NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� In a year marked by unexpected winners and losers, television was keeping tabs.
A Hollywood star . A battered country stood up to an invader, again and again. The Jan. 6 insurrection became an . A monarch was . Television entertainment had its usual highs and lows.
Here are some of 2022's defining TV moments from the perspective of The Associated Press' television and media writers.
THE SLAP
The Oscars are Hollywood鈥檚 biggest platform and Will Smith, one of its biggest stars, was expected to reign with a best-actor award for the tennis dad biopic 鈥淜ing Richard.鈥� But Smith lost while winning. Angered by a joke that presenter Chris Rock made at the expense of wife Jada Pinkett Smith, he strode onstage and slapped Rock, hard, drawing gasps from the TV and theater audience. A during his acceptance speech that March night and . The film , but the Oscar , 鈥淓mancipation," are being debated.
HUTCHINSON'S TESTIMONY
Frankly, expectations were low when the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection scheduled public hearings. Congressional hearings tend to produce more heat than light, as preening politicians compete for sound bites to impress their supporters. But with only two Republicans on the committee 鈥� both of them appalled by what happened at the Capitol 鈥� the committee put on sharp, tightly-focused presentations, aided by a former ABC News producer. All made for compelling viewing, but of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who as events spiraled out of control.
DEPP vs HEARD
Last year, Britney Spears' bid to end her conservatorship was the mesmerizing celebrity legal battle. This year, the courtroom crossfire between and 鈥� all playing out on TV 鈥� was the main attraction. Their defamation suits put the two actors in the barred from any Hollywood set. As the exes traded allegations of assault and substance abuse, the trial became increasingly sad, seamy and inescapable. The jury's June . Heard might not be the only loser, experts warned: the spectacle and its outcome could have a chilling effect on women who might press abuse claims.
UKRAINE BRAVERY
The images of war are always awful, and produced many of them. Yet the many moments of bravery shown by the Ukrainian people and their leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, changed the perception of a conflict many feared would be an ugly rout, and rallied the world to their side. Pick your moments 鈥� a woman who offered sunflower seeds to a Russian soldier so they can sprout from his pants pocket where his body falls, the defiantly profane response from Ukrainians stationed on a remote island when Russians told them to surrender, for support. It was the stuff of heroes.
KENOBI-VADER REMATCH
Those who find Disney's ever-expanding 鈥淪tar Wars鈥� universe is leaving them cold may have warmed up after the season finale of The epic, roughly four-minute lightsaber battle between Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and former apprentice Anakin Skywalker aka Darth Vadar (Hayden Christensen) was a fierce back-and-forth with, of course, good and evil hanging in the balance. But it was the unmasking of Vadar that sent Disney+ viewers into a stratospheric tizzy, his scarred face and psyche revealing a man beyond redemption.
YELLOWSTONE
When in on Nov. 13 to watch the season premiere of on the otherwise invisible Paramount and some sister cable networks, it was the most-watched scripted show of the new television season. The Western is the definition of a broadly popular show, yet wasn't on a broadcast network, which were conceived on the idea of reaching as many people as possible. You could call that a failure of imagination that typifies the decline of the networks, but the truth was they never really had a shot at 鈥淵ellowstone,鈥� which was initially developed at HBO but went nowhere there. For every television success, there are people kicking themselves because they didn't see it coming.
REAL-LIFE CROWN
wasn鈥檛 America鈥檚 monarch, but her hit home and drew blanket coverage in the former British colony. Maybe maybe it was her conspiratorial smile when she . Her dedication to service and a with echoes of history certainly merited attention. But the catnip for TV came when brothers William and Harry and wives Kate and Meghan, any tensions publicly masked, . Princess Anne provided a memorable grace note: A deep curtsy as her mother鈥檚 coffin was carried by her.
THE WALKING DEAD
When aired its final episode on Nov. 20, it was the end of an era for the quintessential punch-above-your-weight AMC cable network. How much that was the case became clear less than two weeks later, when company chairman James Dolan sent a memo to staff saying CEO Christina Spade was out after three months and large-scale layoffs were coming. AMC is hardly the only media company, or cable network, that is hurting. 鈥淲e are primarily a content company and the mechanisms for the monetization of content are in disarray,鈥� Dolan said. Shed a tear for the boutique network that gave us 鈥淢ad Men,鈥� 鈥淏reaking Bad鈥� and 鈥淏etter Call Saul,鈥� and cable networks in general.
ELECTION CALM
With memories of the 2020 election chaos fresh, news organizations prepared for a midterm election night where democracy itself could be in peril. . Certainly, there were close elections and control of Congress wasn't clear for several days. While there were a few exceptions, the election ran smoothly and most candidates accepted the results. And the story became those results: an that defied history and expectations.
David Bauder And Lynn Elber, The Associated Press
