I haven’t thought about actor Dean Cain since he was on that crummy Superman show in the 1990s with “Desperate Housewife” Teri Hatcher. But Cain, now 59, is back in the news since he announced on social media that he would join Immigration and Customs Enforcement to, as he said, “join with our first responders to help secure the safety of all Americans, not just talk about it.”
ICE Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to USA Today that Cain will be sworn in as an honorary officer “in the coming month.”
Honorary officer? What the heck does that mean?
Since then, Cain has been mocked by many for not only joining a group whose tactics have been questionable, but also by those wondering if it's a publicity stunt just to gain some sort of relevance. After all, it’s not as if Hollywood is burning up his phone.
Actor and writer John Leguizamo was the first to come out and publicly slam Cain, and he might have had the best burn of all, writing on Instagram, “What kind of loser volunteers to be an ICE officer? What a moron. Dean Cain, your pronouns are ‘has/been.’”
Then again, John Oliver, host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” was really brutal. Most of his monologue was about ICE overall, but then he zeroed in on Cain. Oliver said on the air, “Now, I’m not saying that ICE isn’t finding people. I’m just saying, when you are reduced to pinning a badge on the 59-year-old star of ‘The Dog Who Saved Christmas,’ ‘The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation,’ ‘The Dog Who Saved the Holidays,’ ‘The Dog Who Saved Halloween,’ ‘The Dog Who Saved Easter’ and ‘The Dog Who Saved Summer,’ maybe you are in trouble. Although, on the plus side, no need for that guy to wear a mask because the chances of anyone recognizing him are (expletive) zero.”
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano struck a sharp balance, roasting Cain while also making serious, salient points in “Dean Cain wants to join ICE. Forget Lex Luthor, this Superman is after Tamale Lady.”
Arellano wrote, “Superman used to go after Nazis, Klansmen and intergalactic monsters; now, Superman — er, Cain — wants to go after Tamale Lady. His archenemy used to be Lex Luthor; now real-life Bizarro Superman wants to go to work for the Trump administration’s equally bald-pated version of Lex Luthor: Stephen Miller.”
Arellano later added, “American heroes used to storm Omaha Beach. Now the Trump administration wants its version of them to storm the garden section of Home Depot.”
Big numbers
I’m no fan of Little League Baseball and Softball being nationally televised by ESPN — in part because for every little star, there’s a kid who gave up a homer or made an error or who struck out in a big moment.
I’m all for kids playing youth sports and learning all the valuable lessons that come with that. But I don’t think we should be showing the worst or most embarrassing moment of a 12-year-old’s life on national television merely for our entertainment.
But, I also know I’m in the minority on this. And here’s proof: Sunday’s Little League Softball Championship Game was the most-watched Little League Softball game in history. The game — which featured a team from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, defeating a team from Floyds Knobs, Indiana, in Greenville, North Carolina — had an average audience of 1.44 million viewers. The game peaked at 2.98 million viewers.
And there’s more. The regionals for the Little League Baseball World Series last week drew an average of 522,000 viewers across all ESPN platforms. That’s an 80% increase from last year, and the most since 2022. It’s an especially good number considering many of the games were on during traditional weekday work hours.
The Little League World Series now moves on to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for two weeks of action with the championship game scheduled for Aug. 24.
ESPN news
