TVSquad

If you thought The Singing Bee was bad, wait till you get a load of this. TLC is premiering it's new show The Singing Office at the end of June. The show will be hosted by ex-*NSYNCer Joey Fatone and ex-Spice Girl Mel B. Each week, Joey and Mel B. will surprise a different office and hold an impromptu audition. From each location, they will recruit a team of five for the next round of competiton. Once formed, the teams will go to "boot camp" as the hosts coach the teams on both their performance quality and their singing. Finally, the teams will compete on stage for a shot at $50,000.

Last night I went to taping of MTV's Rock the Cradle at CBS studios. We reviewed the season premiere of the show here at TV Squad so I was excited to see the show taped live and meet some of the performers.

After the show I got to talk to Chloe Lattanzi, Crosby Loggins, and Lucy Walsh. All were very nice and very gracious, considering they just walked off the stage. Find out what they had to say about the competition and the other contestants after the jump ...

Probably in preparation for a long strike and also because this type of show is easy programming that not only brings in fair enough ratings but also does rather well in reruns, FOX announced earlier this week that it was ordering 13 extra episodes of it's music-contest hit Don't Forget the Lyrics.

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.

Recently I mentioned that NBC had a new game show in the works called The Great American Singing Bee. The game show would require contestants to sing lines from pop songs. Well, now FOX has just greenlit a similar game show, this one called Off the Charts (working title). The new series will feature a live band with a singer that will play part of a song. Then, the contestant must sing the rest of the song. The prize money increases as the songs become more obscure.

Meanwhile, CBS is still working on its own new adaptation of the classic game show Name That Tune, though there's not much new information on that particular project just yet. CBS is also creating another reality show called Life As a Song, which has real people breaking into song and dance numbers in order to make annoucements to friends and family.

Of course, one "Great American Singing Bee" was already on NBC many, many years ago, but this is different.

The Great American Singing Bee is a new game show from producers Phil Gurin and Bob Horowitz, who will each produce different versions for American and UK television audiences. Contestants will be given lyrics to songs and asked to sing the missing words. This is very similar to an old family game called SongBurst, which was based on pretty much the exact same idea.

(S01E02) As I watched this week's episode, I could only think one thing...thank goodness there are only nine finalists, cause I really can't take much more of this show, in fact, in deference to the people who like this show (both of them) this is going to be my last review.

The first big event of the show is when the girls move into their new house. After the required fifteen minutes of screaming and running with their hands in their air, they finally choose their beds. Was I the only one aroused by the girl who licked her pillow?

Back in her 'Forever Your Girl' days, I had a pretty huge crush on Paula Abdul. I was in middle school and learning to be afraid of girls for the first time, and Ms. Abdul would look seductively at me from the poster on my closet door as if to say, "I understand you, Adam. I am forever your girl. Come over here and make out with me."

How I miss the young Paper Paula, and the good times I had French kissing a door. But love, like everything else, does fade away, and since I don't watch American Idol I've moved on to other crushes and fondling other doors in my home.

Sometimes, though, when I start to pine for those hours spent with Paula, I watch a clip from Junior High School and it's like I'm 11 years old again, wanting to put my tongue in her mouth so she'll stop singing. If that's not true love, then I don't want to know what true love is.

Huh.

I apologize for being a little late with this news, but it took my brain this long to accept that this was actually true. Yes, Yahoo is planning to launch a new online video project called "Odd News Underground" featuring a singing news anchor. Yahoo isn't saying who the anchor is, but insist the person is someone people will recognize.

I guess I can give Yahoo credit for trying to make the news even more laughable than it already is, and sure, with a name like "Odd News Underground" the new Web program probably isn't going to focus on real news, but I certainly hope they don't think this is an original idea. I've placed a video from the '90s after the jump that shows at least one man had this idea already.

Anyone want to guess who this singing news person is going to be? I'm hoping it's Matthew Wilder, personally.

[via Lost Remote]

Hello, are you enjoying your weekend?

Yeah, thanks for asking, Adam.

No prob. Do you know what would make your day even better?

Um, Mr. Belding from Saved By the Bell singing "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey?

Yes, imaginary person in my head, that's exactly what would make this great day even greater, and just for you and all my adoring readers, I've placed a video after the jump of Belding himself (real name: Dennis Haskins) joining metal band Metal Skool on stage along with football player Tony Romo for a rousing rendition of the hit song. Belding even treats the crowd to a truncated version of the Saved By the Bell theme. The best part comes toward the beginning when he's mistakenly introduced as "Mr. Belvedere."

The video contains LOTS OF CURSING, so don't watch it of you're at work or church.

[via Best Week Ever]

Biting the hand that feeds you is a popular sport in Hollywoodland. We all know that Scientologist Isaac Hayes, the voice of South Park's Chef, parted ways with the show after its Emmy-nominated, Scientology-mocking "Trapped in the Closet" episode aired last year. Hayes was reported as saying that the show had crossed from "satire" to "intolerance," which is apparently what happens when your own belief system is mocked instead of someone else's. Following the controversy, Chef was served an unholy and definitive end in which he was burned, beaten, impaled, shot and quartered by a grizzly bear and a mountain lion. Oh, and he defecated as he expired.

Given this series of cartoon events, why the New York Post would bother to ask Hayes whether or not he planned on returning to the show is beyond me, but Hayes' answer was clear.

ABC had an idea for a revolutionary new reality show, in which young talents could try their hand at becoming America's next hottest star... while living together under one roof! It was unlike anything else on TV. Except all those seasons of Making the Band. And America's Next Top Model. And Last Comic Standing. Alright, maybe it wasn't so revolutionary.

So maybe I'm being a little too harsh... and even a bit unfair because I've never actually seen ABC's The One before. Then again, it's not like I had many opportunities too... nor will I have anymore. That's right, after only two weeks of extremely low ratings, ABC has decided to cancel the show. Ouch. There have been no announcements as to what will take up the time slot for the rest of the season.

In a way, I kind of feel bad for the contestants on the program. I'm sure most (if not all) of them felt that this would be their big break for a record deal. Although not everyone can win the top prize, exposure to the business is always nice... The poor kids barely got a chance to showcase themselves. Tough biz.

There are 33 versions of the American Idol-style singing competition around the world, in 33 different countries. But, the Idol franchise is about to launch into new territory. Instead of just one country, it will launch Latin American Idol, covering an entire region. It will host auditions in four countries and is open to contestants from Mexico and Central and South America. Except Brazil, which has its own version that launches April 5th.That's an awfully large region to choose from and I imagine it has some smokin' hot talent.

Here are the audition dates:

• Mexico City: April 22-23
• Caracas, Venezuela: April 29-30
• Bogota, Colombia: May 5-6
• Buenos Aires, Argentina: May 16-17

Here's one heck of a way to show fan loyalty to your favorite American Idol contestant. Cingular announced that it's offering ringtones of contestants' performances within 24 hours of the broadcast. Every Wednesday, new ringtones of live performances will be available for $2.49 each on Cingular's website. If the contestant's song doesn't have publisher's clearance during a particular week, Cingular will offer up an older performance instead.

I just checked a few of them out and I realized that I am definitely not in the demographic that this is catering to. For example, all the contestants (including Ace) have voiced a ringtone telling people to vote for them. And yes, it does have Chris Daughtry's rendition of "Walk the Line". Commence freaking out.

I was going to write something snarky about how Brian Dunkelman told Inside Edition that he wonders whether his career would've been, um, bigger if he had stuck around to host American Idol for more than one season. While the answer is obvious (just look at Seacrest), I changed my mind when I saw that the dude has a sense of humor about the whole thing. He's currently blogging about each episode of AI over at this website. He takes some shots at himself here, comparing himself to Shelley Long and David Caruso, two actors who left television shows after one season and, hey, look at them now! He has some pretty funny comments about the contestants, including the Brittenum twins, who he thinks should get their own show on UPN. And he takes some shots at Simon and of course, wraps up each entry with "DUNKELMAN OUT!" I totally appreciate that.