*By Conor White*
"Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner's new anthology series for Amazon, "The Romanoffs," is about far more than Russia's last royal family, according to one of its stars.
"As I said to Matthew when I was doing this, I have to bone up on the Romanoffs," actor Aaron Eckhart said in an interview on Cheddar.
"And he said, 'Well, not really, because it really has nothing to do with the Romanoffs.'"
The family consisted of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, and five children. After Russia's February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne and was later executed with the rest of his house. Within the last 30 years, all the bodies have been discovered and identified through DNA testing. Despite that evidence, whispers remain that one of his children, most likely Anastasia, escaped the killings. (The tsar's youngest daughter inspired the popular animated film, "Anastasia," which was recently turned into a musical.)
The Amazon ($AMZN) series features a different cast in each of its eight episodes, which are all linked by some sort of connection to the famous family ー be it real or fabricated.
Eckhart said it's the relationships between the show's characters ー whether directly linked to the royals or not ー that makes the show special.
"The magical part of the show is that it has thematics, and it has through lines with the Romanoffs," the Golden Globe nominee said. "But it's all these different scenarios with different people all over the world."
The series is creator Weiner's return to television after his seven-season run with "Mad Men" ー the highly-acclaimed show garnered two Golden Globes for "Best Drama Series" and eight Primetime Emmy awards.
It was Eckhart's first time working with Weiner, and he said the experience was "educational, interesting," and "fascinating,"
"It's very surprising and striking and bold. It takes a real genius to figure this all out," Eckhart added.
In the age of binge-watching, Amazon has made the choice to release one episode per week after releasing the first two episodes simultaneously on Oct. 12.
Eckhart is a fan of the move and called it "more traditional." But he admitted he has binged his way through at least one classic series.
"I did binge-watch 'Friends'," he said.
"'Friends' is a very good show."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/meet-the-romanoffs).
What do Alinea, Eleven Madison Park, and The French Laundry have in common? Aside from their Michelin stars, the restaurants all offer reservations through the booking platform Tock. Acclaimed restaurateur and [Tock](http://exploretock.com} founder and CEO Nick Kokonas hopes his software platform can wrestle the reservations monopoly from the almost 20-year grip of OpenTable and launch bookings into the 21st century.
Cloudera and Hortonworks, longtime cloud and data rivals, have decided it's better to take on Amazon Web Services together than apart. Cloudera CMO Mick Hollison told Cheddar how the merged company, with 2,000 customers, fits in the cloud wars.
TSM’s Fortnite pro Ali "Myth" Kabbani ignited a conversation last month about esports player unions when he suggested he might start one for the Fortnite community. But esports unions were on the mind of Stephen "Snoopeh" Ellis long before Kabbani pushed them into gamers' consciousness. “There’s a huge lack of education and awareness amongst players in the importance of taking their career seriously," Snoopeh told Cheddar Sports.
As the partial government shutdown spans its 18th day, furloughed federal workers like Sam Shirazi who have been placed on unpaid leave are struggling with both an immediate financial reality and a more amorphous sense of uncertainty. "We don't know when it's going to end, and it doesn't seem like it's going to end anytime soon," Shirazi told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin on Tuesday.
There seem to be endless options when it comes to diet plans, new workouts, and high-tech help. But could too many options be a bad things? A new study by Jenny Craig looks at how all those choices can lead to misinformation. The company's CEO Monty Sharma talked to Cheddar about the best ways to get healthy.
Apple has topped the charts once again ー but this time it's on buy-back site DeClutttr's list of 2018's most unwanted items. The iPhone 7 may have been the company's most traded-in item last year, but according to Anthony Catterson, DeClutttr's president and CEO, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The buzzword "wellness" has crept into marketing-speak at practically every turn these days. But one company with 35 years of experience in the original wellness trend ー weight loss ー doesn't buy the hype. We stay away from that word," said Jenny Craig CEO Monty Sharma in an interview on Cheddar Tuesday.
Esports fans tuning into Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's new show on NBC, "The Titan Games," may be surprised to see a familiar face: Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez, who is more likely as a commentator for "Overwatch" or "Halo" than for an athletic obstacle gauntlet.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2018.
Nationwide minimum wage hikes mean consumers should expect to see price hikes on food and beverages, too, "Bar Rescue" host Jon Taffer told Cheddar."I'm guessing that we're going to see a good 4 to 7 percent increase over the next year," Taffer said.
