DENVER — Joe Ryan was anticipating this week’s All-Star Game in Atlanta. But the actual experience?

“It was fun. It was more than I thought it would be, so many little components that I didn’t really think about,” Ryan, a first-time All-Star, said. “Getting to the field every day was so nice to kind of separate and be there with the other guys, pick their brains, talk to the guys around the league and learn some things. Everyone was awesome to be around.”

Ryan and Byron Buxton, the Twins’ other All-Star, returned from Atlanta with plenty of memories they’ll relish for a lifetime after both put on a good showing in the game, which the American League lost in a home run swing off.

For Buxton, the highlight of this past week in Atlanta was spending time with his family and watching his three young sons, Brixton, Blaze and Baire, soak in the experience.

“They had a lot of fun,” Buxton said of his kids. “To see them being kids on the sideline and enjoying it … that’s all that matters.”

Buxton, who hails from southeast Georgia, participated in the Home Run Derby, advancing to the second round before falling in the semifinals, where his two older sons were on the field with him, handing him towels and Gatorade.

On Tuesday afternoon, the family walked the red carpet matched in pink, which the kids chose — ‘They’d probably choose neon green if I let ‘em,’ he said — and then hit a double in the game and scored a run as the American League rallied in the ninth inning to tie the game.

Ryan made the most of his time on the field, as well, throwing a 1-2-3 fourth inning during which he struck out Manny Machado and Kyle Tucker, and got a first-pitch pop up from Dodgers catcher Will Smith.

Off the field, he said he tried to talk to as many people as he could. Among them, he listened to Jacob deGrom hold court for “anyone that wanted to listen,” and tried to get reigning American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal to detail his whole routine.

“It’s pretty humbling being around some of these great players and seeing how they go about their business,” Ryan said. “It feels like you’re making your debut again in a sense. It was cool.”

Matthews nears return

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli did not make any official proclamations before Friday night’s game about a starter for Saturday, but with a “TBD” listed, it appears likely that Zebby Matthews will make his return from the injured list.

Matthews, who was placed on the injured list with a shoulder strain on June 8, threw a four-inning rehab start with the Triple-A Saints on Sunday and was encouraged by how he felt.

“It felt really good,” Matthews said. “It was good to see those guys back in Triple-A. Felt good. Command was a lot better than the live outing I had against (teammate Luke) Keaschall. Felt a lot more in sync. Ready to get back at it whenever.”

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Ad patch

The Twins began the second half of their season on Friday by showing off their new look.

On their jersey sleeve, the Twins became the latest team to add an advertising patch, reaching a deal with Securian Financial, a St. Paul-based company. They were one of the few remaining teams to not have a patch.

“As we sought the right partner for this landmark jersey patch opportunity, Securian Financial emerged as the perfect fit — not only because of our shared Minnesota heritage and steadfast commitment to our home community, but also due to our common focus on growth, long-term impact and leadership,” Twins executive vice president, chief revenue officer Sean Moore said in a release.

Briefly

Bailey Ober (hip impingement) threw four scoreless innings on Friday in a rehab outing with Triple-A St. Paul. He gave up four hits and struck out three. … Outfielder Emmanuel Rodriguez, one of the Twins’ top prospects, landed on the injured list on Friday at Triple-A with a right-oblique strain. Rodriguez missed five weeks with a hip injury, returning just recently on July 8.

The 3M Open field was made official Friday and announced by the PGA Tour, and there weren’t many surprises as to who is coming to tee it up next week in Blaine.

The lone previously unknown name of note who committed to the tournament ahead of Friday’s deadline was Adam Scott. The former Masters champion decided to make his first ever trip to TPC Twin Cities after firing a second-round 79 at The Open on Friday to miss the cut.

Scott, the 40th-ranked player in the world, entered the week in 84th in the FedEx Cup points standings and needs a strong finish in either of the last two PGA Tour regular season events — the 3M Open or the Wyndham Championship — to sneak into the top 70 of the season-long points list and earn a playoff spot.

Other notable such as Wyndham Clark (78), Rickie Fowler (71) and Max Homa (102) are also among those on the outside looking in at the current playoff picture who are slated to come to Minnesota next week.

Maverick McNealy is the highest commit in the current World Golf Rankings at No. 17, while past champion Tony Finau and Sam Burns are two of the most accomplished players.

Burns and Scott were in the final group at the U.S. Open on Sunday last month before ultimately giving way to J.J. Spaun.

Other names of note include Jake Knapp, Sahith Theegala, Akshay Bhatia, Si Woo Kim, Tom Kim, Luke Clanton and Sungjae Im.

Local connections are again abundant, with Gophers alum Erik van Rooyen, past state amateur champion Tom Hoge, North Oaks native Frankie Capan III and Spring Lake Park High School grad Troy Merritt all in the field. Merritt is in on a sponsor’s exemption.

The first round of the 3M Open tees off Thursday.

Players can withdraw from the field at any point prior to the tournament, and it’s not uncommon from some to do so directly after the conclusion of major championships, depending on how they finish.

Finau is currently in the top 10 of The Open, but he’s unlikely to decommit from the 3M Open, as he’s long stated how much his family enjoys the trip to this area. But how Burns (currently in a tie for 12th) and Gotterup, who won last week’s Scottish Open and is currently tied for fifth in Northern Ireland, fare over the weekend could potentially determine whether they indeed tee it up next week.

The same could be said for the likes of Fowler and Bhatia, who are currently in the top 30 at Royal Portrush. If they were to make a major weekend run, they could potentially reconsider travel plans. Bhatia bowed out of the event two years ago after winning the Barracuda Championship the Sunday prior.

But, as it stands, 3M Open tournament director Mike Welch called this field “one of the strongest we’ve ever had.”

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By DAVID BAUDER

CBS says its decision to end Stephen Colbert’s late-night comedy show is financial, not political. Yet even with the ample skepticism about that explanation, there’s no denying the economics were not working in Colbert’s favor.

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The network’s bombshell announcement late Thursday that the “Late Show” will end next May takes away President Donald Trump’s most prominent TV critic and the most popular entertainment program in its genre.

The television industry’s declining economic health means similar hard calls are already being made with personalities and programming, with others to be faced in the future. For the late-night genre, there are unique factors to consider.

As recently as 2018, broadcast networks took in an estimated $439 million in advertising revenue for its late-night programs, according to the advertising firm Guidelines. Last year, that number dwindled to $220 million.

Once a draw for young men, now they’ve turned away

Late-night TV was a particular draw for young men, considered the hardest-to-get and most valuable demographic for advertisers. Increasingly, these viewers are turning to streaming services, either to watch something else entirely or catch highlights of the late-night shows, which are more difficult for the networks to monetize.

More broadly, the much-predicted takeover of viewers by streaming services is coming to pass. The Nielsen company reported that during the last two months, for the first time ever, more people consumed programming on services like YouTube and Netflix than on ABC, CBS and NBC or any cable network.

Networks and streamers spent roughly $70 billion on entertainment shows and $30 billion for sports rights last year, said Brian Wieser, CEO of Madison & Wall, an advertising consultant and data services firm. Live sports is the most dependable magnet for viewers and costs for its rights are expected to increase 8% a year over the next decade. With television viewership declining in general, it’s clear where savings will have to come from.

Wieser said he does not know whether Colbert’s show is profitable or not for CBS and parent company Paramount Global, but he knows the direction in which it is headed. “The economics of television are weak,” he said.

In a statement announcing the cancellation, George Cheeks, Paramount Global’s president and chief executive officer, said that “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

Cheeks’ problem is that not everyone believes him.

Colbert is a relentless critic of Trump, and earlier this week pointedly criticized Paramount’s decision to settle Trump’s lawsuit against CBS over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. He called Paramount’s $16 million payment to Trump a “big fat bribe,” since the company is seeking the administration’s approval of its merger with Skydance Media.

On Friday, the Writers Guild of America called for an investigation by New York’s attorney general into whether Colbert’s cancellation is itself a bribe, “sacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump administration as the company looks for merger approval.”

CBS’ decision made this a pivotal week for the future of television and radio programming. Congress stripped federal funding for PBS and NPR, threatening the future of shows on those outlets.

Journey Gunderson, executive director of the National Comedy Center, called the decision to end Colbert’s show the end of an era.

“Late-night television has historically been one of comedy’s most audience-accessible platforms — a place where commentary meets community, night after night,” Gunderson said. “This isn’t just the end of a show. It’s the quiet removal of one of the few remaining platforms for daily comedic commentary.

Trump celebrates Colbert’s demise

Trump, who has called in the past for CBS to terminate Colbert’s contract, celebrated the show’s upcoming demise. “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “His talent was even less than his ratings.”

Some experts questioned whether CBS could have explored other ways to save money on Colbert. NBC, for example, has cut costs by eliminating the band on Seth Meyers’ late-night show and curtailing Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight” show to four nights a week.

Could CBS have saved more money by cutting off the show immediately, instead of letting it run until next May, which sets up an awkward “lame duck” period? Then again, Colbert will keep working until his contract runs out; CBS would have had to keep paying him anyway.

CBS recently cancelled the “After Midnight” show that ran after Colbert. But the network had signaled earlier this year that it was prepared to continue that show until host Taylor Tomlinson decided that she wanted to leave, noted Bill Carter, author of “The Late Shift.”

“It is a very sad day for CBS that they are getting out of the late-night race,” Andy Cohen, host of Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live,” told The Associated Press. “I mean, they are turning off the lights after the news.”

Colbert, if he wanted to continue past next May, would likely be able to find a streaming service willing to pay him, Wieser said. But the future of late-night comedy on the entertainment networks is genuinely at risk. Trump, in fact, may outlast his fiercest comic critics. Jon Stewart, once a weeknight fixture, works one night a week at “The Daily Show” for Paramount’s Comedy Central, a network that seldom produces much original programming any more.

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, who was chided on social media by Trump on Friday — “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next” — has a contract that also runs out next year. Kimmel, 57, openly wondered in a Variety interview before signing his latest three-year contract extension how long he wanted to do it. He’s hosted his show since 2003.

“I have moments where I go, I cannot do this anymore,” Kimmel told Variety in 2022. “And I have moments where I go, what am I gonna do with my life if I’m not doing this anymore?’ It’s a very complicated thing … I’m not going to do this forever.”

Colbert, Kimmel and Stewart were all nominated for Emmy awards this week.

AP journalist Liam McEwan in Los Angeles contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE

The state of New York agreed Friday to pay $450,000 to settle a lawsuit from an ex-aide to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo who alleged Cuomo sexually harassed and groped her while he was in office.

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The former aide, Brittany Commisso, had sued Cuomo and the state, alleging sexual harassment from the then-governor and retaliation against her after reporting the incidents. The allegations were part of a barrage similar misconduct claims that forced Cuomo to resign as governor in 2021.

Commisso’s lawyers said the settlement “is a complete vindication of her claims” and that Commisso is “glad to be able to move forward with her life.”

The settlement came as Cuomo is in the midst of a so-far bruising political comeback with a run for mayor of New York City. Cuomo lost the Democratic primary last month to Zohran Mamdani by more than 12 percentage points and this week relaunched his campaign to run in the general election as an independent candidate, beginning a potentially uphill battle in a heavily Democratic city where support is coalescing behind Mamdani.

Cuomo, who has denied wrongdoing, has been dogged by the scandal during his campaign for mayor.

“The settlement is not a vindication, it is capitulation to avoid the truth,” Cuomo’s lawyers said Friday in a statement in which they called Commisso’s allegations “false.”

The attorneys, Rita Glavin and Theresa Trzaskoma, added that they “oppose the dismissal of Ms. Commisso’s lawsuit.”

“Until the truth is revealed, the lawsuit should not be dismissed,” they said in the statement.

Cuomo resigned as governor after a report from the state attorney general determined that he had sexually harassed at least 11 women, with some alleging unwanted kissing and touching, as well as remarks about their appearances and sex lives.

Commisso filed her lawsuit in late 2023, just before the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act, a special law that created a yearlong suspension of the usual time limit to sue over an alleged sexual assault.

She later filed a criminal complaint accusing Cuomo of groping her but a local district attorney declined to prosecute, citing lack of sufficient evidence.

The Associated Press doesn’t identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they decide to tell their stories publicly, as Commisso has done.

Anthony Hogrebe, a spokesperson for current Gov. Kathy Hochul, said Friday that the state “is pleased to have settled this matter in a way that allows us to minimize further costs to taxpayers.”