!['Annie Live!' worked a little too hard but mostly delivered a good-luck night](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/211201165733-01-annie-live-nbc-super-tease.jpg)
'Annie Live!' worked a little too hard but mostly delivered a good-luck night
CNN
After last year's "Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Musical" -- a dual threat as both a critical disaster and a ratings flop -- NBC returned to more fertile territory with its latest holiday presentation, "Annie Live!" Incorporating a live audience, the show more closely approximated the energy of a theatrical experience, with its main flaw stemming from trying too hard to please.
Having a crowd actually watch the show helped overcome one of the raps on this format over the last decade, mounting some memorable shows but struggling to capture the unique qualities of an in-person setting.
On the downside, the audience (one suspects with a degree of coaching) sounded a bit too appreciative and enthusiastic, applauding during numbers and carrying on as if this "Annie" was frankly a better show than it is or was.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250215102651.jpg)
In less than a month in office the Trump administration has simultaneously dismantled foreign aid programs that support fragile democracies abroad and put on leave federal workers who protect US elections at home in a move that current and former officials say abandons decades of American commitments to democracy.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250215092938.jpg)
Sen. Mitch McConnell was a generational force for the Republican Party — using procedural tactics and political will to stymie much of former President Barack Obama’s agenda, hand President Donald Trump key first-term political victories and deliver a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court majority. Now he’s the odd man out.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250215043617.jpg)
The Trump administration is forcing out senior leadership at the National Archives and Records Administration in a major shakeup, according to a source familiar. President Donald Trump has been highly critical of the archives since the agency asked the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s mishandling of classified documents after he left office.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250215004209.jpg)
The morning after the mass resignation of prosecutors sparked a crisis inside the Trump Justice Department, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove led a meeting with the Justice Department’s public integrity section. His message: they had to choose one career lawyer to file a dismissal of the corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to three people briefed on the meeting.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250214171231.jpg)
Seventh prosecutor in Eric Adams case resigns and calls out Trump’s former lawyer in scathing letter
A federal prosecutor assigned to the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams resigned Friday in a blistering letter that accused top leaders at the Justice Department of looking for a “fool” to dismiss the criminal charges.