Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - May 27, 2021

If you haven't gotten your COVID vaccination, what would it take to get you to the doctor's? How about a chance at a million-dollars? That's what they're doing in Ohio --and it's working. OH Gov. MIKE DeWINE said the state's Vax-a-Million Lottery has increased the state's COVID-19 vaccination rate by 45-percent! You must be at lease 18 years old to enter the lottery, but the winners of the five lotteries will each get a million dollars... and their vaccinations, of course. For younger kids, aged 12-17, they could win a college scholarship. Other states that also are holding vaccination lotteries include New York and Maryland.

They finally scheduled the Tony Awards from last year --the 2020 Tonys will air on September 26th on the streaming platform Paramount+. Broadway shows are scheduled to resume September 2nd, so far.

Tube talk: Remember the Garbage Pail Kids? It's gonna be a TV show. HBO Max says it's gonna be an animated series along with “gross-out humor” --despite being a family-friendly show. The Garbage Pail Kids began 35 years ago as trading cards from Topps. No word on voices for the cast yet.

More tube news: Look for KELLY CLARKSON to take over ELLEN DeGENERES’ daytime talk show slot. As you know, earlier this month, Ellen said she's going to end her talk show in 2022 after Season 19. And Kelly will reportedly get the Ellen time slot in most markets as well. Kelly's show is currently airing on 200 stations.

Movie news: A new study from the French League Against Cancer has found that French movies show smoking in nearly all the films made in that country or by French directors. As you can imagine, the group is a bit angry about all that smoking and says film makers are (cough) glamorizing the practice simply by putting a character smoking, adding ashtrays on tables, or having a character talking about smoking. And it says 90-percent of the 150 films surveyed from 2015 to 2019 contained some kind of "smoking event." They want directors to stop using smoking scenes and make the government cut public subsidies for movies that show smoking "on purpose."

Fast food: McDonald's has just put together a brand-new "BTS Meal" at participating locations. The meal is based on the group's signature order, and includes a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, medium Fries, and a medium Coke, plus two limited-time dipping sauces previously only available in South Korea: Sweet Chili and Cajun. And in addition to the meals, BTS fans can also pick up a new “BTS x McDonald’s” line of merchandise. That would include stuff like hats, Sweet Chili and Cajun sauce tote bags, hoodies, purple bathrobes, socks and sandals --but it's only available through their Weverse Shop app. Head here for the app from Apple.