Summer 2019 media preview: What to watch, hear, read, download this season

Week ahead calendar

Tuesday: "Anthony Bourdain Remembered," CNN's hardcover book celebrating Bourdain's life, hits bookshelves...

Tuesday afternoon: The annual luncheon for Pulitzer Prize winners...

Tuesday evening: "Running with Beto" premieres on HBO...

Wednesday: The CBS board will convene on the same day as the company's annual meeting...

Wednesday night: "Big Little Lies" season two premiere screening in NYC...

Thursday: "Rocketman" hits theaters...

Thursday evening: The first of four CNN town hall events this week... The other three are on Sunday...

Friday: "When They See Us" starts streaming on Netflix...

Friday: "Galaxy's Edge" opens at Disneyland in California...

Sunday: NYT's "The Weekly" debuts on FX...

"Siege" soon

Michael Wolff's follow-up to "Fire and Fury" comes out in one week. His publishing house says "Siege" will be "equally explosive." If history is any guide, there will be leaks from the book in the next couple of days... and an exclusive excerpt somewhere... In the case of "Fire and Fury," The Guardian nabbed a copy first, spilled some of the beans, and then NYMag published the first excerpt six days before the book was supposed to come out. Henry Holt rushed the book out a few days early. Expect to hear about "Siege" very soon...

"When They See Us" is a must see

Last week THR's Rebecca Keegan called Ava DuVernay the "Mogul for This Moment." Duvernay's "four-part series 'When They See Us,' about the five Harlem teenage boys who were wrongfully convicted of rape in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, premieres in full on May 31 and grapples with ideas the director has been marinating on for decades — ideas about race, criminal justice and who gets to write history," Keegan wrote.

There's much more to come. Lisa Respers France emails: It was so intense to film "When They See Us" that DuVernay had crisis counselors on set. Later this week I'll have a story featuring interviews with some of the stars...

One month til the first Dem debate

The countdown is on. The first two-parter debate will take place on June 26 and 27 on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo. The second debate will be on July 30 and 31 on CNN...

So many shows are coming back!

Brian Lowry emails: The first full week of June will be a big week for prestige TV, with the return of "The Handmaid's Tale" on June 4, more "Black Mirror" on June 5, and season two of "Big Little Lies" on June 9.

Later in the summer: "The Hills" returns on MTV on June 24... "Stranger Things" is back on Netflix on July 4... "BH90210" premieres on Fox on August 9. The NYT's Mike Hale has a list of 22 new and returning shows here... And Deadline has a pretty complete calendar...

"The Loudest Voice"

Showtime's "The Loudest Voice," about Fox News and Roger Ailes, hits on June 30... I have seen the first two episodes, and I can safely say that you will want to see this show...

Buy tickets for these...

Disney's big summer will continue with "Toy Story 4" on June 21 and "The Lion King" on July 19. Other notable releases: "Late Night" on June 7,"Yesterday" on June 28, "Spider-Man: Far From Home" on July 2, "The Farewell" on July 12, "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood" on July 26, and "Where'd You Go Bernadette" on August 16...

>> More: NPR's summer movie guide has 27 flicks...

New albums from Madonna and Springsteen

The NYPost's Chuck Arnold writes: "It's gonna feel like 1984 all over again when two of the ultimate '80s icons — Madonna and Bruce Springsteen — release new studio albums on the same banner day: June 14. While we can't expect her to make another 'Like a Virgin' or him to make another 'Born in the U.S.A.,' all eyes and ears will be on them to see if they've still got it 35 years after they ruled the pop world." More...

The Tony Awards are live on CBS June 9...

Code Conference starts June 10...

Cannes Lions begins June 17...

The G20 summit is on June 28 and 29...

The Tour De France begins July 6...

Emmy nominations come out on July 16...

The 50th anniversary of Woodstock is in mid-August...

What to read

I mentioned "Siege" up top. Here are some of the other nonfiction titles on my summer list: "Dignity" by Chris Arnade, out June 4; "The Coddling of the American Mind" by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, out June 6; "Three Women" by Lisa Taddeo, out July 9; and Jia Tolentino's essay collection "Trick Mirror," out August 6. Plus three from cable newsers: Jim Acosta's "The Enemy of the People" on June 11; Joy-Ann Reid's Trump book, "The Man Who Sold America," out June 25; and Tomi Lahren's "Never Play Dead: How the Truth Makes You Unstoppable," out July 2.

But I'm no expert. So I defer to Vulture's "12 books we can't wait to read this summer," Yahoo's "35 hottest reads," Bustle's "50 new books of summer 2019," and these features from WaPo, Bloomberg, and Shondaland. Some of the most anticipated titles on the fiction lists include "City of Girls," Elizabeth Gilbert's first novel in six years, out June 4; Taffy Brodesser-Akner's novel "Fleishman Is in Trouble," out June 18; Colson Whitehead's "The Nickel Boys," out July 16; and Laura Lippman's "Lady In The Lake," out July 23.

More recommendations

-- The New Yorker's summer theatre preview: "The Public's 'Much Ado About Nothing,' a new musical adaptation of 'Moulin Rouge!,' cultural cross-pollination at the Shed, and more." I still want to see "Oklahoma!" and "Ink" and "Hillary and Clinton..."

-- Here's Nick Quah's list of six buzzy new podcasts for the summer months...

-- And here is CNN's summer movie gallery...

Apollo's 50th anniversary

America will re-live the moon landing this summer... 50 years after the Apollo 11 mission... and I've been working on something special related to the anniversary that will be out in June...

>> Plan ahead: CNN's television premiere of "Apollo 11" is on June 23 at 9 p.m. ET...

How far will Holzhauer go?

"On Monday night, while the rest of America reeled from Memorial Day celebrations, James Holzhauer obliterated his rivals on the way to his 28th straight 'Jeopardy!' win," the NYPost's Hana R. Alberts wrote.

Will he beat Ken Jennings' record? Right now he's within $325,000. And these episodes were all taped weeks ago. Stay tuned...