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The new freshman class of Hillman College just gave Jasmine Guy her flowers — and the moment happened right here in Atlanta.
Netflix dropped an emotional clip this week of the incoming cast of its A Different World sequel surrounding Guy with white roses, hugs, and words of gratitude. Guy, who created the iconic Southern belle Whitley Gilbert-Wayne, is visibly moved, dabbing her eyes as the young actors tell her she is “such a light,” that her energy on set matters every day, and that they love her.
The video captures more than a nice on-set surprise. It is a passing of the torch that unfolded on the real campuses that helped inspire the original show — and now serve as its new home.
Hillman, rebuilt in the Atlanta University Center
The sequel, which premieres September 24, 2026 — exactly 39 years after the original series debuted — follows Deborah Wayne (Tony winner Maleah Joi Moon), the youngest daughter of Whitley and Dwayne Wayne. She arrives at Hillman as a free-spirited artist trying to step out of her parents’ long shadow.
This time, Hillman is not a soundstage recreation. Production filmed across the Atlanta University Center — Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College — from February through May 2026. “Hillman College” signs went up on the Clark Atlanta campus last year, and university president George T. French Jr. called the sight “beautiful.”
Showrunner Felicia Pride, who lives in Atlanta, said shooting at the AUC gave the series texture the original multi-camera sitcom could never achieve. About 59 to 70 percent of the background performers are actual HBCU students or alumni from those schools. Guy herself noted the excitement on set: “All these young people are so excited to be a part of the show.”
The original series used some Spelman exteriors, but the new version lives on those quads, in those cafeterias, and among the students who walk those paths every day
Why Atlanta was the only choice
Atlanta has long been the “Hollywood of the South,” and this production leaned into that identity in a way that feels personal. The original A Different World is credited with helping boost HBCU enrollment by 26 percent during its run. Bringing the sequel to the AUC — the same cluster of schools that influenced the writers decades ago — closes a circle.55
Pride and executive producer Debbie Allen (who directed the original series and helms three episodes of the new one, including the premiere) wanted authenticity over nostalgia. The result is a single-camera show that can actually show campus life instead of suggesting it. Local extras, local talent, and the daily rhythm of Atlanta’s HBCU community are baked into the production.
Guy has stayed connected to the city. The original cast launched its 2024 HBCU tour at the Atlanta University Center. She recently led an acting masterclass in Atlanta tied to the new series. The city that helped shape Hillman on screen is now shaping its next chapter in real life.
The new class and the legends in the room
In the Netflix video, the freshmen — including Moon as Deborah, Alijah Kai as Rashida, Cornell Young IV as Shaquille (Ron Johnson’s son), Jordan Aaron Hall as Amir, Kennedi Reece as Hazel, and Chibuikem Uche as Kojo — stand around Guy and other returning originals. Cree Summer (Freddie), Charnele Brown (Kimberly), and others appear to be there as well, holding flowers of their own.
The scene is exactly what the show has always been about: one generation seeing itself in the last and choosing to honor it while they’re still here.
A Different World returns to Netflix on September 24. For Atlanta, it already feels like homecoming. The flowers were given on set. The real gift is that Hillman is back on the campuses that helped make it matter in the first place.
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Hamilton still lands like a thunderclap. This past weekend at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s revolution felt newly urgent—less a greatest-hits package than a living argument about ambition, belonging, and what a country chooses to remember.
The Fox is the right house for it. That gilded, slightly over-the-top Midtown palace already looks like a set for founding-era pageantry; when the turntable starts and the company floods the stage, the building itself seems to lean in. The touring production still has the lean, athletic snap that made the show famous: Andy Blankenbuehler’s choreography remains a language of its own, half battlefield, half cabinet meeting. The score—hip-hop colliding with R&B, jazz, and old-school Broadway—doesn’t sound like a 2015 artifact. It sounds like a country still arguing with itself.
Hamilton Review: Atlanta Show Doesn’t Disappoint
What stirred me most wasn’t any single number, though “Yorktown,” “Satisfied,” and the duel sequence still devastate. It was the way the company sold the idea that history is not a marble statue. Hamilton wants everything at once: love, power, a name that outlives him. Burr wants the room without the risk. Washington wants the experiment to survive its founders. Eliza wants the man and the country to become something gentler than the violence that made them. Those tensions still crackle. You leave humming, then you leave thinking about who gets to write the story.
The audience this weekend was the other half of the night: first-timers gasping at the cabinet rap battles, veterans mouthing every word, teenagers who have known the soundtrack longer than some of the actors have been touring. That mix is part of why the show endures. It is popular art that still treats the audience as if they can handle speed, density, and moral complication.
Hamilton is at the Fox Theatre through September 20, 2026—a limited Atlanta stand as part of the North American tour and the Broadway in Atlanta season. If you can get in the room while it’s still here, go. A decade on, it has not become safe. It has become necessary.
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Phaedra Parks and Chris “CT” Tamburello made their first official red-carpet appearance as a couple at Night 1 of the 2026 Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday, September 5, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
The outing came one day after Parks confirmed on SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live that their relationship was “not” platonic. She told host Jeff Lewis she had already been out with Tamburello and that she would attend as his date while he presented an award.
Phaedra Parks, Chris ‘CT’ Tamburello Go Public
They met while competing on Season 2 of Peacock’s The Traitors, filmed in late 2023 and aired in 2024. Viewers and fellow contestants noticed their chemistry at the time. Recent social-media exchanges, including Tamburello’s August request for an Emmys plus-one and Parks’ reply “Baby I’m already yours,” kept the speculation going until her on-air confirmation.
On the carpet, Parks wore a black velvet halter gown with crystal-lined cutouts and a leg slit (described in some reports as Jovani Couture), paired with a flipped blonde bob and diamond jewelry. Tamburello wore a classic black tuxedo. Photos show him with his arm around her waist as they posed; they kept public displays of affection limited. Tamburello also posed with fellow The Challenge and Traitors alum Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, who presented as well.
The Traitors swept all six of its Creative Arts categories that night, including Outstanding Host for Alan Cumming. The timing gave the new couple a celebratory backdrop. The next day Parks posted photos from the event with the caption, “Some came for the awards. I came with the prize. Thank you to the real trophy for making a beautiful night even better.”5
Parks and Tamburello planned to travel together to New York afterward. The appearance marked the public step after weeks of flirtation that traced back to their Traitors days. Fans who shipped the pairing finally saw it on a major awards-show carpet.
Keep up with Season 17:
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Atlanta native T-Boz of TLC is recovering at home after a sickle cell crisis forced her off the road, as the group’s hometown date at Chastain Park approaches.
Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, 56, was hospitalized after a sickle cell crisis and is now “recovering and regaining her strength,” her representative Christal Jordan said in a statement first reported this week.
T-Boz Sickle Cell Crisis: What We Know
The flare-up pulled her from multiple dates on TLC’s It’s Iconic Tour with Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue. Bandmate Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas has been performing the group’s catalog solo, with fans and fellow acts filling in T-Boz’s parts and offering prayers from the crowd.
TLC manager Bill Diggins later said the condition is not considered life-threatening and that Watkins is improving each day. Recovery from a crisis can take days or weeks. She will return only when fully recovered and medically cleared. Chilli will continue the remaining dates in the meantime.
Chilli addressed the absence onstage at the Aug. 28 show at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut. “As you guys know, my sister T-Boz has sickle cell… sometimes those flare-ups come, and this is that time,” she told the audience, asking fans to “hold her down.” Similar messages followed at later Northeast stops.
Atlanta roots and a hometown date still on the calendar
Watkins was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and moved to the Atlanta area at age 9. TLC formed in Atlanta in the early 1990s and became one of the city’s defining musical exports, with hits including “Waterfalls,” “No Scrubs,” and “Creep.” Watkins has long been open about living with sickle cell disease since childhood; doctors once told her she would not live past 30. She has written about the illness in her memoir A Sick Life.
The tour itself launched Aug. 15 in Franklin, Tennessee. It is scheduled to play Atlanta’s Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park on Oct. 2. That hometown date remains on the books, though whether Watkins will be cleared to perform is not yet known. Promoters have not canceled remaining shows.
September is National Sickle Cell Awareness Month. Watkins has spoken for years about the pain, organ-risk, and unpredictability of crises, which can be triggered by stress, dehydration, or infection. Representatives have asked fans to keep prayers coming and thanked audiences for singing her parts and surrounding the group with support.
Friends including Jodeci’s Mr. Dalvin have also publicly asked for prayers. The group’s statement emphasized gratitude: “The love shown for T-Boz has been overwhelming.”
Atlanta fans hoping to see the full original pairing of T-Boz and Chilli on the Chastain Park lawn will have to wait for a medical update closer to Oct. 2. For now the official word is cautious optimism and rest.
Things to do in Atlanta on a weekly basis can range from going golfing mid-week to checking out the latest restaurant openings. At AtlantaFi.com, we curate the city for you!
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Atlanta moms are being invited outside — strollers, sneakers, and all.
Rapper, reality star, and mother of four Sukihana has launched a women’s walking meetup in Atlanta built around movement, sisterhood, and the messy, often-lonely stretch of postpartum life.
Sukihana Walking Club: What We Know
Marketed as “Mommy Walk with Sukihana,” the gathering is baby- and stroller-friendly, open to kids five and under, and framed as a low-pressure way for mothers to get fresh air, talk, laugh, and actually leave the house together.
That pitch lands differently in Atlanta than it might in a generic wellness brochure. This is a city where walking culture already has a social life of its own — Beltline loops, park meetups, women’s clubs that treat a few miles as both exercise and community. What’s new here is the host and the focus: a public figure who just had her fourth child and is using her platform to pull other mothers into the same routine she’s crediting with a better postpartum season.
A celebrity mom who keeps saying the quiet part out loud
Sukihana — born Destiny Jones — has never sold a polished “perfect mom” brand. She has talked for years about motherhood as the part of her life she would not trade, even as fame, reality TV, and music pulled her into a louder public lane. In 2026 she welcomed her fourth child, a daughter she referred to during pregnancy as “Peaches,” and has been unusually open about the physical and emotional work that follows birth.
That candor is the point of the walk. Comments under her announcement made the need obvious: women two months postpartum, swollen and insecure, saying they needed the support and missed the date. Others asked her to make it weekly. The hunger is not for a photo op. It is for a village that does not require a babysitter, a gym membership, or a performance of having it all together.
Atlanta has long been part of her story. She has lived and worked here, hosted local events, and recently packed fitness programming into the city — including a “Coochie Girls” workout class at The Loft Atlanta with a black-and-pink dress code, dumbbells, and merch. The mommy walk sits next to that energy but on a gentler setting: morning hours, limited spots, RSVP-only location, water bottle and comfortable shoes.
Why a walk, and why here
Postpartum recovery is not a single six-week finish line. Walking is one of the few forms of movement many new mothers can start with after medical clearance: it is joint-friendly, stroller-compatible, and social without forcing small talk in a fluorescent gym. Pair that with Atlanta’s outdoor infrastructure — parks, trails, and neighborhoods where a group of women with babies does not look out of place — and the format makes practical sense.
Sukihana has posted about touching grass and keeping a schedule that has made this postpartum stretch feel better than expected. The club is an extension of that message: get outside, move your body, stop isolating. For mothers who feel they disappeared into feeding schedules and swelling and comparison, a Friday 9 a.m. walk is a small, concrete invitation back into public space.
Sisterhood is the other half of the pitch. Atlanta already has women’s walking groups — Social Steps, Beltline clubs, body-positive hike meetups — but few are branded specifically for mothers in the fourth trimester and beyond, with little kids welcome and no expectation that anyone leave the baby at home. That matters in a city full of transplants, blended families, and women whose support systems are a flight away.
What the first meetups look like
The announced format is simple on purpose. Meet in Atlanta after RSVP. Bring water. Wear shoes you can actually walk in. Babies and strollers are part of the scene, not an inconvenience. Spaces are limited, which is both logistics and a way to keep the group from turning into a mob.
That restraint is useful. Celebrity wellness events can collapse into content farms. A capped morning walk with kids underfoot is harder to fake. If it becomes weekly, as some Atlanta moms already asked, it could settle into the same rhythm other local clubs have: a standing date, familiar faces, and a reason to get dressed and go.
Sukihana’s brand is loud. This project is quieter. The two can coexist. Fitness classes, nightlife appearances, and a stroller brigade on a Friday morning are all versions of the same person insisting that motherhood does not require disappearing — and that Atlanta mothers do not have to rebuild their bodies or their social lives alone.
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MARKHAM, Ill. — Filmmaker and philanthropist Tyler Perry has paid a nearly $18,000 mechanic’s lien on the home of 81-year-old Brenda Daurham, clearing a major financial obstacle after the longtime homeowner was displaced for more than six months amid an unresolved insurance dispute.
Daurham has lived in her Markham house for more than four decades. On Valentine’s Day, a pipe burst beneath her kitchen sink and flooded the property. Restoration crews began mitigation work, but Allstate later denied the claim, citing policy exclusions related to wear and tear, deterioration, and seepage.
Tyler Perry Pays Nearly $18,000 Lien for 81-Year-Old Homeowner
The restoration company then recorded a lien of $17,827.96, plus potential interest and fees, against the property. Daurham said she did not have the money to pay it and has been unable to return home.
The story reached a wide audience after FOX 32 Chicago reported on her situation. Viewers tagged Perry, who responded on Instagram by calling out the insurer: “Hey Allstate, step to the front real quick. This woman is 81 years old. You call this being in good hands?” He added a direct message to Daurham: “Don’t worry Ms. Daurham, help is on the way.”
Perry followed through by paying the lien. Reports also indicate he has offered additional assistance—reported in some accounts as $25,000—to help her get back on her feet and make the house livable again. Daurham expressed astonishment and gratitude. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. She added that she was not entirely surprised, noting Perry’s history of helping others, especially older people.
The payment lifts a concrete burden. A lien on a home can stall repairs, complicate ownership, and deepen the stress of displacement, especially for an elderly homeowner living on a fixed income. One private act of generosity has removed that immediate threat.
Daurham and her family have made clear that gratitude toward Perry does not close the larger issue. They say she has continued paying premiums and that the original claim remains unresolved. “Tyler Perry paid the lien and we appreciate it, but we do not feel like Allstate should get away free,” Daurham said. The restoration company has argued the damage stemmed from a sudden plumbing failure that should have been covered. Allstate has said it is reviewing the matter.
Perry’s intervention does not substitute for a fair insurance resolution. It does, however, give Daurham a chance to move forward while that dispute continues. For an 81-year-old woman who spent decades maintaining her home and paying for coverage, the remaining questions—why the claim was denied and whether the policy will still be honored—deserve a clear and timely answer.
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Fulton County prosecutors will not pursue criminal charges against Atlanta radio personality Darian “Big Tigger” Morgan in a domestic incident case involving his wife.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute Morgan on charges of aggravated battery and third-degree cruelty to children after reviewing the available facts and evidence, according to court documents reported Friday.
Fulton County Chooses Not to Prosecute Big Tigger in Domestic Incident
Morgan, the longtime V-103 host and former BET Rap City presenter, was arrested June 20, 2026, by Sandy Springs police and booked into the Fulton County Jail. He posted a total of $10,000 in surety bonds the same day—$9,000 on the felony aggravated battery count and $1,000 on the misdemeanor child-cruelty count—and was released.
The charges stemmed from an alleged May 9 altercation at the couple’s Sandy Springs home. According to arrest affidavits, Alicia Brown told investigators that an argument over text messages Morgan had exchanged with a female coworker escalated. She alleged he shoved her, causing her to stumble headfirst into an office door and suffer a deep laceration above her left eye that required stitches.
Police said the couple’s 13-year-old son was in the home and heard the confrontation, which formed the basis of the cruelty-to-children charge. Morgan took Brown to urgent care that night.
Morgan has consistently denied the allegations. In a statement after his arrest he wrote that he “unequivocally deny[s] every allegation,” cited his decades of work in community and family life, and said he had “complete confidence in the facts and in the legal process.” He later stepped away from his morning show to focus on family and legal matters.
A Fulton County judge granted Brown a temporary protective order in June that required Morgan to stay 200 yards away and granted her temporary custody of the minor children and exclusive use of the family home. Those civil proceedings are separate from the criminal case the DA has now declined to pursue.
Read: Big Tigger steps away from Atlanta radio show amid allegations
Declining to prosecute means the office will not present the case to a grand jury or seek an indictment. It is not a finding that the alleged events did not occur, nor is it a finding of guilt. Prosecutors typically make such decisions when they conclude the evidence is insufficient to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, when witnesses or other proof present problems, or after weighing all materials submitted by investigators.
The decision closes the criminal chapter that began with the June arrest. Other legal matters involving the couple have continued on separate tracks.
Read: Big Tigger’s wife threatens lawsuit after Fulton warrant
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Labor Day weekend in Atlanta has a familiar soundtrack. On Saturday and Sunday, September 5–6, 2026, the 17th annual Atlanta Hip Hop Day Festival takes over Historic Fourth Ward Park for two free days of live performances, DJ sets, battles, youth showcases, vendors, and community programming.
The park sits in the heart of Old Fourth Ward, steps from the BeltLine and across from Ponce City Market. From 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day, the greenspace becomes an open-air stage for the city’s hip-hop past, present, and next wave. Admission is free.
ATL Hip Hop Day: What To Know
A festival built for Atlanta, not just about itATL Hip Hop Day started in 2010 (the inaugural park event is often dated to 2011 at Woodruff Park) when organizers Arall “MC WAR” Charles and Amir James set out to put the culture’s core elements—emceeing, DJing, breaking, and graffiti—on one public stage while giving local Black-owned businesses a place to be seen. Seventeen years later, that mission still drives the weekend.
ajc.comAtlanta did not merely adopt hip-hop. It remade the sound, the business model, and the global image of the genre. The festival treats that fact as community property: legends and independents share the same park, kids get a real stage, and vendors sell next to graffiti walls and cyphers. Organizers describe it as legacy, unity, and the future of the culture in one place.
This year the event grew beyond a two-day park takeover. For the first time, organizers expanded into ATL Hip Hop Week, September 1–6, with showcases, a media mixer, panels, and networking leading into the outdoor festival. Early-week stops included a Taco Tuesday kickoff, an Urban Music Stage at Square Globe Studios, and a Friday media mixer and panels at the same studios. An after-party is slated for Sunday night.
What you’ll find in the park
The weekend is built around the four pillars of hip-hop plus Atlanta’s particular mix of entrepreneurship and family energy.On stage and on the field
- Live sets from national, regional, and emerging artists
- Legendary DJs and open cyphers
- Celebrity Hour, hosted by DJ Nick Slay
- Influencer Hour
- M.C. W.A.R. live rap battles
- B-boy and B-girl battles
- Graffiti walls and live art activations
- Grow Your World Youth Hour, with young rappers, singers, dancers, and spoken-word artists
- Vendor Village: food, fashion, art, and merch
- Community and civic programming, including an Atlanta Hawks on-site activation with giveaways on Saturday
Resident DJ Ace Smith—formerly DJ Ace Boogie—returns for year 17. Organizers have been clear that he is not a last-minute booking. He has been on the decks since the festival’s earliest days, before the television crews and national sponsors arrived.
Celebrity Hour guests announced ahead of the weekend include Trap Beckham (“Birthday Chick”), Spark Dawg, Atlanta-born actor and artist Chris Massey (known for Zoey 101), and Y0$#! / KingYoshiMan. Other announced performers and features include WildMoney Hoodstar, MajaMajor MMB, SMJ during Influencer Hour, the duo NOAD x KDank, and Louisville’s M.B. Lineups at a community festival of this size keep shifting; official channels remain the best source for same-day updates.
Partners listed around the 2026 edition include the Atlanta Hawks, BeatBox Beverages, Durban Dames, Grow Your World, Rocklan One, IMPPact Georgia, Makin’ It, and Elegantly Elevated.
Why Fourth Ward works
Historic Fourth Ward Park is more than a convenient lawn. The neighborhood is one of Atlanta’s most layered: civil rights history, new development, the BeltLine, and a long-running creative scene sit within a few blocks. Families use the playground and fountain while sets run. People bring blankets and lawn chairs. Food trucks and vendor booths fill the gaps between stages. Past editions have felt as much like a neighborhood block party as a music festival—kids on swings, dogs on leashes, and a cypher a few yards away.
Address: 680 Dallas Street NE, Atlanta, GA 30308. (Some listings still use the older Angier Avenue park reference; Dallas Street is the address organizers and Eventbrite are using.)
Practical notes for the weekend
- When: Saturday, Sept. 5 and Sunday, Sept. 6, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.
- Cost: Free and open to the public
- Vibe: Family-friendly outdoor festival; hip-hop’s elements plus vendors and youth programming
- RSVP: Organizers ask people to register on Eventbrite for lineup and schedule updates
- Nearby: Ponce City Market, the Eastside BeltLine, and several hotels within a short walk
Labor Day weekend in Atlanta is crowded by design—Black Pride, house-music weekenders, amphitheater concerts, and park festivals all overlap. Hip Hop Day’s advantage is simplicity: no ticket, no gate time more complicated than “be in the park,” and a program that still treats independent artists as the point rather than the undercard.
Seventeen years in, the pitch has not changed much. Atlanta made this music matter on a global scale. For one weekend, the city puts that story back outside, in a park, where anyone can walk up and hear it.
If you like to have a good time on the dance floor or while listening to music, Atlanta has something for everyone. Check out the top live music venues around the city as well as best comedy clubs.
If you’re into spoken word, you’ll love these poetry spots in Atlanta. Don’t forget to hit up the top clubs in Atlanta throughout the week end weekend.
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ATLANTA — The college football season officially begins in Atlanta Saturday when Auburn and Baylor meet in the Aflac Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The matchup completes a home-and-home series that started last season, when Auburn defeated Baylor 38-24 in Waco. The all-time series is tied 2-2-1, dating to 1954. Auburn won the only previous neutral-site meeting, a 33-13 victory in the 1954 Gator Bowl.
Auburn and Baylor: How To Watch
- Game: Auburn Tigers vs. Baylor Bears
- Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. CT)
- Location: Mercedes-Benz Stadium
- Network: ABC
This year’s contest was originally scheduled for Jordan-Hare Stadium but was moved to Atlanta last October. The change created a first-of-its-kind NIL opportunity for Auburn players tied to ticket sales, promotions and surrounding events. Reports indicate the Tigers’ players will share roughly $6 million. Auburn received a 20,645-ticket allotment as the designated home team; Baylor received the standard visiting allotment of 3,000.
The game marks the debut of Auburn head coach Alex Golesh, who arrived from South Florida after Hugh Freeze’s firing. Golesh brought quarterback Byrum Brown with him. Brown passed for 3,158 yards and 28 touchdowns and rushed for 1,008 yards and 14 scores last season. Auburn also added former Baylor running back Bryson Washington via the transfer portal to complement returning back Jeremiah Cobb.
Baylor, in its seventh season under Dave Aranda, will start Florida transfer DJ Lagway at quarterback. Lagway is a Baylor legacy—his father played running back for the Bears from 1997 to 2001. New defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman is overseeing a rebuilt unit. Both teams finished 5-7 in 2025.
Heisman Trophy winners Cam Newton (Auburn, 2010) and Robert Griffin III (Baylor, 2011) will serve as honorary captains and participate in the coin toss. Auburn is making its fourth appearance in the Kickoff Game (2-1 record). Baylor is appearing for the first time and playing in Atlanta for the first time since 1993.
Auburn enters seeking its 10th consecutive season-opening victory. The Tigers will play a nine-game SEC schedule in 2026, their first under the expanded conference format. Baylor opens its 125th season looking to avenge last year’s loss and start Aranda’s campaign on a strong note.
Gates at Mercedes-Benz Stadium open at 1:30 p.m. ET. The stadium is cashless and enforces a clear-bag policy. Tickets must be accessed via mobile device. The Aflac Kickoff Game, organized by Peach Bowl Inc., remains the nation’s longest-running neutral-site season opener.
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Melody Holt — now professionally known as Melody Shari — dropped a splashy arrival video just as The Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 18 cameras were set to roll.
The clip shows the entrepreneur and former Love & Marriage: Huntsville star dancing in a white crop top and denim mini-skirt beside a massive LED truck playing footage of herself. The timing was unmistakable: filming for the next RHOA season was expected to begin the following day.
Melody Holt: From Huntsville to Atlanta
Holt first became a reality TV fixture on OWN’s Love & Marriage: Huntsville, a series she helped bring to life. After nine seasons she stepped away in 2025, citing a desire to protect her peace and focus on businesses that include Seventh Avenue Beauty, production company Tilted Crowns, and Nubian TV. She now lives in Atlanta.
This is not her first brush with Bravo. Years earlier, she and then-husband Martell Holt were approached about RHOA. He later said they declined because he wanted to protect their marriage. The marriage ended anyway; the RHOA invitation never quite disappeared from fan conversation.
Connections Already in Place
Holt has been building quiet ties to the current RHOA circle. She has collaborated with Drew Sidora on a luxury beauty line and appeared in events alongside Cynthia Bailey and others in Atlanta’s social scene. Fans have floated her name as a “friend of” or even a peach holder for months.
Keep up with Season 17:
- RHOA’s Drew Sidora Flaunts Her New Body
- Fireworks Fly in RHOA Season 17, Episode 10
- RHOA Season 17, Episode 8 Brings the Drama
Andy Cohen, speaking in early August 2026, indicated he was happy with the Season 17 group and suggested they would return for Season 18, shutting down other casting rumors. That does not rule out a new friend-of role or a late addition once cameras start rolling. RHOA has a long history of folding in Atlanta personalities mid-season when the chemistry feels right.
What She Would Bring
Holt is a practiced reality player: strategic, camera-ready, and comfortable turning personal chapters into business. She left LAMH as a polarizing but ratings-savvy presence and has spent the last year positioning herself as a producer and brand builder rather than a full-time cast member. An RHOA appearance would give her a bigger platform without requiring her to live the same high-conflict life she recently walked away from.
Whether Bravo ultimately gives her a peach, a recurring friend-of slot, or simply lets the viral video do its work remains to be seen. What is clear is that she wanted viewers — and the production — to know she is in Atlanta and ready the moment filming begins.
Season 18 cameras are now rolling. The question is how quickly Melody Holt appears in the footage.
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