title: Baleen whale

text: Commercial whaling was historically important as an industry well throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Whaling was at that time a sizable European industry with ships from Britain, France, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany, sometimes collaborating to hunt whales in the Arctic. By the early 1790s, whalers, namely the British (Australian) and Americans, started to focus efforts in the South Pacific; in the mid-1900s, over 50,000 humpback whale were taken from the South Pacific. At its height in the 1880s, U.S. profits turned to USD10,000,000, equivalent to US$225,000,000 today. Commonly exploited species included arctic whales such as the gray whale, right whale, and bowhead whale because they were close to the main whaling ports, like New Bedford. After those stocks were depleted, rorquals in the South Pacific were targeted by nearly all whaling organizations; however, they often out-swam whaling vessels. Whaling rorquals was not effective until the harpoon cannon was invented in the late 1860s. Whaling basically stopped when stocks of all species were depleted to a point that they could not be harvested on a commercial scale. Whaling was controlled in 1982 when the International Whaling Commission (IWC) placed a moratorium setting catch limits to protect species from dying out from over-exploitation, and eventually banned it:


title: Baleen whale

text: As of 2021, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recognizes 15 mysticete species (while not yet officially recognizing Rice's whale as a species, it still gives it a conservation status as a distinct population segment). Two species—the North Atlantic right whale (with only around 366 individuals left) and Rice's whale (with less than 100 individuals left)—are considered critically endangered. Three more are classified as endangered (the North Pacific right whale, the blue whale, and the sei whale), one as vulnerable (the fin whale), one as near-threatened (Antarctic minke whale), and one as data deficient (Omura's whale). Species that live in polar habitats are vulnerable to the effects of ongoing climate change, particularly declines in sea ice, as well as ocean acidification.


title: Baleen whale

text: The whale-watching industry and anti-whaling advocates argue that whaling catches "friendly" whales that are curious about boats, as these whales are the easiest to catch. This analysis claims that once the economic benefits of hotels, restaurants and other tourist amenities are considered, hunting whales is a net economic loss. This argument is particularly contentious in Iceland, as it has among the most-developed whale-watching operations in the world and the hunting of minke whales resumed in August 2003. Brazil, Argentina and South Africa argue that whale watching is a growing billion-dollar industry that provides more revenue than commercial whaling would provide. Peru, Uruguay, Australia, and New Zealand also support proposals to permanently forbid whaling south of the Equator, as Solor (an island of Indonesia) is the only place of the Southern Hemisphere that takes whales. Anti-whaling groups, such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), claim that countries which support a pro-whaling stance are damaging their economies by driving away anti-whaling tourists.


title: Baleen whale

text: Commercial whaling was historically important for the world economy. All species were exploited, and as one type's stock depleted, another type was targeted. The scale of whale harvesting decreased substantially through the 1960s as all whale stocks had been depleted, and practically stopped in 1988 after the International Whaling Commission placed a moratorium which banned whaling for commercial use. Several species that were commercially exploited have rebounded in numbers; for example, gray whales may be as numerous as they were prior to whaling, making it the first marine mammal to be taken off the endangered species list. The Southern right whale was hunted to near extinction in the mid-to-late 20th century, with only a small (unknown) population around Antarctica. Because of international protection, the Southern right whale's population has been growing 7% annually since 1970. Conversely, the eastern stock of North Atlantic right whale was extirpated from much of its former range, which stretched from the coast of North Africa to the North Sea and Iceland; it is thought that the entire stock consists of only ten individuals, making the eastern stock functionally extinct.


title: Baleen whale

text: Baleen whales continue to be harvested. Only three nations take whales: Iceland, Norway, and Japan. All these nations are part of the IWC, with Norway and Iceland rejecting the moratorium and continuing commercial whaling. Japan, being part of the IWC, whales under the Scientific Permit stated in Article VIII in the Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, which allows the taking of whales for scientific research. Japan has had two main research programs: the Joint Aquatic Resources Permit Application (JARPA) and the Japanese Research Program in the North (JARPN). JARPN is focused in the North Pacific and JARPA around the Antarctic. JARPA mainly caught Antarctic minke whales, catching nearly 7,000; to a far lesser extent, they also caught fin whales. Animal-rights activist groups, such as the Greenpeace, object to Japan's scientific whaling, with some calling it a substitute for commercial whaling. In 2014, the International Court of Justice (the UN judicial branch) banned the taking of whales for any purpose in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary; however, Japan refuses to stop whaling and has only promised to cut their annual catches by a third (around 300 whales per year).


title: Baleen whale

text: Baleen whales can also be affected by humans in more indirect ways. For species like the North Atlantic right whale, which migrates through some of the world's busiest shipping lanes, the biggest threat is from being struck by ships. The Lloyd's mirror effect results in low frequency propeller sounds not being discernible near the surface, where most accidents occur. Combined with spreading and acoustic shadowing effects, the result is that the whale is unable to hear an approaching vessel before it has been run over or entrapped by the hydrodynamic forces of the vessel's passage. A 2014 study noted that a lower vessel speed correlated with lower collision rates. The ever-increasing amount of ocean noise, including sonar, drowns out the vocalizations produced by whales, notably in the blue whale which produces the loudest vocalization, which makes it harder for them to communicate. Blue whales stop producing foraging D calls once a mid-frequency sonar is activated, even though the sonar frequency range (1–8 kHz) far exceeds their sound production range (25–100 Hz).


title: Baleen whale

text: Poisoning from toxic substances such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) is generally low because of their low trophic level. However, oil spills can be a significant threat, especially to small populations; the already endangered Rice's whale was likely devastated by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, with some estimates indicating a decline of up to 22% in the species.


title: Baleen whale

text: Some baleen whales can become victims of bycatch, which is especially serious for North Atlantic right whales considering their small number. Right whales feed with a wide-open mouth, risking entanglement in any rope or net fixed in the water column. The rope wraps around their upper jaw, flippers and tail. Some are able to escape, but others remain entangled. If observers notice, they can be successfully disentangled, but others die over a period of months. Other whales, such as humpback whales, can also be entangled.


title: Baleen whale

text: Baleen whales have rarely been kept in captivity. Their large size and appetite make them expensive creatures to maintain. Pools of proper size would also be very expensive to build. For example, a single gray whale calf would need to eat of fish per day, and the pool would have to accommodate the calf, along with ample room to swim. Only gray whales have survived being kept in captivity for over a year. The first gray whale, which was captured in Scammon's Lagoon, Baja California Sur, in 1965, was named Gigi and died two months later from an infection. The second gray whale, which was captured in 1971 from the same lagoon, was named Gigi II and was released a year later after becoming too big. The last gray whale, J.J., beached itself in Marina del Rey, California, where it was rushed to SeaWorld San Diego and, after 14 months, was released because it got too big to take care of. Reaching and , J.J. was the largest creature to be kept in captivity.


title: Baleen whale

text: The Mito Aquarium in Numazu, Shizuoka, Japan, housed three minke whales in the nearby bay enclosed by nets. One survived for three months, another (a calf) survived for two weeks, and another was kept for over a month before breaking through the nets.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: Lee Jin-wook (Korean: 이진욱; born September 16, 1981) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his leading role in the romance series "Glass Castle", the time-traveling series "Nine" (2013), romance series "The Time We Were Not in Love" and "I Need Romance 2012," crime thriller series "Voice" (seasons 2–3)"," a Netflix apocalyptic horror series "Sweet Home" and a supporting role in the comedy film "Miss Granny."


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: Lee Jin-wook studied Environmental Engineering at Cheongju University and made a switch for acting. He began his career in the entertainment industry modelling in commercials. His first minor acting roles consist of "General Hospital The Movie : A Thousand Days" and the 2004 South Korean film "Once Upon a Time in High School" starring Kwon Sang-woo, Ahn Nae-sang, Joo Jin-mo, and Seo Dong-won. Lee landed his first television acting role in the TV Movie, "Bad Girl," in 2004 and later scored other roles in the television dramas "Alone in Love", "Someday", "Smile Again", and "Resurrection" starring Uhm Tae-woong. In 2006, Lee starred in the South Korean film "A Dirty Carnival".


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: Lee achieved commercial success and Hallyu star status after his portrayal as the second male lead in the television series "Air City" where he went on to date his co-star Choi Ji-woo for three years. Lee continued to land lead roles playing the president's son in "Formidable Rivals", a plastic surgeon in the series "Before and After", and a newly married chaebol in "Glass Castle". He also made a cameo in "The Road Home".


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: Lee then served his two-year mandatory military service from May 6, 2009, to March 7, 2011, at the Defense Media Agency of the Ministry of National Defense.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: After his military discharge in 2011, Lee starred in his comeback project, "Myung-wol the Spy" where he played a North Korean agent. He then went on to star in the romantic comedy drama "I Need Romance 2012" alongside Jung Yu-mi. Lee then landed his most high-profile role yet as a TV anchor named Park Sun-woo in the time-traveling romance "Nine" alongside Jo Yoon-hee.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: After receiving positive reception from his role in "Nine," Lee starred in a cinematic film for the first time in 7 years in the 2014 comedy "Miss Granny." He then proceeded to land his first major big-screen role in the 2014 action film "The Target", a remake of the 2010 French action movie "Point Blank". After that,


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: Lee then reunited with the writer and director of "Nine" in the television series "The Three Musketeers", a period drama set during the Joseon era where he played Crown Prince Sohyeon. He continued to star in big-screen films, fantasy romantic comedy "The Beauty Inside" and the time-travel romance crime "Time Renegade". Lee's appearance in "The Beauty Inside" as Woo-jin garnered headline attention in South Korea at the time of its cinematic release as the scene unveiling him as one of Woo-jin's reincarnations left all female audience members in the theatre exclaiming in awe of his appearance. In South Korean pop culture, it is considered one of the top legendary character unveilings in South Korean cinema. He then returned to the small screen with the South Korean remake of the Taiwanese drama "In Time with You," "The Time We Were Not in Love" alongside Ha Ji-won.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: In 2017, Lee was cast in three films; indie films "A Tiger in Winter" and "Road to Utah"; and romance thriller "High Society".


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: In 2018, Lee returned to the small screen with successful crime dramas "Return", and "Voice season 2". The premiere of the second season of Voice set the record for the highest premiere viewership rating for an OCN original drama series. The second season of Voice continued on from the success of the first season, even exceeding first season ratings despite its shorter run. Due to its major success, Voice was picked up for a third season with Lee reprising his role as Do Kang-woo. The third season of Voice continued to be just as successful as the second season.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: In 2019, Lee signed an exclusive contract with BH Entertainment which houses many other top high-profile South Korean actors.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: In 2020, Lee starred in Netflix original series "Sweet Home", a webtoon-based drama about a secluded teen who lives cooped up in his room, scarred from memories of school violence, and experiences creepy events after moving to an apartment following the loss of his family. It premiered on Netflix Korea on December 18, 2020.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: On March 17, 2021, tvN released the full main cast for the drama, "," a fantasy drama that revolves around two characters. The first is a woman who has gone through several reincarnations over the course of 600 years and remembers all of her past lives, and the second is a man who has lived for over 600 years as a bulgasal—a mythical creature that feeds off human blood and is cursed with immortality. Lee starred as Dan Hwal, who used to be human 600 years ago, but turns into a bulgasal during the Joseon dynasty while working as a military official and completing a mission to erase the remnants of the previous dynasty. This drama aired from December 18, 2021 to February 6, 2022 on tvN and was also available for streaming on Netflix.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: On April 22, 2021, CJ E&M and TVING revealed the full star-studded cast for the film, "A Year-End Medley". The film centers around various people who come to Hotel Emrose, each with stories of their own, building new relationships. "A Year-End Medley" is directed by Kwak Jae-yong with notable works such as "My Sassy Girl" and "The Classic," and produced by Hive Media Corp. of "Inside Men", "The Man Standing Next", and "Deliver Us from Evil". Lee starred as Lee Jin-Ho, a plastic surgeon who appears at the hotel’s lounge every Saturday night awaiting his fateful love. Filming began on April 19, 2021 and the film was released in theaters and through TVING on December 29, 2021.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: On December 8, 2021, it was revealed that Lee would take on the role of Seo Joon-hyung in the KakaoTV original web drama, 'Welcome to Wedding Hell', alongside Lee Yeon-hee. 'Welcome to Wedding Hell' explores a couple in their thirties preparing for marriage who come to terms with the true realities of marriage during the preparations for their wedding. Lee's character, Joon-hyung, is described as a pure-hearted, idealistic groom-to-be, which causes concerns in his soon-to-be wife, Kim Na-eun (played by Lee Yeon-hee), who is a described as a realist. This marks Lee's first role in a romantic comedy since 2015 in 'The Time We Were Not in Love'. The web drama aired from May 23 to June 15, 2022 on streaming services, KakaoTV and Netflix.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: On June 15, 2022, Netflix confirmed that Lee would reprise his role as Sang Wook in seasons 2 and 3 of 'Sweet Home'.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: On October 18, 2022, OSEN News reports that Lee will make a special appearance on upcoming Netflix Original, 'The Girl Downstairs' alongside with Bae Suzy and Yang Se-jong.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: After starring together in the 2007 South Korean television series, Air City, Lee went on to date his co-star Choi Ji-woo for three years from 2009 to 2011. The pair cited excessive public and media attention as one of the reasons for their split.


title: Lee Jin-wook

text: In May 2014, Lee was spotted out several times with actress Gong Hyo-jin and it was later confirmed by both their agencies that the pair were dating. However, three months after the confirmation of their dating news, it was revealed that the pair had broken-up.


title: Jonathan Hyde

text: Jonathan Stephen Geoffrey King (born 21 May 1948), known professionally as Jonathan "Nash" Hyde, is an Australian-English actor. Hyde is perhaps best known for roles as Herbert Arthur Runcible Cadbury in the 1994 comedy film "Richie Rich", Samuel Parrish and Van Pelt in the 1995 fantasy adventure film "Jumanji", J. Bruce Ismay in the 1997 epic romantic film "Titanic", Culverton Smith in "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes", Warren Westridge in creature feature film "Anaconda", Dr. Allen Chamberlain in the 1999 adventure horror film "The Mummy", and Eldritch Palmer in the FX TV series "The Strain". Although an Australian citizen, he has mostly lived in the United Kingdom since 1969, after his family left Australia.


title: Jonathan Hyde

text: Hyde was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to a middle-class family. His father was Stephen Geoffrey King, a solicitor. Hyde's interest in law took him to university to study the subject but his passion for performing and the theatre led him to pursue a career in acting. Leaving for London in 1969, he was awarded a coveted place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and won the Bancroft Gold Medal for excellence in his graduating year of 1972. In a 2007 interview with "The Age", Hyde said he didn't make a conscious decision to lose his Australian accent after moving to Britain, and that it still "comes and goes."


title: Jonathan Hyde

text: Hyde is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Among other roles, he played Ferdinand in a 1985 production of John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi". He was an original cast member of "Not the Nine O'Clock News", the first series of which was pulled from broadcast because of the General Election of 1979. Hyde played J. Bruce Ismay, the managing director of the White Star Line in "Titanic", Egyptologist Allen Chamberlain in "The Mummy", and Sam Parrish/Van Pelt, the hunter in "Jumanji". He has been in numerous films including "The Contract", "The Curse of King Tut's Tomb", "Land of the Blind", "The Tailor of Panama", "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking", "Eisenstein" and "Anaconda".


title: Jonathan Hyde

text: He appeared in the 1989 BBC miniseries "Shadow of the Noose" in which he played barrister Edward Marshall Hall. He has also appeared in several television mysteries, including "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" starring Jeremy Brett in which Hyde played Culverton Smith and "Midsomer Murders" as Frank Smythe-Webster.


title: Jonathan Hyde

text: In 2007, Hyde played Dr. Dorn in Chekhov's "The Seagull" and the Earl of Kent in "King Lear" for the Royal Shakespeare Company in a repertory company that included Ian McKellen, Frances Barber, Romola Garai, William Gaunt and Sylvester McCoy. Both plays toured together internationally, before taking up residence in the New London Theatre. The final performance was on 12 January 2008. He reprised his role of Kent in the 2008 television film of "King Lear".


title: Jonathan Hyde

text: Hyde appeared as Lionel Logue, the King's speech therapist in the West End production of "The King's Speech" at Wyndham's Theatre.


title: Jonathan Hyde

text: Hyde married Scottish soprano Isobel Buchanan in 1980. The couple have two daughters, one of whom is actress Georgia King.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (also known as Spy Kids 3: Game Over) is a 2003 American spy action comedy film, the sequel to "", and the third installment overall in the "Spy Kids" film series. Written and directed by Robert Rodriguez and co-produced by Elizabeth Avellán, the film stars Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Elijah Wood, Ricardo Montalbán, Holland Taylor, Mike Judge, Salma Hayek, Matt O'Leary, Emily Osment, Cheech Marin, Bobby Edner, Courtney Jines, Robert Vito, Ryan Pinkston, Danny Trejo, Alan Cumming, Tony Shalhoub, and Sylvester Stallone. It was released in the United States on July 25, 2003 by Dimension Films. Despite mixed reviews, the film grossed $197 million on a $38 million budget.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: Though this was initially intended to be the final installment in the "Spy Kids" film franchise, it was eventually followed by a fourth film, "", in 2011.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: Juni Cortez, sometime after , has retired from the OSS and now lives quietly, working as a private detective, though on a minuscule salary. One day, he is contacted by President Devlin, the former head of the OSS, who informs him that his sister, Carmen Cortez, is missing after a mission gone wrong.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: Arriving at the technological and computer department of the OSS, Juni is reunited with a now reformed Donnagon Giggles and his wife Francesca, who explain that Carmen was captured by the Toymaker, a former OSS informant who was imprisoned in cyberspace by the organization but has since created "Game Over", a virtual reality-based video game which he intends on using to permanently take control of children's minds. Juni agrees to venture into the game, save Carmen, and shut down the game, with only twelve hours to win. He is also informed that his sister was last seen on Level 4.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: In the game, Juni finds the challenges difficult, having only nine lives within the game and already losing one at the start. While roaming a cartoon-like medieval village, he finds three beta-testers, Francis, Arnold, and Rez, who provide him with passage to the Moon and launch him into space, but mostly to eliminate the competition.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: Juni lands hard on the Moon, consequently losing another life, and receives an opportunity to bring in a fellow ally for assistance. He chooses his grandfather Valentin, who uses a wheelchair and has a personal history with the Toymaker. Valentin receives a power-up which gives him a robotic bodysuit, allowing him to walk and possess superhuman strength and durability. Distracted by a butterfly, he abandons Juni, telling him that they will regroup later. Searching for the entrance to Level 2, Juni ventures into a robot battle arena where he fights a girl named Demetra in order to return to Earth and Level 2. In the fight, he receives a robotic, more powerful suit, and he is placed on a huge mecha to combat Demetra. In the 3-round fight, in which he loses another life, he defeats Demetra and he is allowed to keep his power suit.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: He meets the beta-testers again who believe that he is a character named "The Guy", who can supposedly beat the allegedly "un-winnable" Level 5. Rez is unconvinced and challenges Juni to a "Mega-race" involving a multitude of different vehicles, which will allow them onto Level 3. The only apparent rule of this game is "win, at any cost". Juni wins the race with help from Valentin, and Demetra joins the group; she and Juni display romantic feelings for each other, with him giving her a med-pack with extra lives and her providing him with an illegal map of the game. Upon entering level 3, Arnold and Juni are forced to battle each other, the loser getting an immediate game over. During the fight, Juni loses almost all of his lives, but Demetra swaps places with Juni and is defeated, seemingly getting a game over, in turn upsetting Juni.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: The group arrives at Level 4 where Juni finds Carmen, released by the Toymaker, who leads the group on. Carmen notices their grandfather is with them and tells Juni that the Toymaker is the reason their grandfather uses a wheelchair. Juni follows a map to a lava-filled gorge. The group surfs their way through the lava. The OSS finds out about the history between the Toymaker and Valentin. Fearing that Valentin might seek revenge, Donnagon attempts to prevent them from reaching Level 5, but fails, as they fall into the lava and discover that it is harmless, and they reach a cavern where they find the door to Level 5. Outside of the door to Level 5, Carmen asks how much time is remaining, and Juni informs the group that they only have 5 minutes left. After the other gamers start to think that Carmen and Juni are deceivers and Rez threatens to give Juni a game over, the real Guy (Elijah Wood) appears, gives the group a pep talk and zaps the door open and walks in, arrogantly thinking it was easy. However, as part of a booby trap set by the Toymaker, he is struck by lightning which causes him collapse and causes his life count to rapidly drop from 99 to .5 (meaning half of a life), and after The Guy nervously says "Oops.", the life count drops to 0, giving him a permanent Game Over, forcing the group to move on without him.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: In the Level 5 zone, a purple-ish cyberspace, Demetra appears, claiming to have re-entered the game via a glitch but Carmen identifies her as "The Deceiver", a program used to mislead players. Demetra confirms this and apologizes to a stunned Juni before the Toymaker attacks the group with a giant robot. Valentin then appears, holding the entrance back to the real world open so the group can escape. Demetra, shedding a tear, quickly holds the door open so he can go with them. Upon return though, it is revealed that Valentin had released the Toymaker with the villain's robot army now attacking the city.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: Juni and Carmen summon their family members: parents Gregorio and Ingrid, Gregorio's brother Machete, their Grandmother, and Uncle Felix. With too many robots to handle, Juni calls out for everyone to help, summoning characters from the first two films; Fegan Floop, his assistant Minion, the robot children, Dinky Winks and his son, Romero and a spork, as well as Gary and Gerti Giggles. All of the robots are destroyed except for the Toymaker's. Valentin confronts The Toymaker and forgives the Toymaker for what he did to him, which Valentin had been trying to find the Toymaker to do for 30 years. The Toymaker shuts down his robot and joins the rest of the Cortez family and their friends in celebrating their families.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: Additionally, Salma Hayek appears as Francesca Giggles, Steve Buscemi appears as Romero, Bill Paxton appears as Dinky Winks, George Clooney appears as Devlin, Elijah Wood appears as The Guy, Selena Gomez appears as Waterpark Girl, Glen Powell appears as Long-fingered Boy, and James Paxton appears as Dinky Winks Jr.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: The film score was composed by Robert Rodriguez and is the first score for which he takes solo credit. Rodriguez also performs in the "Game Over" band, playing guitar, bass, keyboard and drums, including the title track, "Game Over", performed by Alexa Vega.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: All selections composed by Rodriguez and performed by Texas Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by George Oldziey and Rodriguez.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: The film was released via VHS and DVD on February 24, 2004, by Dimension Home Video. The film's 3-D effect was not removable on the DVD release, but a 2D version ("Spy Kids 3: Game Over") was available on a second disc, and on television airings. In April 2011, the film was re-released on DVD, but only in 2D and named "Spy Kids 3: Game Over".


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: The 2D version was released via Blu-ray on August 2, 2011. On December 4, 2012, Lionsgate released the 3D version as a double feature with "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl" on Blu-ray 3D.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" opened theatrically on July 25, 2003, in 3,344 venues, earning $33,417,739 in its first weekend and ranking first at the North American box office. It is the series' highest-grossing opening weekend. The film ended its run on February 5, 2004, having grossed $111,761,982 domestically and $85,250,000 internationally for a worldwide total of $197,011,982, making it the best performing film in the series.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 45% approval rating based on 143 reviews, with an average rating of 5.42/10. The website's critical consensus states: "The movie will be found wanting if one is not taken in by the 3-D visuals." Metacritic reports a 57/100 rating based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: Bob Longino of the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" wrote that "the 3-D process will hurt your eyes. The onscreen characters, who also wear 3-D glasses, even say so when it's time to take them off." However, he also stated that it helped mask what he deemed as an overall lack of a story. Jim Lane of "Sacramento News and Review" called the 3D scenes "murky and purple like a window smeared with grape jell-o." Roger Ebert gave the film one and a half stars out of four, suggesting that perhaps Rodriguez was held back by the film's technical constraints. Ebert also admitted to showing disdain for the 3D gimmick, saying that the picture quality with the 3D glasses is more murky and washed out than the crisper and more colorful 2D films. Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" noted Carmen's absence for much of the film and criticized the plot's repeated scenes of Juni attempting over and over again to reach Level Five. Kimberly Jones of the "Austin City Chronicle" praised the visuals but called the plot twig-thin and stated that the parents' near absence in the story makes Rodriguez's continuing theme of family ties seem much less resonant than in the other films. The reason the characters were in minor roles and cameos was because Rodriguez was filming "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" while writing the third Spy Kids film.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: For his performance as The Toymaker, Sylvester Stallone earned a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor at John J. B. Wilson's 2003 Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: After the release of the movie, there were plans of an animated, straight-to-DVD sequel, but it never went past pre-production and was simply an idea.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: The movie was eventually followed up in 2011 by a fourth film in the series, "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World".


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: Talk Miramax Books released a novelization of the movie in June 2003. The novel was written by children's book author Kitty Richards. The posters and end of the credits even say "Read the Talk/Miramax Books", telling the viewers to read the print retelling.


title: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

text: In "The Never-Ending Stories" episode of the animated TV series "American Dad" (Season 13, episode 8, first broadcast April 9, 2018), CIA agent Stan Smith tells the class he is teaching that he is the only contributor to the Wikipedia article on "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over".


title: Octonauts

text: Octonauts is a children's television series, produced by Silvergate Media for the BBC channel CBeebies, and based on the children's books written by Vicki Wong and Michael C. Murphy.


title: Octonauts

text: The show follows an underwater exploring crew made up of stylized anthropomorphic animals, a team of eight adventurers who live in an undersea base, the Octopod, from which they go on undersea adventures with the help of a fleet of aquatic vehicles. Although its technology is fictional, the exotic creatures and locations that the crew encounter are based on real marine animals in their natural habitats. The show's subject matter has been compared to that of "Star Trek" and "Thunderbirds" blended with Jacques Cousteau.


title: Octonauts

text: The show was animated in Ireland by Brown Bag Films for its first four series. The show was renewed for a fifth series in 2018, with Canada's Mainframe Studios taking over animation work. A Netflix-original spinoff, subtitled "", was released in September 2021, and featured the Octonauts venturing onto more land-based habitats of the natural world.


title: Octonauts

text: Vegimals are half-animal, half-vegetable creatures. The vegimals were discovered by Shellington as eggs attached to the side of the Octopod. To protect them he brought them into his lab, where they hatched a few days later. After a few weeks, they established themselves as an integral part of the crew. They primarily speak Vegimalese, a language made of chirps and warbles (heavily accented English with inter-mixed gibberish), though they also speak a limited amount of English (with an accent). Shellington is the only (non-vegimal) Octonaut who has some fluency in Vegimalese.


title: Octonauts

text: The original books were first published in the US by Immedium in 2006 and were republished in the UK by HarperCollins in 2009. Six titles by Meomi have been published:


title: Octonauts

text: A series of shorter books based on individual episodes from the TV series is being published by Simon & Schuster.


title: Octonauts

text: These titles can be distinguished by the "As seen on TV" label on the covers and are not written or illustrated by Meomi. The books have the same titles as the episodes they are based on.


title: Octonauts

text: In 2010, "The Octonauts" was adapted into a 52-episode CGI animated television series co-produced by Chorion and Brown Bag Films. It first aired in the UK on 4 October 2010 on CBeebies, a BBC television channel for children under 7. The first series ended in February 2011 but continued to be aired as repeats. A second series of 22 episodes commenced in November 2012.


title: Octonauts

text: "The Octonauts" had its US premiere on the Disney Channel on 9 January 2012 In September 2014, Silvergate Media announced its sale of season 4 to the Disney Channel, to be aired in 2015. Many of the characters' voices were redubbed to give them American accents—Hispanic in the case of Peso and Pinto—although Captain Barnacles, Kwazii and Professor Inkling retained their original British voices. Another notable difference between the British version and the US version is the absence of the "Creature Report" feature at the end of each episode. This educational and melodic recap of the adventure is missing from the UK version, but is available to view in Britain through Netflix, which streams the American version.


title: Octonauts

text: In Australia, in 2014, the Octonauts became the second most-watched children's TV show in the country, seen daily on ABC2 by 257,000 viewers nationally. By season 4, the Octonauts had been picked up in more than 100 countries, including RTÉ Two (Ireland), Treehouse TV (Canada), ABC Television (Australia), TF1 (France), SuperRTL (Germany), CCTV (China), Karusel (Russia), Disney Junior (Spain, Portugal), and SVT (Sweden).


title: Octonauts

text: The show has been translated and shown in French (TF1), Spanish and Portuguese (Discovery Kids Latin America), Finnish (YLE TV2), Welsh (S4C), and Slovakian (STV 2).


title: Octonauts

text: The series was made with the help of marine biologists Dr. Lara A. Ferry-Graham and Dr. Michael H. Graham, who had previously worked on "Finding Nemo".


title: Octonauts

text: The TV show is episodic, with each 11-minute episode seeing them encountering an unusual but real sea creature as they explore strange underwater worlds. Often they must discover a vital biological or behavioral fact about that creature to rescue it or themselves from danger. The stories usually feature three main characters: Captain Barnacles, Kwazii, and Peso, with the other five Octonauts acting in supporting roles.


title: Octonauts

text: The opening theme tune finishes with the chant "Explore! – Rescue! – Protect!", the Octonauts’ motto.


title: Octonauts

text: Creature Reports are one-minute, musical, poem-like sequences that recap the facts learned about the sea creature that the Octonauts encountered in the associated episode. In the UK, these were shown as separately scheduled items, but in the American version, they were used after each regular episode. The exception is the episode of "The Surfing Snails", where it was replaced with a surf rock song called, "Surf's Up, Bubbles Up (Ready to Ride)".


title: Octonauts

text: The Creature Report's addictive, repetitive nature has been postulated to have psychological benefits. For children, it provides a sense of predictability that promotes good feelings and mental balance. For adults, it provides a sense of virtual participation via the principle of involuntary musical imagery.


title: Octonauts

text: The initial working title of the 2017 American Superhero film "" was "Creature Report", a reference to the Octonauts, which acted as the movie production's code word.


title: Octonauts

text: Google Play and Microsoft Store organise their episodes into packages, similar to the region 4 DVD titles.


title: Octonauts

text: The TV series was well received when shown on CBeebies in the UK and by ABC in Australia. According to the authors' website, it was the No. 1 pre-school age show in the UK, and the first pre-school show to be ranked in the top ten by older audiences (aged 3–4 and up). The show was the top-ranked ABC programme for 5- to 12-year-olds in January 2011 in Australia, with the ABC calling its first month an "unprecedented success online and on-air". The Octonauts DVD boxed set was 4th best-selling Children's TV DVD at Amazon UK as of 7 April 2013.


title: Octonauts

text: In 2013, Octonauts was nominated for two awards: an International Emmy Award in the ""Kids—Preschool"" category


title: Octonauts

text: In 2017, the series took home the Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production in the Preschool category for the episode "Operation: Deep Freeze".


title: Octonauts

text: In 2020, two new movies were released on Netflix: on August 14, "The Octonauts Movie: The Caves of Sac Actun" (which takes place in a cenote in Mexico) and on October 13, "The Octonauts & the Great Barrier Reef" (a musical). In 2021, "The Octonauts Movie: The Ring of Fire" was released March 30 on Netflix in the United States.


title: Octonauts

text: The Octonauts brand has been licensed by the production company for numerous spin-off activities. These include Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure, a themed rollercoaster within the CBeebies Land of Alton Towers theme park and themed bedrooms with the CBeebies Land Hotel. There is also a travelling live show called "Octonauts Live", which has toured in the U.S. and other countries.


title: Octonauts

text: An "Octonauts" app was launched for iOS on 17 November 2016, produced in partnership with Night and Day Studios.


title: Octonauts

text: A spin off series, titled "Octonauts: Above and Beyond", premiered on September 7, 2021, with the full first episode being released on YouTube on August 25. Rather than an aquatic setting, "Above and Beyond" features the crew exploring and assisting in natural habitats such as forests and deserts; essentially all terrestrial habitats.


title: Brian Christopher

text: Brian Christopher Lawler (January 10, 1972 – July 29, 2018) was an American professional wrestler. He is best remembered for his career in the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE), where he performed as "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher and Grand Master Sexay. Lawler was a one-time WWF Tag Team Champion as part of Too Cool with Scotty 2 Hotty, and won 44 titles within the United States Wrestling Association, the promotion formerly co-owned by his father, professional wrestler Jerry Lawler.


title: Brian Christopher

text: Lawler began his career as one half of the masked tag team "The Twilight Zone" with Tony Williams under the individual ring names of Nebula (Lawler) and Quasar (Williams). After they were unmasked, Brian continued to wrestle in the United States Wrestling Association under the name "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher. He feuded with wrestlers such as Jeff Jarrett, Bill Dundee, Tom Prichard, and The Moondogs, and his father Jerry Lawler. Among his partners were The Rock (known as Flex Kavana at the time), Tony Williams (as the New Kids), Doug Gilbert, Scotty Flamingo, and "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert.


title: Brian Christopher

text: Lawler, still known as Brian Christopher, joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1997 and began competing in the light heavyweight division. Taka Michinoku defeated him in the finals of a tournament for the Light Heavyweight Championship. In mid-1998, he started teaming up with Scott "Too Hot" Taylor to form the tag team "Too Much". When he was known as Brian Christopher, his father Jerry Lawler would talk him up as being superior to all the other Light Heavyweights but never publicly acknowledged that Brian was his son, although after Paul Heyman revealed that fact on "Raw", Jim Ross (Jerry's broadcast partner) always hinted at it. Often a running joke was that someone (usually a commentator) would mention their relationship, which led to both of them adamantly denying that they were related.


title: Brian Christopher

text: On the June 13, 1999, episode of "Heat", Brian and Scott adopted the ring names Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty, returning after a hiatus. Their tag team was renamed Too Cool, and they were later joined by Rikishi. They defeated Edge and Christian in May 2000 on "Raw" to become the Tag Team Champions. They were even occasionally involved with top-card feuds, notably being enemies to the McMahon-Helmsley Faction and their associates, such as The Radicalz, Edge and Christian, and T & A. The trio's run ended in late 2000 when Rikishi was revealed as the man behind the wheel of the car that hit Stone Cold Steve Austin at Survivor Series. Shortly after, Rikishi turned on his teammates. While Scotty was sidelined in 2001 with a broken ankle, Lawler formed a short-lived tag team with Steve Blackman. In June 2001, he was released from the WWF for illegally conveying drugs across the Canada–United States border.


title: Brian Christopher

text: In November and December 2001, Lawler (as Brian Christopher) wrestled in the United Kingdom and Ireland for World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA). On February 24, 2002, at the WWA pay per view "The Revolution" in the United States, Lawler wrestled WWA Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett for the title, but lost. In April 2002, at the WWA pay-per-view "The Eruption" in Australia, Lawler teamed with Ernest Miller to defeat Buff Bagwell and Stevie Ray.


title: Brian Christopher

text: From 2002 until 2003, he worked for NWA Total Nonstop Action as Brian Lawler. He formed a group called Next Generation with fellow second generation stars David Flair and Erik Watts. They were involved in a rivalry with Dusty Rhodes and harassed him with a replica of the NWA World Title belt that he wore when he was champion.


title: Brian Christopher

text: Lawler returned to WWE as Grandmaster Sexay in April 12, 2004, but he was released the following month.


title: Brian Christopher

text: In July 2007, Christopher reunited with Scotty 2 Hotty at the UWF Rock 'n' Roll Express Tag Team Tournament, after Scotty was released by WWE.


title: Brian Christopher

text: In 2009 he worked for the Hulkamania Let the Battle Begin Tour in Australia where he teamed with Rikishi.


title: Brian Christopher

text: On the March 14, 2011 episode of "Raw", Lawler returned to the WWE as a heel in a segment between Michael Cole and his father, Jerry Lawler, where Brian would side with Cole, saying that he felt that Jerry never cared for him and that he was ashamed to be his son. Lawler indirectly agreed, telling Brian that he was a bigger screw-up than Charlie Sheen.


title: Brian Christopher

text: Lawler returned to the WWE on January 6, 2014, appearing on the "Old School" edition of "Raw" and reuniting with Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty to take on 3MB in a six-man tag team match. His team was successful in winning. He made what would be his final WWE appearance, on NXT Arrival in February 2014 as part of Too Cool in a losing effort as mystery opponents to The Ascension, who defended their NXT Tag Team Championship.


title: Brian Christopher

text: In 2014 Christopher and Scotty 2 Hotty continued teaming together in the independent circuit, England and Germany until 2016.


title: Brian Christopher

text: On the weekend of September 22 and 23, 2017, Christopher teamed with his dad and Doug Gilbert as these lost two matches to Terry Funk and The Rock 'n' Roll Express for Big Time Wrestling in Raleigh, North Carolina and Spartanburg, South Carolina.


title: Brian Christopher

text: Christopher's last match was on November 11, 2017 where he defeated Donnie Primetime for Georgia Premier Wrestling in Canton, Georgia.


title: Brian Christopher

text: Lawler was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, in stark contrast to his father, who was a diehard Cleveland Browns fan. According to his brother Kevin, Lawler was buried in a Steelers-themed casket with his ring name.


title: Brian Christopher

text: Lawler was arrested in February 2009 for disorderly conduct. On June 26, 2009, he was arrested for public intoxication just before 3 a.m. According to the police report, he "became very belligerent" once in custody and threatened the police officer who arrested him. On July 13, 2009, he was jailed for 30 days after failing to attend an in-patient treatment center as part of his plea agreement.


title: Brian Christopher

text: Around 1 a.m. EST on July 7, 2018, Lawler was again jailed for driving under the influence, and for evading police. On the early morning of July 29, 2018, Lawler was found hanging in a cell at the Hardeman County Jail and was observed to be brain dead. His life support was disabled a few hours after his father Jerry Lawler had arrived to the hospital to see him. Lawler was pronounced dead at around 4:40 p.m. EST at the age of 46. On the one year anniversary of his death, Jerry Lawler filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Hardeman County, Hardeman County Sheriff John Doolen, and others for allegedly failing to protect Lawler. He alleged that Doolen had personally promised to "keep an eye" on Lawler after he was incarcerated. At his funeral, a little red wagon that he used to carry his numerous title belts to the ring in his USWA days was present, in memorial to the career of a decorated, respected, and well-liked wrestler.


title: USA Today

text: USA Today (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virginia. Its newspaper is printed at 37 sites across the United States and at five additional sites internationally. The paper's dynamic design influenced the style of local, regional, and national newspapers worldwide through its use of concise reports, colorized images, informational graphics, and inclusion of popular culture stories, among other distinct features.


title: USA Today

text: With an average print circulation of 159,233 as of 2022, a digital-only subscriber base of 504,000 as of 2019, and an approximate daily readership of 2.6 million, "USA Today" is ranked as the first by circulation on the list of newspapers in the United States. It has been shown to maintain a generally center-left audience, in regards to political persuasion. "USA Today" is distributed in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and an international edition is distributed in Asia, Canada, Europe, and the Pacific Islands.


title: USA Today

text: "USA Today" was first conceived on February 29, 1980, when a company task force known as "Project NN" met with then-chairman of Gannett, Al Neuharth, in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Early regional prototypes of "USA Today" included "East Bay Today", an Oakland, California-based publication published in the late 1970s to serve as the morning edition of the "Oakland Tribune", an afternoon newspaper which Gannett owned at the time. On June 11, 1981, Gannett printed the first prototypes of the proposed publication. The two proposed design layouts were mailed to newsmakers and prominent leaders in journalism for review and feedback. Gannett's board of directors approved the launch of the national newspaper, titled "USA Today", on December 5, 1981. At launch, Neuharth was appointed president and publisher of the newspaper, adding those responsibilities to his existing position as Gannett's chief executive officer.


title: USA Today

text: Gannett announced the launch of the paper on April 20, 1982. "USA Today" began publishing on September 15, 1982, initially in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas, for a newsstand price of 25¢ (equivalent to ¢ in 2020). After selling out the first issue, Gannett gradually expanded the national distribution of the paper, reaching an estimated circulation of 362,879 copies by the end of 1982, double the amount of sales that Gannett projected.


title: USA Today

text: The design uniquely incorporated color graphics and photographs. Initially, only its front news section pages were rendered in four-color, while the remaining pages were printed in a spot color format. The paper's overall style and elevated use of graphics – developed by Neuharth, in collaboration with staff graphics designers George Rorick, Sam Ward, Suzy Parker, John Sherlock and Web Bryant – was derided by critics, who referred to it as a "McPaper" or "television you can wrap fish in", because it opted to incorporate concise nuggets of information more akin to the style of television news, rather than in-depth stories like traditional newspapers, which many in the newspaper industry considered to be a dumbing down of content. Although "USA Today" had been profitable for just ten years as of 1997, it changed the appearance and feel of newspapers around the world.


title: USA Today

text: On July 2, 1984, the newspaper switched from predominantly black-and-white to full-color photography and graphics in all four sections. The following week, on July 10, "USA Today" launched an international edition intended for U.S. readers abroad, followed four months later on October 8 with the rollout of the first transmission via satellite of its international version to Singapore. On April 8, 1985, the paper published its first special bonus section, a 12-page section called "Baseball '85", which previewed the 1985 Major League Baseball season.


title: USA Today

text: By the fourth quarter of 1985, "USA Today" had become the second-largest newspaper in the United States, reaching a daily circulation of 1.4 million copies. Total daily readership of the paper by 1987 (according to Simmons Market Research Bureau statistics) had reached 5.5 million, the largest of any daily newspaper in the U.S. On May 6, 1986, "USA Today" began production of its international edition in Switzerland. "USA Today" operated at a loss for most of its first four years of operation, accumulating a total deficit of $233 million after taxes, according to figures released by Gannett in July 1987; the newspaper began turning its first profit in May 1987, six months ahead of Gannett corporate revenue projections.


title: USA Today

text: On January 29, 1988, "USA Today" published the largest edition in its history, a 78-page weekend edition featuring a section previewing Super Bowl XXII; the edition included 44.38 pages of advertising and sold 2,114,055 copies, setting a single-day record for an American newspaper (and surpassed seven months later on September 2, when its Labor Day weekend edition sold 2,257,734 copies). On April 15, "USA Today" launched a third international printing site, based in Hong Kong. The international edition set circulation and advertising records during August 1988, with coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics, selling more than 60,000 copies and 100 pages of advertising.


title: USA Today

text: By July 1991, Simmons Market Research Bureau estimated that "USA Today" had a total daily readership of nearly 6.6 million, an all-time high and the largest readership of any daily newspaper in the United States. On September 1, 1991, "USA Today" launched a fourth printsite for its international edition in London for the United Kingdom and the British Isles. The international edition's schedule was changed as of April 1, 1994, to Monday through Friday, rather than from Tuesday through Saturday, in order to accommodate business travelers; on February 1, 1995, "USA Today" opened its first editorial bureau outside the United States at its Hong Kong publishing facility; additional editorial bureaus were launched in London and Moscow in 1996.


title: USA Today

text: On April 17, 1995, "USA Today" launched its website to provide real-time news coverage; in June 2002 the site expanded to include a section providing travel information and booking tools. On August 28, 1995, a fifth international publishing site was launched in Frankfurt, Germany, to print and distribute the international edition throughout most of Europe.


title: USA Today

text: On October 4, 1999, "USA Today" began running advertisements on its front page for the first time. In 2017, some pages of USA Today's website features Auto-Play functionality for video or audio-aided stories.


title: USA Today

text: On February 8, 2000, Gannett launched "USA Today Live", a broadcast and Internet initiative designed to provide coverage from the newspaper to broadcast television stations nationwide for use in their local newscasts and their websites; the venture also provided integration with the "USA Today" website, which transitioned from a text-based format to feature audio and video clips of news content.


title: USA Today

text: The paper launched a sixth printing site for its international edition on May 15, 2000, in Milan, Italy, followed on July 10 by the launch of an international printing facility in Charleroi, Belgium.


title: USA Today

text: In 2001, two interactive units were launched: on June 19, "USA Today" and Gannett Newspapers launched the USA Today Careers Network (now Careers.com), a website featuring localized employment listings, then on July 18, the USA Today News Center was launched as an interactive television news service developed through a joint venture with the On Command Corporation that was distributed to hotels around the United States. On September 12 of that year, the newspaper set an all-time single day circulation record, selling 3,638,600 copies for its edition covering the September 11 attacks. That November, "USA Today" migrated its operations from Gannett's previous corporate headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, to the company's new headquarters in nearby McLean.


title: USA Today

text: In 2004, Jack Kelley, a senior foreign correspondent for USA Today, was found to have fabricated foreign news reports over the past decade. Kelley resigned.


title: USA Today

text: On December 12, 2005, Gannett announced that it would combine the separate newsroom operations of the online and print entities of "USA Today", with USAToday.com's vice president and editor-in-chief Kinsey Wilson promoted to co-executive editor, alongside existing executive editor John Hillkirk.


title: USA Today

text: In December 2010, "USA Today" launched the USA Today API for sharing data with partners of all types.


title: USA Today

text: On August 27, 2010, "USA Today" announced that it would undergo a reorganization of its newsroom, announcing the layoffs of 130 staffers. It also announced that the paper would shift its focus away from print and place more emphasis on its digital platforms (including USAToday.com and its related mobile applications) and launch of a new publication called "USA Today Sports".


title: USA Today

text: On January 24, 2011, to reverse a revenue slide, the paper introduced a tweaked format that modified the appearance of its front section pages, which included a larger logo at the top of each page; coloring tweaks to section front pages; a new sans-serif font, called Prelo, for certain headlines of main stories (replacing the Gulliver typeface that had been implemented for story headers in April 2000); an updated "Newsline" feature featuring larger, "newsier" headline entry points; and the increasing and decreasing of mastheads and white space to present a cleaner style.


title: USA Today

text: On September 14, 2012, "USA Today" underwent the first major redesign in its history, in commemoration for the 30th anniversary of the paper's first edition. Developed in conjunction with brand design firm Wolff Olins, the print edition of "USA Today" added a page covering technology stories and expanded travel coverage within the Life section and increased the number of color pages included in each edition, while retaining longtime elements. The "globe" logo used since the paper's inception was replaced with a new logo featuring a large circle rendered in colors corresponding to each of the sections, serving as an infographic that changes with news stories, containing images representing that day's top stories.


title: USA Today

text: The paper's website was also extensively overhauled using a new, in-house content management system known as Presto and a design created by Fantasy Interactive, that incorporates flipboard-style navigation to switch between individual stories (which obscure most of the main and section pages), clickable video advertising and a responsive design layout. The site was designed and developed to be more interactive, faster, provide "high impact" advertising units (known as Gravity), and provide the ability for Gannett to syndicate "USA Today" content to the websites of its local properties, and vice versa. To accomplish this goal, Gannett Digital migrated its newspaper and television station websites to the Presto platform. Developers built a separate platform to provide optimizations for mobile and touchscreen devices. The Gravity ad won Digiday's Best Publishing Innovation in Advertising in 2016, thanks to an 80% full-watch user engagement rate on desktop, and 96% on mobile.


title: USA Today

text: Following the relaunch, the editorial team behind "USA Today" Investigations ramped up its "longread" article plans, following the success of the series "Ghost Factories". With differing platform requirements, "USA Today's" mobile website did not offer any specialized support for these multi-chapter stories. Nearing the end of 2012, more than one-third of "USA Today"'s readership was browsing only using their mobile phones, and the majority of these users were accessing the mobile website (as opposed to the iOS and Android applications) with the newer, less-obtrusive advertising strategy. Gannet Digital designed, developed, and released the longread mobile experience to coincide with the launch of Brad Heath's series "Locked Up", which won the Investigative Reporters and Editors Tom Renner Award in October 2013.


title: USA Today

text: Gannett Digital's focus on its mobile content experience paid off in 2012 with multiple awards; including the Eppy for Best Mobile Application, the Mobile Excellence award for Best User Experience, the MOBI award for Editorial Content, and Mobile Publisher of the Year.


title: USA Today

text: The "USA Today" site design was launched on desktop, mobile and TV throughout 2013 and 2014, although archive content accessible through search engines remains available through the pre-relaunch design.


title: USA Today

text: On October 6, 2013, Gannett test launched a condensed daily edition of "USA Today" (part of what was internally known within Gannett as the "Butterfly" initiative) for distribution as an insert in four of its newspapers – "The Indianapolis Star", the "Rochester Democrat & Chronicle", the Fort Myers-based "The News-Press" and the Appleton, Wisconsin-based "The Post-Crescent". The launch of the syndicated insert caused "USA Today" to restructure its operations to allow seven-day-a-week production to accommodate the packaging of its national and international news content and enterprise stories (comprising about 10 pages for the weekday and Saturday editions, and up to 22 pages for the Sunday edition) into the pilot insert. Gannett later announced on December 11, that it would formally launch the condensed daily edition of "USA Today" in 31 additional local newspapers nationwide through April 2014 (with the Palm Springs, California-based "The Desert Sun" and the Lafayette, Louisiana-based "Advertiser" being the first newspapers outside of the pilot program participants to add the supplement on December 15), citing "positive feedback" to the feature from readers and advertisers of the initial four papers. Gannett was given permission from the Alliance for Audited Media to count the circulation figures from the syndicated local insert with the total circulation count for the flagship national edition of "USA Today".


title: USA Today

text: On January 4, 2014, "USA Today" acquired the consumer product review website Reviewed. In the first quarter of 2014, Gannett launched a condensed "USA Today" insert into 31 other newspapers in its network, thereby increasing the number of inserts to 35, in an effort to shore up circulation after it regained its position as the highest-circulated week daily newspaper in the United States in October 2013. On September 3, 2014, "USA Today" announced that it would lay off roughly 70 employees in a restructuring of its newsroom and business operations. In October 2014, "USA Today" and OpenWager Inc. entered into a partnership to release a Bingo mobile app called USA TODAY Bingo Cruise.


title: USA Today

text: On December 3, 2015, Gannett formally launched the USA Today Network, a national digital newsgathering service providing shared content between "USA Today" and the company's 92 local newspapers throughout the United States as well as pooling advertising services on both a hyperlocal and national reach. The "Louisville Courier-Journal" had earlier soft-launched the service as part of a pilot program started on November 17, coinciding with an imaging rebrand for the Louisville, Kentucky-based newspaper; Gannett's other local newspaper properties, as well as those it acquired through its merger with the Journal Media Group, gradually began identifying themselves as part of the USA Today Network (foregoing use of the Gannett name outside of requisite ownership references) through early January 2016.


title: USA Today

text: On June 16, 2022, it was reported that USA Today removed 23 articles written by journalist Gabriela Miranda after an inquiry related to one of her articles triggered an internal investigation and found that Miranda had fabricated sources on articles pertaining to the Texas Heartbeat Act, Ukrainian women's issues due to the Russian invasion, and an article on sunscreen. Miranda resigned.


title: USA Today

text: "USA Today" is known for synthesizing news down to easy-to-read-and-comprehend stories. In the main edition circulated in the United States and Canada, each edition consists of four sections: News (the oft-labeled "front page" section), Money, Sports, and Life. Since March 1998, the Friday edition of Life has been separated into two distinct sections: the regular Life focusing on entertainment (subtitled "Weekend"; section E), which features television reviews and listings, a DVD column, film reviews and trends, and a travel supplement called "Destinations & Diversions" (section D). The international edition of the paper features two sections: News and Money in one; with Sports and Life in the other.


title: USA Today

text: Atypical of most daily newspapers, the paper does not print on Saturdays and Sundays; the Friday edition serves as the weekend edition. "USA Today" has published special Saturday and Sunday editions in the past: the first issue released during the standard calendar weekend was published on January 19, 1991, when it released a Saturday "Extra" edition updating coverage of the Gulf War from the previous day; the paper published special seven-day-a-week editions for the first time on July 19, 1996, when it published special editions for exclusive distribution in the host city of Atlanta and surrounding areas for the two-week duration of the 1996 Summer Olympics. "USA Today" prints each complete story on the front page of the respective section with the exception of the cover story. The cover story is a longer story that requires a jump (readers must turn to another page in the paper to complete the story, usually the next page of that section). On certain days, the news or sports section will take up two paper sections, and there will be a second cover story within the second section.


title: USA Today

text: Each section is denoted by a certain color to differentiate sections beyond lettering and is seen in a box the top-left corner of the first page; the principal section colors are blue for News (section A), green for Money (section B), red for Sports (section C), and purple for Life (section D); in the paper's early years, the Life and Money sections were also assigned blue nameplates and spot color, as the presses used at "USA Today" printing facilities did not yet accommodate the use of other colors to denote all four original sections. Orange is used for bonus sections (section E or above), which are published occasionally such as for business travel trends and the Olympics; other bonus sections for sports (such as for the PGA Tour preview, NCAA basketball tournaments, Memorial Day auto races (Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600), NFL opening weekend and the Super Bowl) previously used the orange color, but now use the red designated for sports in their bonus sections. To increase their ties to "USA Today", Gannett incorporated the "USA Today" coloring scheme into an internally created graphics package for news programming that the company began phasing in across its television station group – which were spun-off in July 2015 into the separate broadcast and digital media company Tegna – in late 2012 (the package utilizes the color scheme for a rundown graphic used on most stations – outside those that Gannett acquired in 2014 from London Broadcasting, which began implementing the package in late 2015 – that persists throughout its stations' newscasts, as well as bumpers for individual story topics). Gannett's television stations began to a new on-air appearance that uses a color-coding system identical to that of the paper.


title: USA Today

text: In many ways, "USA Today" is set up to break the typical newspaper layout. Some examples of that divergence from tradition include using the left-hand quarter of each section as reefers (front-page paragraphs referring to stories on inside pages), sometimes using sentence-length blurbs to describe stories inside; the lead reefer is the cover page feature "Newsline", which shows summarized descriptions of headline stories featured in all four main sections and any special sections. As a national newspaper, "USA Today" cannot focus on the weather for any one city. Therefore, the entire back page of the News section is used for weather maps for the continental United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and temperature lists for many cities throughout the U.S. and the world (temperatures for individual cities on the primary forecast map and temperature lists are suffixed with a one- or two-letter code, such as "t" for thunderstorms, referencing the expected weather conditions); the colorized forecast map, originally created by staff designer George Rorick (who left "USA Today" for a similar position at "The Detroit News" in 1986), was copied by newspapers around the world, breaking from the traditional style of using monochrome contouring or simplistic text to denote temperature ranges. National precipitation maps for the next three days (previously five days until the 2012 redesign), and four-day forecasts and air quality indexes for 36 major U.S. cities (originally 16 cities prior to 1999) – with individual cities color-coded by the temperature contour corresponding to the given area on the forecast map – are also featured. Weather data is provided by AccuWeather, which has served as the forecast provider for "USA Today" for most of the paper's existence (with an exception from January 2002 to September 2012, during which forecast data was provided by The Weather Channel through a long-term multimedia content agreement with Gannett). In the bottom left-hand corner of the weather page is "Weather Focus", a graphic which explains various meteorological phenomena. On some days, the Weather Focus could be a photo of a rare meteorological event.


title: USA Today

text: On Mondays, the Money section uses its back page for "Market Trends", a feature that launched in June 2002 and presents an unusual graphic depicting the performance of various industry groups as a function of quarterly, monthly, and weekly movements against the S&P 500. On business holidays or days when bonus sections are included in the issue, the Money and Life sections are usually combined into one section, while combinations of the Friday Life editions into one section are common during quiet weeks. Advertising coverage is seen in the Monday Money section, which often includes a review of a current television ad, and after Super Bowl Sunday, a review of the ads aired during the broadcast with the results of the "Ad Track" live survey. Stock tables for individual stock exchanges (comprising one subsection for companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and another for companies trading on NASDAQ and the American Stock Exchange) and mutual indexes were discontinued with the 2012 redesign due to the myriad of electronic ways to check individual stock prices, in line with most newspapers.


title: USA Today

text: Book coverage, including reviews and a national sales chart (the latter of which debuted on October 28, 1994), is seen on Thursdays in Life, with the official full A.C. Nielsen television ratings chart printed on Wednesdays or Thursdays, depending on release. The paper also publishes the Mediabase survey for several genres of music, based on radio airplay spins on Tuesdays, along with their own chart of the top ten singles in general on Wednesdays. Because of the same limitations cited for its nationalized forecasts, the television page in Life – which provides prime time and late night listings (running from 8:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Eastern Time) – incorporates boilerplate "Local news" or "Local programming" descriptions to denote time periods in which the five major English language broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and The CW) cede airtime to allow their owned and affiliated stations to carry syndicated programs or local newscasts; the television page has never been accompanied by a weekly listings supplement with broader scheduling information similar to those featured in local newspapers. Like most national papers, "USA Today" does not carry comic strips.


title: USA Today

text: One of the staples of the News section is "Across the USA", a state-by-state roundup of headlines. The summaries consist of paragraph-length Associated Press reports highlighting one story of note in each state, the District of Columbia, and one U.S. territory. Similarly, the "For the Record" page of the Sports section (which features sports scores for both the previous four days of league play and individual non-league events, seasonal league statistics and wagering lines for the current day's games) previously featured a rundown of winning numbers from the previous deadline date for all participating state lotteries and individual multi-state lotteries.


title: USA Today

text: Some traditions have been retained. The lead story still appears on the upper-right hand of the front page. Commentary and political cartoons occupy the last few pages of the News section. Stock and mutual fund data are presented in the Money section. But "USA Today" is sufficiently different in aesthetics to be recognized on sight, even in a mix of other newspapers, such as at a newsstand. The overall design and layout of "USA Today" has been described as neo-Victorian.


title: USA Today

text: Also, in most of the sections' front pages, on the lower left-hand corner, are "USA Today Snapshots", which give statistics of various lifestyle interests according to the section it is in (for example, a snapshot in "Life" could show how many people tend to watch a certain genre of television show based upon the type of mood they are in at the time). These "Snapshots" are shown through graphs that are made up of various illustrations of objects that roughly pertain to the graphs subject matter (using the example above, the graph's bars could be made up of several TV sets, or ended by one). These are usually loosely based on research by a national institute (with the credited source mentioned in fine print in the box below the graph).


title: USA Today

text: The newspaper also features an occasional magazine supplement called "Open Air", which launched on March 7, 2008, and appears several times a year. Various other advertorials appear throughout the year, mainly on Fridays.


title: USA Today

text: The opinion section prints "USA Today" editorials, columns by guest writers and members of the editorial board of Contributors, letters to the editor, and editorial cartoons. One unique feature of the "USA Today" editorial page is the publication of opposing points of view; alongside the editorial board's piece on the day's topic runs an opposing view by a guest writer, often an expert in the field. The opinion pieces featured in each edition are decided by the Board of Contributors, which are separate from the paper's news staff.


title: USA Today

text: From 1999 to 2002 and from 2004 to 2015, the editorial page editor was Brian Gallagher, who has worked for the newspaper since its founding in 1982. Other members of the editorial board included deputy editorial page editor Bill Sternberg, executive forum editor John Siniff, op-ed/forum page editor Glen Nishimura, operations editor Thuan Le Elston, letters editor Michelle Poblete, web content editor Eileen Rivers, and editorial writers Dan Carney, George Hager, and Saundra Torry. The newspaper's website calls this group "demographically and ideologically diverse."


title: USA Today

text: Beginning with the 1984 United States presidential election", USA Today" had traditionally maintained a policy not to endorse candidates for the President of the United States or any other state or federal political office, which has been since re-evaluated by the paper's Board of Contributors through an independent process during each four-year election cycle, with any decision to circumvent the policy based on a consensus vote in which fewer than two of the editorial board's members dissent or hold differing opinions. For most of its history, the paper's political editorials (most of them linked to the then-current Presidential election cycle) had focused instead on providing opinion on major issues based on the differing concerns of voters, the vast amount of information on these themes, and the board's aim to provide a fair viewpoint through the diverse political ideologies of its members and avoid reader perceptions of bias.


title: USA Today

text: Such avoidance of doing political editorials played a great part in "USA Today"'s long-standing reputation for "fluff", but after its 30th anniversary revamp, the paper took a more active stance on political issues, calling for stronger gun laws after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. It heavily criticized the Republican Party for both the 2013 government shutdown and the 2015 revolts in the United States House of Representatives that ended with the resignation of John Boehner as House Speaker. It also called out then-President Barack Obama and other top members of the Democratic Party for what they perceived as "inaction" over several issues during 2013–14, particularly over the NSA scandal and the ISIL beheading incidents.


title: USA Today

text: The editorial board broke from the "non-endorsement" policy for the first time on September 29, 2016, when it published an op-ed piece condemning the candidacy of Republican nominee Donald Trump, calling him "unfit for the presidency" due to his inflammatory campaign rhetoric (particularly that aimed at the press, with certain media organizations being openly targeted and even banned from campaign rallies, including "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", CNN and the BBC, military veterans who had been prisoners of war, including 2008 Republican presidential candidate and Vietnam War veteran John McCain, immigrants, and various ethnic and religious groups); his temperament and lack of financial transparency; his "checkered" business record; his use of false and hyperbolic statements; the inconsistency of his viewpoints and issues with his vision on domestic and foreign policy; and, based on comments he had made during his campaign and criticisms by both Democrats and Republicans on these views, the potential risks to national security and constitutional ethics under a Trump administration, asking voters to "resist the siren song of a dangerous demagogue". The board noted that the piece was not a "qualified endorsement" of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, for whom the board was unable to reach a consensus for endorsing (some editorial board members expressed that Clinton's public service record would help her "serve the nation ably as its president", while others had "serious reservations about [her] sense of entitlement, [...] lack of candor and [...] extreme carelessness in handling classified information"), endorsing instead tactical voting against Trump and GOP seats in swing states, advising voters to decide whether to vote for either Clinton, Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, Green Party nominee Jill Stein or a write-in candidate for president; or focus on Senate, House and other down-ballot political races.


title: USA Today

text: In February 2018, "USA Today" published an op-ed by Jerome Corsi, the DC bureau chief for the fringe conspiracy website InfoWars. Corsi, a prominent conspiracy theorist, was described by "USA Today" as an "author" and "investigative journalist". Corsi was a prominent proponent of the false conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not a US citizen, and Infowars has promoted conspiracy theories such as 9/11 being an "inside job."


title: USA Today

text: In October 2018, "USA Today" was criticized by NBC News for publishing an editorial by President Trump that was replete with inaccuracies. "The Washington Post" fact-checker said that "almost every sentence contained a misleading statement or a falsehood."


title: USA Today

text: In 2020, "USA Today" endorsed a specific presidential candidate for the first time, Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The newspaper also published an opposing editorial by Vice President Mike Pence, which called for his and Trump's re-election.


title: USA Today

text: In May 2012, Larry Kramer – a 40-year media industry veteran and former president of CBS Digital Media – was appointed president and publisher of "USA Today", replacing David Hunke, who had been publisher of the newspaper since 2009. Kramer was tasked with developing a new strategy for the paper as it sought to increase revenue from its digital operations.


title: USA Today

text: In July 2012, Kramer hired David Callaway – whom the former had hired as lead editor of "MarketWatch" in 1999, two years after Kramer founded the website – as the paper's editor-in-chief. Callaway had previously worked at Bloomberg News covering the banking, investment-banking and asset-management businesses throughout Europe and at the "Boston Herald", where he co-wrote a daily financial column on "comings and goings in the Boston business district".


title: USA Today

text: USA Weekend was a sister publication that launched in 1953 as "Family Weekly", a national Sunday magazine supplement intended for the Sunday editions of various U.S. newspapers; it adopted its final title following Gannett's purchase of the magazine in 1985. The magazine – which was distributed to approximately 800 newspapers nationwide at its peak with most Gannett-owned local newspapers carrying it by default within their Sunday editions – focused primarily on social issues, entertainment, health, food and travel. On December 5, 2014, Gannett announced that it would cease publishing "USA Weekend" after the December 26–28, 2014 edition, citing increasing operational costs and reduced advertising revenue, with most of its participating newspapers choosing to replace it with competing Sunday magazine "Parade".


title: USA Today

text: USA Today Sports Weekly is a weekly magazine that covers news and statistics from Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball and NCAA baseball, the National Football League (NFL) and NASCAR. It was first published on April 5, 1991, as "USA Today Baseball Weekly", a tabloid-sized baseball-focused publication released on Wednesdays, on a weekly basis during the baseball season and bi-weekly during the off-season; the magazine expanded its sports coverage on September 4, 2002, when it adopted its current title after added stories about the NFL. "Sports Weekly" added coverage of NASCAR on February 15, 2006, lasting only during that year's race season; and added coverage of NCAA college football on August 8, 2007. The editorial operations of "Sports Weekly" originally operated autonomously from "USA Today", before being integrated with the newspaper's sports department in late 2005.


title: USA Today

text: The Big Lead is a sports blog operated by "USA Today" that was launched in February 2006 by original owner Fantasy Sports Ventures (co-founded by Jason McIntyre and David Lessa), which was purchased by Gannett – which, beginning in April 2008, had maintained a strategic content and marketing partnership with the former company – in January 2012. The site – which is usually updated on a routine basis of 10 to 15 times per day between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time – mainly covers sports, but also provides news and commentary on other news topics, ranging from politics to pop culture.


title: USA Today

text: In 1987, Gannett and producer/former NBC CEO Grant Tinker began developing a news magazine series for broadcast syndication that attempted to bring the breezy style of "USA Today" to television. The result was "USA Today: The Television Show" (later retitled "USA Today on TV", then shortened to simply "USA Today"), which premiered on September 12, 1988. Correspondents on the program included Edie Magnus, Robin Young, Boyd Matson, Kenneth Walker, Dale Harimoto, Ann Abernathy, Bill Macatee and Beth Ruyak. As with the newspaper itself, the show was divided into four "sections" corresponding to the different parts of the paper: News (focusing on the major headlines of the day), Money (focusing on financial news and consumer reports), Sports (focusing on sports news and scores) and Life (focusing on entertainment and lifestyle-related stories). The series was distributed to syndication by GTG Marketing, another subsidiary of GTG Entertainment, which sold it as a prime access magazine show, hoping most stations would air it in a prime access time slot for syndication.


title: USA Today

text: The series was plagued by low ratings and negative reviews from critics throughout its run. The program also suffered from being scheduled in undesirable timeslots in certain markets; this was a particular case in New York City, the country's largest media market, where CBS owned-and-operated station WCBS-TV (channel 2) aired the program in a pre-dawn early morning slot, before the program was picked up by NBC O&O WNBC five months into its run; after initially airing it in an equally undesirable 5:30 a.m. slot, the series was later moved to a more palatable 9:30 a.m. time period, but still did not fare any better on its new station (in contrast, CITY-DT in Toronto, Ontario, Canada [now the flagship of the Citytv television network], ran it at 5:00 p.m.). Although the series was renewed for a second season, these setbacks led to the mid-season cancellation of the TV version of "USA Today" in November 1989, after one-and-a-half seasons; the final edition aired on January 7, 1990.


title: USA Today

text: Gannett announced plans to develop a "USA Today"-branded weekly half-hour television program, to have been titled "Sports Page", as part of a renewed initiative to extend the brand into television; this program, which was tapped for a fall 2004 debut, ultimately never launched.


title: USA Today

text: "VRtually There" was a weekly virtual reality news program produced by the USA Today Network, which debuted on October 20, 2016. The program, which was available on the "USA Today" mobile app and is still available on YouTube, showcased three original segments outlining news stories through a first-person perspective, recorded and produced by journalists from "USA Today" and its co-owned local newspapers. The program also incorporated "cubemercials", long-form advertisements created by Gannett's in-house creative studio GET Creative, which are designed to allow consumer engagement in fully immersive experiences through virtual reality. The last story was uploaded on August 1, 2017, less than a year after the creation of the series.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: WrestleMania XXIV was the 24th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on March 30, 2008, at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida and was the first WrestleMania to be held in the state of Florida. It was also the second WrestleMania to be held outdoors, with the first being WrestleMania IX.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: Nine professional wrestling matches were scheduled for the event, which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. In the final match of the event, which was the main match from SmackDown, The Undertaker defeated Edge to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Raw's main match was a triple threat match, in which Randy Orton defeated Triple H and John Cena to retain the WWE Championship. The main match from the ECW brand was a singles match in which Kane defeated Chavo Guerrero to win the ECW Championship. From the six scheduled bouts on the undercard, three received more promotion than the others. In a No Disqualification match, professional boxer Floyd "Money" Mayweather defeated Big Show. The other featured undercard matches saw CM Punk win the inter-promotional Money in the Bank ladder match and a retirement match in which Shawn Michaels defeated Ric Flair, leading to Flair's departure from the WWE and a period of retirement from active wrestling.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: Tickets for the event commenced sale to the public on November 3, 2007. WWE and the City of Orlando hosted festivities that spanned a five-day period within the central Florida region. For the second consecutive year, WrestleMania broke the record for the highest-grossing pay-per-view in WWE history. It also set a gate record for the Citrus Bowl, grossing US$5.85 million in ticket sales. According to a study by Enigma Research Corporation of Toronto, the Citrus Bowl's record-breaking attendance brought an estimated $51.5 million – surpassing the projected $25 million – into the local economy and generated $1.8 million in local tax revenue. The Central Florida Sports Commission reported that the event created jobs and brought approximately 60,000 visitors to the city. Over one million people ordered the event on pay-per-view, grossing $23.8 million in revenue. It was also the first WrestleMania PPV broadcast in high definition.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: WrestleMania is considered World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) flagship pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985. It has become the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". WrestleMania XXIV featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: On March 21, 2007, a press conference was held at City Hall in Orlando, Florida, formally announcing that WrestleMania XXIV would be held in Orlando at the Florida Citrus Bowl on March 30, 2008, which would be the first WrestleMania held in Florida. According to an interview with "The Daytona Beach News-Journal" at the press conference, WWE chairman Vince McMahon mentioned Orlando being one of three front-runners to host the event, the other two being Las Vegas and Paris. McMahon explained that Orlando was chosen as geographically, a WrestleMania was never held in the southeast before.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: As the second WrestleMania to be held entirely outdoors (after WrestleMania IX), McMahon also announced that the show would have taken place regardless of the weather conditions. In the March 2008 issue of "WWE Magazine", WWE set designer Jason Robinson revealed that a steel rig with a tarpaulin roof would be built above the ring itself to prevent rain from falling on the ring; during the Money in the Bank ladder match, it rained briefly. In that same issue, an initial design of the ring setup was revealed showing a larger rig surrounding the tarpaulin rig, with lighting and two giant screens attached. The final design had the lighting and video screens on the tarpaulin rig, as well as the sound system. During an interview, WWE production manager Brian Petree mentioned that video reinforcement should prevent anyone's view from being obstructed by the steel structure. Up to seven generators were used to power up the show.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: The set design for the entrance stage was at the north end of the stadium and consisted of another steel structure with various video screens hanging from it. The steel beams for the structure were custom built in Belgium and shipped over to Orlando. According to "WWE Magazine", the amount of pyrotechnics used would be ten times that of the amount used on "Raw". Without the restriction of a roof, the pyrotechnics for the show shot as high as as compared to WrestleMania 23's height of . The fireworks were set off from boats on one of the lakes nearby the stadium. WWE has been said to have spent an estimated $300,000 on the fireworks alone.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: With the Citrus Bowl's locker rooms on the south side and the entrance set on the north side, a tented mini-city outside the north end served as the show's backstage area and included air conditioning, trailers, VIP areas, showers and restrooms. As a consequence, the road next to the north end zone, W. Church Street, was closed down until a day after the event. Numerous other roads were also closed to allow trucks and forklifts to move in mega equipment for the event. The ring itself was built on the 50-yard line of the Citrus Bowl to give the best view for fans. Heavy-duty plastic flooring had been put over the field, to protect the turf, provide seating, and serve as the steel structures' foundation.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: Development on the set design began in the middle of 2007. The building of the actual set began in the middle of March 2008. 100 people worked 16 hours a day to construct the set for the event. The construction finished on March 29. WrestleMania XXIV was the first WrestleMania event to be filmed in high-definition. It was also the first WWE show and sports related title to be released on the Blu-ray Disc format by WWE Home Video. WrestleMania also led to an increase in sales for musical artists related to the event, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers' album "Stadium Arcadium", John Legend's album "Live from Philadelphia", Rev Theory's single "Light It Up", and Fuel's single "Leave the Memories Alone", which was used as part of a tribute to Ric Flair.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: WrestleMania XXIV featured nine professional wrestling matches with wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either villains or fan favorites as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers belonged to either the Raw, SmackDown, or ECW brand – storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees to different programs.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: The predominant rivalry scripted into WrestleMania on the Raw brand was between Randy Orton, John Cena, and Triple H, over the WWE Championship. At the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event in January, Orton successfully defended the WWE Championship against Jeff Hardy and later that night, Cena returned from an injury and won the Royal Rumble match when he last eliminated Triple H. Instead of challenging Orton for the title at WrestleMania, Cena decided to challenge him at No Way Out, where Orton got himself intentionally disqualified by slapping the referee, thus retaining the WWE Championship. Later, Triple H also became a top contender to the WWE Championship by defeating five other men in an Elimination Chamber match. The next night on "Raw", Cena argued that he deserved another WWE Championship match. Raw general manager William Regal then announced that Cena would face Orton later in the night, where if Cena won, he would be added to the WrestleMania match between Triple H and Orton, making it a triple threat match. If Orton won, the main event would remain as Orton versus Triple H in a singles match. However, Cena won the match and was added to the bout at WrestleMania. After the match, Triple H, who was the special guest referee, executed a Pedigree on both Cena and Orton.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: The predominant rivalry on the SmackDown brand was between Edge and The Undertaker, over the World Heavyweight Championship. On the February 1 episode of "SmackDown", assistant general manager Theodore Long announced that at No Way Out, an Elimination Chamber match would be held to determine the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania. The Undertaker won the match by last eliminating Batista. On the following episode of "SmackDown", Edge predicted that The Undertaker's 15–0 undefeated streak at WrestleMania would come to an end once he defeated him. Two weeks later on the March 7 episode of "SmackDown", the team of Edge and Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder defeated The Undertaker in a Handicap match after Edge pinned The Undertaker. The following week, La Familia (Chavo Guerrero, Edge, Hawkins and Ryder) defeated Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels in a steel cage match. During the match, Undertaker interfered and attacked La Familia. However, Edge escaped the cage to win the match for his team. Two weeks later on "SmackDown", Edge, along with Vickie Guerrero, Hawkins and Ryder, held a mock burial entitled "Burial of The Undertaker's WrestleMania Undefeated Streak", to celebrate Edge's early victory over The Undertaker. During the "burial", however, The Undertaker emerged from a casket, which was inside the ring, and attacked Edge, Hawkins, and Ryder, knocking Hawkins and Ryder outside the ring and chokeslamming Edge through the casket.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: At No Way Out, Big Show made a return to the company after taking time off for injuries beginning in December 2006. In his return promotional interview, Big Show threatened to give Rey Mysterio a chokeslam. Professional boxer and WBC Welterweight Champion Floyd "Money" Mayweather, who was in attendance and a close friend of Mysterio's, came to his aid and confronted Big Show. After Big Show dropped to his knees, Mayweather attacked him with a combination of punches, which caused Big Show to bleed from the nose and mouth. The following night on "Raw", Big Show challenged Mayweather to a wrestling match, which Mayweather accepted. As part of the storyline, Big Show arranged an exhibition match with fighter Brandon Hill, who was similar in size and stature to Mayweather. Unimpressed with Big Show's display of dominance over Hill, Mayweather told Big Show that "at WrestleMania, I'm going to break your jaw". At their weigh-in for their WrestleMania match, Big Show threw Mayweather into a crowd of wrestlers to emphasise the disparity in size.


title: WrestleMania XXIV

text: On the February 25 episode of "Raw", 2008 WWE Hall of Fame Inductee Ric Flair challenged Shawn Michaels to a match at WrestleMania. Michaels accepted after some reluctance, knowing that due to a previous announcement from WWE chairman Mr. McMahon the next match Flair lost would result in his forced retirement. Flair said that "it would be an honor for [him] to retire at the hands of Shawn Michaels."