PRE-IRMA FRIDAY AFTERNOON NEWS DUMP:
● Fox News Will Part Ways With Eric Bolling After Harassment Investigation.
● Mueller gives White House names of 6 aides he expects to question in Russia probe…“including trusted adviser Hope Hicks, former press secretary Sean Spicer and former chief of staff Reince Priebus, [which] reflects how the probe that has dogged Trump’s presidency is starting to penetrate a closer circle of aides around the president.”
● Yesterday’s NFL Kickoff Scores 21.8M Viewers, Down 13% From 2016. “In fact, this is the first time in five years that the kickoff game has fallen below 25 million viewers. And, while the most watched network show in three months, even with streaming and other NBC platforms bumping things up to 22.2 million, the game still fell short of the 25 million mark. All of which means a lot more is now riding on Sunday Night Football’s NY Giants and Dallas Cowboys match-up on September 10. Because if those two mega-market teams can’t score ratingswise, the NFL has a real re-think on its agenda.”
● Disney World, Universal Orlando & SeaWorld Closing Sunday & Monday As Irma Closes In: “Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando will close ‘early’ on Saturday and remain shuttered through Monday as Hurricane Irma is expected to punish the entire state of Florida.”
UPDATE: Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott granted preliminary injunction, likely to play entire season, the Dallas Morning News reports. Given his league’s ratings woes yesterday, Roger Goodell must be secretly elated.