Last night was the premiere of Celebrity Duets, the latest project of American Idol's Simon Cowell and FOX's newest show. Celebrity Duets will work a little like a combination of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.
Each week on Celebrity Duets, the celebrity competitors, who presumably have little or no singing background, will sing a duet with an established recording artist. There will be a panel of judges offering their opinions, and after the show, America will vote for their favorite celebrity competitor. In a subsequent results show, the celebrity with the fewest votes that week will be eliminated. The last celebrity left will be declared the winner and will receive a $100,000 prize to be donated to charity.
The celebrities who will be performing duets are Chris Jericho from the WWE, Lucy Lawless from Xena fame, Cheech Marin of Cheech and Chong, Carly Patterson from the 2004 Olympic gymnastics team, Alfonso Ribeiro from Fresh Prince, Jai Rodriguez from Queer Eye, Hal Sparks from Queer as Folk, and Lea Thompson from Caroline in the City.
Some of the recording artists who will attempt to make singing stars out of the celebrities over the course of the season are Clint Black, Michael Bolton, Michelle Williams, Belinda Carlisle, Taylor Dayne, Peter Frampton, Macy Gray, James Ingram, Wynonna Judd, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx, Brian McKnight, Aaron Neville, Smokey Robinson, Randy Travis, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight and Lee Ann Womack.
Wayne Brady (who has a pretty good voice himself) will host the Celebrity Duets and David Foster will serve as a judge each week. We can expect to see additional recording artists and guest judges as the show progresses.
Tonight, Celebrity Duets opens, and we're introduced to our Host, Wayne Brady. He has traded in his tight pants and bright shirts from Who's Line is it Anyway and looks quite distinguished in a three piece suit and bright pink tie.
Wayne introduces us to the judges. First up is Marie Osmond. I normally don't like to make jabs on people's appearances but Marie looks like she's had a little too much work done on her face. The next judge is Little Richard. Ok, take back what I said about Marie. Comparing Little Richard's face to Marie's is like comparing Joan Rivers to Janelle from Big Brother! (Had to get my Big Brother plug in somewhere!) Finally, our last judge, producer and songwriter David Foster.
Tonight, in the two-hour premiere episode, the judges will decide the first elimination. Going forward, the voting and elimination will be in America's hands.
The first duet will be performed by Lucy Lawless. Lucy is looking very un-Xenalike, in fact I wouldn't have recognized her as a blonde. We're not told who her duet will be with, and we're also not told what song she's going to sing. She appears on the stage and starts singing… hmm… excuse me Wayne, I can name that tune in 9 notes! It's "Try a Little Tenderness!" Lucy pauses long enough to introduce Michael Bolton to the stage. He should be used to this, because on his new cd he sings a duet with fiancée Nicolette Sheridan who isn't the greatest singer. Lucy doesn't sound horrible, but doesn't sound great either. She also looks a bit uncomfortable on stage, but that's to be expected since she had to go first.
Wayne asked Michael how Lucy did in rehearsals, and what could he say, he of course said she did great. Michael leaves the stage and Lucy gets critiqued from the judges. Marie Osmond tells her that she did great and that it took guts to go first. Little Richard looks a little unsure of what to say or how to say it and I had to pause and scratch my head and look at my husband and say "huh?" One of the things he said was "I was born at night but not last night." Um…huh? Anyway, I get the impression that he didn't like her very much. David Foster says that it was a great song for her to sing but gave no opinion of her actual singing.
Alfonso Ribiero is next to perform. We see the obligatory clips from Silver Spoons and Fresh Prince, and then he takes the stage. This time Wayne clues us in on what he's singing, it's "I Knew You Were Waiting for Me." He's wearing an awful glittery shirt and caught in a strange bouncing motion that he can't stop. Then he announces his partner, former member of Destiny's Child, Michelle Williams. She must have taught him the bounce move because the two of them come together on stage and bounce together.
Time to face the judges. Marie says that the two of them related much better to each other as a duet and that he did set the bar high. Little Richard informs us that Alfonso used to dance with his show (?!?!) but that he didn't know he could sing too. Little Richard thinks Alfonso was terrific. David Foster says he expected to hate Alfonso, but that he "can really sing."
Carly Patterson, former Olympic gymnast.....
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