You’re watching a big game, it’s getting into crunch time, and there’s a crucial play about to happen. The only issue is, that play already happened and the people who saw it first are sharing it on social media.
The notifications begin to flood your feed from X or ESPN informing you what just happened, all before it plays out on your television screen. Now though, with Super Bowl LX just days away and the Winter Olympics officially getting underway, Xfinity has created a way for people to stay current with everything that happens.
The Philly-based company’s new RealTime4K feature, which will be introduced Sunday during the Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, will allow Xfinity viewers to keep pace with the game as if they were in attendance, while still watching in high-quality 4K.
“The benefit here is our customers will be among the first in the country, other than those at the game, to see what happens at the Super Bowl,” said Vito Forlenza, Comcast’s vice president for sports entertainment. “So we’re doing this for a whole day of 4K. It’s going to be Olympics programming in the morning, 7 a.m. to noon, Super Bowl programming all the rest of the day.”
RealTime4K will debut during the Super Bowl and will allow fans to watch the game in 4K up to 30 seconds faster than other 4K broadcasts.
Xfinity rolled out its enhanced 4K before creating RealTime4K. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, enhanced 4K resulted in a nearly 30-second difference between Xfinity viewers and other viewers watching Noah Lyles win the men’s 100-meter gold medal in a photo finish. In other words, Xfinity viewers could have watched Lyles finish the race three times before others would have seen him cross the line once.
Being able to keep up with sporting events in real time is not the only new feature Xfinity is adding for the Winter Olympics. It’s also adding Fan View, tailoring the Games to each viewer and making sure the events and sports they want to see are on their screens.
“There’s so much Olympics [content] on here you can get overwhelmed,” said Comcast’s director of product management, Scott Manning. “But what we’re bringing for 2026 is Fan View. What that does is it takes all these experiences and puts it into one.”
That means viewers will be able to personalize their Olympic experience. They can pick certain events that they find interesting in Fan View. Then, viewers will be able to access a sidebar that will serve them highlights of the events they like, as well as interviews from athletes competing in the sports they picked.
“I’m able to pick actual broadcasts and then specific sports as I’m going through, and it’s going to remember these selections, and then it will start tailoring some of the experience based on that too,” Manning said. “I don’t have to pick things. If I just want to try to get everything, that’s fine.”
Viewers can access Xfinity’s new Fan View even while watching four Olympic events at the same time.
Viewers will be able to also see medal counts, a feature that was there for previous Olympics, but this time it will be integrated into Fan View, which will debut on Friday.
Fan View can also help customers keep track of several sports at once — even while they’re watching something different, as it won’t interfere with the sport currently on the screen. So, if curling is on the TV, viewers can continue to have their Fan View on the side, and their watching experience will not be impacted.
After all, there’s a lot to keep track of.
“Our customers said, ‘Well, that sounds good, but I want to make sure I can find the one sport that I’m looking for,’” Forlenza said. “One of our customers said it doesn’t matter if we have 3,000 hours [of content] if they can’t find the one hour they really want to watch. So that’s the problem we’re trying to solve to make sure customers can get to the Olympics coverage they want to watch quickly and easily.”
With a big 2026 on tap for Xfinity, both in Philly and nationally, this won’t be the last time fans get this kind of experience.
“We’re already thinking about the World Cup,” Forlenza said. “We’re building these types of features. We’re already thinking, ‘How’s this?’”
About 40 people were arrested after an activist group Thursday evening conducted a demonstration inside a Target store in South Philadelphia to demand that the company take a public stand against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions at the chain’s stores.
More than 100 demonstrators affiliated with No ICE Philly chanted “ICE out of Target now!” and played instruments inside the store near Snyder Avenue and I-95. Some shoppers joined the chanting.
Shortly before 6 p.m., the protesters were given their first warning by police to leave or be arrested. Dozens then left, but a group of 40 or so remained inside, seated on the floor. Around 6:15 p.m., police began making arrests without incident. Three remaining protesters were given citations and allowed to leave, police said.
The zip-tied detainees were led by police out of the store one by one to cheers from other protesters outside.
The demonstration and subsequent arrests did not deter shoppers from going about their business, entering and leaving the store.
A man dressed in a bear costume and wearing an action camera harnessed to his chest showed up and yelled at the activists inside the store, calling them “weirdos.” Police intervened to prevent an escalation.
Rabbi Linda Holtzman, 73, (right) a spokesperson for No ICE Philly, addresses the crowd during a demonstration inside a Target store in South Philadelphia, Feb. 5, 2026.
Benita Dixon, 66, accompanied by her granddaughter, was at the store to buy a Valentine’s Day present for her daughter when the protest broke out.
Dixon’s first reaction was to get a tighter grip on her granddaughter’s hand, but when chanting began, the pair joined in dancing with protesters.
“ICE has been going around killing people in Minnesota, and that’s not right,” Dixon said. “Many of my co-workers are coming into work carrying their passports because they are scared, so I’m glad we are protesting: No ICE in our streets.”
Across the country, protesters — including employees of the company — have been calling for Target to publicly oppose the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, the company’s home state, and deny ICE agents who do not have judicial warrants access to Target stores and parking lots.
Demonstrators from No ICE Philly protesting inside the Target store.
“Target does not have cooperative agreements with any immigration enforcement agency,” a company executive said in a memo to employees on Jan. 22, Business Insider reported.
A day after two ICE agents fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, where Target is headquartered, then-incoming CEO Michael Fiddelke cosigned a joint statement from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce with dozens of other executives, “calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.”
Pretti’s Jan. 24 killing in Minneapolis was the second in less than a month. On Jan. 7, an ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.
A Target spokesperson said in an email that Fiddelke also sent a note to employees saying “the violence and loss of life in our community is incredibly painful” and that “we are doing everything we can to manage what’s in our control, always keeping the safety of our team and guests our top priority.”
Target, founded in 1962, operates 1,989 stores across the United States and generates net revenue of more than $100 billion annually.
The company was hit with a national boycott last year after it rolled back Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives to fall in line with the policies of President Donald Trump.
No ICE Philly has led demonstrations against the agency and against the arrests of immigrants outside the city Criminal Justice Center.
Demonstrators from No ICE Philly protesting inside the store.
At the Target in South Philadelphia, Rabbi Linda Holtzman, 73, said the in-store protest is what people must do when neighbors are under attack.
“What ICE is doing, what they have been doing, is horrible, and we stand with the people of Minneapolis,” Holtzman said.
Protesting at the South Philadelphia Target is a way to tell the company that it must stand on the side of the people, Holtzman said.
“Target has become an ally to ICE, letting them come into their stores without a warrant,” Holtzman said. “That’s not the America I grew up in. Is that the country you want?”
The shaping of the 76ers took a step backward this week … perhaps just momentarily.
The team moved on from Jared McCain, a fan favorite and 2025 Rookie of the Year front-runner, and seldom-used veteran guard Eric Gordon before Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline. In return, the Sixers acquired a first-round pick, three second-rounders, and a second-round pick swap.
McCain was shipped to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday in exchange for the Houston Rockets’ 2026 first-round pick and three second-round selections. One of the second-rounders is the most favorable 2027 pick from the Thunder, Rockets, Indiana Pacers, and the Miami Heat. The other second-rounders are the 2028 picks that previously belonged to the Milwaukee Bucks and Thunder.
Then, around 2 p.m. on Thursday, the Sixers agreed to send Gordon and the right to swap second-round picks in 2032 to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for the draft rights to Justinian Jessup.
Shedding those players’ salaries gives the Sixers just over $7.6 million in cap space under the first apron. That means they can sign players on the buyout market in addition to using up to $8 million in a trade exception to acquire a player.
After the deadline, the Sixers signed forward Patrick Baldwin to a 10-day contract and center Charles Bassey to his second 10-day stint, giving the Sixers 14 standard contracts. And 48 minutes before Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers, the team announced it converted starting power forward Dominick Barlow’s two-way contract to a standard deal.
Sixers guard Eric Gordon, a mentor to young star VJ Edgecombe, was dealt to the Memphis Grizzlies.
That enabled Barlow remain active for the remainder of the season.
But for now, they’re not in a good situation.
The buyout market could be key for the Sixers if they don’t sign Baldwin and Bassey for the remainder of the season.
Baldwin was the 28th overall pick by the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 NBA draft. On July 6, 2023, he was traded to the Washington Wizards.
The 7-foot, 220-pound player has averaged 3.7 points and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 37.7% on three-pointers in a combined 95 games with the Warriors, Wizards, and Los Angeles Clippers.
Meanwhile, Bassey was not active for any games with the Sixers during the initial 10-day deal that he signed on Jan. 26. However, he excelled for their NBA G League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats.
Sixers guard Jared McCain was shipped to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Sixers headed into the trade deadline with a 29-21 record and were riding a five-game winning streak. Even though they were fifth in the Eastern Conference standings, they were regarded as the league’s most dangerous team.
With Joel Embiid healthy and playing at a high level, the thought was that they could beat any team on any given night. And it didn’t matter that Paul George is in the midst of serving a 25-game suspension for violating the NBA’s anti-drug program.
Kelly Oubre Jr., Barlow, and VJ Edgecombe took up the slack during the first three games that he missed.
Since then, the Sixers traded away players who were well-liked in the locker room for what on the surface appear to be moves to help them get below the luxury tax threshold.
But it’s still too early to fully judge the moves that were made.
McCain was exceptional in his rookie season before suffering a season-ending knee injury in December 2024. But he struggled with consistency this season, leaving him out of the rotation. Gordon played in only six games, with his last appearance coming Dec. 23 against the Brooklyn Nets.
The Sixers signed Patrick Baldwin (center) to a 10-day deal after the NBA trade deadline.
So these moves were made on the margins and will only be crystalized once we see how they affect the roster this season and what they do with their draft picks in the future.
But in the interim, the Sixers got a little worse over two days while several contenders in the East improved.
Federal judges in Philadelphia have been unusually outspoken in recent weeks about what they call the “illegal” policy by ICE of mandating detention for nearly all undocumented immigrants — and have been sharply critical of the “unsound” arguments by government attorneys seeking to justify the approach.
U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III has overturned the government’s attempts to detain people in six cases over the last two months, writing in one opinion that Immigration and Customs Enforcement “continues to act contrary to law, to spend taxpayer money needlessly, and to waste the scarce resources of the judiciary.”
And U.S. District Judge Kai N. Scott became the latest jurist to equate the ongoing legal battle with the government to Greek mythology, saying she and her colleagues on the bench have been squaring off with the Justice Department in a manner similar to Heracles’ confrontation with Hydra, the serpentlike monster that grew two heads every time one was chopped off.
Although the region’s federal judges have “unanimously rejected” the government’s attempts to rationalize ICE detention of immigrants “without cause, without notice, and in clear violation” of federal law, Scott wrote, the government has continued to detain people in the same fashion day after day. And after each rejection, she wrote, “at least two more nearly identical” petitions seeking relief pop up on the court’s docket.
“The Court writes today with a newfound and personal appreciation of Heracles’ struggles,” she said.
District Judge Kai N. Scott’s Feb. 4, 2026 memo granting another habeas petition filed by an immigrant, and expressing frustration with the federal government’s arguments.
The judicial rebukes come as immigration authorities have continued sweeping the nation to fulfill President Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations. The number of detained immigrants has exploded — as has the number of court petitions from people seeking immediate release, which are known as habeas petitions.
The enlarged legal workload has put a corresponding strain on the nation’s U.S. attorney’s offices, which typically defend ICE’s actions in federal court. Prosecutors from the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office, for example, requested an extension in January to handle part of a class-action suit in order to deal with a surge in immigration release petitions.
“This Office continues to handle an unprecedented volume of emergent immigration habeas petitions, which we continue to prioritize because of the liberty interests at issue,” the letter said.
And in Minnesota this week, a federal prosecutor said she wished the judge would hold her in contempt so she could get some sleep in jail. Julie Le seemed exasperated when the judge pressed her on why the government had been ignoring his release orders.
“What do you want me to do? The system sucks. This job sucks,” Le said, according to a court transcript.
The issue at the center of each incident involves ICE’s mandatory detention policy. The policy was rolled out over the summer, and it requires that nearly all undocumented immigrants be held in custody as their cases wind through the country’s backlogged and complex immigration system.
That upended decades of government practice, which typically allowed people who entered the country illegally, but who were otherwise law-abiding, to at least receive a bond hearing and determine if they could remain in the community as their cases moved forward.
Jeanne Ottoson with Cooper River Indivisible attends an Immigrant rights groups rally outside the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to defend the New Jersey state ban on immigration-detention contracts on May 1, 2025.
Some of those detained as a result of the policy have filed habeas petitions, arguing that their detention violates the Constitution. And in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia’s federal court, judges have granted challenges to the policy at a near-universal rate.
Still, those decisions have been made on a case-by-case basis, with relief extended only to one petitioner at a time. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which is based in New Orleans and is considered one of the country’s most conservative jurisdictions, heard a broader challenge to the policy. A divided 2-1 court ruled Friday that ICE can detain undocumented immigrants the agency is seeking to deport, even those who have been in the country for years.
The ruling covers only federal courts in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, and many legal experts expects the matter to ultimately end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Philadelphia, Scott’s expression of frustration came this week in response to the release petition of Franklin Leonidas Once Chillogallo. The 24-year-old from Ecuador came to the United States in 2020, lives with his partner and his 6-month-old twin daughters in Upper Darby, and works as a construction worker. He has no criminal history.
After ICE arrested Once Chillogallo outside his home on Jan. 13, he was held in the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center without the opportunity for an immigration judge to review his case.
Just as happened in the previous 90 cases, Scott rejected the argument that Once Chillogallo, an immigrant who has been in the country for years, was subject to the same bond rules as those who were caught entering without permission. The judge ordered Once Chillogallo’s release, which took place the following day, according to the court docket.
Inside the federal courthouse Thursday, judges held three hearings on arcane legal questions surrounding habeas petitions.
Dozens of other habeas petitions remain pending, court records show. In many that were recently decided, judges used terse or brusque language to point out that the government’s interpretation of the law has been repeatedly rejected.
“Across the board, there is frustration. There is frustration from attorneys. There is frustration from the judges,” said Kimberly Tomczak, an immigration attorney who represented Once Chillogallo. “Nothing seems to be changing on the immigration side in response to the flood of habeas grants across the nation.”
SAN FRANCISCO — Eagles star tackle Jordan Mailata spent the past eight seasons developing a relationship with Jeff Stoutland that went beyond football.
So, while Mailata expressed professional disappointment in Stoutland’s decision to depart the Eagles, announced Wednesday, he said he also understood the 63-year-old coach’s choice.
“As selfish as it is for me to want him there, I think it’s about time for him,” Mailata told The Inquirer on Thursday from Super Bowl LX Radio Row. “I knew it was probably closer to the end maybe. I thought I had a couple more years with him. I think age, I think the time he spends away from his family is a factor. And now he’s going to become a grandparent. … I think he’ll want to be around for that.”
Stoutland is the only offensive line coach Mailata has played under since entering the NFL in 2018. Mailata, a native of New South Wales, Australia, entered the NFL via the International Player Pathway Program, and with very little previous exposure to football. Stoutland scouted him from the program before the Eagles made him a seventh-round pick in 2018, then developed Mailata into one of the league’s top offensive tackles.
Mailata was named a second-team All-Pro in 2024, the same season a run-first Eagles offense bulldozed its way to a Super Bowl title.
“I’ve been crying about it to be honest. Guy’s like my father,” Mailata said. “It hit me hard. And now I’m just kind of glad the Super Bowl week is keeping me busy so I can deal with that when I get home when I have the time to myself. Yeah, it’s hard. It got me.”
Mailata will have to adjust to a new position coach amid changes to the Eagles offensive staff. Offensive coordinator Sean Mannion, pass game coordinator Josh Grizzard, and run game coordinator Ryan Mahaffey are among the new faces that have been named to Nick Sirianni’s staff.
Asked about the expected changes to the Eagles offense, Mailata said, “I don’t know, I’ll be honest. I’m excited for the challenge. I just don’t know what we’re walking into because it’s uncharted territory for me, man. I’ve had the same coach for the last eight years, but I welcome it. It’s a challenge that we have to learn a new playbook, but this is the NFL, man, this is what we do.”
A Michigan man who drove across the country to set fire to a Bensalem family’s home in a targeted attack on a romantic rival was sentenced Thursday to 20 to 40 years in prison.
Harrison Jones, 22, pleaded no contest to six counts of attempted murder and two counts of animal cruelty for the killing of the family’s two dogs, which perished in the blaze. He also pleaded guilty to a slew of related crimes in connection with the February 2025 incident.
Bucks County prosecutors said Jones drove more than 700 miles from his native Rockford, Mich., that winter to set the blaze at the home of Alex Zalenski, a man Jones’ ex-girlfriend and high school sweetheart had recently begun a long-distance relationship with.
Zalenski, along with his father, mother, sister, and grandparents, was sleeping when Jones broke in and set off an incendiary device in the living room and kitchen around 5 a.m. Their dogs, Jett and Trey, barked, waking up the family, who all managed to escape.
Alex Zalenski’s sister, Ava, recalled being awakened to the sound of yelling and heavy smoke clouding her room, choking her airways.
“My dad told me to get down to breathe,” she said. “At age 20, I was ready to accept death.”
The family had just minutes to escape the blaze, which consumed the property and left them without a home.
Andrew Zalenski, the father of Alex and Ava Zalenski, recalled telling them to crawl on the floor to avoid inhaling smoke.
He forced them out of a window before going to look for his wife, Stacy, he said, but could not find her and fled.
It was challenging to describe the feeling of watching your home ablaze “believing your wife is burning to death inside,” he tearfully recounted.
Stacy Zalenski had been trying, unsuccessfully, to save the dogs. The woman, who is battling breast and lung cancer, ultimately jumped from a second-floor window to survive.
Andrew Zalenski suffered from severe smoke inhalation and was put in an induced coma in the hospital, he said.
Meanwhile, Alex Zalenski — the young man whose relationship with Jones’ ex had enraged the Michigan man — said the attack “shredded any normalcy I had.”
He had to withdraw from college after the incident, he said, and has since had trouble sleeping.
“It felt as if my entire world had been set ablaze,” he told the court.
Jones, wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit and shoulder-length hair, showed little emotion during the Zalenski family’s remarks.
Given the opportunity to speak, however, Jones took full responsibility for the crime.
“I need to take accountability,” Jones said, his voice breaking. “I’m guilty — I’ve done what I’ve done.”
Jones’ family, including his father, mother, sister, stepfather, stepmother, and stepbrother, were in the gallery behind him.
Jones’ attorney, Paul Lang, said Jones had no previous criminal record and had suffered physical abuse growing up. To cope, he had turned to abusing Xanax and marijuana, Lang said.
Jones, for his part, alluded to being under the influence of drugs during the attack.
In addition to sentencing Jones to decades in prison, Bucks County Court Judge Matthew D. Weintraub ordered him to pay more than $500,000 in restitution to the Zalenski family.
Weintraub told the Zalenskis that the trauma of the attack had clearly bonded their family.
Addressing Jones, the judge said he believed the young man had attempted to “effectuate maximum damage” that day.
A Camden firefighter died Thursday after getting trapped under ice and water in the Delaware River, according to the Camden mayor’s office.
The Professional Fire Fighters Association of New Jersey on thursday night identified the fallen first responder as Howard Bennett.
The firefighter was doing regular maintenance on a department fireboat near Wiggins Marina around 11:30 a.m. when he fell into the water and got stuck under the ice. He was trapped for about 30 minutes, Fire Department Chief Jesse Flax said at a news conference.
Bennett was removed from the water, given medical attention, taken to Cooper University Hospital, and declared dead.
“I do not have enough words that I can even say that could tell you how this is hurting all of us,” Flax said.
Camden Mayor Victor G. Carstarphen thanked the fallen firefighter for the sacrifices he made to serve the city.
“He wasn’t just a public servant,” Carstarphen said. “He was a husband. He was a brother, a father, that committed his adult life to serving and protecting and being there for our residents in the city.”
Pete Perez, the president of Local 788, a union that represents Camden firefighters, described Bennett as particularly skilled in boating.
“He was our guy for when it came to the boat stuff,” Perez said.
“I’m devastated to the core,” Perez added. “For first responders — police and fire — training, routine things, can be inherently dangerous and today, unfortunately, we learned that.”
Mathew Caliente, president of the Professional Fire Fighters Association of New Jersey, said in a statement:
“We are devastated by the loss of Brother Bennett who dedicated his life to protecting the residents of Camden. Our hearts, our prayers, and our full support are with his family, his friends, and the members of Camden City Firefighters Local 788 and Camden Fire Officers Local 2578 during this unimaginably difficult time.”
As expected, the 76ers parted ways with Eric Gordon.
Sources confirmed that the Sixers traded the reserve shooting guard to the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday in exchange for a 2032 second-round pick swap. This move gives the Sixers various options.
It opens up a roster spot to convert Dominick Barlow’s two-way contract into a standard deal. It also gives them a little over $7.6 million in salary cap space under the first apron, meaning they can sign players on the buyout market in addition to using up to $8 million in a trade exception to acquire a player.
Gordon played only in six games this season, with his last appearance coming Dec. 23 against the Brooklyn Nets. The 37-year-old, in his 18th season, signed a one-year, $3.63 million contract on July 1 after declining his $3.47 million player option.
Gordon’s deal carried a $2.3 million cap hit and a $2.3 million dead cap value, which was considered a good, low-risk expiring salary for potential trades.
The thought was that the Sixers could use a second-round pick to entice a team with a lot of cap space to take on Gordon’s contract for the remainder of the season. It turns out they found a trade partner in the Grizzlies.
After a week of moderate winter temps, we’re back to single digit chills and snow-packed streets this weekend.
At this point, we’re used to the bone-numbing winds, so nothing will stop us from enjoying fun, brutally-entertaining, and dog-friendly events happening this weekend. Am I right?
While our beloved Birds didn’t make it to the Super Bowl this year, there’s plenty of watch parties for disheartened fans in need of support, and others looking forward to Bad Bunny’s electrifying half-time show.
Plus, a brutal bare knuckle brawl will take place in South Philly. Craftsman Row’s annual Mardi Gras pop-up experience will transport patrons to New Orleans’ French Quarter. And a reimagined Shakespearean classic will open at the Philadelphia Contemporary Theatre.
Whatever you choose, just please avoid ice fishing on the frozen Schuylkill. There’s enough events to go around before you need to risk your warmth (and life) on the river’s ice-solid surface.
Just look below, and you’ll find plenty of events worth reeling into your weekend plans.
Schuylkill River as seen from former railroad bridge in Manayunk section, Philadelphia on snowy and cold Monday, Jan. 26, 2026.
The Schuylkill is frozen, so that means you can ice fish on it. Right? No!
With the surface of the Schuylkill frozen solid, a reader asked through Curious Philly if ice fishing is allowed on the grand tributary.
Short answer: no.
While fishing along the Schuylkill is accepted and celebrated in warmer temperatures, those dreaming of an Arctic lifestyle should be reconsider their plans.
⚜️ A taste of NOLA: Stop by Craftsman Row Saloon for a taste of New Orleans. The bar’s annual Fat Tuesday pop-up experience will feature Mardi Gras-inspired dishes and southern favorites like jambalaya, crawfish mac and cheese, and po boys.
🍷 The formula of love: Learn the science of romance at the Science History Institute’s event on Friday. Wine chemist André Isaacs, master chocolatier Jim St. John, essential oil specialist Kim Bleimann, and others will dive into the history of your favorite Valentine’s Day staples for “Wine, Roses, and Chocolate: How Romance and Science Work Together.”
🐶 The return of Bark Bowl: The fifth annual Bark Bowl returns to Craft Hall on Saturday. While their furry, four-legged friends are enjoying the indoor turf and doggie toys, pet-parents can enjoy a special menu of drinks, crafty-style pizza, BBQ platters, and other offerings.
🏈 Super Bowl Watch Parties: While our beloved Eagles didn’t make it to the biggest night in sports, it doesn’t mean you can’t stop by watch parties at Fringe Bar, Taller Puertorriqueño, Stateside Live!, and other venues and dive bars.
📅 My calendar picks this week: Step Afrika! at Miller Theater, First Friday in Chestnut Hill, Restaurant Week in Center City
Kiera Duffy (left) and Justin Vivian Bond perform in “Complications in Sue” during the final dress rehearsal at the Academy of Music in Center City Philadelphia on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. The original libretto is based on an idea by Bond, and is playwright Michael R. Jackson’s operatic debut.
Opera Philadelphia’s ‘strange little roller coaster ride’ is rolling into town
Created to commemorate the Opera Philadelphia’s 50th anniversary, Complications in Sueopened on Wednesday with 10 composers commissioned to write eight-minute scenes. (Here’s our review!)
The scenes encompass the century-long life of a mythical everywoman named Sue, who does everything from saving Santa Clause from an existential crisis in a nonbelieving world, to fending off aggressive shopping algorithms. Impressive, right?
Complications in Sue plays through Sunday at the Academy of Music. All tickets are Pick Your Price, starting at $11.
Read more in writer David Patrick Stearns’ story here.
Winter fun this week and beyond
🏎️ One final lap: Stop by the Philadelphia Auto Show, and take a spin around the Pennsylvania Convention Center before the annual ends on Sunday. Hundreds of vehicles will be displayed throughout the exhibition, including some you can test drive in and outside the building.
🤜🏽 Put your dukes up: The biggest night in Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship returns to Philly for KnuckleMania VI at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Show-stoppers like heavyweight champion Ben Rothwell will defend his title against former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski in a main event clash.
🎭 A reimagined theater classic: A modern, fast-paced, and thrilling reimagining of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar will take center stage at the Philadelphia Theatre Company on Froday. The show runs through Feb. 22.
🧗🏼♂️ Come Baa-aaa-ack to Please Touch Museum: Shaun the Sheep, Bitzer, and your kid’s other farmyard friends will guide them through a series of fun problem-solving activities at the Please Touch Museum. Kids can scale small climbing walls, form their own stop-motion animations, and test their agility on balance boards. The exhibit runs from Saturday to May 10.
🎸 Thursday: Off the heels of the Oklahoma band’s seventh album, the Turnpike Troubadours bring their brand of Red Dirt country at the Met Philly. The band will be joined by wry Texas songwriter Robert Earl Keen.
🎤 Friday: Soulful Alabama singer Kashus Culpepper, whose new album, Act I, features guest appearances from Sierra Ferrell and Marcus King, will play World Cafe Live’s Free at Noon. Then, he’s headed to the Foundry at the Fillmore for a second gig that night.
🎤 Tuesday: Two days after singing “America the Beautiful” at Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Brandi Carlile will kick off her “Human Tour” at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Tuesday.
Assuming the roads are clear, and the snow isn’t too brutal this weekend, make your way to these stellar events.
Besides, I’m sure it helps to keep Eagles fans’ minds off Sunday’s game. And I’ll say it again — avoid any ice fishing, please.
Figure skating is one of the most popular events at the Winter Olympics.
But many only follow it every four years, which can make it confusing when the rules change — as they do annually. Most of the names also are new since 2022.
Plus, figure skating is a judged sport, so sometimes the skater you love might get dinged on rules you don’t know and not place as well as you’d expect.
Here is a breakdown of how to watch the Olympic figure skating events:
What are people talking about?
The Blade Angels
The American skaters! Team USA has been a powerhouse off and on, but 2026 is very much an on year.
On the women’s side, all three women — who call themselves the Blade Angels — have major titles to their name. South Jersey’s Isabeau Levito is the 2023 U.S. champion and the 2024 world silver medalist. The 18-year-old was born in Philadelphia and lives and trains in Mount Laurel.
Amber Glenn is a three-time U.S. champion and won the Grand Prix Final in 2024.
Alysa Liu is a two-time national champion and the reigning world and Grand Prix Final champion.
Ilia Malinin skates his program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January in St. Louis.
The Quad God
Ilia Malinin named himself the Quad God early on, and he’s lived up to that name, landing seven triples (the six major jumps plus one in combination at the 2025 Grand Prix Final in December.
He is the only man in the world to land a quad axel in international competition. Sometimes called the quaxel, it is 4½ revolutions in the air with a forward (read: harder) takeoff.
The quad axel was the talk of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing because Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu was going to attempt it. But he did not land it cleanly.
Malinin has competed it many times since then. Thanks to the difficulty of the move and his consistency, he has not lost a competition he skated in several years.
All three men on the U.S. team are second-generation skaters. Malinin’s parents represented Uzbekistan at two Games.
Andrew Torgashev’s Ukrainian mother, Ilona Melnichenko, competed for the Soviet Union and was the 1987 World Junior champion in ice dancing. His Russian father, Artem Torgashev, was a pairs skater, also for the Soviet Union, and is a two-time World Junior Championships medalist.
Ice dancer Anthony Ponomarenko’s parents, Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, are the only ice dancers to have won an Olympic medal of every color. They are the 1992 Olympic champions.
Married ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are seven-time national champions.
Chock and Bates
American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are back for their fourth and fifth Olympics, respectively. The married couple has a team gold medal from the 2022 Winter Olympics. They are seven-time national champions and three-time world champions. The only title they haven’t earned yet is an individual Olympic medal. There are a few other teams who could challenge them for Olympic gold, but they have the edge entering the event.
The oldest competitor and whether she can skate
Deanna Stellato-Dudek is 42 and competed in singles for the United States when she was a teenager. She retired because of injury but came back 16 years later when she realized her unfulfilled Olympic dream. She competed in pairs for Team USA before teaming up with Maxime Deschamps and eventually getting her Canadian citizenship.
After a four-year ban because of the war in Ukraine, Russia was allowed to send a limited number of skaters to an Olympic qualifier competition to compete as neutral athletes. They were not considered if they had shown any support for the war. Two women qualified: Adeliia Petrosian and Viktoriia Safonova. Petrosian is in contention for a medal and likely will be the only woman to attempt quads at the Games.
One neutral Russian man was cleared to compete, Petr Gumennik. No pairs or ice dancers were allowed.
Who else is on Team USA?
The other U.S. dance teams in Milan are Ponomorenko and Christina Carreira, who’s from Canada and recently became a U.S. citizen. They are the 2026 U.S. bronze medalists and medaled twice at the World Junior Championships.
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik teamed up in 2022 and quickly found success. They are the 2026 U.S. silver medalists.
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea compete during the pairs free skate in January.
In pairs, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, the 2026 U.S. silver medalists and 2024 champs, are fan favorites because O’Shea competed through three Olympic cycles before he made the team. They are 13 years apart.
Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe overcame a rough short program to place fourth (and win the pewter medal) in January’s U.S. championships. They made the team because other top teams’ skaters didn’t share citizenship. Chan and Howe are the 2023 U.S. silver medalists. Howe is in the World Class Athlete Program of the U.S. Army and hopes to become an Army chaplain.
Normally, skaters compete individually or in pairs. In 2014, the team event was added to Olympic competitions. Different skaters can skate the long and short programs for each event (men’s, women’s, pairs, dance), but a team can repeat in two events.
Only the ones chosen to skate win medals, rather than the entire Olympic team.
The team event began with ice dance on Friday and ran through Sunday. Individual events begin Monday, also with ice dance.
In 2022, Russia was poised to win the gold, with the United States right behind it and then Japan. But after 15-year-old Kamila Valieva was found with banned drugs in her system, she was retroactively banned for four years. (That period recently expired, and Valieva is training again.)
In past team events, the United States won bronze in 2014 and 2018. Russia and Canada were the other medalists both years (Russia won in 2014, and Canada in 2018).
Pairs has the big jumps, throws, and lifts. Dance is almost entirely footwork and is based on ballroom dance.
What is the difference between the short program and the long program?
The short program has a set of required elements that the skaters must perform. They have some freedom within those restrictions. For example, if they are told to do a triple jump, they may choose any triple jump. Generally, they choose the harder jumps because they earn more points. But they may also choose the jump they do best.
If skaters miss a required element, they get a zero for it. For example, if a triple jump is required and the skater does a double instead, it is as if he or she didn’t jump at all.
In dance, the short program is called the rhythm dance. A theme is chosen every year. This year, it is “the music, dance styles, and feeling of the 1990s.”
The long program has more freedom, but it still must be a “well-balanced program,” meaning a combination of elements covering the full surface of the ice.
The short program for singles and pairs is 2 minutes, 40 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds. The rhythm dance is 2:50, plus or minus 10 seconds.
The long program for all is four minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds.
What are the differences between figure skating jumps?
The skating blade looks flat, but it actually is sharpened to a curve with two edges.
Jumps take off from an edge (axel, loop, Salchow) or from the skater tapping in his or her toe (flip, Lutz, toe loop).
The axel is a forward entry but lands backward. All other jumps start and land backward.
The flip and Lutz are very similar toe jumps, but the flip is from an inside edge, and the Lutz from the outside, meaning the Lutz requires slightly more rotation, and thus is given more points.
A common mistake is that a skater will aim to do one but change the edge at the last minute. Commentators often talk about that as a “flutz.”
Another common mistake is a “cheated” jump, meaning the blade lands at least a quarter turn short of rotation. That results in a deduction or sometimes even a downgrade, meaning an intended triple jump is called a double.
Which skaters are expected to do well?
Along with the U.S. women, the Japanese women are very strong. They are led by three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto, who won the Olympic bronze medal in 2022.
On the men’s side, along with Malinin, the top contenders include Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, who earned the silver medal at the 2022 Olympics and is also a three-time World silver medalist. France’s Adam Siao Him Fa and Kazakstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov are others to watch.
The top ice dancers are Chock and Bates. Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier earned the silver medal behind Chock and Bates in the last two world championships.
Silver medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (left), gold medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and bronze medalists Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson celebrate their medals at worlds in 2025.
The pairs contenders are led by Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan, the reigning world champions. Others include Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii (Italy), Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin (Germany), and Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (Georgia).
How is Olympic figure skating judged and scored?
The judging system was changed after the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics judging scandal, when two judges allegedly colluded to make certain skaters champions. The 6.0 system was replaced by IJS, the international judging system, which defines how many points each element is worth.
The officials include judges and a technical panel. The technical panel determines an element — including whether a triple should be downgraded to count as a double — and the judges decide the quality of the element. Skaters may be given a positive or negative grade of execution depended on how the element was performed. They also are given points for skating skills, transitions between elements, and performance. This is how a more artistic skate with fewer big jumps, can still do well. It is also how a skater with lots of impressive jumps but easier footwork may not win.
