TVSquad

For months, the three people who still watch NBC have seen the promos for this season of The Celebrity Apprentice; the big climactic scene was of Joan Rivers smashing down a glass out of some sense extreme frustration. Of course, it made the three of us wonder: did she get annoyed during a particularly tough task? Did one of her fellow celebs completely throw her under the bus? Was it Joan's way to finally lash out at Donald Trump's scattered and random management of the game?

It turns out that it was none of these things. In fact, when the scene came in this week's episode, it was so anticlimactic that you might have missed it if you had turned away to get some ice cream. In fact, this week's entire two-hour episode ambled along so slowly that I thought NBC expanded it to three hours to take Kings' vacated timeslot.

I'll admit that The Celebrity Apprentice is a guilty pleasure of mine. Why? Two words: Nutty celebrities! Just like any other reality show, seeing people get along and be friends just doesn't cut it. There needs to be an agitator, someone who's going to make everyone roll their eyes and bitch and moan that they have to work or live with such a loose cannon/nutjob/free spirit. The fact that those people are celebrities is a plus in my book.

It amazes me that these reality shows consistently cut their most interesting players because everyone is annoyed by them. And this year's Celeb Apprentice just committed that cardinal sin.

The list of singers agreeing to appear on FOX's Duets, a contest that pairs regular celebrities with singing celebrities, is a mixture of has-beens, legends, and Michael Bolton. The singers are: Cyndi Lauper, Smokey Robinson, Chaka Khan, Clint Black, Dionne Warwick, Patti LaBelle, Brian McKnight, Macy Gray, Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx, Randy Travis, and Aaron Neville. That's actually a pretty impressive list. I think many of those singers have done guest appearances on American Idol.

Now... who would make an interesting pair? I wouldn't be surprised to see Nicollette Sheridan coupled with her fiance, Michael Bolton. How about Punky Brewster with Cyndi Lauper? And Johnny Fairplay with Macy Gray?

The series debuts August 29th. The celebrity pairs will be eliminated each week by judges and viewer votes.