Simon Cowell Comedy ‘A&R’ in the Works at NBC – Simon Cowell is executive producing music-industry scripted comedy “A&R” for NBC, Variety has learned. The network purchased a script for the Universal Television-produced project, which tells the story of a young, hip music label, along with its young, hip boss, is thrown into disarray when the owner brings back a hard-partying, middle-aged “mastodon” from the industry’s past to help guide them into the future. “A&R” is the first scripted sale of the season for Cowell’s production company Syco. The show is being written by Josh Lieb, who is exec producing alongside Cowell with Scott Bernstein and Peter Samson. – Read more at Variety
Lee Greenwood, Alabama, The Gatlin Brothers, Lyle Lovett, Sam Moore, Yolanda Adams, Cassadee Pope, Robert Earl Keen to perform as part of ‘Deep From The Heart: The One America Appeal’ – The George H. W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation has announced a hurricane relief concert at Texas A&M’s Reed Arena the evening of Oct. 21 featuring former presidents Obama, Bush 43, Clinton, Bush 41 and Carter joined by top music performers. All ticket sales and other proceeds from the “Deep From the Heart: The One America Appeal” concert will go to the special hurricane recovery effort launched last month by the five living former U.S. presidents. Tickets for the “Deep From the Heart” concert are now on sale at bush41.org/deep-from-the-heart. – Read more at WnYPapers.com
WOTV Idol winner: Brandon Hoople – GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOTV) — The judges’ scores are in and it’s official: Brandon Hoople has won the Silver Ticket in the WOTV Idol contest! “Blew us away for sure. I said ‘Amen’ like three times,” said judge Matt Giraud. “You killed it, man. I know you were showing off your lower range a little bit there, obviously we know you for your higher notes.” “You have an amazing instrument to work with,” Giraud added. 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.: Matt Giraud performs a live concert and the WOTV Idol will make an appearance. – Read more at WOTV
Chart Beat Podcast: Special Guest Kelly Clarkson on Her Breakout ‘Moment’ in 2002 & More on a Hot 100 Flashback – This week, special guest Kelly Clarkson reminisces about her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, “A Moment Like This,” which also became the first leader on the list for an American Idol contestant, on the chart dated 15 years ago today: Oct. 5, 2002. Clarkson caps a countdown of the Hot 100’s top 40 on that date, when she joined the likes of Nelly, Avril Lavigne, a then-newly-solo Justin Timberlake and more in the ranking’s upper reaches. “I never thought that would happen. Then it happened,” Clarkson recalls of winning the inaugural Idol season and crowning the Hot 100. “Then you’re like, ‘Wow, I’m that person in the story …’ It sounds cheesy, but that night [winning Idol] changed my life.” – Read more at Billboard
The Future is Wide Open: Big Things Coming From Nick Fradiani – Nick Fradiani is set to release his new record, Where We Left Off, next Friday (October 13), and we’re betting it will surprise you. And yes, in a good way. The former American Idol winner has been putting in the hours and has created a warm, happy EP that sounds more like himself than his previous works. It is a big step in the direction that he always wanted to go, and now has the freedom to pursue. On a warm October afternoon, we caught up with Fradiani, who is living in an incredible mindset, one that can only be earned by chasing what you love. – Read more at GSLM.com
Why ‘American Idol’ Winner Nick Fradiani Finds Music More ‘Fulfilling’ Away from the Reality Show Beast – Two years later, Fradiani is back with a new sound, new LP and no label, after leaving Big Machine in 2016. And while he’s grateful for his experience on “Idol” and how it helped him “learn the ropes” of entertainment industry, he tells TooFab his new music is more “fulfilling” than anything he’s worked on before. With his upcoming EP “Where We Left Off” dropping October 13, Fradiani spoke with TooFab about his new music, what he thinks about the upcoming “Idol” reboot and judges and whether he’d ever return for an All-Stars reason of the reality show. – Read more at TooFab.com
How ‘The Voice’ Creator Cracked China’s TV Market — Then Didn’t – The show’s status only grew from there. By season four, which aired in 2015, The Voice topped the ratings virtually every week. The season finale was watched by nearly a third of all TV households in the country of 1.2 billion people. Buoyed by the success, Talpa lined up multiple deals for the Middle Kingdom, including with internet giant Tencent, to produce an online-only version of the Dutch group’s social experiment format Utopia, renamed The 15 of Us for China. Then Talpa ran into the roadblocks familiar to any foreign company working with China: those of government regulation and copyright theft. The alleged theft came from Star China, the local group that produced four seasons of The Voice of China but then launched its own, strikingly similar competition format Sing My Song. – Read more at The Hollywood Reporter
