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- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change presidents in this country is by voting.

- I'’m hopeful that this is the beginning to accountability.

- Life without dance is boring.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I did do the finale, and guess where my trailer was?

A block away from my apartment, it couldn'’t have been better!

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

-_ It'’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it'’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) We're now joined by Elie Honig, senior analyst at CNN, senior legal analyst and former state and federal prosecutor.

Elie, let me ask you this.

The hearings, the January 6th hearings will continue for months and months.

We're not sure how they're gonna play out.

Who's watching, what it means to different people.

My question to you is, what do you believe the longer term implications are for the judicial system and the electoral system?

- Well, look, there are lessons here that, that we need to learn and, and, you know there's been a sort of tendency to analyze this like media criticism, like TV criticism.

Is it interesting?

Is it fun?

- Is it a good show?

- Right?

Is it a good show?

What are the ratings?

Are people watching?

Not to be callous about that because it matters, but, but I also don't care, because it's so important that this story be told and by the way, it is being watched.

And you can see that people are responding to it.

And for the tens of millions of people who watch, it gets amplified.

We need to know what happened for our political system because this is really not just sort of a matter of degree separate from anything we've seen before, but it's a matter of kind separate from what we see before.

The judicial system has lessons to learn here.

I think by the way, the judicial system really stood up strong through this whole thing.

- Explain that to folks, how many courts rejected the Trump legal argument to overturn the election in one state or another?

How many?

- Over 60 courts rejected the state.

- And did the United States, I'm sorry.

And then I'm gonna ask you what the United States Supreme Court, which is dominated by either Trump appointees or conservative Republicans.

They did something as well.

The 60 plus courts did what, Elie?

- They rejected Donald Trump's lawsuits either on the basis that they have no evidence that tends to hamstring cases in court, or that they didn't have standing meaning they didn't even state a claim that the courts recognized.

And Steve, I think it's so important.

We saw over five dozen courts across this country, federal courts, state courts, judges who were elected, judges who were appointed, judges who were appointed by Democrats judges who were appointed by Republicans, including Donald Trump, rejected these cases.

And thank goodness they did.

And I also wanna note a couple other institutions that stood strong.

The US Department of Justice.

I was very critical, not just of Bill Barr in my book, but of his underlings, Jeffrey Rosen, Richard Donahue.

These are the people who refused to let Donald Trump weaponize DOJ and refused to let DOJ be signed onto this fraud that they had found, election fraud when in fact they had found none.

I, I think our state level election systems stood really strong here.

You know.

- Attorneys general, secretaries of state, election officials including in Republican dominated states like Georgia.

And we heard the phone call between the president.

Help me on this again.

- Yeah, it was between the president and Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state of Georgia.

- Did the president ask him to quote "Find," and I don't wanna put, this is, I don't wanna be unfair.

Did he say, "Can you find X number of votes?"

- He said, I think I have the exact quote memorized.

I've heard it and recited it so many times.

I need you to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we need.

Look, credit to Republican state and local officials across this country.

Because when Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman decided we're gonna pick out these seven states, seven swing states that Joe Biden had won.

New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

And what they started doing was calling Republican state legislative leaders and state secretaries of state and their assumption Steve was, hey, we're Republicans.

You guys are Republicans.

Do us a solid.

Throw us your state.

And across the country, the state speaker in Arizona, the speaker of the house in Pennsylvania elsewhere, said, no we're not gonna violate.

- Republicans.

- We're not gonna violate the Constitution.

- Republicans - Republicans.

Yes, absolutely.

And credit to, credit to them.

- Then how then, how does it square?

How does it square that these Republican officials, in the judicial, the DOJ, the Department of Justice, at the state level, a whole range of Republicans and Mike Pence, Vice President Mike Pence, and the attorney general Bill Barr at the time, that they stood up and said, no, Mr. President, you did not win.

We will not participate in this, but 70, maybe 80% according to many polls of Republicans, believe, you're shaking your head.

That Joe Biden is, - Is not the legally elected president of the United States.

- I'm shaking my head because it's a great question.

And I hadn't thought about that and I can't reconcile it because we, we saw Republican elected officials from the county level up to the vice president who basically decided the corruption of this effort to steal the election for me, for Republicans, I'm not saying I'm a Republican or Democrat, but I'm saying for them, transcended partisan politics yet you're right.

There, there is this alarming number of Republican voters who have no problem with what happened or, or don't see January 6th or don't think Joe Biden was, was legitimately elected.

It's a fascinating point.

I can't reconcile it.

I was sort of nodding at the, at at the remarkable nature of that observation.

- Final question for those who say Adubato, you're just part of the, the left leaning media and you got this Elie Honig on, maybe he's from New Jersey but he's part of CNN.

They're left as well.

You're just piling on the former president.

It's just part of the, the the fake news that media, that the president and many former president and many talk about.

Is that what we just did Elie Honig?

Is that what we just did?

- I, I, I, I fully reject that.

I don't do politics.

I've worked for, for, for, I, I worked eight years at DOJ.

It just so happened I went in under the George W. Bush administration.

I came out under the Barack Obama administration, four and four.

I worked under the Chris Christie administration.

I worked under the Phil Murphy administration.

I don't do politics.

I don't care about politics.

I care about law.

I care about rule of law and I'm sure you the same, Steve.

- And anyone who watches us on any regular basis knows I say it all the time.

You can believe it or not.

We have absolutely, categorically, no horse in this race.

The only horse we do have is protecting our system of representative democracy.

That's why it's called "Democracy at a Crossroads".

Elie, cannot thank you enough.

Wish you all the best as you continue to work to try to share important legal perspectives on incredibly important matters that affect our state, our nation and the world.

Thank you, Elie.

- Thanks, Steve.

Always appreciate it.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We are honored to be joined by Bob Ley.

It's his award-winning, you can see the awards 'cause he has like really good Emmys.

They told me that I can't have mine.

He has a lot more.

He's the Emmy award-winning ESPN anchor.

He stepped down in 2019 after an extraordinary, extraordinary career as a broadcaster.

Now, executive founder of the Center for Sports Media at Seton Hall University.

Good to see you, my friend.

- It's great to see you, Steve, it's been far too long.

- Now, here's the thing, you're retired from ESPN, but you not only head up this Center for Sports Media, you brought A-Rod, we'll show some video in just a moment, to the students at Seton Hall, but you also gave a significant lead donation to get things moving.

Why the commitment to the university, one of our, actually, Seton Hall University, one of our higher ed partners?

- It's pretty simple.

Here's a scary number for, at least scary to me, it's been 50 years this fall since I first entered Seton Hall.

And I've been saying this for years, I wouldn't have been able to have achieved professionally when I did without the grounding and the values, the education I received at Seton Hall.

And I've always tried to stay connected over the years, but especially, in the last four or five years, doing events with professional and residents there, BJ Schecter, classes, events, mentoring.

And basically building towards what we always felt, I think could be formalizing a center for sports media, which we're now able to do.

Because this entire, I have to tell you, and I'm sure your viewers are quite aware, it's changing by the week, the month.

And to educate our students, provide them the tools and the values to go out there and thrive, I think it's very important.

- Let me jump right into this thing, it's been thinking about this, we're taping at the end of May, be seen later.

So, NBA playoffs going on right now, but in the middle of the playoffs, this horrific shooting, this murder, this mass murder in Texas happens.

And then, Steve Kerr, and you saw the video, and people have...

It's not gonna get old, because the issue and the problem exists, persists.

He does a press conference.

It didn't matter whether Golden State won or lost.

That's all he wanted to talk about, and he talked about it in a certain way.

He also lost his dad to gun violence.

For those who say "Shut up and dribble, shut up and play, Shut up and don't get involved in politics or social issues."

You say what for athletes?

What do you say to those folks?

Including the issue of race.

- Yeah.

Race, guns, social justice, that phrase, which strikes different people differently.

Sports has been a prism through which we have looked at these issues for the last 50, 60 years, going back to the 1960s.

Yes, when you turn on a basketball game, you wanna watch a basketball game.

And when something like what happened in Uvalde, Texas occurs and as you mentioned, Steve's dad, Malcolm, who was killed back in the 1980s in Beirut, it hits everybody like a hammer blow.

And there are responsibilities in the media.

He had to tell the story of that game that they played that night, and and his team did lose the game.

But to put it through that prism of sports and understand why it is important, it is a fine line.

What people, you know, wanted just... Jason Gay, the day after that tragedy, wrote a beautiful piece in the Wall Street Journal, I'm gonna drop a note about it, about how he almost felt guilty.

He and the other parents in their Little League, watching their kids play Little League in the wake of this event.

Having a nice moment of respite and understanding there are families in Central Texas who will never have that moment again.

So I think we have a responsibility.

And that gets down to the values, and to the philosophies you want to inculcate in young professionals in the field.

How to tell a story, to tell it fairly, and to tell it with imports, so that when you look back at it in a few years you say, "At that moment, I got it right."

What is in your view the place for the quote, distraction of sports, the entertainment of sports, in light of the horrific things we're talking about.

Including mental health issues for athletes for whom their mental health issues are supposed to somehow, listen, that's not our business.

We only care about how Osaka, Naomi Osaka plays tennis, or there's a whole range of other people.

Go ahead, I'm sorry, Bob.

I'll get off my soapbox.

- No, but it's not a soapbox because Steve, I think you in the last 18 months, 24 months, we have seen a greater ability and a propensity.

Go back two, three years actually for athletes to talk about this entire field and for, I think the general public, to embrace them.

We all, in the dark of the night, we all have questions, and fears, and things that keep us awake.

And athletes are no different.

And when it gets to the point of meeting professional assistance, I think we have seen people embrace that.

Look, I lived for 40 years in Connecticut, and lived 45 minutes from Newtown.

- Oh.

- And we'll all feel that day forever.

And I was, I don't wanna say the word privileged but I was through circumstances able to be part of the first town wide event in Newtown after that shooting early in 2013.

And what it was was an event organized by Chris Canetti of Major League Soccer who grew up also in Connecticut, we're a small state.

Of bringing soccer people from around the country, flew in on their own dime, Mia Hamm, Landon Donovan, and Alexi Lalas to do a little soccer get together for all the kids and no media.

But I was privileged to be part of the group that helped facilitate a Q&A.

You could feel in that town, just four weeks afterwards, the burden of this.

And I have a good friend who does business in that town.

I had lunch with him last summer.

And to this day, it persists.

I mean these are generational scars that will live certainly with these families and these towns and these regions.

And we need to do something as a people here to understand what we're doing to ourselves.

- Just remember Muhammad Ali steps down, he loses his title in the '60s as the heavyweight champion in the world.

Not because someone beat him, but because he refused to fight in the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector, and gave up the best three years of his professional life.

So for those who say, "Yeah, they're just talking," they act as well.

Let me ask you.

We're gonna show some video of A-Rod coming to Seton hall.

Describe that.

- Well, Bob, through the good offices of a fellow alum Bardia Shah-Rais, class of '95, and a very good friend of mine, a fellow I've known since he was in high school.

And works closely with Alex, Alex agreed to come in.

And it was our first event as the Center for Sports Media at Seton hall, since the official establishment of it.

And Alex came in on his own dime.

God bless him.

So generous with this time insisted on doing numerous small sessions with students, athletes, communication students.

And made sure there were business and entrepreneurial students in a small setting, Q&A.

And then a larger session with four to 500 people at Bethany Hall, he spent four to five hours on campus.

And then when he, when it was time to go he ended up spending another hour just walking around the baseball diamond, and through Walsh Gym he enjoyed being on campus.

And it was a remarkable day, because I think he got a lot from it.

I know we did.

And our students, I think, got a window onto a world class athlete who was very honest about all the issues that he has been through.

- Real issues.

- Someone, yeah.

And someone who has become quite the entrepreneur has purchased an MBA team.

And in fact, six weeks before he and Mark Lowrey, his partner, went out and struck a deal for their club president.

We got a good window onto their thinking about why that he would spend that kind of money.

I think it was a great example of some of the things we hoped to achieve in the future at the Center for Sports Media.

And exposing our students to the to the leaders in the field and the people who are setting the trends.

- And as someone who is, I continue to teach at the Buccino Leadership Institute at Seton Hall there is nothing like, and Bob I know you feel the same way.

There is nothing like interacting with teaching and learning from really young students with great, very bright futures whether it's at Seton Hall or any other- - It's the best.

It's the best.

When I go to campus, Steve, I mean, I'm sure you feel the same way.

That's the best part of it.

- No, I was on campus early this year that as part of the search committee, we've hired an exceptional executive director.

Jane McManus, a great journalist, a former colleague of mine who was working in this endeavor at Marist College.

And now she's at Seton Hall.

And I was on campus, we were doing some interviews for the hiring process.

And one of the search committee members invited me to address his class and it's in person class.

And I had missed that so much because of the pandemic.

That energy, that Q&A it makes you, it energizes.

So you hope the students get as much as you get from having a dialogue.

- That's Bob Ley.

He is a giant in our industry, not just because he broadcast about sports for 40 years, but he talked about bigger issues as well.

And now at Seton Hall.

Hey, thank you, my friend, all the best, Bob.

- It is always great to see you, Steve.

Thank you.

- You got it.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back right after this.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

♪ One of a kind, no category ♪ ♪ Too many years lost in his story ♪ ♪ We're free to take our crowning glory ♪ ♪ For five, four, three, two, one more minute ♪ ♪ We're SIX ♪ (crowd cheers) - You just saw a clip from SIX.

And we're honored to have Adrianna Hicks, who plays Catherine of Aragon?

- Yes, I do!

- Now let's put this, first of all, thank you so much for joining us, we really appreciate it.

And let everyone know that SIX is playing at the Brooks Atkinson theater at 256 West 47th Street.

Set the play for us because there are a whole bunch of wives involved in this with Henry VIII, if I'm not mistaken.

And six is the number, correct?

- Absolutely.

There are six ex-wives of Henry VIII.

So you have a fabulous musical called "SIX the Musical", starring six queens that he was married to, but told through a medium of a pop concert, contemporary style, kind of like a Hamilton.

And we kind of take you through the journey of each queen's hardships with King Henry VIII.

And you get to hear our side of the story, which is really, really great.

(laughs) - And, by the way, all- female cast.

- Yes, all-female cast.

- And the music, Adrianna, the music all coming from talented women.

- All coming from talented women.

I mean, we have our writers, Jamie and Lucy.

They wrote such great pop contemporary songs that kinda reflect, or kinda parallel with the Beyonce of today and Adele and maybe even a little Alicia Keys here and there.

And they have captured the sound of these beautiful women of today in order to tell the story of years ago, which is really fascinating.

It's great music, if you haven't listened to it yet.

- Adrianna, do us a favor, give us a little sense.

Beyond SIX, and we're promoting it, and we're honored to have our friends from the Broadway community.

And when we get into the Tisch WNET Studio, right in the heart of Lincoln Center, I promise we'll be having performers and people tied to Broadway, the Broadway community on the air, in-studio live.

But for now we're doing it this way.

I'm curious about something.

This play, SIX, was supposed to open, if I'm not mistaken on March 12th, 2020.

Think about that date, right?

Everything shut down that day, the next day, whatever.

And winds up opening on October the third, 2021.

What was it like, the opening night, after being dark for so long?

- Oh my goodness, so exhilarating.

I mean, I wish I could find a better word to kinda describe it, because it was such a huge sense of accomplishment.

And also the support was ridiculous.

I kid you not, the sound and the loud.

Oh gosh, the applause when the curtain opened was just, I was anticipating it a little bit.

'Cause I was like, yeah, we thought we were gonna open last year, but today is actually the day.

And it was such a huge sense of accomplishment and just such support that was in the audience that night.

We were so grateful for that.

- Adrianna, what makes Broadway special?

- What makes Broadway special?

I mean, there's so many things to pick from, right?

- For you, personally and professionally.

- For me personally, Broadway is so special because it is, I believe it is a place where you can be reminded of our humanity and a place where we can story tell so that whenever you're living in life and you're going through the motions of the ups and downs of life, I feel like theater is a place where you can come to to find the expressions of what sometimes your emotions are not able to express all the time.

You could sometimes be in a funk and not really have articulation for it, but go to the theater and have someone's story tell to touch your heart.

It's fascinating the way that we can, you know, have a common thread of humanity explored through musical theater.

I love it so much and it's healing power in that way.

- Where'd you grow up?

- I grew up in McKinney, Texas, actually.

I was born in California, but I am a Texas girl, so.

- You are a Texas girl?

- I am.

I was born in, yeah.

- I didn't mean that in a negative way, Just, I'm from Jersey.

It sounds like, "I'm from Jersey".

People say Jersey girl, whatever.

One of our great producers is actually in Texas right now.

Lauren, who's actually the executive producer of everything we're doing right now.

She's in Texas.

She's not a Texas girl, if you will, or a woman.

She may become one, but I know she's from here.

What does it mean to be a Texas girl?

- I mean, for me, it's very simple, is that I grew up there, you know.

I'm not necessarily like a big, like football fan.

- You're not a Longhorn fan are you?

(laughter) Just checking.

- Here's the thing about it.

I went to the university of Oklahoma, so that's a whole other conflict.

- Oh the Sooner thing and, oh wow.

That's.

- So it's a whole other thing.

So that's why I want to say I'm a Texas girl it simply means like, you know, I was raised there and I really appreciate it being raised there.

You know, Texas is its own country almost.

(laughs) It what is is.

- Yeah.

Let's keep politics out of it.

No, I'm joking.

How about this?

When did you know, I'm sure actors and artists can't stand me asking this, but I ask it anyway 'cause I'm fascinated.

When did you know that you had a gift, the gift?

You know, to be in who and what you are professionally?

When did you know?

Or at least the potential.

- Yeah, well definitely the potential.

I found that out when I saw my first musical in high school, because I've always been musically inclined.

Always singing in church, always singing in my room.

Like, that would be my routine.

I would come home, Steve, put on like a Disney movie and be like, I'm Princess Jasmine today.

Or I am a ballerina in George Balanchine's, the Nutcracker, with Macaulay Culkin.

I was literally that girl or I would put on Beyonce and be like, yeah, I want to perform her today by myself until dinner.

(laughs) And then it wasn't until I went to high school that I found out that this is an actual profession.

- Right.

- Musical theater is something that you could do and it incorporated everything that I loved so that's what I knew.

- What's the Michael Bublé connection?

- The Michael Bublé connection.

He is fascinating.

So it was my freshman year in high school.

It was one of the first concerts that I got to do and get this, I didn't even know who he was when I got the offer.

It was quite bad.

(laughs) - You never heard the Michael Bublé Christmas album?

Nevermind.

(laughter) We play it non-stop around here, but go ahead.

- I love it.

He's such an awesome person, but yeah, I was doing a Little Shop of Horrors at the time at our regional theater outside of college but right down the street.

And one of the drummers actually had a brother who was one of the producers on his concert.

And at the time it was rumored that he would invite locals to perform in his concert.

And lo and behold, they chose me from the show and it was a great, great experience.

- Do you ever see that video of Michael Bublé pulling the kid out of the audience and the kid sings with him?

You know what I'm talking about, right?

- No, I haven't.

Stop, I haven't seen it.

- There's a young kid, maybe he's 15 years of age.

You got me thinking about you right now.

Pulls the kid out in the audience, his mom said he could sing.

I'm like, Michael Buble music, really?

And he's sitting there on a stage, nevermind.

You gotta Google this.

Go on YouTube, Michael Bublé teenage sings with kid.

Trust me.

- I will.

It just strikes me how, I won't get on a soapbox, but how very well-known successful artists can reach out, touch, connect with and motivate others.

And that kid is one thing, but you're our guest today.

Adrianna Hicks and she stars in SIX.

She's Catherine of Aragon, one of the six wives of Henry VIII.

Let's just say what happened to them is really interesting.

Told from a female, girl power, if you will, perspective.

You honor us by joining us and thank you to you and all of your colleagues and friends on Broadway for bringing so many joy to our lives.

We look forward to seeing you live really soon.

- Yes.

Thank you, Steve.

Thank you.

- You got it.

I'm Steve Adubato.

That's Adrianna Hicks in SIX and we'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by New Jersey Sharing Network.

Investors Bank.

New Jersey'’s Clean Energy program.

Summit Health MD Advantage Insurance Company.

NJM Insurance Group.

Englewood Health.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

And by The Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by Insider NJ.

And by BestofNJ.com.

♪ It only gets better ♪ ♪ When we stand together ♪ ♪ To tough through ♪ ♪ And get by ♪ ♪ Even though it's harder than ever ♪ ♪ 'Cause we're gonna make it ♪ ♪ Long as we don't break it ♪ ♪ Just do right ♪ ♪ There's no sights ♪ ♪ We must know it's part of forever ♪