Kingmaker

A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence in a royal or political succession, without being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious, and military means to influence the succession. Originally, the term applied to the activities of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick—"Warwick the Kingmaker"—during the Wars of the Roses in England.

Examples

In game theory

In game theory, a kingmaker is a player who lacks sufficient resources or position to win at a given game, but possesses enough remaining resources to decide which of the remaining viable players will eventually win.

Kingmaker (band)

Kingmaker were a British indie rock group, founded in Kingston upon Hull in 1990.

The group was formed during their gap year by school friends Loz Hardy and Myles Howell. They placed an advertisement for a drummer, and recruited John Andrew who was an ex-travelling puppeteer and considerably older; he has also worked for the BBC as an engineer.

Early recording career

The band began playing and touring, before making their recording debut with "The Celebrated Working Man" EP. After this they signed up to Chrysalis Records and released a second EP, entitled "Waterproof" in 1991.

Their debut album Eat Yourself Whole was well received, and spent three weeks in the UK Albums Chart, reaching a high of number twenty nine in October 1991. In addition, they released the single, "Eat Yourself Whole", which, despite sharing the name of their album, did not appear on the original UK version. It reached the Top Twenty of the UK Singles Chart.

During 1992 they were supported on tour by a pre-Pablo Honey, Radiohead. On 29 August that year they appeared on the bill alongside Babes in Toyland, Beastie Boys and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the Pukkelpop festival near Hasselt, Belgium.

Law & Order (season 16)

The 16th season of Law & Order premiered on NBC on September 21, 2005, and concluded on May 17, 2006.

Cast and crew changes

Jesse L. Martin returned to his role of Detective Ed Green in the season premiere episode, he left at the end of last season to film in the movie Rent. Mid-season, Law & Order's future on NBC was in the air, unknown if the show would be renewed or canceled after this season. Prior to the end of the season, Annie Parisse who portrayed ADA Borgia, quit the series, wanting out of her contract. A show insider said to Fox News, "She saw the writing on the wall, they never treated her very well. They were always complaining about her hair. And they also thought she looked too young next to Sam Waterson (sic)." Parisse's ADA Alex Borgia was brutally killed off in the season finale episode "Invaders".

It was announced that Dennis Farina (Detective Joe Fontana) wished to depart the cast weeks after the season finale episode aired. At the time Farina wished to pursue other offers and projects being developed by his production company. Dick Wolf said in a statement that he respected Farina's decision and looked forward to working with him again.