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James Durbin will perform on Conan, January 12, TBS 11/10c pm.

Casey James will make his Grand Ole Opry debut on January 27

Kelly Clarkson posts: “Rehearsing for Saturday Night Live and am thinking how great @blakeshelton would be hosting this show. We should all rally for that! He’d be hilarious! Maybe the entire cast of The Voice hosting would be funny too! I have great ideas.”

Ricky Martin on Glee set today. – The Glee cast is beginning work on Episode 12 today. It’s their big Latin special featuring Ricky Martin as a “hot” Spanish teacher. Lea Michele tweets, “I’ve known Ricky since I’m 8 years old! He was in Les Mis on Broadway with me in 1996! Crazy huh?!” Naya Rivera tweets, “Today is going to be so fun! Ricky Martin is at WMHS!!! #Lavidaloca”. Ricky has already cut some vocals for the episode.

Brook White and her Girls With Glasses Show Are Throwing a Party – The Girls With Glasses, along with Pinhole Press are throwing a party at this years sold out ALT SUMMIT in Salt Lake City, Utah. The festivities will take place on Friday January 20, The Riviera Room, Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. More information at GirlsWithGlasses

The Brad Paisley tour Has a New Name – The tour featuring opening act, Scotty McCreery will heretofore be knows as the “Virtual Reality World Tour 2012″ The fun begins on January 12 in Grand Rapids MI. See the entire schedule at BradPaisley.com.

Kelly Clarkson Heads To ‘SNL’ For A Third Time; Hopes To Play Christina Aguilera – “It’s so much fun,” Kelly – who was looking fabulous, sporting sexy, newly-cropped bangs – told Access Hollywood during “SNL” rehearsals in New York on Thursday. “Everybody’s always so nice here and the cast is like a family, so it’s a really cool environment.” “My skit I wanted to do was ‘The Voice,’” she told Access, referencing the hit NBC reality singing competition. “I wanted [Charles] to be on his knees and play Cee Lo [Green] and I wanted to be Christina. “I just love that show, so I wanted to totally make fun of it,” she added with a laugh. “I make fun of things I like!” – Read more at Access Hollywood

‘Smash’: Katharine McPhee ‘grateful’ for how post-’American Idol’ career has gone – “It was a great launching pad,” she reflects, “and I’ve been focusing on my own endeavors. A few ‘Idols’ have had instant success, and I’ve had very steady success. I haven’t won Oscars or Grammys, but I’ve been very fortunate. It’s like anybody else’s career; sometimes, things take time, and you keep plugging away. The media loves to pinpoint success or failure in a show like ‘Idol’ because, coming off the first season, there was such an instant success in Kelly Clarkson. But that’s not the norm. Not everyone’s career happens like that, and I’m really grateful for the way mine has gone. It’s given me so much more drive, and it makes the ‘ups’ even sweeter, because you’ve had to work for them that much harder.” – Read more at Zap2It

The Idol Gang on This Week’s Cover of TV Guide

‘American Idol’ Finalist James Durbin Celebrates Wedding, New Album – “I wanted to write and sing and create an album that I can put experiences from my life into,” he says. “I’m able to put loss and love into these songs. I’m madly in love.” “I was picked on throughout all of elementary school, middle school and high school,” he says. “I was humiliated, pushed, beat up, spit on, called awful names that I would never repeat and I was able to channel that and put it into songs like ‘Outcast,’ ‘Screaming’ and ‘Everything Burns.’ And hopefully my fans and new fans will listen to those songs and get something greater out of it.” – Read more at Rolling Stone

Photo Flash: First Look at Constantine Maroulis, Nancy Opel & More in Rehearsal for Alley Theater’s THE TOXIC AVENGER! – The Alley Theater’s production of The Toxic Avenger, starring American Idol and Rock of Ages alum Constantine Maroulis and Nancy Opel, begins previews on January 13, in anticipation of a January 20 opening night. With books & lyrics by Joe DiPietro, music & lyrics by David Bryan, based on the film The Toxic Avenger by Lloyd Kaufman, and directed by John Rando, the production will run through Sunday, February 12, 2012. Rehearsal shots have been released and BroadwayWorld brings you a first look below! – See the photos at Broadway World

Justin Guarini, Marc Summers, Teal Wicks et al. to Join Drew Gasparini at Joe’s Pub – Guest performers have been announced for songwriter Drew Gasparini’s Joe’s Pub concert, to be held on Sunday, January 22, at 9:30pm. Stephen Agosto will direct. The evening will feature material from Crazy, Just Like Me which won “Best of Fest” at the 2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival, and the composer’s new musical, Circles, as well as brand-new songs and pop singles written for television. – Read more at Theater Mania

Jennifer Hudson on the Cover of Good Housekeeping

Set to hit newsstands on January 10, the “American Idol” alum cutens up the Art Streiber shot front page while opening up about the secrets to her 80-pound weight loss and how her family got her through her toughest moments. – Read more at Gossip Center

New Music from David Hernandez – David said that I Am Who I Am is a body of work that was on his computer for a year and a half before he released it. “People always told me to wait for a label to get behind me. The deals I received weren’t what I wanted, so I decided to put out my music in this way.” The Arizona native wrote seven of the eight songs on the EP, all but the first track, “Follow.” He explains, “I was so in love with ‘Follow,’ I had to record it.”
Originally started in 2009, the EP evolved into a personal story of David’s that takes you on a journey through love, heartbreak, and self-discovery. – Read more at American Idol

So You Think You Can Dance Atlanta Auditions

Host Cat Deeley posts a photo to twitter, “Filming in Atlanta, in Club Monaco fake fur coat….”

U.S. Album Sales Post First Growth Since 2004 – U.S. album sales increased 1.4 percent to 330.6 million units in 2011, up from 326.2 million units in 2010 and marking the first growth in album sales since 2004, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures. Total music sales in 2011 increased 6.9 percent to 1.6 billion, and more than 76,000 new albums were released in 2011, up 2.2 percent from 2010. Catalog album sales increased 9 percent to 151.2 million units, while sales of current albums decreased 4.2 percent to 179.4 million units. Digital track sales also increased 8.5 percent to 1.27 billion units, while digital album sales were up 19.5 percent to 103.1 million units. Overall digital sales, including track equivalents, increased 3.2 percent to 457.7 million units. Despite the overall increases in music sales in 2011, CD sales decreased 5.7 percent to 223.5 million units, a smaller deficit compared to the approximate 20 percent decline reported over the last four years. – Via Grammy.com