Tag Archives: NBC
Kate Upton Going to Prom with some Kid
Jake Davidson is one brave 17-year-old.
The high school senior from Los Angeles asked Sports Illustrated model Kate Upton to be his prom date via a YouTube video. In the clip, titled “Kate Upton, Will You Go to Prom With Me?,” Jake explains why Upton should be his date.
“Kate, can I call you Katie? OK, Kate works,” Jake says in the video, while taking a shower.
“Kate, great moments are born from great opportunity and that is what you have here today, a chance to make a nice guy’s senior year the best ever,” he continues, while tying his tie.
He goes on to explain that he can’t dance and he’s shorter than her, but they do have commonalities, including Sports Illustrated. Upton poses in it, wearing swimsuits, and Jake reads it.
And Jake might just get his perfect prom. The model tweeted back to him Tuesday, saying, “you can call me Katie if you want! How could I turn down that video! I’ll check my schedule 
”
Jake was then surprised on NBC’s “Today” show this morning by a phone call from Upton.
“This just got so much better now that you’re on the phone,” he said before pitching his prom night to her. “I’m telling you it will be a great night, great evening. I could even get the curfew extended hopefully by my parents, maybe. I hope you’d be interested if your schedule is free, and what time should I pick you up if you are interested?”
Upton, 20, told the teen he seems like a lot of fun but she has to check her schedule.
If the date goes through, Jake might just have to work on changing that 11 p.m. curfew.
Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green leaving The Voice?
You have to hand it to “The Voice.” Last week, the show added a third Wednesday episode to ruin “The X Factor’s” big premiere night. And now, with the new “American Idol” and “X Factor” judges having had hardly any time to bask in their publicity, already “The Voice” is stealing both shows’ thunder once again–with breaking news that two new singularly named superstar judges, Shakira and Usher, will replace Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green for Season 4. Both Christina and Cee Lo will be back for Season 5 in fall 2013, according to NBC.
Rumors have swirled for months that NBC’s overkill decision to air “The Voice” twice yearly would at least temporarily drive away some or all of the show’s regular judges, causing the lineup to be revamped for the spring 2013 season. Apparently such is the downside of hiring judges who, you know, are still relevant hitmakers and have other important things to do with their time, like touring and recording, besides sitting on an NBC soundstage six months out of the year. (And this is why talent shows should consider hiring non-celebrity judges, but I digress.) In fact, just last week when talking to Ryan Seacrest, Christina admitted that she’d first assumed her “Voice” gig would be “kind of like a side project…then it kind of took off, and there goes my free time!”
With Christina getting ready to release her comeback album, Lotus, in November (her new single, “Your Body,” debuted last week to positive reviews), and the ubiquitous Cee Lo working on a Christmas album and a new sitcom, it’s no surprise that they are the first “Voice” judges to take official leaves of absence.
“Being a coach on “The Voice’ is a wonderful experience and the relationship amongst us all is like an extended family,” Christina said in an NBC press release Monday. “I am so proud of being part of the show from the beginning, all the work we’ve done, and proud of what the show stands for as a whole. As I have expressed since day one of the show, that I am a singer and performer first and I am so excited to get back to that love. Since this year NBC and ‘The Voice’ have decided to tape back-to-back seasons, requiring a full-year commitment, it is important for me to take Season 4 off, allowing me to support my music that my fans have been waiting for…by pursuing my first passion of music during the break, I am also able to come back and offer even more to my team on ‘The Voice’ in the future.”
In the same press release, Cee Lo said: “First, thank you NBC for supporting my decision to take this Season 4 hiatus! It says that I’m seen and respected as a complete artist and not just a cast member. I’m highly enthusiastic about focusing my undivided attention on my additional endeavors and interests like my upcoming solo album, new Goodie Mob album, Las Vegas residency ‘Loberace,’ new memoir, and new NBC comedy…I will return for Season 5 and will be watching Season 4. NBC is home and as far as Usher and Shakira are concerned–’mi casa su casa.’”
NBC’s press release assured that “The Voice’s” resident bromancers, Adam Levine (whose Maroon 5 band is hotter than ever) and Blake Shelton, will stick around to hang with Shakira and Usher in Season 4, but it seems like only a matter of time before they too decide to take a break. Blake in particular has repeatedly, quite loudly complained about “The Voice’s” new grueling two-seasons-a-year shoot schedule, and just this week he told Access Hollywood: “I don’t know how much longer I’m even going to do it. It’s [NBC's] decision [for us to leave], in that they’re the ones choosing to do back-to-back seasons. They really leave us no other option. As far as Christina and Adam and Cee Lo and I, if we want to tour, there’s not a chance of that doing back-to-back seasons. That’s not acceptable to me. At some point, I’ve got to go, ‘You know what, this has been awesome. It’s changed my life, but it’s not my life. I’ve got to get back to what I really do, and that’s country music.”
Jennifer Lopez Peaces Out on ‘American Idol’
What happened to American Idol? The once great media darling that trounced all competition and raked huge commercial success for it’s producers is “now” becoming a laughing stock. Just days after rocker Steven Tyler announced he would forgo his post as panel judge for the upcoming 12th season, word just broke that Jennifer ‘from the block” Lopez is also stepping down.
Lopez broke the news to American Idol host Ryan Seacrest on his morning radio show.
“I really was dreading this phone call with you,” she told him. “I honestly feel like the time has come that I have to get back to doing the other things that I do that I’ve put kind of on hold because I love ‘Idol’ so much.”
With Tyler and Lopez out, the only dawg left standing is Randy Jackson. Along with Seacrest, Jackson is by far the bouie that keeps this sinking ship afloat. Can “Idol” go into it’s 12th season with only one host? Or maybe no host at all?
When Tyler broke the news on Thursday, he sited his passion for all things Rock n Roll as the reason behind his departure.
“I strayed from my first love, Aerosmith, and I’m back — but instead of begging on my hands and knees, I got two fists in the air and I’m kicking the door open with my band,” Tyler said in a statement. Aerosmith are on a nationwide tour with Tyler and have an album due out in the fall. In a phone interview Thursday with The Associated Press as the news about Tyler broke, Lopez had said she was saddened to hear that Tyler was leaving and that his departure would play a role in her decision.
“I can’t even imagine anyone else there right now because I’ve just spent two years sitting next to him,” she said. “I love Steven, and we became close during that time. We were a great support for each other, on an adventure that neither one of us knew what it was going to be. So it’s hard to hear that he won’t be doing it.”
Fox Executives were left scrambling to pick up the pieces.
“We are very sad that Steven has chosen to focus more on his music, but we always knew when we hired a rock ‘n’ roll legend, he would go back to his music,” said Mike Darnell, the network’s president of alternative entertainment.
Speculation about new panelists has swirled around Mariah Carey to former “Idol” runner up Adam Lambert. There’s even rumors that Mr. Tiger Blood himself, Charlie Sheen might take a crack at Judging.
“Idol” still rules among the most-watched talent shows, topping ABC’s ” Dancing With The Stars” and NBC’s “The Voice.” But the show is fighting hard to keep it’s young viewers, with “The Voice” nearly equaling its audience among adults 18 to 49.
FOX, which from the start has protected “Idol” by programming it just once a year, has now diluted its uniqueness with a family competitor, Cowell’s “The X Factor,” which debuted last fall. After a disappointing start, the show underwent its own judging shake-up to add Demi Lovato and Britney Spears.
“American Idol” hasn’t been helped by a run of horrible champions who have failed to achieve commercial success ala Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson or Carrie Underwood.
One things for sure, the show may not have the same appeal but the Judges are using the panel as a catapult to shill their own brands and make out like bandits.
TBS Extends ‘Conan’ Through April 2014
NEW YORK – TBS said Wednesday it has extended late-night series Conan, hosted by Conan O’Brien, through April 2014.
Since premiering in Nov. 2010, “Conan has been a hit with TBS’s core audience of young adults,” the Time Warner network said.
While Conan has underperformed in the ratings, TBS highlighted that it recently had its third consecutive month of audience growth. “The success of Conan also extends well beyond the show’s TBS telecasts to include widespread DVR, online and mobile viewing, interaction through Twitter, Facebook and TeamCoco.com,” the network said.
“We are proud to be in business with Conan O’Brien for the long run,” said Michael Wright, executive vp, head of programming for TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies. “Night after night, Conan and his team have put together terrific shows that draw a young and fiercely loyal audience. As if that weren’t enough, they have also built a dynamic online presence that keeps fans engaged like no other show in late night.”
Said O’Brien: “I am excited to continue my run with TBS because they have been fantastic partners.” He also quipped: “This means I’ll be taping episodes of Conan well into the Ron Paul presidency.”
Conan in January was up 27 percent in total viewers compared to Oct. 2011, while adults 18-34 were up 18 percent, and adults 18-49 rose 21 percent, TBS said. In February, the show is displaying additional 12 percent growth among adults 18-34, 11 percent among adults 18-49 and 8 percent among total viewers.
For 2012 to-date, Conan has averaged 1.1 million viewers, with 407,000 adults 18-34 and 702,000 adults 18-49. Nevertheless, Conan is well behind Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. The Daily Show is the top-rated late-night entry on cable, averaging 2.4 million viewers an episode this season and surpassing NBC’s Jay Leno and CBS’ David Letterman among viewers 18-49.
And TBS has yet to permanently fill the post-Conan midnight slot previously occupied by George Lopez’s Lopez Tonight. That show was cancelled last summer after two seasons; Lopez lost almost half of its viewers when TBS moved it to midnight to make room for Conan.
Conan premiered in November 2010 after a public split with NBC. The show bowed to 4.1 million viewers and was averaging 2.4 million during its first month. But those numbers began to fall and by last summer, the show was down to just below 1 million viewers. In September, TBS began airing reruns of How I Met Your Mother (which the company paid a hefty $2 million per episode for) a couple nights a week in front of Conan, reasoning that the popular CBS sitcom would give Conan a healthy lead-in.
Jon Favreau Teams With J.J. Abrams For ‘Revolution’
Remember when big-screen talent lining up work on television was big news? Now it’s frankly surprising if a Hollywood director or actor hasn’t got a project on TV. Here’s the latest list that will be working on pilots this year.
After the relative failure, both critically and commercially, of “Cowboys & Aliens,” and presumably before he gets to work on (*shudder*) Disney’s “Magic Kingdom”, Jon Favreau will direct the pilot for J.J. Abrams’ “Revolution” at NBC. Written by “Supernatural” creator Eric Kripke, the show is described by Deadline as “high-octane action drama following a group of characters struggling to survive and reunite with loved ones in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist.” Favreau also has a self-penned comedy pilot, “Tweaked,” lined up at CBS.
Hopefully Nick Nolte’s Oscar nomination for “Warrior” will finally get the film some of the attention it deserved (because heaven knows barely anyone saw it in theatres). Gavin O’Connor’s film had a tough time at the box office, but he’ll be hoping for more popular success for his latest project, a cold war period drama pilot he’ll direct for FX called “The Americans.” The project was created by Joe Weisberg (“Falling Skies”) and will focus on two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington, DC. “Justified” showrunner Graham Yost will exec produce, and we like the sound of this one.
After the success of “Limitless,” Neil Burger had his pick of future projects, and it looks like the one he settled on was “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” after David O. Russell left the project. That project is still at the script stage though so Burger has plenty of time to go off and make a TV pilot, and that’s exactly what he’ll be doing over at Fox where he’ll direct Josh Friedman’s (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) spy drama pilot, “The Asset.”
Finally, Ellen Barkin looks set to star in the pilot for “The New Normal,” a comedy pilot over at NBC. The pilot was written by “Glee” duo Ryan Murphy (who will also direct) and Allison Adler, and is described by Deadline as “a heartwarming comedy about a blended family of a gay couple and the woman who becomes a surrogate to help them start a family.” Barkin will play the surrogate’s mother.
Sperm bank: Redheads need not apply
If you’ve got red hair, don’t bother donating sperm at Cryos International, one of the world’s largest sperm banks.
“We have nothing against red-haired donors,” Cryos agency director Ole Schou told msnbc.com Monday. “Our stock is about to explode. We have just too many on stock in relation to the demand for the time being.”
Demand for redheads is still high in Ireland, according the clinic, but apparently it’s not enough to persuade officials at Cryos sperm bank to continue accepting them. It has 140,000 doses of sperm from red heads, and that’s enough.
Speaking from his office in Denmark, Schou explains the agency also won’t take any Scandinavian donors for the time being — unless they have brown eyes.
“What we need is brown-eyed Scandinavians/Caucasians and Mediterranean donors and other ethnicities and races,” he says. “The problem is that we are located in Scandinavia and ‘harvest’ donors here but we supply to more than 65 countries all over the whole world. They don’t always want Scandinavian donors out there.”
Schou later clarified to msnbc.com that the clinic is not shutting its doors to all red-headed sperm donors — the specimen cups are still available for those with brown eyes. The issue for Cryos, Schou explains, is too many Scandinavian donors have blond, middle blond, dark blond and red hair, a legacy of their Viking ancestors who also heavily multiplied in Scotland and Ireland.
The sperm bank is also looking for more Black, Asian, Hispanic, Mediterranean and mixed-race donors, Schou says.
“Our function in society is to have all races and all ethnicities. Our problem is that we have too many Scandinavians only,” he says.
If you’re a blue-eyed redhead looking to donate sperm, you’re still welcome at other sperm clinics, although you may be in higher demand if you’re really smart, tall, athletic or musical.
Maryann Brown, chief executive officer of International Cryogenics in Birmingham, Mich., one of the first sperm banks in the U.S., hasn’t experienced an anti-red bias. The clinic has “a good call for redheads.”
Prospective parents often do have very specific requests when it comes to sperm donors, Brown says.
When parents are seeking sperm, she says, they often prefer donors who are athletically or musically inclined, and they prefer donors who are educated. Sometimes they even want a specific blood type.
“Some people are very interested in their looks and even the shape of their face, and how tall the family members are,” she says. “They want all kinds of ethnic backgrounds and eye color including green, hazel, brown and blue.”
TBS Cancels ‘Lopez Tonight’
George Lopez’s talk show “Lopez Tonight” will not be renewed for a third season, TBS announced.
“TBS has reached the difficult decision not to order a third season of ‘Lopez Tonight,’” the company said in a statement. “Thursday will be the final episode of the show. We are proud to have partnered with George Lopez, who is an immensely talented comedian and entertainer. TBS has valued its partnership with George and appreciates all of his work on behalf of the network, both on and off the air.”
TBS had no immediate explanation for the sudden send-off.
Lopez agreed to move from 11 p.m. to midnight last year to accommodate Conan O’Brien’s move to TBS. “Lopez Tonight” has turned in low ratings, but TBS has boasted about the young audiences for it and “Conan.”
So far this year in live + 7 ratings, which measure viewership of an episode over a week, “Lopez Tonight” has delivered an average of 546,000 viewers, 225,000 adults 18-34 and 360,000 adults 18-49. (The figures are through July 24.)
In the same period, “Conan” has delivered an average of 1,138,000 viewers, 566,000 adults 18-34 and 831,000 adults 18-49.
O’Brien, who left NBC after he was asked to push back “The Tonight Show” by half an hour to make room for Jay Leno to return to 11:35 p.m., was careful to avoid the appearance that he was forcing Lopez from the 11 p.m. slot.
When O’Brien’s joining the network was announced in April 2010, Lopez said he was happy to move his show for O’Brien. He said he personally called O’Brien to urge him to come to the network.
“I can’t think of anything better than doing my show with Conan as my lead-in,” Lopez said at the time. “It’s the beginning of a new era in late-night comedy.”
‘Matrix’ actress joins ‘Chuck’
Look out Chuck, you have company. Carrie-Anne Moss, aka Trinity in the “Matrix” films, has signed on to star in the final season of NBC’s “Chuck.”
Moss is slated to play the love interest of government agent John Casey, played by Adam Baldwin. According to “Access Hollywood,” she will appear as a “former spy who now runs Verbanski Corp.” Her character is described as “ruthless and deadly.”
Don’t call it a comeback just yet. But the the sultry actress will also be seen on the big screen in the upcoming horror sequel “Silent Hill: Revelation 3D.”
Here’s hoping the ‘Chuck’ franchise will ride off into the sunset on another successful season. We wonder who else will make a guest appearance and reveal their inner ‘Chuck’.
Juliette Lewis joins NBC’s ‘The Firm’
“Natural Born Killers” star Juliette Lewis and Callum Keith Rennie of “The Killing” are set to star in NBC’s new legal drama “The Firm,” based on the best-selling novel by John Grisham.
Lewis, an Oscar nominee, will take on the role of Tammy, a feisty and sexy receptionist who is involved with her boss’ brother, Ray. She is described as having “a personality as arresting as her ever-changing hair color.”
Rennie will take on the role of Ray, a charming yet volatile investigator whose work is informed by his time served in prison for manslaughter.
Josh Lucas (“Sweet Home Alabama”) stars as attorney (and Tammy’s boss and Ray’s brother) Mitchell McDeere. (Tom Cruise took on the role in the 1993 film.) “The Firm” continues the story of Mitch and his family 10 years after the events of the film and 1991 novel.
The pilot, which goes into production in Toronto in August, will be directed by David Straiton of “Fringe.”
To Catch A Predator’ Host Nailed
Looks like the sting tactic that made Chris Hansen famous may have come back to bite him — big time.
The National Enquirer is reporting that they’ve caught the “To Catch A Predator” host cheating on his wife with Kristyn Caddell, a Florida NBC affiliate news reporter twenty one years his junior, with a hidden camera. Hansen is married with two children and lives in Connecticut.
The Enquirer says that they have footage of Hansen out with Caddell, having dinner at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Manalapan, Florida, and then returning for the night to her Palm Beach apartment. The host has been spending time in Florida investigating the disappearance of James ‘Jimmy T’ Trindade, the Enquirer reports (via the Daily Mail).
“To Catch A Predator,” a Dateline series, features Hansen and an advocacy organization called Perverted Justice posing as younger women and communicating with older men online, and then catching would-be sex offenders at a location that they and the almost-offender agreed upon.
