Today Idol headlines after the jump ¦
‘IDOL’ SHAKE UP
H’WOOD TRYOUTS BEGIN – ALSO SECOND THOUGHTS
THE “Idol” express is pulling into Hollywood station.
The next edition of “American Idol” doesn’t start until January – but the Hollywood phase of the show, where scores of hopefuls are narrowed down to 24 semi-finalists, is about to begin and a new season is officially underway.
Several changes are in the works, officials say, including:
* changing the format to let singers show other musical talents, such as guitar playing.
* many fewer “mentors, ” those established musical stars like Diana Ross and Tony Bennett, who appeared every week last season and took attention away from the contestants.
* and next summer, the annual “Idol” live tour may be combined with the “So You Think You Can Dance” tour – to create a show with both singing and dancing.
“We’re bringing about 160 people back to Hollywood at the end of this month, ” says “Idol” executive producer Nigel Lythgoe…….
……The seven-city audition tour ended late last month with a few standouts, Lythgoe says.
“There are one or two that stand out – there are three girls who are superb, including one girl we saw three years ago who wasn’t an American citizen [and is now] and we’re happy to have her this year, ” he says.
“And we’ve got one or two guys who are really good.” ……….
…….Lythgoe says he’d also like to see the “Idol” and “Dance” touring companies combined into one unit.
“I’d love to see the ‘Dance’ tour go out with the ‘Idol’ tour and put the singing and dancing together, ” he says. “They should never be separate.
“I’d like to see that happen.”
CMT, FMNA ‘Duet’ with weekly series
CMT has greenlighted a duet-themed music competition show from FremantleMedia North America.
The network has ordered 11 hourlong episodes of the series titled “Can You Duet?” from FMNA, which also produces Fox’s “American Idol” and NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” The weekly series, set to debut in the spring, is designed to find the best country music duet in America.
Unlike other talent competition shows, each contestant will compete as part of a duo, working with different partners every week and giving viewers insight into the behind-the-scenes drama. Judges — who will mentor the contestants, critique their performances and decide who advances to the next round and who is sent home — will be announced at a later date…….
CMT, Fremantle Team on ‘Can You Duet? Series
CMT has teamed with FremantleMedia North America ‘ producers of American Idol ‘ to create a new series designed to find the best country music duet in America.
The 11-part series Can You Duet?, slated to debut next spring, will pair individual singers in a competition series to see which two can create the best duet, according to Bob Kusbit, head of development for CMT.
Each contestant will work with different partners week after week as the competition progresses. Contestants will be eliminated on a week-to-week basis until two winners are chosen…….
BOB DAVIS (OF SOUL-PATROL.COM) KNOWS HE GOT SOUL: If he didn’t he wouldn’t be in here!
…..Does Soul-Patrol sound familiar to you? It should. The term has been used in urban pop culture for at least 30 years. Most recently it has been used to describe the fan club of American Idol winner Taylor Hicks. Davis says he’s cool with Hicks’ et. al. using it. After all, it’s not like he came up with the word. In fact, the A.I. winner’s celebrity status has helped his site.
“His fan club is called Soul Patrol. When he won on American Idol that actually drove a lot of traffic to our site, so I appreciated that. But the term Soul Patrol has been used a lot of the years. There’s lots of radio shows and bands called Soul Patrol as well. I’m sure you remember the old defensive backfield of the Oakland Raiders back in the 1970s used to be called Soul Patrol with Jack Tatum and Willie Brown. The name to us really meant people who were patrolling for good music. As you know, we’ve been around for awhile. It was 1996 when we first started out website. Back then we had no knowledge of Taylor Hicks and I’m sure he had no knowledge of us as well.”…..
X-rays courtesy of Ryan Seacrest
‘American Idol’ gives local clinic funds for machine
Dental patients, your next X-ray could come courtesy of Jordin Sparks.
The “American Idol” contestant and her fellow singers in the show’s sixth season raised more than $75 million for children in poor communities across the U.S. and in six African nations. Now a little of that money has found its way to the Magic Valley and nonprofit community health center Family Health Services……
