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Next week’s Voice finale really will have something for everyone.
NBC has unveiled two of the season 4 finale’s star attractions: Florida Georgia Line and Nelly, an unlikely duo who will tag-team their summer anthem “Cruise,” and Bruno Mars, who will appear with his Hooligans in a pre-taped performance of “Treasure.” Mars and the gang recorded the song in May, shortly before Mars’ mother died suddenly of a brain aneurysm.
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Just a few weeks after learning that Community had been renewed for a fifth season, fans are getting more news to brighten their timeline: The return of creator Dan Harmon.
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Things are coming together for the benefit concert that Oklahoma native Blake Shelton announced on Tuesday’s episode of The Voice. On Wednesday, May 29, NBC will air Healing in the Heartland: Relief Benefit Concert to support victims of the fatal tornado that caused wreckage in central and eastern Oklahoma earlier this week.
The concert will be televised live from Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy Arena at 9 p.m. ET, raising funds for the United Way of Central Oklahoma May Tornadoes Relief Fund. READ FULL STORY »
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He titilated you with The Jersey Floor. He intrigued you with Downton Sixbey. And now he’s going to enchant you with Game of Desks, an elaborate parody that spoofs TV’s most beloved epic fantasy.
In this exclusive clip from Late Night‘s latest lengthy send-up, host Jimmy Fallon enters an elevator as himself — and exits it as a long-haired, bearded, fur-and-leather-clad refugee from Westeros, ready to punish a writer from “the Late Night‘s Watch” for writing bad jokes
We can’t know for sure which of Games‘s characters will get the parody treatment when the full clip airs tonight at 12:35 a.m. ET — maybe Jay Leno will be looped in as the deposed Mad King Aerys? The video does at least give us a glimpse at Late Night‘s take on Varys, King’s Landing’s gelded Master of Whispers. Here, Fallon announcer Steve Higgins plays the part by stepping into elaborate robes and looping a very special necklace around his throat. Put it this way: If you touch the pendant, he’ll turn his head and cough.
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Oklahoma native Blake Shelton opened last night’s Voice results show with an emotional ballad dedicated to the victims of Monday’s horrific tornado. He sang “Over You” with his wife, fellow country star Miranda Lambert, as the Red Cross’s phone number flashed onscreen.
And the musician isn’t stopping there. Shelton annouced last night that he’s also organizing a benefit concert for tornado victims that will air sometime soon on NBC.
Though details are sparse thus far, Shelton expects the benefit to come together quickly: “We’ll know more about it in the next 24 hours,” Shelton told Billboard Tuesday after The Voice. “I’m hoping it will raise a lot of money. Obviously it will be televised and will happen really quickly.” If this concert follows the model of NBC’s Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together benefit, it should air by this Friday. (That telethon, too, was thrown together after a natural disaster that occurred on a Monday.)
Missed The Voice‘s top 10 contestants performing last night? You’ll have to catch the show online: EW had confirmed that instead of tonight’s planned Voice recap episode, NBC will air a live special focused on the devastating tornado that killed at least 24 people and leveled dozens of homes, a hospital, and at least two schools in Oklahoma on Monday. READ FULL STORY »
Who will replace Seth Meyers at Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update desk? We’ll have to wait at least until January to find out. Meyers explained on the Today show this morning that he plans to return to SNL this fall, continuing to anchor Update through the end of 2013.
“I just am nowhere near emotionally ready for Saturday to be my last show,” the comic explained to Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie in a voice that sounded choked with emotion. (In reality, Meyers is just nursing a particularly nasty cold.) SNL‘s most devoted fans probably feel the same way, especially if Saturday marks the exit of Fred Armisen and Jason Sudeikis as well as Bill Hader — the only cast member who is confirmed to be leaving the show.
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Looks like the 2013-2014 television season will be a rebuilding year for SNL.
An unnamed source at NBC has confirmed to the New York Post that longtime castmember Fred Armisen has decided to exit the sketch show after 11 seasons. That same source tells the Post that SNL veteran Jason Sudeikis will “probably” leave the show as well this year. NBC had no comment, and reps for Armisen and Sudeikis didn’t immediately respond to EW’s inquiries.
It would hardly be a shock if these exit rumors turn out to be true. While Armisen was once a dominant presence on Saturday Night Live, his appearances on the show have grown less frequent since he began devoting himself to his own sketch series, IFC’s Portlandia, in 2010. And Sudeikis has been pondering leaving the show for nearly a year. READ FULL STORY »
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Apparently, what a girl wants is an NBC homecoming. Original Voice judge Christina Aguilera will return for the fifth season of the peacock’s reality hit, sources confirm to EW. (TheWrap first reported the news.)
Aguilera and fellow original judge Cee Lo Green exited the series last winter at the end of season 3 to focus on their own music careers. Aguilera has been promoting her Lotus album and tour, while Green is working on his solo album Girl Power, as well as a reality show for TBS. They were replaced by Usher and Shakira for The Voice‘s spring edition, though NBC always expected both musicians to be back for the fall of 2013. And though Green has yet to sign a contract, he is reportedly also nearing a deal to return to the singing competition.
Sources say that Aguilera’s own contract is for about $12 million, a number exceeded by the paydays given to one-season wonders such as American Idol‘s Mariah Carey (widely reported to be $18 million) and The X Factor‘s Britney Spears ($15 million).
Read more:
NBC fall schedule reveals big moves
CeeLo gets his own TBS show
Randy Jackson’s quitting ‘American Idol’
You know that a network has stopped taking risks when they start billing Michael J. Fox as their biggest, buzziest star. Yes, the artist formerly known as Alex P. Keaton (and currently know as an Emmy-magnet guest star) will return to NBC this fall, right back where he started with Family Ties, to star in his new sitcom, The Michael J. Fox Show, which kicks off a whole new family-themed Thursday night. That means no more witty, career-minded single ladies and cult-movie-referencing twentysomethings on Must-See TV. (Parks and Recreation is still around, but it’s been moved to the 8:00 PM sudden-death time slot, opposite The Big Bang Theory.) Instead, we get Fox, alongside the blended-family comedy Welcome to the Family, and Sean Hayes starring as a divorced gay dad on Sean Saves the World, all capped off with an hour of Parenthood. Aiming squarely down the middle of American brows this year, NBC is also bringing back some recognizable faces from decades past (Fox! Blair Underwood for Ironside! James Spader for The Blacklist!), along with a certain brand of comedy that hasn’t changed much since that time. You want jokes about parents tricking their kids into eating vegetables? You’ve got it! You want something a little edgier? Go watch AMC.
THE MICHAEL J FOX SHOW
The good news? Michael J. Fox’s new show comes from writer/executive producer Sam Laybourne (Cougar Town) and co-stars the great Betsy Brandt, who brings such sad and funny suffering-wife pathos to the role of Marie on Breaking Bad. The bad news? Despite the fact that it was inspired by Fox’s real-life battle with Parkinson’s, it looks like any other bland, what-is-this-family-coming-to-if-we-can’t-sit-down-to-eat-dinner-together? comedy, and the teaser clip just isn’t that funny. Be warned: there will be kale jokes.
When word broke last week that NBC had ordered a new reality game show featuring 24/7 competition, a possible $10 million dollar cash prize, and — oh yeah — live broadcasts for 12 consecutive days from “a gigantic hourglass shaped structure in the heart of Manhattan,” where the game’s champions will also live for the duration of the contest, the news was greeted with a collective “Huh?” The Million Second Quiz, frankly, sounded more like a ludicrous, Truman Show-inspired reality show parody than an actual event that will air on network TV this fall.
But according to Paul Telegdy, NBC’s president of alternative and late night programming, the show is actually “mind-blowingly simple when you really lay it out.” And perhaps more importantly, Telegdy swears that The Million Second Quiz will feel more current than the vast majority of today’s popular reality shows — nearly all of which were created before online video and social media had come into wide use. (The exception to that rule? The Voice, “which, lucky enough, is on NBC.”)
Having an old friend for dinner tonight? Consider this an appetizer: The fourth episode of Hannibal, which was pulled by NBC due to its especially gruesome storyline, is now available to view in its entirety. Series creator Bryan Fuller broke the news on his Twitter account today:
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The Voice will welcome an influx of celebrities in the next few weeks: Rod Stewart, Cee Lo Green, Lady Antebellum, Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. will all appear on the show, NBC announced today.
Stewart and Green will perform Wednesday, May 8; Lady Antebellum, along with Thicke, Williams and T.I., will hit the stage Tuesday ,May 14. For many of the artists, this isn’t their first tango with the spinning chairs. Williams was previously an adviser to Team Usher; Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum served as an adviser to Team Adam earlier this season. Thicke dropped by the show last year, and of course, Green was previously a judge on the program.
The Voice has continued to perform well despite a recent ratings dip. Last Tuesday, the show had 12.4 million viewers and a 4.0 adults 18-49 rating.
Read more:
‘The Voice’ on top, yet ratings dip
EW’s Season Finale Calendar
James Hibberd
@James_Hibberd
Lynette Rice
@EWLynette
