million.

In the wake of the incident, gossip site MediaTakeout.com claimed that Kim had faked the robbery and filed a fraudulent insurance claim for millions of dollars. Kim then sued the site for libel.

Watch the video from "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" below:

SEE ALSO: Despite what a hit podcast is saying, the LAPD says Richard Simmons is 'perfectly fine' and not being held hostage

DON'T MISS: The star of E!'s 'The Arrangement' reveals how the show explores Hollywood's fake relationships

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NOW WATCH: Oprah can't believe how hard the Kardashians work

Most critics just hated "Marvel's Iron Fist." And now its star, Finn Jones, is living up to his superhero character and coming to the show's rescue.

"Well I think there’s multiple factors," Jones told UK's Metro of the series' terrible reviews. "What I will say is these shows are not made for critics, they are first and foremost made for the fans."

Previously rated a rare 0% on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Netflix's fourth "Defenders" series has since climbed to a still very low 14% on the site. On another review aggregator, Metacritic, the show has earned a score of 32, which means it has received "generally unfavorable reviews." Currently, it's the worst-reviewed new TV show of 2017.

In my review of the show for Business Insider, I similarly panned the series' writing, pacing, and fight scenes, and for not living up to the standards Netflix set with previous Marvel series, "Daredevil," "Jessica Jones," and "Luke Cage."

In addition to the blistering reviews of "Iron Fist," the shows' martial-arts focus has drawn attention among some who believe the title character should have been played by an Asian actor. Jones even temporarily left Twitter after a conflict with one such critic.

But the actor believes that fans will come to a different conclusion than the show's critics.

"I also think some of the reviews we saw were seeing the show through a very specific lens, and I think when the fans of the Marvel Netflix world and fans of the comic books view the show through the lens of just wanting to enjoy a superhero show, then they will really enjoy what they see," he said. "I think it’s a fantastic show which is really fun and I think it stands up there with the other Defenders’ shows without a doubt."

Fans will get their chance to weigh in on "Iron Fist" when it debuts on Netflix Friday, March 17. 

SEE ALSO: Why Netflix's 'Iron Fist' is a disappointing failure

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NOW WATCH: Netflix and Marvel just dropped the first 'Iron Fist' trailer — and it looks incredible

A new study has found that "Pokémon Go" not only allows users to catch 'em all, but also gets them noticeably more active than non-players in the process. 

Hanzhang Xu, a graduate researcher at Duke University School of Nursing, presented her findings at a recent American Heart Association meeting. 

For her study, Xu and her team enlisted 167 iPhone owners to download and play "Pokémon Go" from June 15 to June 31, 2016. The participants were asked to record their steps using the iPhone Health app during the trial period, as well as to report their steps from before they began using the app. 

The results showed that the participants, who on average walked close to 5,600 steps a day before playing the game, saw their average step count increase by close to 2,000 steps. The improvements were even more pronounced in the participants who had the lowest levels of physical activity before beginning the study, as they saw their average step count increase by an extra 1,000 steps.

According to the researchers, the additional steps translated to an 8% decrease in the risk of having a heart attack or stroke for high risk individuals. 

Xu and her team also reported that playing "Pokémon Go" doubled the likelihood that participants would reach their 10,000 step goal on any given day. 

The study, however, was taken during the game's cultural peak, when it was virtually impossible to visit any monument or landmark without finding players searching for elusive creatures. 

"The initial interest may decline over time," she admitted to HealthDay. "Therefore, we would like to see whether playing Pokémon Go has long-term health benefits for players." 

With this in mind, the recent update to the app, which added 80 Pokémon from the popular Gold and Silver games, might be just what the doctor ordered. 

SEE ALSO: A look back at the Game Boy Micro, the Nintendo console that time forgot

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NOW WATCH: Tesla will begin selling its Solar Roof this year — here's everything you need to know

Joss Whedon has made shows people love to binge-watch on Netflix — from "Buffy" to "Firefly" — but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.

Whedon, who of late has directed blockbuster films like "The Avengers," decried the “all-at-once” release model for TV in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“I would not want to do it,” Whedon said of a Netflix-style full-season release on one day. “I would want people to come back every week and have the experience of watching something at the same time. We released ‘Doctor Horrible’ in three acts. We did that, in part, because I grew up watching miniseries like ‘Lonesome Dove.’ I loved event television. And as it was falling by the wayside, I thought, ‘Let's do it on the internet!’ Over the course of that week, the conversation about the show changed and changed. That was exciting to watch.”

Whedon gave the caveat that Netflix is making a ton of “extraordinary stuff,” and that if Netflix threw a bunch of money at him to make his dream project, he wouldn’t reject it out of hand. But still, his preference is for a weekly release. And he worries that in the era of binge-watching, people don't take time to really breathe and understand what happened in a given episode.

If shows are made for binge-watching, there is a sense of narrative that is lost. “It loses its power, and we lose something with it,” he said of binge-watching. "We lose our understanding of narrative. Which is what we come to television for."

But Whedon will live, even in a totally binge-centric world.

“If that's how people want it, I'd still work just as hard,” he said. “I'll adapt.”

Read the full interview at The Hollywood Reporter.

SEE ALSO: How to make a new kind of hit TV show for the YouTube generation — from someone who did it

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In a season six episode of AMC series "Mad Men," lead ad creative Don Draper, of the fictional ad agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, did the unthinkable: He pitched an ad for Heinz ketchup that didn't actually show the product.

The client rejected the idea in the show, but now the ads — featuring fries, a steak, and a cheeseburger before the condiment has been applied — are being brought to life in a real-life Heinz campaign, Adweek reports.

The three images will begin running in print, social media, and on billboards in New York City. The campaign was created by ad agency David Miami.

Nicole Kulwicki, head of the Heinz brand, told Adweek: 

"Even though Don Draper created the 'Pass the Heinz' campaign almost 50 years ago, the communications still really work in today's world. Mr. Draper really understood the one thing every Heinz fan knows, which is to never settle for the foods you love without the great taste of Heinz. What we loved about the campaign is that it doesn't require paragraphs of copy to explain it. It features mouthwatering food images, and all that's missing is the Heinz."

Here are the three ads:

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NOW WATCH: A $2.5 trillion asset manager just put a statue of a defiant girl in front of the Wall Street bull

Each "generation" of video game consoles has a theme.

With the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), it was the promise of arcade-quality graphics and gameplay at home. With the Nintendo 64 / PlayStation 1 generation, it was the promise of 3D gaming.

Part of why a game like "Super Mario 64" is such a big deal was because it set standards for how 3D gaming works — standards that are still employed today:

That concept of themes still exists today with the current generation of consoles: the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Wii U. The theme this time? Being the centerpiece of your living room.

This is why the Xbox One has an HDMI-in port — so you can pump your cable box through the Xbox itself rather than turning it off. This is also why the PlayStation 4 and Wii U have dozens of streaming video apps, the ability to browse the internet, and much more. The Wii U even had a concept called "TVii," which was meant to "revolutionize" how you watched television (the service was shuttered in 2015). 

It's also why — in the case of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One — a low-power mode was included that enabled the consoles to be started far more quickly than in the past.

The concept is simple: Turn off the PS4 or Xbox One in "low-power mode," and the next time you turn it on everything is exactly as it was. The game you were playing? It's still running, and you can hop right back in where you left off. Convenient! At least that was the reaction when this stuff was announced in 2013.

More than just convenient, it's become an expectation. For most modern electronics — stuff like computers, tablets, and phones — the concept of shutting down completely is the exception. 

And that's why Nintendo's new console, the Switch, is such a revelation. It's incredibly speedy, and its version of "low-power mode" is near-identical to that of a tablet or a laptop.

Unlike the PS4 or Xbox One, you press a button on the Nintendo Switch and it turns on — instantly.

This cannot be overstated: On the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, turning on the console — even in low-power mode/quick start mode — takes far longer than it should. Rather than turning on instantly, ready for action, they plod along and slowly load. They feel old, and muddy, and — frankly — not as good as modern electronics should.

On the contrary, the Switch feels like modern technology.

It turns on quickly, it goes back to sleep quickly, and jumping from games to the home menu is instant. It feels like using an iPhone, albeit much larger and less premium.

Most importantly, the speed at which it operates respects your time. It seemingly acknowledges that you may only have a few moments to play a game, and encourages that kind of use. 

And when you're using the console at home, the Switch operates more like an Apple TV or a Roku than a traditional game console. It literally takes longer for my television to switch HDMI inputs than for the Switch to turn on. 

It makes the other two game consoles sitting in my entertainment center feel like dinosaurs in this respect. It makes my TV feel old (which, in fairness, my TV is old). And while there are plenty of things about the Switch that it's lacking — Netflix and Hulu, for example, or cloud saves, or major game franchises like "Call of Duty" — it completely nails one of the most important aspects of operation: It's fast and easy to use, regardless of where you are. And that's huge.

SEE ALSO: I'm enjoying the Nintendo Switch much, much more than I expected — here's why

DON'T MISS: The 5 best reasons you should buy a Nintendo Switch

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With more A-list stars, directors, and producers creating television than ever before, many are calling this the next golden age of TV. But regardless of who's involved, there are bound to be some shows that don't shine quite as brightly.

More outlets are creating TV content, from streaming companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu to cable networks increasingly getting into the scripted-show game, like Bravo, E!, and Spike.

But what's worth your time and what isn't? In times like these, you should let the experts watch so you don't have to.

Metacritic keeps track of a curated group of critics, assigns each review a number according to how positive or negative it was, and then creates a weighted average score for each show.

CBS, NBC, and Fox tied with four shows each among the shows least liked by critics. But some of the newer companies also produced stinkers. Netflix, for example, netted itself a zero instead of a superhero. Which other networks had the misfortune of landing shows on the list?

Here are the 18 worst-reviewed TV shows of 2017 so far, using Metacritic scores:

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18. "Time After Time" (ABC)

Metacritic score: 59

A remake of the 1979 movie of the same name, "Time After Time" mirrors the film's centuries-spanning chase of the charismatic Dr. John Stevenson, aka Jack the Ripper (Josh Bowman), by a dashing H.G. Wells (Freddie Stroma), the author of "The Time Machine" and "The War of the Worlds," among many other notable novels. The famous 19th-century serial killer has stolen the author's time machine and escaped to modern-day New York City. Wells ventures after him to bring him back to the past.

17. "Doubt" (CBS)

Metacritic score: 58

"Doubt," which has already been canceled, follows Katherine Heigl's character, defense attorney Sadie Ellis, and her colleagues at a boutique law firm. Sadie is defending a wealthy client, but things get complicated when she begins to fall in love with him. Laverne Cox and Dule Hill also starred on the legal drama.

16. "Chicago Justice" (NBC)

Metacritic score: 57

The latest in NBC's "Chicago" franchise, "Chicago Justice" follows the members of the state attorney's team of prosecutors and investigators who must balance the public opinion and city politics with their execution of the law.

It’s March, which means it’s time for March Madnesss, "the one time a year where it's socially acceptable to be a gambling addict," as "The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah put it on Monday's episode.

With the NCAA men’s basketball tournament starting this week, Noah has taken the opportunity to create his own tournament called Third Month Mania.

"This tournament isn’t about basketball. It’s about something more important: Donald Trump’s tweets."

After looking at Trump's tweets, the show picked 64 tweets that they think are the most worthy competitors. Trump has tweeted over 35,000 times. And to narrow it down, they had to read every single one of them.

"The Daily Show" broke the bracket into four sections, just like the NCAA bracket. Their categories are celebrities, government affairs, enemies, and WTF.

If you’re rooting for a specific Trump tweet to win, you can vote on the Third Month Mania website. The winning tweet will be revealed in three weeks.

“This time, the popular vote actually matters,” correspondent Hasan Minaj said.

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 18 worst new TV shows of the year so far, according to critics

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Jordan Peele's box-office sensation "Get Out" continues to draw audiences, as the movie crossed the $100 million mark over the weekend.

But with success comes criticism, and actor Samuel L. Jackson made headlines last week when he criticized the casting of Daniel Kaluuya, a black British actor, in the lead instead of a black American actor. (Jackson later said that he wasn't just pointing out Kaluuya, but the casting of British black actors in general.)

In a recent interview with GQ, Kaluuya responded to Jackson's comments.

"Here's the thing about that critique, though," Kaluuya said. "I'm dark-skinned, bro. When I'm around black people I'm made to feel 'other' because I'm dark-skinned. I've had to wrestle with that, with people going, 'You're too black.' Then I come to America and they say, 'You're not black enough.' I go to Uganda, I can't speak the language. In India, I'm black. In the black community, I'm dark-skinned. In America, I'm British. Bro!"

The actor added of his frustrations: "I resent that I have to prove that I'm black."

Kaluuya (who also starred as an American in "Sicario") addressed the racial hostility that he has experienced in the UK in his life, including the riots in Brixton and Tottenham.

"Let me say, I'm not trying to culture-vulture the thing. I empathize," he said. "That script spoke to me. I've been to Ugandan weddings, and funerals, and seen that cousin bring a white girl. That's a thing in all communities. I really respect African-American people. I just want to tell black stories."

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Warning: Spoilers below if you haven't watched season one of "Westworld."

The hit sci-fi drama "Westworld" carried on the tradition that HBO's "Game of Thrones" firmly established: killing off significant characters.

And according to star Leonardo Nam, that made for a pretty nervous time while shooting the show.

"Oh, are you kidding me? All the time," Nam responded when Business Insider recently asked if he had any fear of his character being killed off during the first season. "When I look back, that's one of the things that did make it exciting. The way that television and these creators work right now is you never really know what's gonna happen. You think you know, and then they have something else in store."

A remake of a 1973 film of the same name, HBO's "Westworld" revolves around an amusement park populated by human-like robots, referred to as hosts, that provide wealthy visitors countless adventures in a Wild West setting. But the robots begin to malfunction, which causes some major havoc for the humans who enjoy the park and those who run it.

Nam plays Felix Lutz, one of Westworld's technicians who repair damaged hosts in order to return them to the theme park or mark them as unsalvageable and retire them to cold storage. Felix played a reluctant but critical role in host Maeve's (Thandie Newton) process of discovering that she isn't human and her subsequent plan to escape Westworld.

The potential for death among those humans who work for Westworld is pretty great. The safety of the guests is ensured by several safeguards (with some exceptions) that don't necessarily extend to the park's employees.

In addition to to the fear of having their characters killed off, Nam describes a unique predicament for the "Westworld" actors: wondering whether their characters are humans or actually hosts.

"As the episode's being written, we'd all talk on set, in passing, and we'd be like, 'Are you a host? Because last week, I thought you were a human. Now I think you're a robot. Am I a robot or am I human?'" Nam said. "People were saying that all the time. It was a big bonding moment for everyone, because no one really knew what was happening with the overarching story."

The extra human-vs.-robot twist of "Westworld" actually helps the actors deal with the potential death of their characters.

"On the flip side, the benefit of it all is everyone can come back in different forms," Nam told us.

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Seth Meyers dedicated Monday's edition of his "A Closer Look" segment to the tactics employed by President Donald Trump and other Republicans in defense of his embattled healthcare plan.

"One thing that has become clear over the past week is that lying is such a central feature of the Trump administration that many in DC just take it for granted," the host said on Monday's episode of NBC's "Late Night," "but there's one issue where Trump's lies could have very real consequences for millions of people and that's health care."

Since being introduced earlier this month, the American Health Care Act, also known as "Trumpcare," has seen much opposition from both sides of the aisle, even while supporters work to push it through in an effort to make good on a promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The Congressional Budget Office just reported that it estimates that 24 million more people will be uninsured under Trumpcare compared to Obamacare.

'"And yet despite that, GOP leaders are rushing the bill through the House as quickly as possible," Meyers said. "They held two marathon overnight committee hearings with no public input. One lasted 27 hours and another lasted 18 hours and ended at 4:30 in the morning."

In an example of the defenses employed by the Republicans, Meyers played video from one of the sessions in which Missouri Congressman Jason Smith mocked Obamacare's taxes on tanning beds by asking why the government doesn't just tax the sun.

"Why don't we tax the sun?" Meyers joked as a photo of Trump appeared. "Is it because we already know an orange ball of gas will never pay its taxes? Even more embarrassing, Republicans and Democrats preceded to actually spend time debating whether it's possible to tax the sun."

Meyers then cited the White House's request that Trump's name not be used in relation to the healthcare plan.

"Even Donald Trump won't put his name on this thing," the host said. "One reason for that might be that he's worried that people won't like it as much as Obamacare. In fact, Trump blamed the media for Obamacare's rise in popularity in the polls."

The late-night host then mocked Trump's confusion over why former President Barack Obama is suddenly so popular.

"It's you, dude. It's you," he said. "Trump's like the guy who cleared out the subway car because he s--- his pants and then says, 'Oh, I guess that was everyone's stop.'"

Watch the "A Closer Look" segment below:

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Is your bar ready for some madness? With a whopping 67 games, March Madness is something die-hard sports fans — and even those who just like to play in the brackets — can't miss. The drama lasts game after game for three weeks, as does the big business opportunity for bars.

But truly capitalizing on March Madness takes more than being open for business. Here are a few ways to prep your establishment for the millions of NCAA men's basketball viewers who have contributed to record ratings in recent years.

1. Boost your tech capabilities

Is every seat in your bar like sitting court-side? As far as March Madness is concerned, your bar's capacity isn't determined by how many chairs and barstools you have, but how many of them provide a great view of the game. Maximize your capacity by adding enough screens so they're visible from every seat.  

2. Show every game

The iconic basketball tournament is made up of 67 games played on four channels over three weeks — and every one counts. Be prepared to play them all with DIRECTV's BUSINESS SELECT™ PACK which delivers hundreds of entertainment options to your customers, including the best of sports.

3. Staff up

During the tournament, fans want to see madness on the court — not behind the bar. Being well-staffed will keep the drinks, food, and good service flowing, which will keep patrons happily in their seats game after game.

4. Take reservations

Sports fans love watching the game in groups, and they don't want to take a chance that a table for ten won't be available. Sports bars have found success taking table reservations during March Madness. Get a deposit in advance and take the fee off the table's tab to guarantee that the groups will show up and order plenty.

5. Create your own "madness"

Competition is catchy. During the tournament, fans love a chance to win big. Offer raffles, prizes, and other games and events at your bar throughout the basketball bonanza to ensure fans keep coming back for the next game — and the next chance to win big. Connect with local and corporate sponsors to deliver customers great prizes and specials.

6. Track the tourney

Be the destination for sports fans who want to stay up-to-date on the tournament. Make the latest wins, losses, and stats accessible to every table with tournament brackets and other statistics on display. Incentivize return visits by hosting your own March Madness pool and displaying the personal stats of every participant. Fans love to see their relative positions change from game to game throughout the tournament. 

Don't let what could be your biggest, longest rush of the year go by without making the most of March Madness. With some preparation and savvy marketing, the tournament can be a big win for your bar.

To learn more about DIRECTV for BUSINESS™ services and features, click here.

This post is sponsored by DIRECTV.

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