TVSquad

Well, the Emmys have come and gone and for the most part, I enjoyed the telecast. The non-threatening hosting style of Ryan Seacrest infected the whole telecast with a feeling of safety that only served to make the routines of comedians like Ray Romano and Jon Stewart look more edgy.

One of my favorite parts of every Emmy telecast is the presentation of the writers nominated for best variety or comedy show. The Daily Show's use of Alberto Gonzalez and Conan's collection of laborers in his pick up truck made me laugh out loud. By the way, did anyone else notice the look of shock on the face of Conan's wife? Priceless.

• Charlie Rose: Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, and Brent Scowcroft
• The Daily Show: Steve Vogel (repeat)
• The Colbert Report: Tom Blanton and Daniel Gilbert (repeat)
• The Late Show With David Letterman: Vera Farmiga and Joe Matarese
• Jay Leno: Jessica Biel, Bill Engvall, and T-Pain and Yung Joc
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: LeBron James, Timothy Olyphant, and Velvet Revolver
• Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Patton Oswalt and Mark Ronson
• The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Ted Danson, Maggie Q, and Silverchair
• Last Call With Carson Daly: Wayne Brady and Test Your Reflex

Um, no, these two weren't married recently in either Massachusetts or New Jersey. What's actually happening here is that "irreconcilable differences" is being cited as the reason for divorce from their significant others. But, you knew that already, didn't you?

In Wayne Brady's case it's his wife, Mandie Brady, that is filing for divorce under these circumstances. The former star of The Wayne Brady Show and Whose Line is it Anyway? (and current host of FOX's new show Don't Forget the Lyrics) and his wife married in 1999. The couple separated in April of 2006, according to papers filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court. Mandie is seeking joint legal and physical custody of the couple's 4-year-old daughter, Maile.

In April, I told you about NBC's The Great American Singing Bee, a new competition series in which contestants are challenged to sing the correct lyrics to a song. Then, recently, I told you about Don't Forget the Lyrics, a show on FOX with pretty much the exact same concept.

The Great American Singing Bee was supposed to air this fall, but NBC isn't about to let FOX steal its thunder by releasing Don't Forget the Lyrics next month. What does that mean for you, the home viewer? It means that this summer, with The Great American Spelling Bee's debut bumped up to July 10 at 9:30 (and Lyrics debuting the next day), you'll have two chances to catch a premise no one really found that interesting in the first place.

Forgive me, that was presumptuous, but I maintain a show centering on strangers butchering songs is a concept that will get old rather quickly.

Wayne Brady will host Don't Forget the Lyrics, a new game show in which contestants must not forget the lyrics (in case the unoriginal title didn't make that clear).

The series debuts on FOX July 11 at 9:30 p.m. and July 12 at 8:30 p.m., and features contestants singing along with a studio band, the words in front of them karaoke-style. When the music stops and the words disappear, the contestant must continue to sing the correct lyrics. If the contestant correctly guesses nine lyrics in a row, they have one final chance to try for a tenth lyrics and the chance to win one million dollars.

If this sounds familiar, that's because NBC's Great American Singing Bee is pretty much the exact same concept. I don't quite understand how two networks became infatuated with this idea, but I blame the popularity of karaoke. And like karaoke, I assume these shows will be much tolerable if you've had a few drinks beforehand.

Ryan J. Budke strikes again! After visiting the set of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip earlier this week, Ryan returns with a visit to the set of the hit CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother.

In the video, Ryan speaks to all of the cast members about Wayne Brady, who will appear as Barney's brother in an episode airing on November 27th. There was a bit of confusion with some of the cast as they believed that Wayne's last name was Newton. Alyson Hannigan actually says she loved Wayne Newton on Whose Line Is It Anyway?. It is easy to confuse the two as they look so much alike. Wayne Brady himself is also interviewed, and tells the tongue-in-cheek story of how he got to be on the show.

Oh, by the way, in next week's episode of HIMYM the secret is finally revealed as to why Robin has such as distaste for shopping malls. Think 1980's, acid wash, and teen pop-star sensation. If you're interested in finding out ahead of time, then click on this link for some spoiler video. Ryan's set visit can be seen after the jump.

Well, that wasn't much of a surprise, was it? In a show that should have lasted all of ten minutes, Alfonso Ribeiro was named winner of the first Celebrity Duets competition. By winning, $100,000 was donated to his charity Fresh Start. And, I wouldn't be surprised if David Foster, one of the judges for this competition, didn't ask Alfonso to stop by his studios one day. Personally, I always thought Alfonso was the front runner since the beginning of the competition, and I'm glad that he won.

I'll admit that I fast-forwarded through a good portion of tonight's fluff, but there were some highlights. We actually got to see what Little Richard was most famous for . . . singing and pounding the piano keys. Although he seemed a bit out of it (more than usual) he really belted out a version of Good Golly Miss Molly. Wayne Brady also performed this evening with Boyz II Men (now known as just 'Men'). If you had never heard them before, you would have thought that Wayne was part of the group since the beginning; he's actually quite good. Another highlight was solo performances from the remaining three finalists. I thought Alfonso did the best job, and Hal was much less screechy than in past duets. I thought that Lucy's solo performance was the worst, mostly because she looked like she was having a seizure up on stage.

All in all, I liked Celebrity Duets. I think they had a good mix of semi-professional and novice singers and it was actually quite entertaining. If there is another season of the show I would drop Little Richard from the judges tables and switch David and Marie Osmond, so that David could speak first. Definitely keep Wayne as host. If you have some ideas for improvements (besides canceling the show) let me know.

(S01E05) Alfonso Ribeiro, Lucy Lawless and Hal Sparks. These are your three remaining Celebrity Duets performers.I'm rooting for Alfonso, who I always felt was the front-runner. Even a bit better than Jai Rodriguez. Although, I do have a soft spot for Hal. So, without further ado, here are the night's performances.

(S01E03) It's about 1:00 a.m. as I write this, so let's get down to the business at hand. To recap from last week, Lea Thompson was let go. I'm surprised, since I thought she did a fairly decent job. I'm guessing that a number of wives and girlfriends called to vote her off because they were tired of their husbands and boyfriends ogling Thompson in her mini-skirts. And now, this week's performances:

1. Lucy Lawless and Dionne Warwick: This was one of Lucy's better performances (this coming from the man who thought she should have been let go after her first week). She was a nice fit to Dionne's husky singing. Judge Marie Osmond liked her performance as well, but thought she was being a bit timid. Judge Little Richard also liked her performance (although it was hard to tell). Finally, Judge David Foster agreed with his colleagues, but requested that she sing her next duet in a higher harmony.

(S01E02) Welcome to the second review of Celebrity Duets, now on at its regular time. Thanks for sticking with me, despite the poor decision I made last week when I thought Lucy Lawless should have been the celebrity to be let go from the competition. From the comments I read you thought that she did much better than I did. Well, you won't have to worry about that now, because I will only be covering the talent portion of the show. The judging will either be covered by another one of our talented TV Squad writers (beautiful people one and all), or not at all.

So, without further ado . . .