Gayle King to One-Up The Morning Show By Going to Space With Katy Perry
In a federal prison somewhere, Bradley Jackson is kicking herself and mumbling, “A pop star! Now that would’ve really rated!”
The source of Ms. Jackson’s chagrin: CBS Mornings on Thursday announced that anchor Gayle King will travel to the boundary of space this spring as part of a Blue Origin flight that also will include “Roar” singer Katy Perry.
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In the past, Blue Origin has taken other civilians up to the Kármán Line, aka the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. Notably, Good Morning America host Michael Strahan traveled with the private space-flight company in 2021. But while his trip included Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of astronaut Alan Shepard, it did not feature any MTV Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award winners. So.
Strahan’s Right Stuff moment also didn’t take place after Apple TV+’s The Morning Show shot one of its female anchors, Bradley (played by Reese Witherspoon), into the starry blue as part of a ratings-grab segment spearheaded by tech bro/wannabe media mogul Paul Marks (portrayed by Jon Hamm). (Read a full recap here.) Now would be a good time to mention that Blue Origin’s founder is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who now owns The Washington Post.
Per CBS, the all-female flight’s manifest also includes former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, journalist Lauren Sánchez, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn. Perry will be there, we assume to conduct research for a follow-up to her 2011 hit “E.T.”
Here’s hoping that King’s space jaunt goes better than The Morning Show‘s Bradley’s did: Video and audio communication cut out at a pivotal point, making everyone on the ground fear that Witherspoon’s character had just Major Tom’d herself — and then, when she returned to Earth, she kicked off a season that ended with her turning herself in to the FBI for suppressing evidence related to her brother’s involvement in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.
Watch CBS Morning‘s announcement about the scheduled launch, then hit the comments with your thoughts!
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