Headlines: Barrett Baber, Taylor Hicks, Simon Cowell

The Illusionists Will Now Play Broadway’s Palace with America’s Got Talent Stars – The Illusionists – Turn Of The Century, which had been announced to play the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, will now play the larger Palace Theatre (47th Street and 7th Avenue), a venue that housed some of the world’s premiere magicians and vaudeville acts at the turn of the twentieth century. The previously announced performance dates remain unchanged: November 25, 2016-January 1, 2017. Producers also announced that The Clairvoyants (Thommy Ten and Amélie van Tass), recently crowned runners-up in NBC’s 2016 America’s Got Talent competition, will lead the cast of The Illusionists – Turn Of The Century as the production returns to Broadway for the third consecutive holiday season with a new show. – Read more at Playbill

Barrett Baber: Life After The Voice – “It’s been an incredible run getting to open for people like Rascal Flatts and get out on tour with them and get out with Darius Rucker, Josh Turner, lots of great artists,” Baber said. Baber now touring the country and while he says the big name nods are nice, it’s the unfamiliar faces recognizing his music that mean the most. “It’s kind of like I’m the opener for the opener for the opener, but I get out there and start playing my songs, and I look out into a crowd, and there’s a big crowd there, and almost all of them are singing along to original Barrett Baber songs,” Baber said. “What I’m most happy about is that I recognize that just being on the show doesn’t grant you like a golden ticket success,” Baber said. – See thr Video at Arkansas Matters

Life after The Voice “a crazy ride” for Emily Ann Roberts – “I remember sitting down with my principal and she said ‘You’re going to want to graduate a year early’ and I said ‘No, I want my senior year, I want to go to prom, want to go to football games,’” said Roberts. Her success on the NBC show The Voice changed those priorities.
“I just realized that music was important and move forward in that as soon as I could,” said Roberts. For the junior in high school, this meant doubling up on classes so she could graduate a year early. However, she didn’t miss out on making some special memories.
“I still got to go to prom, and had that last semester, I’m glad I went back, it was hard, but exactly what I wanted to do,” she said. – See the Video at WBIR.com

Taylor Hicks busy with new music, cable TV series and upcoming Birmingham concert – So it should come as no surprise to his fans that Hicks is still on the road, this time as host of the new cable series “State Plate.” The show, in which Hicks travels to each state in the country and tastes that state’s most popular foods, premieres on Oct. 21 on the INSP channel. “It’s a great concept,” says Hicks, who is a co-owner of Birmingham’s Saw’s Juke Joint. “I have been pitching TV shows, and I’ve always wanted to host a show with food and music. When I came across this, I thought, this is a home run.”
Calling the show a cross between “Dirty Jobs” and “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” Hicks says he and the show’s producers are determining the most iconic and popular foods of each state.
“It’s truly farm to table,” he says. “We go to the origins of where these iconic foods come from, and more often than not, it’s the farm. I’ve been educated on a lot of different foods from other regions.” – Read more at Alabama News Center

Marilu Henner on that Ryan Lochte DWTS Drama: Derek Hough ‘Dropped a Few F-Bombs’ – You are famous for having a highly superior autobiographic memory (HSAM). Is that helping you memorize the dance steps? “It’s funny because I never think of it as a curse, but what’s interesting is I’ll remember every version of the dance that Derek does. Sometimes muscle memory takes over and he’ll say, ‘what are you doing?’ And I’ll say, ‘oh yeah, that was last Tuesday’s version’ [laughs]. So I have to extract it from my brain.” – Read more at Parade

Simon Cowell on Triumphant Summer Season of ‘America’s Got Talent’: ‘It Was Like the Old Days’ – With the discovery of VanderWaal — the vocal pick of judge Howie Mandel, which Cowell jokes was “quite annoying” — the British music mogul is off and running with the pre-teen’s career. She will be signed to his label, Syco, as well as American label Columbia, and is set to headline three nights in Las Vegas, alongside fellow AGT contestants the Clairvoyants and Tape Face. Another “bigger” announcement is coming in 18 months, Cowell promises. “Simon is an A&R machine,” Telegdy raves. “He’s been doing it for a long time, and has an incredible eye for talent. He’s had an amazing first go around at America’s Got Talent.” For now, Cowell is enjoying his return to American reality TV, and can’t wait to see what the forthcoming auditions will bring for Season 12, as the show searches for the next victor to be showered with confetti. “It was a really, really great, fun two days,” he says of the show’s finale. “It was like the old days.” – Read more at Billboard

Jeff Probst Explains Survivor’s Emergency Evacuation: Contestants Sat in ‘a White, Empty Room’ for Nine Hours – But after just two days of game play, the CBS series’ safety guide pulled the plug on competition. Naturally, the tribes — divided by age — reacted differently to the onset of danger. “Gen X was petrified and the millennials were exuberant over the fact that they were making Survivor history,” explains the Emmy winner. “We took them to two separate rooms at base camp. It was literally just a white, empty room. No furniture. Nothing.” But the break in the action was no reward for the 20 competitors seeking $1 million. “There was no food being served or mattresses being pulled out,” adds Probst, 54. “It was literally like, ‘Sorry, guys, you’re on lockdown. You can’t talk because we’re not filming. Go to sleep and hopefully we’ll be OK. Even though the person sitting across from you is somebody you desperately want to try to make an alliance with, please don’t do it in the room.’” – Read more at US Magazine

CUTE!

It’s Casey Abrams turn to hold a cute little Koala. He and fellow American Idol singer Melinda Doolittle are touring Australia with Postmodern Jukebox. They both recently visited the Cleland Wildlife Park and was able to hold the adorable bears.