Posted Aug 25th 2008 4:43PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Judges, News and Gossip, Casting
Even though she just got the call about the gig a few days ago,
new American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi took some time this afternoon to sit down and chat with the media via a massive conference call. As we were going along, I found myself listening as much to how she carried herself conversationally as I was to what she had to say. After all, this is going to be one of the four most listened to voices in America come January when
American Idol's eighth season kicks off.
She came across as smart, knowledgeable, a bit funny and clearly overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation into which she's been thrust. She spoke about how for most of her career she's been being the scenes, as a songwriter and producer. I would say that you may have seen her on ABC's
The One: Making a Music Star, but then nobody saw that. But it means she's been called to judge a singing competition before, and even saw last season's Syesha Mercado there. Hell, she's practicaly a veteran at this now.
Continue reading American Idol's new voice speaks out
Posted Aug 25th 2008 10:42AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Judges, News and Gossip, Casting
Maybe they got tired of the criticism the current panel has been getting for their devolving into piles of cliche-ridden goo. Maybe it's a test run to see if they can find someone the audience can embrace so they can get rid of one of the other three judges. Maybe it's just because they wanted to have four judges from the beginning and it just took them a long time to get there.
Kara DioGuardi joining
American Idol as a fourth judge is an interesting choice. As an award-winning songwriter and producer she definitely has the credentials to be involved as a judge on a singing competition. but the show almost never features original songs. You'd think that having a great songwriter on the panel would inspire the addition of a songwriting aspect to the show. I'd love to see the contestants challenged to write their own music, or in some cases bring some of the original music they've already created to the stage.
Continue reading Randy, Paula, Simon ... and Kara? Idol adds judge
Posted Aug 25th 2008 10:20AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, American Idol, Music and Variety, TV Squad Lists, So You Think You Can Dance
It's sad when you can't remember who won the last American Idol. Oh yeah, David Cook. And we're avid fans around this house, too.
Simon Cowell probably remembers, but, apparently, he's as bored as the rest of us. In a TVGuide.com story, he says of Season 7, "I was a little bored ... I think [last season] the talent was great, and the ratings were great, I just think it could be more interesting and controversial."
That's why he plans to mix it up a little come January 2009, when he'll be taking a larger role in the show, perhaps compensating for executive producer Nigel Lythgoe stepping back to focus on his other show, So You Think You Can Dance.
Simon's not saying how he'll shake things up, but I have a few ideas:
Continue reading Simon Cowell to shake up American Idol - I've got some ideas for him
Posted Aug 15th 2008 3:07PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, American Idol, Survivor, Celebrities, Dancing With The Stars, Awards, Emmys
The
Survivor producer is probably not the only person wondering that, but Burnett is getting a little more specific.
Mandel was
nominated for his hosting gig on
Deal or No Deal in the "Best Reality Host" category. Now, I'm just as surprised as you are to see that
DOND is considered a reality show and not a game show (I think it's the amount of time they focus on the contestants and the family members on stage and the tears and the personal stories that tip some primetime game shows into the reality realm). Burnett doesn't think it's fair that you have someone like Jeff Probst, who hosts an unscripted (?) show like
Survivor put up against people who host talent shows and game shows.
Continue reading Mark Burnett wants to know why Howie Mandel got an Emmy nom
Posted Aug 8th 2008 8:08AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: TV Royalty, Programming, OpEd, American Idol, Music and Variety, Celebrities, Talk Show, Host, Emmys, Reality-Free
In the Lame Title Department,
ABC's annual New Year's Eve show will now be called
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest.
I dunno...couldn't they have come up with something snappier? Like maybe
Dick and Ryan's New Year's Rockin' Eve ... oh never mind.
Anyway, it's old news that
Ryan Seacrest has been co-hosting the show for the past three years with
Dick Clark, who
suffered a stroke several years ago. But now
Seacrest has his name in the title, so I guess it's official.
Continue reading Ryan Seacrest's name added to New Year's Rockin' Eve
Posted Aug 4th 2008 7:00PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Industry, American Idol, News and Gossip, So You Think You Can Dance
It's been several years since I've cared about the outcome of
American Idol. The contestants are all starting to look the same to me and half the time I get them confused with people on
Top Model. Apparently, I'm not alone. While it's still a ridiculously high-rated show, Last season's
Idol did experience a ratings dip. Now,
even its executive producer is jumping ship.
Nigel Lythgoe has produced
Idol for seven seasons, but according to sources, he's grown tired of the singing competition and has said privately that he's "not passionate about it anymore." Instead, Lythgoe is going to spend more time with his
other successful Fox competition show,
So You Think You Can Dance. This comes on the heels of news that
Fox has picked up Dance for a 5th season.
Even though
SYTYCD is a summer show, it attracts a good audience and a lot of buzz. Plus
its stars are adorably crazy, as opposed to Paula Abdul crazy. Which show is your favorite? Are you still devoted to
Idol, or does
Dance take the formula and do it better?
Posted Jul 28th 2008 8:21AM by Brett Love
Filed under: American Idol, Survivor, Celebrities, Project Runway, Dancing With The Stars, Awards, Emmys
Indeed she will, but she'll have some help. In a change born of trying to keep current with the state of television today, the Emmys will be hosted by the five nominees in the Reality TV Host category. Klum will share hosting duties with Ryan Seacrest, Jeff Probst, Howie Mandel, and (the man that should win it all) Tom Bergeron.
It's a great idea. The standard formula of these shows is something just asking to be shaken up. Klum is probably the biggest question mark here, for the simple fact that she has Tim Gunn to handle much of the unscripted action. I'll be curious to see how she handles the role, and I'm confident that the rest of the nominees will be just fine. The linked article also has a great stat. The average audience of the five nominated shows has been as high as 70 million. Jiminy. The broadcast takes place Sept. 21st, on ABC.
Posted Jul 9th 2008 6:00PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, American Idol, The Apprentice, Video, America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, Hell's Kitchen
Television and the talent show have been partners since the very first days of the industry. Taking the best (and sometimes worst) performers and putting them in front of the camera, these shows introduced viewers to personalities that either faded into the background or became household names. Usually, these personalities had a talent that would entertain the public -- singing, dancing, telling jokes -- that they would use once they left the talent show stage to increase their fame.
It continued in this fashion throughout the decades. Until, of course, the 21st Century and the Reality Revolution. While standard, yet bigger and bolder, talent shows continued, network programmers began to realize that there were more talented people than just performers. There were models, clothing designers, chefs, hair stylists, and businesspeople out there ready to show their stuff and make it big. So, they turned some of their attention away from singers and dancers and focused on the others. The result? A schedule full of top models, top chefs, top businesspeople, and top inventors.
In other words, the talent show had returned to television in a big way.
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Continue reading A history of reality television (part four): Show me your talents - VIDEOS
Posted Jul 9th 2008 1:01PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Industry, American Idol, Site Announcements, Watercooler Talk, Celebreality
Since the early days of TV Squad, we've covered realty programming in some capacity; we published news, episode reviews and commentary on whatever had viewers talking. I think back then we were covering
Survivor, American Idol and perhaps
The Amazing Race. We had a decent balance of reality and non-reality posts, and everyone seemed happy.
As the years went on, that balance shifted. The reality shows we were covering were only increasing in popularity, and more shows came in to ride the wave. As we sat back and watched some of the newer shows break onto the scene with little posting from us, the readers demanded our take. The monstrosity of Reality TV was something we couldn't ignore, so we provided.
Then we reached the breaking point.
Continue reading Reality TV: What it is, who watches it and why it exists
Posted Jun 26th 2008 1:52PM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: OpEd, American Idol, Contestants, Casting
The eighth season of
American Idol will begin auditions on Thursday July 17th in San Francisco. Other cities that will be holding try-outs for the hit singing competition show are Louisville, Kentucky; Phoenix, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; Kansas City, Missouri; Jacksonville, Florida; East Rutherford, New Jersey; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Any TV Squad readers going to sing for Paula, Randy and Simon? If I were to audition (and I won't), I think I'd sing something by Stevie Wonder (cause no one
ever sings anything by him), or Mariah Carey (cause her songs are super easy), or maybe I'd just do my own composition and dedicate it to Simon (he likes that stuff).
More audition information is after the jump.
Continue reading American Idol auditions announced
Posted Jun 24th 2008 1:02PM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Industry, TV on the Bigscreen, American Idol, Video, Celebrities, Judges, News and Gossip
Simon Cowell is
producing One Chance at Paramount. The film will be about Paul Potts, the opera singer who competed on
Britain's Got Talent. The performance on the show was his last effort at a music career. Potts, a cell phone salesman, had hit a streak of bad luck and only auditioned on
BGT in 2007 on a whim. He ended up blowing away the judges, Cowell one of them. Potts won the show, went on an international music tour, and released an album.
Justin Zackman, the scribe from
The Bucket List, will write the screenplay. Zackman is also working on
Planetwalker, an environmental drama for Universal.
This is the
American Idol judge's studio debut. Cowell is also working on a project about a musical reality show called
Star Struck. I wonder if that will be anything like
American Dreamz which starred Mandy Moore and Hugh Grant.
The video of Paul's audition for
Britain's Got Talent is after the jump.
Continue reading Simon Cowell producing Paramount's One Chance - VIDEO
Posted Jun 10th 2008 8:02AM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: News, OpEd, American Idol, Music and Variety, Celebrities, Alumni, Casting, Reality-Free
Katharine McPhee and Jordin Sparks will be performing at this year's
Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular. The Idol alums will be joined by country music sensation Kenny Chesney and British chart-topper Natasha Bedingfield. McPhee, who is currently working with David Foster on her second album, will perform "Save The Last Dance for Me" at the event. Sparks, who is nominated for a
BET Viewer's Choice Award for her duet with Chris Brown, is set to perform her latest single "One Step at a Time." Chesney will sing "Never Wanted Nothing More" and Bedingfield will sing "Pocketful of Sunshine." Natalie Morales of NBC's
Today and Tiki Barber of
Today and
Football Night in America will co-host the event on Independence Day.
The Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular will air from 9-10 p.m. on NBC. Sound like something you'd watch? I don't know if I'll be tuning in for this. I'd rather find a local fireworks show than watch one on TV.
Posted Jun 4th 2008 4:26PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: American Idol, Celebrities, Contestants, News and Gossip
David Archuleta is
American Idol's bitch. Like the other contestants, he signed an incredibly restrictive contract. All of his public appearances and performances are closely monitored and approved by AI managers.
That became painfully clear for Archuleta and his rabid fans in Salt Lake City this week when the runner-up was
forced to cancel a 'Thank You' concert. It was to be this Friday night and the proceeds were to go to charity. But
American Idol nixed the whole thing because of Archuleta's "contractual obligations" to the show. It was an
Idol-sanctioned event. Plus, Archuleta is scheduled to begin touring with his co-contestants on Saturday.
Continue reading Idol has its claws in David Archuleta
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With the WGA Strike as ancient history, the guild is now pushing to have reality shows join its organization. In an effort to do this, 
