It's raining Rob Lowe.

Both Fox and NBC have greenlit series' starring the popular actor, which led some to wonder how he could carry off both shows.

First on Sunday, NBC announced that it had greenlit "You, Me, and the End of the World." The one-hour comedic drama is a co-production with UK's Working Title Television. It features Lowe as a rebellious priest who crosses paths with an eclectic group of people on their way to an underground bunker as a comet is about to collide with Earth.

And then on Monday, Fox revealed that it had greenlit "The Grinder," on which Lowe plays an actor whose legal series was just canceled, but then tries to parlay the skills he learned on the show into actually practicing law in his hometown.

"The Grinder" is set to air Tuesdays this fall, while NBC has yet to name a premiere date for its Lowe show, which will also air in Europe, though no premiere date set there as well.

A reporter asked about the possible conflict during an executive press call with Fox on Monday. The answer is actually very simple.

"[NBC's] show has wrapped production," Fox's co-CEO and co-chairman Dana Walden cleared up. "I believe it's a limited series event and he's done his obligation. He's in first position to 'The Grinder.'"

In this case, both networks get off scot-free. But it isn't always such a clean exchange when an actor stars on two or more projects during pilot season. In those cases, the actor indicates one project in first position and then another in second. In the case that both projects move forward, the actor is contractually obligated to stick with the project in first position.

We saw this conflict go down with Damon Wayans Jr. when he appeared on Fox's "New Girl" pilot and then ABC renewed "Happy Endings." He had to leave "New Girl," because it was in second position.

NBC and Fox were able to escape losing Rob Lowe, but it's currently in another casting conflict. Apparently, "Being Human" star Meaghan Ruth appears on NBC's newly ordered comedy pilot "People Are Talking," but she also appears on Fox's new comedy "The Guide to Surviving Life." "Guide" is in first position for the actress, which means that NBC will most likely have to recast Rath's role.

SEE ALSO: There's more '24' in the works at Fox

MORE: Here's how Fox's 'X-Files' revival plans to please diehard fans

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Disney just dropped another 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' trailer — and it's the best one yet

It wasn't enough for Australian-raised actor Hugh Keays-Byrne to have one legendary character on his resume, he had to go and create another.

Behind the fiberglass body armor, long white hair, and sinister oxygen mask of villain Immortal Joe in “Mad Max: Fury Road” is the man who, 36 years earlier, terrorized the Australian plains as the memorable Toecutter in the original "Mad Max.”

Keays-Byrne, 67, started his career as a trained theater actor who was part of the Royal Shakespeare Company for numerous years. But in 1979 he gained international acclaim in the low-budget apocalyptic cult hit “Mad Max,” starring a then unknown Mel Gibson.

“I was a young actor trying to do films and suddenly I realized, 'God, people are talking about this film,'” Keays-Byrne told Business Insider. “A friend of mine phoned from Japan and said, ‘Hugh, you're on television every 10 minutes over here.’”

Though Keays-Byrne would go on to act in numerous movies and TV shows for decades following “Mad Max,” he would always be known as Toecutter. Even to this day he gets stopped in the grocery store by fans.

Then, eight years ago, Keays-Byrne got a call from “Mad Max” director George Miller about the opportunity to come on “Fury Road.”

“I thought, didn’t Toecutter drive in front of a moving truck and die?”

He did.

Instead, Miller wanted him to play another villain, Immorten Joe, the leader of a post-apocalyptic village in which he rules by limiting the water supply and using beautiful women to birth his followers, coined “War Boys.”

This time things were different. Much of that was because of the hour-long hair and makeup routine he underwent to become unrecognizable every day before shooting.

Keays-Byrne said it took a few days to get comfortable on a big budget Hollywood set.

“This film took me into an area of technology that I’d never been anywhere near before, it was a bit scary," he said. “How does one judge one's performance?” he wondered. Since a mask covered his face throughout the whole production, he was required to do his dialogue in post production months later. “But George kept me relaxed. I had an ear piece and he’d speak to me [during scenes] from time to time, which I found reassuring,” Keays-Byrne said.

It’s hard for Keays-Byrne to pinpoint aspects of Immorten Joe that originated from him, as he spent years talking to Miller and others on the production about the character before they began shooting. However, there is one piece of his character he can unequivocally say came from him.

“Immorten Joe has a war club, and that was my mother-in-law’s," he said. "It was given to her during the second World War. After she died it was laying around and I thought, oh, that's an interesting thing.”

Here’s a picture of Immorten Joe holding the club on set.

In fact, the giant axe Toecutter used in "Mad Max” was also Keays-Byrne’s contribution. “A friend of mine had given it to me and I thought it had a look about it.”

Keays-Byrne loved the experience of doing a movie like “Fury Road" and hopes to do another one on that scale again, but he admits what he’s really excited about is watching the film with the actors who were members of Toecutter’s gang in "Mad Max.”

“Quite a few of those guys are still dear friends of mine,” he said. “We will indeed all go see ‘Fury Road’ together.”

SEE ALSO: "Mad Max: Fury Road" has no plot but it's still incredible

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 70 people were injured while filming this movie with 100 untamed lions

Every year, the "Assassin's Creed" franchise takes players to a new historic locale and sics 'em on the locals. 2015 is no different, with the series heading to 1880s London in "Assassin's Creed: Syndicate." 

It's the usual hunt and murder bad guys structure, highlighted by some notable differences from past years. The game launches this holiday on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

SEE ALSO: These Video Game Images Of Paris Look So Vivid, We Mistook Them For The Real Thing

AND: One Of The Hottest Video Games Has Some Hilarious Glitches

Female combatants are a notable addition in "Assassin's Creed: Syndicate," like the woman seen here with the rifle.

The "hidden blade" signature to "Assassin's Creed" is now a combination blade, firearm and hookshot. Here's the blade form.

And here's a look at the hookshot in action. It enables main character Jacob to move above London's wide streets unnoticed, and to create new vantage points from which to drop on enemies.

Warning: If you haven't read "The Martian" yet, there are spoilers ahead.

Science fiction writers have a long history of fascination with Mars and its potential inhabitants.

Terrifying Martians invade Earth in H.G. Wells's "War of the Worlds." There's an elaborate underground city of aliens in Lester del Rey's "Marooned on Mars." And some of Ray Bradbury's lesser known work pits human colonizers against aboriginal-like Martians.

Following in this long line of Mars-obsessed authors is Andy Weir, author of "The Martian" (which has skyrocketed to to the top of sci-fi bestseller lists, and the movie adaptation comes out on Nov. 25).

So that made this statement from Weir at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C. on May 5, surprising:

"I suspect that there is no life on Mars," Weir said during a Q&A about his book.

"The Martian" tells the story of Mark Watney, a botanist and mechanical engineer who is left stranded on Mars when his crew is forced to evacuate without him during a violent dust storm on the planet. His crew is part of the fictional Ares program which is exploring Mars to look for signs of life. None of the characters come across any life forms though — the entire plot line is Martian-free.

And even outside the science fiction realm, Weir doesn't think there's any life to find on Mars. He's a self-described life-long space nerd and he has done a lot of research and reading about Mars for his book, so he has a well thought out reason why:

"If you look at life on Earth it is extraordinarily tenacious and omnipresent," Weir said. "Life is good at occupying the entire planet."

Not so much on Mars. Rovers have been driving around the red planet for years and haven't detected anything living. (Of course rovers are limited in what they can do, and we don't have one that can drill down very far below the surface yet.)

Still, Mars and its potential life have captured the attention of the human race for good reason: scientists think it used to be a lot like Earth, and there's evidence that it used to have a huge ocean.

Mars could still have the potential to harbor life, and it's close enough for us to go and find out.

And even though he's not a scientist, Weir is pretty sure about what we'll find.

"Fossilized evidence might exist and Mars might have had life at one point," Weir speculated. "But not currently."

This seems to be what the majority of planetary scientists think too — it's unlikely life (at least the kind of life we're familiar with) could survive the bitter cold temperatures and blasts of radiation constantly bombarding the planet. 

Even if life isn't thriving on Mars now, there are theories that ancient Martian rocks sent flying by a planetary or asteroid collisions could have carried primitive life to Earth that eventually flourished into life as we know it today.

Weir didn't end the conversation about life on Mars on a negative note. He pointed out that some seeds can survive in harsh conditions on Earth for tens of thousands of years, just biding their time and waiting for a chance to germinate, implying that something similar could exist on Mars.

"You never really know when something is truly extinct," Weir said.

Even without actual Martians, Weir's love of Mars and space science is reflected in "The Martian," and that's exactly why we're so excited about it. It's one of the best sci-fi stories about Mars because it has a foothold in what really might be possible. 

The movie adaptation is in the hands of rockstar director Ridley Scott and it stars Matt Damon as Watley. You can get a sneak peek at the movie set in the photo below:

It's already amassed a huge fan following and it's not hard to see why. NASA consulted on the movie and the European Space Agency has been on the actual set. 

The movie is going to be way more scientifically accurate and way more gritty than it's blockbuster counterparts like "Interstellar" and "Gravity."

We can't wait.

SEE ALSO: President Obama’s senior space science adviser just said "Mars matters" — here are 5 undeniable reasons why he's right

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: NASA just tested its biggest booster rocket ever that will help astronauts get to Mars

The first reviews for "Mad Max: Fury Road," the highly-anticipated, long-delayed sequel to the 1979 original, are out and they're extremely positive. 

Currently holding an impressive 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, "Fury Road" has received nearly unanimous praise from critics, who believe it lives up to the promise set up by its thrilling trailer with many calling it a work of art.

The film is a sequel to Australian director George Miller's popular Mad Max series, which kicked off in 1979. "Fury Road" takes place in a post-apocalyptic world many years after the events of the original trilogy. Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) teams up with Furiosa (Charlize Theron) to try and restore order to this hellish world.

"Fury Road" cost an estimated $150 million to make and took about a decade to bring to screen. So far, it seems like this huge gamble will pay off.

Here's what the critics are saying: 

Everyone loves it. 

Vanity Fair:

In a movie season exhaustingly cluttered with never-ending superhero sagas and reboots, "Fury Road" arrives, despite its pedigree, as a daring, fascinating, thrilling jolt of original energy.

Forbes:

George Miller has crafted his finest film here, displaying an insanely uncompromising brilliance in pure action-adventure filmmaking. It is quite simply the best film of the year so far.

The word "masterpiece" is getting thrown around a lot. 

The Daily Beast: 

The post-apocalypse hath no fury like a one-armed woman... George Miller pulls off a rarity in Hollywood blockbusters these days: A muscular action masterpiece built on practical effects, weighty and awe-inspiring.

Movies.com:

There are many ways to sum up a movie like "Mad Max: Fury Road," but let's just say that it is a masterpiece and a must-see -- two hours of stunningly gorgeous post-apocalyptic mayhem. This isn't just one of the best action movies of the year -- it may eventually go down as one of the best action movies ever made.

TwitchFilm:

It's pleasing, then, that "Mad Max: Fury Road" is Miller's masterpiece.

Many are highlighting the stunning visuals. 

Esquire: 

If Francisco Goya painted Heavy Metal magazine, it'd look something like Fury Road. 

TheWrap:

There are visuals in “Mad Max: Fury Road” that won’t soon be forgotten, from the sight of a trussed-up Hardy attached to a car like a ship’s mast to the mother of all sandstorms to the heavy-metal guitarist and drummers that accompany the War Boys into battle to the secret of how the elites in Joe’s kingdom stay so well-fed.

The Hollywood Reporter (THR):

The colors are bold, the Namibia locations look like Arizona on steroids, virtually all the action looks real (thoughts of CGI only intrude with the massive dust clouds and certain personal and vehicular wipeouts), cinematographer John Seale's cameras are everywhere they need to be to record the action maximally, and Junkie XL's score hammers and soars.

Indiewire:

Like Max himself, Miller's stripped-down approach to staging intense and involving action sequences stands alone.

Tom Hardy is being hailed as a more than worthy replacement for Mel Gibson, who originally held the role of Max.

Birth.Movies.Death [formerly Badass Digest]: 

Tom Hardy steps in for Mel Gibson in the role of Max Rockatansky, very far removed from the early days of the first "Mad Max." Hardy isn’t doing a Gibson impression, and the loose continuity of the series allows the new hire to seamlessly integrate himself into the world, in a way that most new Bonds wish for. Hardy’s Max is shockingly funny; many of his best momets have him exasperated or baffled.

Nerd Report:

Hardy is great at this, so great though that it makes me wonder if we still need to follow Max through this world anymore. 

Director George Miller, who is now 70, is earning high praise for capturing a sort of energy that a lot of filmmakers half his age typically cannot.

Entertainment Weekly:

"Fury Road" not only captures the same Molotov-cocktail craziness of Miller’s masterpiece, 1981’s "The Road Warrior"—it’s also a surprisingly hypercaffeinated film for a director in his fifth decade behind the camera." 

THR:

George Miller has directed only five films in that time ― three of which starred pigs and penguins ― but it can safely be said that this madly entertaining new action extravaganza energetically kicks more ass, as well as all other parts of the anatomy, than any film ever made by a 70-year-old — and does so far more skillfully than those turned out by most young turks half his age.

Birth.Movies.Death:

George Miller..70...is releasing a movie that has all the energy and vitality of a young man’s work, but all the control and precision of an old master.

"Mad Max: Fury Road" opens in theaters on Friday, May 15.

Watch the trailer below:

SEE ALSO: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ has no plot but it's still incredible

AND: This new HBO documentary will make you want to delete your search history

Join the conversation about this story »

Kanye West gave the commencement speech at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on Monday, and it's one you can't miss — though perhaps for the wrong reasons.

West often finds himself at the center of criticism for his confusing, nonsensical, or completely narcissistic public comments. His speech on Sunday didn't disappoint on any of these fronts.

Here are the 5 most confusing lines from West's graduation speech, where he was also awarded an honorarydoctorate:

1. "I'm sorry is something that you can use a lot. It gives you opportunity to give your opinion, apologize for it, and give your opinion again. People say you should not be sorry for your opinions."

2. "George Bush has some very cool self portraits. I didn't know he was an artist."

3. "I felt my nerves a bit, and I don't feel that feeling a lot. The nerves of humility and modesty, when being honored. A humanization, a reality of being recognized. And all I thought as I sit here shaking a little bit, is I need to get rid of that feeling."

4. "This honor, is going to make your lives easier. Two reasons: you don't have to defend me as much, and I'm going to make all of our lives easier." 

5. "And it's these Floyd Mayweather belts that are needed to prove what I've been saying my entire life. Whether it's the cosign of Paul McCartney grabbing me and saying it's OK he doesn't bite white people. Or the New York Times cover, or the Time Most Influential cover. And now a doctorate at the Art Institute of Chicago."

Somehow, the quotes on their own don't even do justice to the awkwardness of the speech. The speech doesn't follow in a linear fashion, jumping from one confusing comment to the next. So the entire four-minute speech is certainly worth a listen.

But the speech also had an element that voyeurs of Kanye's career might not expect. He was uncharacteristically nervous during the speech, making it, perhaps, a bit more endearing.

Whatever you think about the speech itself, it's clearly more Kanye being Kanye.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's the video of Kanye West jumping in a lake during his concert in Armenia

For decades "Star Wars" fans have heard how imporant the Biggs Darklighter character is. Now there’s a short documentary that pays tribute to one the saga’s most popular minor characters.

In “Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope," we're introduced to Biggs, a mustache-rocking ol’ buddy of Luke Skywalker who perished in Luke’s X-wing trench run to destroy the Death Star.

On the surface, Biggs was just one of the Rebel X-wing pilots we grew a liking to during the battle sequence, like Wedge Antilles and Jek Porkins. But in previous versions of George Lucas’ script for "A New Hope," Biggs played a much larger role in the film, as he’s Luke's best friend back on Tatooine.

Now in Jamie Benning’s documentary, “Blast it Biggs! Where are you?!,” Biggs Darklighter is finally in the spotlight.

The 16-and-a-half minute short looks at rare photos and the Biggs' deleted scenes, with voiceover throughout from an interview with the actor who played Biggs, Garrick Hagon.

One Briggs deleted scene was supposed to be in the beginning of “A New Hope” where Biggs tells Luke he’s leaving the Imperial Academy to join the Rebel Alliance. The other is later in the movie when the two reunite before they get in their X-wings to take on the Death Star. The latter scene George Lucas put back into the movie for the film’s 1997 rerelease.

In the short, Hagon admits his disappointment when he first saw the film and realized that most of his scenes were taken out.

“It was admiration and a thrill mixed with disappointment,” Hagon said in the short. “Because I realized what a chunk [of my scenes] had gone.”

But Biggs has lived on in the “Star Wars” universe. The novels and comics that were published following the popularity of the original trilogy get into more detail about Biggs and Luke’s friendship, as well as Biggs’ time at the Academy.

Watch the short below:

SEE ALSO: There's a "Star Wars" Easter egg in a lot of Marvel movies

Join the conversation about this story »

People just aren’t watching — or paying for — TV the way they used to. 

The number of people paying cable and satellite giants like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and DirecTV for TV service fell during the first three months of the year, according to a new report from MoffettNathanson, a media and telecommunications research firm.

It’s the first time that the industry has lost subscribers during that time, which is traditionally a strong period for pay TV, according to the research note. Last year, pay TV companies added 271,000 subscribers in the first quarter, and in the same period in 2013, they added 208,000 subscribers, according to the firm.

MoffettNathanson reports that subscriptions to pay TV companies are down 0.5% over the last 12 months.

“That may not sound dramatic, perhaps, but it’s the fastest rate of decline on record and it represents by far the largest sequential acceleration we have seen to date,” Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson, the lead analysts at the firm, write in the report.

The numbers are especially jarring considering the number of households continue to increase.

So people are not only “cutting the cord” — choosing to get their entertainment from a variety of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon rather than from cable — but they’re also not signing up for traditional TV service when they move out on their own.

The MoffettNathanson report comes as there are more options than ever for people to watch TV over the internet. Netflix, the largest subscription streaming service in the world, has over 40 million paid subscribers in the US, and the company is spending hundreds of millions of dollars this year alone creating its own, original programming.

Sling TV, a service from Dish Network that launched in February, offers a slimmed-down version of TV channels — including ESPN — that can be streamed online starting at $20 per month. Sony also recently launched its PlayStation Vue TV service, which streams live and on-demand TV to PlayStation owners in some cities, though the service is relatively expensive.

HBO last month launched HBO Now, a $15-per-month streaming service that for the first time allows customers in the US to get HBO without subscribing to a cable package, and Showtime, another premium network, will launch its own standalone service this year.

Apple is also set to unveil a streaming TV product this fall, and Verizon is also working on an Internet-based TV offering that will reportedly launch this year.

As MoffettNathanson notes in its report, many of the newest services, like Sling TV, PlayStation Vue and HBO Now, hadn’t launched, or had just launched, during the quarter, so this is just the beginning of cord cutting.

“The genie is out of the bottle now,” the analysts write.

“It is only going to get worse… It’s too soon to panic. But it’s not too soon to be genuinely worried.”

SEE ALSO: I just finished Marvel's new 'Daredevil' series and was completely blown away

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The trailer for the Wachowskis' mind-bending new Netflix series 'Sense8' has a lot of 'Matrix' in it

Seeking to make the world a better place and making people uncomfortable are sort of a package deal, says comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick.

When we openly criticize the things we believe need to change, DeConnick explains to Business Insider, we make asks that other people find uncomfortable. This is key, she says, because on the other side of discomfort is growth.

DeConnick recently told the audience at this year's 99U Conference that eliciting discomfort in others — and herself — is her greatest gift and job as an artist.

For example, her recent independent venture with artist Valentine De Landro, comic book "Bitch Planet," unabashedly probes into gender dynamics and celebrates defiance. "If the word 'feminist' puts your toes into embarrassed little fists, you might find it off-putting," she says.

While DeConnick admits she doesn’t think this one comic book series will necessarily make the world a better place, it could spark a conversation that can lead to change.

Here are five steps DeConnick takes to make people uncomfortable, which anyone can take to become what she calls a "professional discomfort producer":

1. Lead with your heart.

"There have been times in my life where I have been hell-bent on leading with my jaw. Times — a lot recently — when I have led with my middle finger," DeConnick says. "But when I do my best work, I am leading with my heart."

This, for her, means being open, vulnerable, and writing the truth (with a "capital T"). Her goal is to do this without a concern for results or fear of judgement. It's not easy to access this courage, she says, but it gets easier with practice.

"But when you do, you find your way to a level of honest, incredibly uncool, messy humanity that makes people wildly uncomfortable. This is your goal."

2. Find your people.

"I believe the point of art and fiction is to connect us to ourselves and to other people," DeConnick says. "It is to foster empathy by demonstrating that we are, none of us, particularly unique or singular in our experience with the world."

DeConnick says that art and stories are the lifelines that map out our connections to one another. And weirdly, even though togetherness itself is uncomfortable, she says, people are much more willing to be uncomfortable together.

"So I urge you to seek out the artists, the colleagues, the friends whose work and whose presence pushes you to be vulnerable, because these are your people," DeConnick says.

3. Foster Community.

Since it's easier to be uncomfortable together, DeConnick says, she and De Landro created places for their "noncompliant readers" to find one another, including community pages in the back of "Bitch Planet."

Though the first issue was released this past December and the fourth issue of the book just hit the shelves, DeConnick says she's already lost count of the number of people who have tattooed the comic's "noncompliant" symbol.

She says she knows now what her friend and fellow comic book writer Dan Curtis Johnson writes on Twitter is right: "You don't get the tat because you're a fan of something in the book; you get the tat because the book is clearly a fan of something in you."

4. Listen.

DeConnick believes, as a creator, it's her job to to embrace and rise above her own experience, to listen with her whole heart, and to imagine how the world must look from another perspective.

Active listening, she says, is difficult and rare because it requires both parties to become more intimate and vulnerable with each other, which makes people incredibly uncomfortable.

"So of course I think you need to do it well and often."

5. Seek to be uncomfortable yourself.

"To make others uncomfortable and still get paid, you must lead by example," DeConnick says.

As an artist, she has to demonstrate that being uncomfortable won't kill you. This hurts, she says, especially since we live in an age of comment threads, and artists are often a point of attack.

"But Avengers don't limit themselves to fights they know they can win, you won't die, and on the other side of discomfort is growth," she says.

When she was writing the 2012 run of Captain Marvel, for example, DeConnick created a special unit of women called the Banshee Squadron. Though it occurred to her to include black women in the squadron, she didn't. 

She knew that in real life, during WWII, Jackie Cochran, director of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, had turned down the black women who applied to become pilots. Given the opportunity to rewrite history in a storyline that was all about rewriting history, DeConnick says, she repeated Cochran's crime.

"Every time I tell this story I am ashamed. I am uncomfortable. And I have to fight the urge to excuse, and spin, and scream, 'I am not a racist!'"

But DeConnick believes she is better for confronting the uncomfortable, and her work is better for it, too. "Doing the right thing is not a passive act. You do not get to be a good guy just because you figure you are not a bad guy."'

SEE ALSO: 10 lessons you can learn from the Avengers characters that will help you land your next job

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We Followed A Cosplayer Into The World Of Anime, Tight Vinyl Costumes, And Nerd Culture

Two French-Canadian men in their mid-to-late 30s are nervously scrambling in a swank New York City hotel room, still reeling from a game console crash during a live demo. The game froze, hard, while being played.

"This is still pre-Alpha," one says in the jargon-infused vernacular of game development-speak. That means "the game is still far from done," in terms of development completion. It's not entirely unusual for this to happen during game demos.

Still, is he reassuring himself, or the two Business Insider reporters sitting in front of him? Maybe both. His name is Marc-Alexis Côté, and he's in charge of the next multimillion dollar entry in the colossal "Assassin's Creed" franchise. He is visibly nervous. His already large task is even larger after last years iteration of the game was a huge dissapointment.

Maybe you've heard of "Assassin's Creed?"

In the "AC" games, you're an assassin – surprise! – who explores historical cities, hunts foes, and lives important historical events. In "Assassin's Creed 3," you live through and influence the American Revolution. In "Assassin's Creed 2," you live through and influence Renaissance Italy. 

Each entry in the franchise costs tens of millions of dollars to produce, and more tens of millions to then advertise.

Like the "Transformers" and "Star Wars" film franchises, video game franchises like "Call of Duty" and "Assassin's Creed" are big bets in need of big payouts. Companies like Activision ("Call of Duty") and Ubisoft ("Assassin's Creed") front the millions of dollars needed to create the games, they structure annual release schedules to maximize on potential return, and then hope for the best.

In the modern world, with more ways than ever to spend our precious time, one stinker in an annualized franchise can have much bigger business consequences than in the past.

Last year's "Assassin's Creed Unity" is that stinker.

Beyond issues raised by critics about its quality, the game had huge technical problems. Here's one of the more terrifying ones:

In case you're wondering, it's extremely rare for game character faces to disappear, leaving ghastly floating eyeballs, teeth, and exposed muscle orb. That is not normal.

While glitches like the one above were certainly hilarious, they're also representative of the base-level problems in last year's game. Those problems resulted in critics dogging the game; "Unity" dropped over 10 points from the previous year's "Assassin's Creed" entry in Metacritic.

Public perception of the game was no doubt hurt by the its cold reception from critics: sales of "Assassin's Creed Unity" were down compared to the previous year's game, from 10 million in 2013 for "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag" to 10 million in 2014 across two entirely different games ("Assassin's Creed Unity" and "Assassin's Creed Rogue"). 

With all that in mind, this year's "Assassin's Creed: Syndicate" has a lot of lost ground to make up. The game's creative director Marc-Alexis Côté and senior producer François Pelland made their first attempts in overtures to media last week.

Back in the swanky New York City hotel room, Côté and Pelland showed the game running on PlayStation 4 – an example, they said, of how their approach is different from past efforts. It runs on the console you've got in your house right now! Faces and all! (For context, many games are first shown in slide presentations or as concept trailers.) It was a measure of the developers' confidence to debut the game to press in playable form.

At least it was a measure of confidence before the game crashed.

"That's why we brought two [game consoles]," Côté said with a nervous laugh. This is a man with tens of millions of dollars and hundreds of employees resting on his shoulders. It was clear that he wasn't happy about the crash.

This, he said, is part of why his team's focus on the latest "AC" game is on accomplishable goals: a single game mode (no multiplayer or co-op play, just a single-player campaign), a single game (unlike two last year in "Unity" and "Rogue"), and  versions for only three platforms (Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC). 

More importantly than any of that? "Let's have the game done and let's polish the hell out of [it]," Pelland said. That's game developer-speak for, "Get the game done long before release and round off all the rough edges." Still, it's unclear how meaningful that is compared to previous years. When pushed on that difference, the two men immediately went on the defensive.

"We don't want to comment too much about last year's [game] going forward," Côté said. He may not want to, but he has to if he wants to earn back loyal fans and casual buyers alike. Ubisoft still has plenty of time to try: "Assassin's Creed: Syndicate" launches on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC this holiday.

Whether this year's "Assassin's Creed" will help Ubisoft regain the ground it lost in last year's failed "AC" entry remains to be seen. If nothing else, it is different: a new setting, new main characters (two this time), and a new development team making it.

Head right here for more on what makes "Assassin's Creed: Syndicate" different from previous games in the series.

And here's the first video of the game in action:

SEE ALSO: One Of The Biggest Video Games Of The Year Has A TON Of Bugs

AND: Here's What London Looks Like In The New 'Assassin's Creed'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The new 'Jurassic World' trailer shows why it took $190 million to make this summer blockbuster

The Muppets are coming to ABC in a mockumentary-style television show. The show will premiere this fall and provide a never before seen look into their personal lives. 

Video courtesy of ABC

Follow BI Video: On Facebook

Join the conversation about this story »

It's out with the old and in with the new for network television.

The broadcast networks are unveiling their new series for the 2015-2016 seasons this week in an annual event called Upfronts.

At Upfronts, the networks present their fall schedules and upcoming new shows to advertisers in order to entice them to spend their commercial dollars.

This year's fleet of new shows have several name actors attached, including Rob Lowe, John Stamos, Neil Patrick Harris, and even Muppets.

There are also a few shows inspired by big screen flicks, such as Fox's "Minority Report" and ABC's "Uncle Buck" (this time with a black cast). And, of course, comics-inspired shows are still going strong with CBS's "Supergirl," The CW's "DC's Legends of Tomorrow" and Fox's "Lucifer" among this year's batch of new shows. 

*Updated as networks announce decisions and release photos and trailers.

"The Catch" (ABC)

Stars: Mireille Enos, Alimi Ballard, Damon Dayoub, Jay Hayden, Jacky Ido, Bethany Joy Lenz, Rose Rollinse, and Elvy Yost

Expected premiere: Thursdays, Midseason 2015

Synopsis: From Shondaland’s Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers ("Scandal," "How to Get Away With Murder), “The Catch” is a new thriller centered on the strong, successful Alice Martin (Mireille Enos). She’s a fraud investigator who’s about to be the victim of fraud by her fiancé. Between her cases, she is determined to find him before it ruins her career.

Watch the trailer:

"The Family" (ABC)

Stars: Joan Allen, Allison Pill, Margot Bingham, Zach Gilford, Liam James, Floriana Lima, Madeline Arthur, Rarmian Newton, Rupert Graves, and Andrew McCarthy

Expected premiere: Midseason 2015

Synopsis: This thriller follows the return of a politician’s young son who was presumed dead after disappearing over a decade earlier. As the mysterious young man is welcomed back into his family suspicions emerge — is he really who he says he is?

Watch the trailer:

"Dr. Ken" (ABC)

Stars: Ken Jeong, Suzy Nakamura, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Dave Foley, Jonathan Slavin, Albert Tsai, and Krista Marie Yu

Expected premiere: Fridays, Fall 2015

Synopsis: Doctor turned actor/comedian Ken Jeong ("Community," "The Hangover"), plays Dr. Ken, a brilliant physician with no bedside manner on this new multicamera comedy. He is always trying to be a good doctor, as well as a good husband and dad to his two kids. However, these good intentions have a way of driving everyone crazy at both work and at home. Luckily, his therapist wife Allison (Suzy Nakamura) is just the right partner to keep things sane.

Watch the trailer:

Shonda Rhimes is arguably the most successful female showrunner on television right now with three big shows — "Grey's Anatomy," (yes, that's still on the air) "Scandal," and "How to Get Away With Murder" — and she's about to become even more powerful. 

Among the new shows ABC just unveiled for its upcoming 2015/2016 schedule is another female-driven thriller, "The Catch."

The series will follow Alice (Mirelle Enos), a fraud investigator who gets duped by her fiancé (Damon Dayoub) who then sets out for revenge.

Rhimes has become a huge pillar for the network, pumping out hit after hit since 2005's "Grey's Anatomy," including its spinoff "Private Practice," which ended in 2013. Shondaland, the name of Rhimes' production company, has even become the name for her scheduling block on ABC Thursdays.

"The Catch" is set for a midseason premiere in 2016.

Check out the first trailer for the series below:

SEE ALSO: All the TV shows that have just been canceled

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The Muppets are getting their own TV show on ABC — here's the hilarious trailer

On Monday, Fox announced that the upcoming 15th season of  "American Idol" would be its last.

The show's host, Ryan Seacrest, stated after the news that "'American Idol' has been a big part of my life for so long, it's frankly hard to imagine it without it."

But while Seacrest has been a part of the show for 15 seasons, his season one co-host, Brian Dunkleman, wasn't as lucky.

Dunkleman left the show after its initial season in 2002 to pursue stand-up comedy and acting. Meanwhile, "Idol" went on to become one of the most successful TV shows of all time and made Seacrest a millionaire many times over.

After news of the show's cancelation on Monday, Dunkleman sarcastically tweeted to his nearly 3,000 followers:

The internet was thrilled with Dunkleman's sense of humor about the situation, and he received quite the response:

In his Twitter bio, Dunkleman refers to himself as a "Television history footnote."

The now 43-year-old admitted during a 2011 interview on the "Joy Behar Show" that leaving "Idol" may not have been his smartest move. "Listen, I’d like to say I was just young and stupid, but the truth is, I really wasn’t that young," he said. "I mean listen, I was a comedian and an actor… What I wanted to do with my life is be an actor and that’s going great," he joked while giving the thumbs-up.

Since "Idol," Dunkleman has appeared in bit roles on TV and in movies, participated in "Celebrity Fit Club," and performs stand-up comedy in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family.

In Fox's press call announcing the cancelation on Monday, network execs promised the show's final season would be full of "surprises we can have for the fans to make it feel special."

What kinds of surprises? Fox is still in discussions, but co-chairman and co-CEO Dana Walden said former show judges had already expressed interest in making appearances during the final season. When Brian Dunkleman was suggested by a reporter on the call, Walden responded, "Yes! Where's Brian nowadays? If you give me his number, I will call and invite him."

Dunkleman regularly jokes about his time on "Idol" on Twitter:

SEE ALSO: 18 TV shows that have just been canceled

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The Muppets are getting their own TV show on ABC — here's the hilarious trailer

Fox revealed the first trailer for its upcoming TV show based on the hit 2002 movie "Minority Report," directed by Steven Spielberg. The new show, which is co-executive produced by Spielberg, picks up ten years after the original movie and focuses on the characters known as a "pre-cogs" who are people with the ability to see crimes before they are actually committed.

"Minority Report" premieres on Fox this Fall.

Follow BI Video: On Facebook

Join the conversation about this story »

Rapper Kanye West included a joking reference to his infamous attack on former President George W. Bush in his commencement speech at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on Monday.

West, who has had a series of headline-making comments over the years, began his address by describing the phrase "I'm sorry" as "something that you can use a lot."

"It gives you opportunity to give your opinion, apologize for it, and give your opinion again," West said.

He continued by hinting at one of the more controversial opinions he expressed during his career — his critique of Bush.

"George Bush," West said, before taking a lengthy pause. 

The audience clapped and laughed after hearing West mentioned the president's name. West smiled at them before continuing in a way the crowd didn't necessarily expect. He said Bush, "has some very cool self portraits.

"I didn't know he was an artist," West said to further laughs.

West's comments about Bush's post-presidency artistic endeavors were far more positive than his past assessment of the president.  

In one of the more infamous moments of his career, West appeared on a national telethon held following 2005's Hurricane Katrina and declared, "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

West's remark became one of the more high profile critiques of the Bush administration's response to the hurricane in the majority African-American parts of New Orleans, Louisiana.

In his 2010 memoir, "Decision Points," Bush described West's accusation that he did not respond to the storm quickly enough because he lacked concern for black people as "an all time low" of his time in the White House.

"He called me a racist. And I didn't appreciate it then. I don't appreciate it now," Bush said in an interview with Matt Lauer.

Watch West's full speech below.  

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's how President Obama starts every morning

David and Victoria Beckham met Stephen Hawking for the first time Monday night at a Google event.

The A-list couple were so taken with their fellow Brit, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, that they both shared the meeting on social media.

David Beckham captioned his photo: "It was an absolute honour to meet Professor Hawking. What he said to me was truly amazing."

Hawking playfully typed to Beckham: "I’m always being compared to you as a British icon and sometimes you rate higher and sometimes I do."

Victoria Beckham also posted about the encounter:

"Thank you @Google for an inspiring evening, was an honour to meet Stephen Hawking x vb"

On Tuesday, it was also confirmed that Professor Hawking will make "a special guest appearance" at the Glastonbury Festival next month.

SEE ALSO: David Beckham threw himself a lavish, star-studded 40th-birthday party in Morocco

MORE: Stephen Hawking gave a priceless gift to filmmakers of the Oscar-winning movie about his life

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: David Beckham's Joining The Fight Against Ebola

Most fans of reality TV shows give their favorite franchises some leeway when it comes to the word "reality," especially when their guilty pleasure of choice is "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," which depicts a family of incredibly image-conscious PR pros.

But one KUWTK superfan, Mariah Smith, knows exactly how cut-and-pasted each episode is, because she spends up to twelve hours a week figuring it out for her blog.

Smith runs the Tumblr Keeping Up With the Kontinuity Errors, where she painstakingly matches every scene of every KUWTK episode with paparazzi shots or Instagram selfies posted by the cast members.

Through this methodology, she determines when each scene was shot.

Unsurprisingly, she's found plenty of proof that the show is often shot completely out of order.

For example, this past week on KUWTK, Kylie Jenner deals with scrutiny from the press about her lip injections. In an early scene of this episode, Kylie sits down with a reporter from New Zealand's Remix magazine.

He asks about her lips, and she looks uncomfortable and avoids talking about possible injections.

In a confessional interview (when you see the reality star talking directly to the camera about what's happening in the scene), she says that she's not ready to admit that she has used fillers.

Several scenes later, she talks with Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Amy Astley, and says in another confessional that she's "now ready to be honest about her appearance and stop dodging questions about her lips," Smith writes on KUWTKE.

But Smith found that the Teen Vogue interview took place on Feb. 6, 2015, while the Remix interview — which was presented as having taken place earlier — was actually shot on Feb. 10, four days later.

"Maybe Kylie was too busy studying for a midterm, and forgot mere days ago she was ready to live her truth," Smith posits on KUWTKE.

Smith told Business Insider that she got into her unofficial gig as the internet's foremost KUWTK plot de-bunker because she absolutely loves the show.

"I never want it to be taken as me bashing them, like never," she said. "But I feel like people deserve to know the truth. What they're presenting as real isn't real at all, but we can still watch and enjoy."

She's been watching the show for years, but only started her blog this season. The seed was planted back in season eight, though, when Kim's pregnancy presented some continuity challenges, as pictured at the top of this post.

In the 16th episode of season eight, Smith thought she noticed that Kim Kardashian was pregnant in one scene, but not pregnant anymore in a scene that allegedly took place shortly after that scene. In the second scene, she is suspiciously holding a pillow over her stomach the entire time.

Smith is unsure whether this sequence was actually shot out of order because she hasn't cross-checked it with Instagram posts or paparazzi shots. But she says Kim's hairstyles speak for themselves; they varied immensely throughout the first few scenes of S8,E16.

"It was staged so obviously that it offended me but completely enlightened me," Smith said. "I realized this could really be something. I wish I had realized it sooner."

Smith says she wouldn't have been able to embark on this project any time earlier than the last few years, as the Kardashians have steadily beefed up their Instagram presence since then.

"When I first started thinking about doing this, they weren't as big on social media, so it was harder to look at things like their glam or their makeup," she said. "Then, this year, I realized just how much they post and how much you're aware of them every day, so it made the most sense. It's a perfect storm, essentially." 

Smith says she has a photographic memory when it comes to the Kardashians' social media posts. I asked if this incredibly specific skill was really only applicable to Kardashian selfies.

"Honestly, it is," she said with a laugh, "and that's been really unfortunate."

To create each blog post on KUWTKE, Smith watches each new episode when it airs on Sunday night. Then, she watches it again to take notes of each scene and describe the action of the scene. The next day, she will go through each scene and analyze the wardrobe, nails, hair and makeup of the characters onscreen, then find the Instagram photos or paparazzi photos that match the looks.

From there, she selects which scenes are most important, which errors are most egregious, and her favorite moments from the show. Then, she writes her post. She sometimes watches an episode up to four times before writing about it.

"This is so embarrassing," she said, "but sometimes it can take up to 12 hours to figure it all out."

Smith works in TV production, which has helped her pick up on other little things on the show. For example, she says crew members are frequently visible in reflective surfaces. In fact, she noticed that the chrome appliances in Kris's kitchen used to constantly show crew members' reflections, but that they no longer do. She speculates that they've been treated to stop showing reflections.

She is also good at spotting what seems like the handiwork of production assistants, like a pizza-box marriage proposal that allegedly came from a Kylie stalker in a recent episode that centered around Kris's growing security concerns and paranoia.

"There's no way Domino's would be getting past a gated community in Calabasas," she said. "Think of the logistics. And there would be a line producer, like, 'We didn't order this, what's this doing here?'"

In that episode, according to Smith's research, essentially an entire storyline was shot in one day, on Feb. 3, 2015. She deduced this by cross-checking Kylie'sVineaccount, paparazzi photos of Kendall, a Kim selfie from later in the day and a Khloé selfie with the Kardashians' and Jenners' hair, makeup and/or clothes from the scenes.

"All in one day, Kris hired, fired, then complained about the lack of security on her property," Smith alleges on KUTWKE.

So what attracted Smith to "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" in the first place? At first, she said, she didn't know much about the family, but felt that their lifestyles and personalities hit a perfect sweet spot between relatable and unattainable. 

"To me, it makes me laugh and makes me feel happy," she said of the show's apparent lack of real-ness. "They have the confidence to say, 'We're gonna give you this reality show, but get this: it's not gonna be real.' It just blows my mind."

Smith has picked up on plenty of shooting tricks from her exhaustive work cataloging the Kardashians' onscreen beauty looks. For example, the family often has what she calls "inside days," where they shoot multiple scenes inside one person's house, changing only their clothes and the room where they're shooting. Then, Smith says, the scenes are dispersed across multiple episodes to serve multiple plot points.

Sometimes, the cast resorts to wearing clothes they'd just worn a few days earlier in order to differentiate the scenes as they move through the house, Smith said. When someone is reusing an outfit but their hair or makeup is different from how it appears in an Instagram photo in that outfit, Smith knows they're shooting on an "inside day."

"I have so many theories," she joked. "Sometimes I feel like I need to take a break and stop thinking about them."

Smith doesn't think the Kardashians will quell their selfie habits because of her blog.

"They're not gonna stop Instagramming," she said. "And if they tried to change their looks up more than they already do, they would never sleep. They wake up at like 5 a.m. to get into glam and go to the gym and do their full little day putzing around town. If they had to fit in another three-hour makeup session and one-hour styling session? They can't."

The most surprising thing she's learned while chronicling season 10 has been how long the Kardashians work.

"They do actually work long hours filming the show," she said. "Sometimes, the crew is there at 7 a.m. and they get glam and they're still in that look and it's like 8 p.m. that night."

Smith reiterated that the show's not-quite-cinema-verité approach doesn't cheapen her love for the family as entertainers.

"They could come out tomorrow and hold a press conference and say this show was created by Shonda Rhimes and is a dramedy," she said, "and I would say, 'Okay, sign me up for however many more episodes you have left.' It doesn't matter if it's completely scripted. It's all about enjoyment."

SEE ALSO: 18 tips for getting on a reality TV show

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How to skip long lines at the airport — just like the 1%

Talks of the twisted metal and high octane vehicles that would populate “Mad Max: Fury Road” began when director George Miller showed production designer Colin Gibson three walls filled with storyboards of the film 15 years ago.

“He said, ‘One day this could all be yours,’” Gibson recalls to Business Insider of what Miller presented him. Gibson just didn’t realize how far away that “one day” would be.

Gibson began building the cars to be featured in the film as far back as 2003, when it was originally going to be shot in South Africa with Mel Gibson returning as Max, a loner in a post-apocalyptic world who navigates through the different gasoline-starved tribes in order to survive.

But the plug was pulled on the film leading up to the Iraq War, and the project lingered in development hell until four years ago.

The final version is an action-adventure film starring Tom Hardy as Max and Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa. Responsible for driving the massive “War Rig” to replenish her village’s gasoline needs, Furiosa goes rogue and dashes in the truck to parts unknown in hopes of freedom, picking up Max along the way. The village’s evil ruler, Immortal Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) unleashes his “War Boys” and their gonzo fleet of vehicles to hunt them down.

 Built over 11 months before production began in late 2011, the close to 200 vehicles Gibson created range from a sedan with massive metal spikes sticking out of it to a giant truck covered with stereo speakers.

Below, Gibson breaks down some of the most memorable vehicles.

Interceptor:

The iconic vehicle from the “Mad Max” franchise is Max’s 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT. The super-charged car made its first appearance in "Mad Max" in 1979 when Max was chasing down bad guys with it while he was still a cop. It returned in “The Road Warrior” (1981) where Max used it to escape the clutches of the evil forces who want to take it from him for the gasoline.

Gibson knew the importance of the car, so he didn’t make many changes to its look. “All we had to do with it was make it another 45 years older,” he said. “More rust. More rattle. Less original parts.” But with Hardy now as Max, Gibson also saw the car as a passing of the torch. “When we changed Maxes, it becomes even more important that we have that particular handoff.”

The War Rig:

Like in “The Road Warrior,” much of the action in "Fury Road" is on a massive 18-wheeler. But like all things in the movie, it’s unlike any you’ve ever seen. With two V8 engines, and modified cabins throughout, Gibson created a vehicle that the audience wouldn’t get tired of looking at half-way through the movie.

“War Rig was one built more to a prescription than an imagination,” he explains. “It was such an important part of the story that George and the storyboard artists had come to a greater consensus of what was required.” Gibson points out that there are up to 13 different characters inside the rig at any one time through the movie. Gibson said the classic John Wayne western, “Stagecoach,” was an inspiration for creating a moving location where the drama plays out over a long stretch of time.

The Gigahorse:

For Immorten Joe’s vehicle Gibson thought of a creation that would suit a crazed post-apocalyptic leader. What he came up with, he says, is his favorite of the vehicles. Stacked with two 1959 Cadillac Coupe De Villes on top of massive tires, Gibson’s thinking was “in a world where there was barely one of everything, it seemed the only person liable to have a pair would be the lead villain.”

Plymouth Rock:

To create this porcupine on wheels, Gibson took inspiration from the tribe that would drive them, the Buzzards. “George saw the Buzzards as the lowest common denominator,” he said.

The first group to go after The War Rig after Furiosa tries to escape, Gibson said they are the “scrap merchants” of the tribes and was allowed to use the rustiest of materials for their vehicles. “We used bent and battered steel panels,” he said. “All the spikes and panels were built out of old cars. But the stunt guys expressed some concern about rolling them at high speeds into rocks, so I had to replicate a couple where the steel spikes were stiffened goat skin which buckled and were less dangerous.”

The Doof Wagon:

Perhaps the most challenging vehicle, for all involved in the film, was the bandwagon that follows Immortal Joe’s armada of twisted vehicles into battle. “George said every army has a little drummer boy and ours was Spinal Tap on acid,” said Gibson.

The Doof Wagon is a big rig strapped with massive drums in the rear, endless speakers in front of it, and a stage where the blind and disfigured Coma the Doof Warrior rocks out on his flam-throwing guitar. Gibson said it was the most difficult vehicle to run as its six foot wheels (which they took from old mining tractors) would get buried in the sand. And then there was the noise. “George Miller has very expansive tastes so everything has to be real,” said Gibson. That means the speakers blared music all the time. “Some of the actors could barely hear themselves act,” he said. But Gibson made the error of when creating the flame-throwing guitar that it did not also play. “I foolishly built it as a prototype,” he said. “George was most emphatic that the guitarist had to be able to play, so we went back to the drawing board and made something that could play and shoot flames.”

With a decade-worth of storyboards for the film, Gibson said the main thing he had to do to get an idea of how to make the vehicles was to write some backstory.

“After conversations with George about the different tribes, I put together this bible of looks and from that we drew the inspiration for each vehicle,” Gibson tells Business Insider.

Some of the cars and trucks created came from scrap material Gibson’s team found in junk yards throughout Australia. But mainly what was used came from what Aussie’s call the “paddock.” 

“It’s at the back of your house where you drop off two cars that you intend to work on one day,” Gibson described. “So we were out searching for other people’s passions that hadn’t come to pass.”

SEE ALSO: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ has no plot but it's still incredible

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what 'Game of Thrones' stars look like in real life

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly is worried about the decline of Christianity in the US and he attributed some of that to Hollywood and the rap industry Tuesday night.

A new Pew Research Center poll found that more Americans than ever do not identify as Christian. The drop was sharpest among the young, which O'Reilly connected to the influence of the media. 

"What's happening? There is no question that people of faith are being marginalized by a secular media and pernicious entertainment. The rap industry, for example, often glorifies depraved behavior and that sinks into the minds of some young people, the group that is most likely to reject religion," O'Reilly said during his show's "Talking Points" segment. "Also many movies and TV shows promote non-traditional values."

As a result of this media landscape, the "O'Reilly Factor" host argued Americans have become more selfish. 

"Truth is if you are a person of faith, the media generally thinks you are a loon. The prevailing wisdom, especially among young Americans, is whatever is good for me is good, period; the overall good be damned. Pardon the pun," he continued.

O'Reilly went on to compare the US to the Roman Empire, where he said citizens also became increasingly self-centered before it ultimately collapsed. He warned the same thing could happen to America.

"Any student of history knows that when a nation turns inward, towards the pursuit of individual gratification, the country is in trouble. Rome, the best example: The citizens there ultimately rejected sacrificing for the republic and the empire collapsed. Talking Points believes the same thing is happening in America today, but it can be fixed if the electorate finally wakes up. That is a big if," he said. 

Watch below: 

(via Talking Points Memo)

SEE ALSO: Bill O'Reilly once wrote a wild story about the incident at the center of his scandal

Join the conversation about this story »