Good, God! “This Summer’s Gonna Hurt Like a MotherF****r” is a terrible song!

The Maroon 5 song “This Summer’s Gonna Hurt Like a MotherF****r” is definitely one of the worst songs that I’ve ever heard. If you ask me, it’s so bad that it almost makes the theme song for Power Rangers Operation Overdrive seem like a musical masterpiece by comparison, and that’s a pretty bad song. A part of me wonders if Adam Levine and the other members of Maroon 5 made that song in the hopes that it would prompt the producers of The Voice to force Adam to take a break from the show. Honestly, I definitely think that Adam should take a break from being a coach on The Voice for a season or two.

My thoughts on Shawn Mendes’ debut album “Handwritten”

I decided to do something that I’ve never done before with my blog and review Shawn Mendes’ debut album Handwritten. I’m going to go right ahead and say that I’m definitely not an expert on singing or playing musical instruments. Admittedly, I’m a terrible singer and hell will freeze over a trillion times before I ever get an audition on American Idol or The Voice. I say this because I’ll be reviewing this album strictly from the standpoint of a listener; that being said, here are my thoughts on the album.

Right off the bat, I have to say that I think Handwritten is a great debut for Shawn Mendes with a lot of really great songs. My favorite song on the album without question is definitely “Stitches”. I probably would have started writing this review several days ago if I didn’t think that song was so addictive. Every time I start listening to it, I pretty much always want to listen to it on an endless loop. Personally, I think “Stitches” has a great beat to it, and I love the lyrics to the song. If I had to say what my second favorite song on the album is, it would definitely be “Something Big”. As far as I’m concerned, “Something Big” is the most unique sounding song on the entire album, especially when it comes to the overall beat of the song. “Something Big” really comes across as a hip-hop song to me. While most of the other songs have a pop sound to them, there are a few songs that remind me of country music.

“Crazy” is definitely another song that really stood out to me when I was listening to the album. I thought that Mendes did a great job with his singing for the song, and it’s an all-around great song. I feel like I should also mention that “Crazy” feels very reminiscent of Iron and Wine’s songs, and I’m a huge fan of his, which is a big part of why I like the song so much.

As much as I love this album, my least favorite song on the album is definitely “I Don’t Even Know Your Name”. For the record, I think the song starts out on a good note with great singing from Mendes and I love the instrumental accompaniment for the song. Unfortunately, I think Mendes’ singing for that particular song takes major turn for the worse about thirty seconds into the song and he just starts to sound like a drunk person singing karaoke for the rest of the song. Honestly, I think the only saving grace of that song is the instrumental aspect of the song. Another song that I thought was rather weak compared to the rest of the album was “The Weight”, but thankfully I don’t think it’s as bad as “I Don’t Even Know Your Name” is. What really brings that song down for me is that I think Mendes’ enunciation of the words “The Weight” is rather poor, which really hurts the song as a whole since it’s the name of the song and therefore those words are said quite a bit throughout the song. Honestly, I kept thinking that Mendes was singing the word “The Way” as I was listening to that song.

The Blacklist: Renewed for Second Season by NBC-TVLine

According to TVLine's Matt Webb Mitovich, NBC has renewed The Blacklist for a 22-episode second season. Here's an excerpt from the original article:

Eight weeks into its run, The Blacklist represents NBC’s most-watched new drama in 19 years (since Earth 2 circa 1994). It also enjoys stupefying Live+7 DVR gains, one week growing by a record 6.6 million viewers to a total audience of 16.93 mil.

The well-reviewed drama had earned a full-season pick-up in early October, after just two airings.

“The success of The Blacklist demonstrates that inspired storytelling is alive and well in broadcast television, and I’m impressed on a daily basis by this creative team’s imagination and the extent to which they will go to capture this grand vision on film,” NBC Entertainment chair Robert Greenblatt said in a statement. “With gratitude to both our partners at Sony Pictures Television and our NBC development executives who took a great script and shepherded it into a great series, I hope that Red Reddington never runs out of names to bring down on his list!”

Having just aired its fall finale, The Blacklist will resume Season 1 on Jan. 13, 2014.

Link to the full article:‘The Blacklist’ Renewed for Season 2 by NBC - TVLine



My thoughts: Given how well The Blacklist has been doing in the ratings, the only thing that surprises me about NBC renewing The Blacklist for a second season is how early in the season they are announcing this news. However, given what has happened with Smash and Revolution once they no longer aired after The Voice, if I were an executive at NBC, I personally would have waited until the show had aired an episode or two without The Voice for a lead-in like it will be when the show returns in January. That way they could see what kind of ratings the show gets when it doesn't air after The Voice before they made a decision just to be on the safe side. Although, The Blacklist has already proven to be far more stable in the ratings than Smash was and Revolution was last year when it aired after The Voice, so I'm very confident that the show will still do well for NBC's standards during the few weeks that The Blacklist doesn't have The Voice for a lead-in.

That being said, I'm beyond thrilled by this news. I wasn't originally planning to watch The Blacklist before it premiered, but I decided to check it out after I heard a lot of great things about the show, and I was instantly hooked on the show after just having watched the first episode. I'm so glad that I decided to check it out, because The Blacklist has ended up being my new favorite show, which I was originally expecting Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to be. If you ask me, The Blacklist is definitely one of the best shows on TV right now.

Revolution: Not since Power Rangers has a TV show forced me to completely leave my brain at the door in order for me to be able to enjoy it (My thoughts on season one of Revolution) (Part 1 of 4)

(Part One)

It had originally been my intention to write a review of the first ten episodes of Revolution while the show was on its midseason break, but after a series of delays and deciding to focus on blogging about other TV shows that I knew had potential to bring in a lot more traffic than I believed a review of Revolution would, I ultimately decided to wait until the season was over to write my review. I would like to preface this review by saying that I will be talking about other TV shows in this blog post. Some of the those shows will be Lost, Flash Forward, Fringe, Supernatural and as some of you may have guessed based on the headline for this review: Power Rangers. However, since I don’t know how familiar the people reading this review will be with those shows, I’ll try to not dwell on those shows too much. Although, in the case of Supernatural, I don’t have much commentary to offer on the show since I’ve only seen the first episode at the moment.

Due to the fact that I have so many issues with Revolution, I’m going to try and get the majority of my complaints with the show and its first season out of the way in part one of this review so I can hopefully end my review on a positive note and ideally avoid coming across as a total negative nelly by the end of this review. That being said, here are my thoughts on the first season of Revolution.

When it comes to Revolution’s first episode, my overall assessment of the series premiere was that it was rather average, and I constantly found myself thinking about things that I liked about the first episodes of Lost and Flash Forward, which ultimately led me to watch the first episodes of both shows in preparation for writing this review. Watching the first episode of Flash Forward again really made me wish that the writers for Revolution had taken page from the writers for Flash Forward’s book in terms of how they structured the first episode. Don’t get wrong, I don’t think they should have necessarily completely copied the structure of the episode, but I do think they could have learned a thing or two from Flash Forward’s first episode.

For those of you who’ve never seen the first episode of Flash Forward, the structure of the episode essentially went like this: The episode opened with them showing Mark Benford who was the primary protagonist of the show waking up after the blackout, he gets out of his police car where he surveys the damage in the area that was caused by everybody around him, along with the rest of the world blacking out for two minutes and seventeen seconds. They then showed the title card for Flash Forward, when the show returns from the commercial break they went back several hours before the blackout and briefly introduced most of the characters until they once again reach the point in the day when the worldwide blackout occurred, and then the characters each started to deal with the immediate aftermath of the blackout for the remainder of the episode and the episode ends with two characters discovering footage of an unknown person who was somehow still awake when everybody else on earth was unconscious during the blackout.

A status update on my Revolution marathon

Hey, Everybody!

I ended up watching the movie Because I Said So after I got off work yesterday, and I work in the afternoon today (Sunday) , so I definitely won’t be able to accomplish my original goal of finishing the first season of Revolution this weekend. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish watching the season by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest though.

Revolution is the farthest thing from being the best TV show ever, but  I’m really starting to enjoy it. I really hope it won’t suffer the same fate that Smash suffered after NBC moved it away from The Voice for its second season. I’ve watched the first eleven episodes, and Revolution is getting really interesting. I’m really looking forward to writing my review of Revolution’s first season and sharing my thoughts will all the people who read my blogs. :)

Cheers,

Taylor Madison Street

Grimm: Episode 2x19 "Endangered" Promo #2 (HD)

Here's another promo for next week's episode, episode 2x19 "Endangered". It looks like this is going to be another awesome episode. :)

Grimm: Episode 2x19 "Endangered" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 2x19 "Endangered", which will air on Tuesday after The Voice in Grimm's new time slot for the rest of the season. It looks like this is going to be a great episode. :)

Grimm: Moves to Tuesdays, ‘Ready for Love’ Cancelled-TVLine

According to TVLine's Michael Ausiello, NBC has cancelled the reality TV series Ready for Love and Grimm will be moving to its Tuesday night time slot after The Voice. Here's an excerpt from the article, which gives some details on this schedule change:

NBC on Friday announced that Grimm will relocate to Tuesdays at 10/9c beginning April 30 behind a previously scheduled two-hour episode of The Voice. It will remain there through May 21.

Ready for Love, meanwhile, will leave the schedule effective immediately.

The Eva Longoria-produced dating show debuted earlier this month to disappointing ratings; its premiere only nabbed 3.8 million viewers and a 1.6 rating in the 18-49 demo.

Link to the full article:NBC Moves ‘Grimm’ to Tuesdays, ‘Ready for Love’ Cancelled - TVLine



My thoughts: Let me start off by saying that I find the decision to have Grimm be the show that takes Ready for Love's post The Voice time slot rather random when it comes to all of the shows that NBC could have chosen to air in that time slot. I never would have guessed that they would pick Grimm to air after The Voice on Tuesday nights. That being said, I'm very excited about this news, and I think this decision really says a lot about what the NBC network executives think about Grimm. I've been a huge fan of Grimm ever since it first premiered last season, and it's always bothered me that the show has never had a decent lead-in with the exception of the special airing of the pilot for Mockingbird Lane, which is the most compatible lead-in that the show has ever had.

Given the fact that the show has never really had a decent regular lead-in, I'm so glad that Grimm is a self-starter and not a TV show that's dependent on having a good lead-in in order to get good ratings. While I suppose not everybody who watches The Voice will automatically watch Grimm simply because the show will be airing behind it for the rest of the season, I'm still hoping that this scheduling change will help increase Grimm's ratings at least a little bit. While I'm very a aware that Grimm gets great ratings for a show that airs on Friday nights, especially for a show on NBC, I've always wanted to see the show get better ratings.

A part of me has always felt like the NBC network executives have treated Grimm like it's the red headed stepchild of the family, while they pin all of their hopes on their other shows such as The Playboy Club, Smash and Revolution being a hit, only to see them quickly crash and burn. However, I do think they've treated the show a little bit better this season, especially considering all of the promotion that they did for season two and how they premiered the season early, airing the first several episodes of the season on Monday nights. While I'm really glad that they did their whole Monday night experiment, the show still didn't have a very good lead in for those episodes. Hopefully, having The Voice for a lead-in for the last several episodes of the second season will be more beneficial to Grimm than airing the show on Mondays was.

The Voice: Season 4 "The Voice Is Back" Promo (HD)

Here's the "The Voice Is Back" promo for season 4. I can't wait for season 4 of The Voice to start. :)

American Horror Story: Scoop on the season 2 premiere and more from Entertainment Weekly's Sandra Gonzalez

Here's some scoop on American Horror Story: Asylum from Entertainment Weekly's Sandra Gonzalez's The Spoiler Room column, which was posted on 10/15/12.



‘AMERICAN HORROR STORY’: FIVE JUICY TEASES
Can’t wait for American Horror Story? Good; you should be very excited. Oh, and terrified. As the first five minutes hinted this season is even sexier, scarier and more sinister than season 1. That said, because there’s so much brand new about this season, it’s hard to tease without giving a great deal away. So I took 5 FAQ from my inbox:

Do we see Bloodyface right away? Is he disgusting?
Define “right away.” And yes.

What the f— happens to Adam Levine after this?
I’m not ready to talk about it yet. Blame the PTSD. But you probably heard a rip, right?

When do we find out the story about the body parts?
Season premiere.

How is Lizzie Brochere?
We only see her briefly in episode 1. But she’s important over all. Her loyalties will be tested at Briarcliff.

Were they serious about the aliens?
It is a word heard in the season premiere, yes. But that’s all I’ll say.

Link to the full article:'Arrow,' 'American Horror Story,' 'The Walking Dead': Spoilers | Inside TV | EW.com

The Voice: Carson Daly Talks Season 3 Changes and Emmy Nomination-TVLine

Here's an interview that Carson Daly did with TVLine's Michael Slezak. In the interview, Daly shares his thoughts on The Voice being nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Reality-Competition Program category and receiving an Emmy nomination of his own in the Reality-Competition hosting category. He also talks about the blind auditions for season three as well as the changes that have been made to the Battle Rounds and the live rounds. Carson Daly also talks about the feud between Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine, as well as the fact that neither of the winners for the first two seasons have had major radio success. Here's an excerpt from the interview where Carson Daly addresses the feud between Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine:



99 PROBLEMS BUT A CONTINUING XTINA/ADAM FEUD AIN’T ONE | Daly is the first to admit Season 2 ended with palpable tension between Aguilera and Levine — whose finale-night tiff over contestant Tony Lucca’s Jay-Z cover created oodles of tabloid chatter. “You could see it. You could feel it. I’m not gonna lie to you, and you’d read into my bulls–t if I told you that there wasn’t any,” he says. Nevertheless, after a rumored truce at the Season 2 wrap party, the duo’s on-set relationship during the recently filmed blind auditions was very cordial, Daly reports. “I didn’t know what to expect in frame one of Season 3. I was curious to know if the first time they had an exchange, would you be able to feel any resentment, but it just wasn’t there. It’s better. It’s like they went to couples therapy,” he says.

Daly continues that while no one can be sure whether or not Aguilera and Levine will “go back at it in the live shows,” he’s of the mindset that serious discord isn’t good for the show — no matter how much press it generates. “There’s fun bickering, like when your husband misses the turn in the car, and you say ‘Why don’t you stop and get directions?!’ That’s fine,” Daly offers. “But when there’s trouble in your marriage, that’s not the business of chemistry we want to be in.” To that end, “you’ll never see on The Voice a promo with a flashing ambulance because somebody fell backstage,” Daly insists. “We don’t produce our show that way. We’re not trying to capitalize on any headlines of that nature, and we haven’t really needed to thus far.”



Link to the full article:The Voice's Carson Daly Talks Season 3 Changes, Emmy Nomination - TVLine



My thoughts: I'm really glad that they've made some changes to the Battle Rounds because they were definitely my least favorite part of the first two seasons. I'm really hoping the fact that Blake Shelton's contestant, Jermaine Paul, won The Voice last season will knock Adam Levine down a peg or two in season 3, because the fact that Adam Levine was constantly bragging last season about Javier Colon winning the first season of The Voice annoyed the hell out of me. I get that he was proud and excited about Javier winning since he was on his team, but I feel like Adam went way too overboard bragging about it, especially since Javier wasn't doing all that well on the charts.

I'm sure that Blake is excited and proud of Jermaine Paul for winning, and he'll more than likely brag about it next season. After all, he bragged about Dia Frampton being the runner-up for season 1 and he also bragged a little about Xenia getting a record deal, but at least he didn't go overboard when he talked about it. When Blake bragged about Dia and Xenia's success, it came from a sense of pride, but whenever Adam bragged about Javier winning it seemed to come more from a sense of arrogance, rather than expressing pride for Javier's accomplishments. It will definitely be interesting to see how Adam and Blake act next season now that Adam isn't the only coach on The Voice to have a member of their team win The Voice.

American Horror Story: Casts Clea Duvall in Season 2-TVLine

According to TVLine's Michael Ausiello, Clea Duvall has signed a deal to appear in several episodes of the second season of American Horror Story. Here's an excerpt from the article:



There’s no official word on who she’ll be playing, but an insider says Duvall will appear in scenes with returning co-star Sarah Paulson.

Horror Story‘s second season — which started shooting on Tuesday — will be set in the 1960s at an East Coast asylum for the criminally insane run by Jessica Lange.

Other new faces on tap for Season 2 of the Emmy nominated hit include Big Love‘s Chloe Sevigny, The Voice‘s Adam Levine, French actress Lizzie Brochere, FlashForward‘s Joseph Fiennes, Oscar nominee James Cromwell, Secret Circle‘s Chris Zylka  while Paulson, Lange, Zachary Quinto, Evan Peters and Lily Rabe — who in Season 1 played Constance, Chad, Tate, psychic Billie Dean and doctor’s wife Nora — are all set to return but as new characters.

“Everyone looks so different,” exec producer Ryan Murphy told TVLine on Thursday. “People who were enemies last year are allies this year. The sets are amazing. It’s 1964, so everything looks very different.”



Link to the full article:American Horror Story Casts Clea Duvall -- Season 2 - TVLine







My thoughts: I've never heard of Clea Duvall before, but I have to say that I couldn't be more excited for season 2. The plot for season 2 of American Horror Story sounds very interesting, but I'm especially excited about the fact that Chloe Sevigny, Joseph Fiennes, and Zachary Quinto are going to be a part of the cast next season. The whole cast for season 2 is great though.

Chris Mann: The Voice Exit Interview-TVLine

Here's an interview that Chris Mann did with TVLine's Michael Slezak. In the interview Chris talks about being on season 2 of The Voice, his past experiences in the music industry and what's coming up next for him with his music career. Here's an excerpt from the article where Chris shares his thoughts on the whole Christina Aguilera versus Adam Levine and Tony Lucca feud:



TVLINE | I know you’ve been asked about this a lot — and I know you probably don’t want to dwell on negativity and drama — but what went through your mind when Christina indirectly inserted you into her feud with Adam Levine and his contestant, Tony Lucca, by pointing to you and saying, “This is a real man right here.” It was pretty obvious that her statement was making a comparison to Tony’s rendition of “99 Problems,” and the possible implication from Adam and Tony that she’s a bitch.
It was just really, really disappointing that all of this media attention [on the Xtina-Adam feud] has taken away from the whole point of the show, especially having done three inspirational songs that I couldn’t have been prouder of. I believe [the feud] really affected where I placed, I think it was completely related to this media frenzy. I don’t blame Christina, because Christina was baited, and I think that’s what has been a little frustrating to me, is how she has taken all of this blame and criticism when Tony and Adam blatantly were calling her a bitch. And I think it happened 13 times in the song, but yet somehow, nobody acknowledges this. It’s so strange. All she said was, “I don’t appreciate it, and that’s derogatory.” And then that caused this huge frenzy and people didn’t vote for me because of it, which is unfortunate. However, I couldn’t have performed any better, and I’m not resentful about it, and I really didn’t think that she did anything crazy. I think she just stood up for herself, which is what she always does.



Link to the full article:Chris Mann: The Voice Exit Interview - TVLine

American Horror Story: Scoop on season 2 from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos

Here's some scoop on American Horror Story from Kristin Dos Santos' Spoiler Chat Daily for Tuesday 5/1/12.
 
 David: I'm dying for anything on American Horror Story season two!
The FX show is currently casting some pretty freaky and attractive roles for season two, including a contortionist and "the most beautiful boy in the world." No pressure! Plus, the hunt for Adam Levine's fiancée Teresa, aka the other half of "The Lovers," is underway. (Note: Jennifer Love Hewitt need not apply.)

Link to the full article:Spoiler Chat Daily: American Horror Story Season Two Scoop! Plus, Grey's, True Blood and More! - E! Online

The Voice Recap: Season 2, Episode 4--Blind Auditions-TVLine

Here's a recap of last night's episode of The Voice, which was round four of the Blind Auditions, by TVLine's Michael Slezak. In the article, Slezak shares his thoughts on each of the performances. He also included a video clip of Jamie Lono (The sandwich maker)'s blind audition. Here's an excerpt from the article where Slezak has made a list of his top ten favorite performances from last night's episode:


10) Jonathas (Team Xtina) | Xtina essentially admitted she turned because she saw the ladies in the audience a-bumpin’ and a-grindin’. Dude did The Tebow backstage!

9) Monique Benabou (Team Xtina) | Without the help of my notes, I can’t remember anything about her except that she probably shouldn’t have attempted a Kelly Clarkson tune.

8 ) Anthony Evans (Team Xtina) | Cee Lo was right that his quavery vocals sounded close to crying, but how is that a positive? Completes cannon fodder triple for Team Xtina?

7) Tony Vincent (Team Cee Lo) | No doubt he’s got explosive vocal power, but I’d have liked more originality and less Freddie Mercury mimicry from the seasoned Broadway vet.

6) Justin Hopkins (Team Cee Lo) | What counted more: Solid impersonation of David Gray’s “Babylon” or having played guitar in Carson Daly’s house band. (How blind is blind?)

5) Nicolle Galyon (Team Adam) | Adam alone in detecting moments of brilliance bubbling up from under layers of nerves. Country pianist could be a potential dark horse this season.

4) Naia Kete (Team Blake) | Drew Barrymore with Dreads displayed a sweet quavery tone – and finished powerfully – on “The Lazy Song.” Blake’s got a definite type, yes?

3) Charlotte Sometimes (Team Blake) | There’s a hint of old-time screwball comedy in her delivery, but it’s more organic than affected. Never hurts when all four judges turn.

2) Mathai (Team Adam) | Baby-voiced intro, full-growling chorus, and deft rapid-fire bridge on “Rumour Has It.” J’adore her, and I don’t even know her last name.

1) Jamie Lono (Team Cee Lo) | I’d rage against Xtina and Blake for failing to turn their chairs, but I need to head to iTunes to download his sublime Johnny Cash cover (embedded below). (Side note: That’s my first Voice download of the season.)



Link to the full article:The Voice Recap: Season 2, Episode 4 -- Blind Auditions, Jamie Lono

An Announcement About The Future of My Blog

 Hi, Everybody!
As of today, I've been asked to be a contributor for Around The Networks, which means I won't be posting my thoughts posts (reviews) on here for the time being. Alex Tucker (The creator of site) and I have agreed that I'll do this on trial basis for a month and see how I feel about writing for his site after a month or so. At that time, I'll either decide to continuing writing for his site or to not continue writing for his site and go back to posting my thoughts posts here.

For the time being, I'll continue writing about many of the same shows such as Gossip Girl, Revenge, Once Upon A Time, Modern Family as well as other shows that I've been blogging about here, but I'll be posting them on the Around The Networks website. In the meantime, I strongly recommend that you check out Around The Networks using the link above. It's a really great website. :)

Cheers,
Taylor Madison Street

'One Tree Hill': Bethany Joy Galeotti finding post-series life 'such a change'-From Inside the Box-Zap2it

Bethany Joy Galeotti confirms it's not easy to say goodbye to Wilmington, N.C., but the recent end of filming "One Tree Hill" there made it necessary.

The cast has scattered as the Wednesday, Jan. 11, premiere of the CW drama series' ninth and final season nears. It promises new dilemmas for Haley James Scott (Galeotti) and her husband Nathan (James Lafferty), thanks in no small part to his ever-scheming father Dan (Paul Johansson).

"I was less emotional than I thought I'd be on the last day," Galeotti tells Zap2it, "but I think it came out in other ways. I'd be at home doing my laundry and not be able to find something, and I'd burst into tears. It's hard to see photos from the set and think, 'I'm never going to be in a room with all the same people again.'

"I'm sure I'll go back to Wilmington," adds Galeotti, who also made her debut as a director during the show's run. "I'm sure I'll work with some of those guys again, but that particular combination doesn't exist anymore, and it's hard to think about that. After you spend nine years of your life seeing the same faces every day, it's such a change."

While she's settling into being more of a full-time wife and mother back home in Battle Ground, Wash. -- where she and husband Michael also own and operate a restaurant -- Galeotti intends to keep fulfilling the musical yen "One Tree Hill" helped satisfy by sending Haley on a concert tour.

With longtime friend Amber Sweeney, she still performs in the duo Everly, and she's looking forward to a July concert in Los Angeles where she expects to reunite with "One Tree Hill" co-stars Shawntel Van Santen and Daphne Zuniga. Galeotti adds that Jana Kramer, who also got to merge her acting and her music on the show, also may sing at the event.

"We've got another performance coming up for Nicholas Sparks' celebrity golf weekend in April in New Bern [N.C.]," Galeotti reports. "I think we're going to be more of a boutique type of band, not pursuing things full-steam-ahead, not going on tour and being rock stars. We both have our own things we want to keep on the front burner, but this is something we can do to still be able to enjoy doing music."

Had her life not taken the course it did, Galeotti may well have tried out for FOX's "American Idol," NBC's "The Voice" or another televised music competition. "I think they're fun,'" she reflects, "Usually if I watch 'American Idol,' I'll pick it up after the audition process. I feel like so much of it is the gimmick of watching a train wreck, and I think it breeds negativity and gossip. I don't like that.

"I think 'The Voice' is a great show," Galeotti notes. "I really enjoy that, and I also like 'The Sing-Off,' though I haven't seen too much of it. I would definitely encourage any young artist toward those, since everything's different now. You kind of have to take the opportunities that come to you, so I would say, why not?"

This article was written by Jay Bobbin.

Link to the original article:'One Tree Hill': Bethany Joy Galeotti finding post-series life 'such a change' - From Inside the Box - Zap2it

The Voice Season 2 Scoop: More Blind Audition Rounds, Bigger Teams - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

When NBC's The Voice returns next season, it will be bigger than ever. There will be more blind audition rounds, in which singers perform for the coaches sight unseen, and 12 contestants per team, up from Season 1's eight.

The Voice names Christina Milian as new social media correspondent

It's not yet clear exactly how many more blind audition episodes will air — they ran for two weeks earlier this year — but executive producer Mark Burnett says the decision to expand came from viewer feedback and having more time to produce them. "We put the show on so quickly last year. We only had four months," he told TVGuide.com after a press conference Friday. "And the biggest complaint that we got was, 'Awww, the blind auditions ended so early.' It was a quick blip. So I managed to make a lot more blind auditions and clearly we're responding to what our fans are asking for."

Series coaches — Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton — told reporters they remain unworried about the glut of music shows. The Voice returns in February after the Super Bowl, and after The X Factor wraps in December, but it will still have to contend with a new season of American Idol. Aguilera says The Voice's process when it comes to selecting singers -- the coaches listening only to a performer's voice and then swinging around in those huge red chairs — remains unmatched. "There's not a more suspenseful TV show out there," she said. (Burnett added: "These chairs have become stars in their own right.")

Is Carson Daly the founding father of social TV?

Asked specifically about the similarities to Simon Cowell's X Factor, Burnett told TVGuide.com he'd only seen "maybe 10 minutes" of the show. "They certainly spent a lot of money, it's certainly big. I don't think it's different from anything else I've seen," he said. So while X Factor will award its winner with a $5 million recording contract, The Voice will stick with its $100,000. "Do you know what that reminds me of? It reminds of Austin Powers. 'One meeeellion dollars,'" Burnett said. "I mean, people aren't watching the show for that."

As for the new crop of Voice contestants — all selected now that the show has finished filming Season 2's blind auditions -- the coaches say they got extra competitive when it came to filling out their rosters. "We know the game now. It's an intense competition this year," Aguilera said. She boasted that her team includes an opera singer "who makes you cry."

"You sit there wondering why these people don't have record contracts," she said.

Those contestants are also savvier than ever when it comes to picking who they want to work with. "Now, they're all like, 'What can you do for me?'" Aguilera said. "They know how it works" when more than one of the coaches want in. "All of a sudden, we're the ones pitching ourselves," Levine said.

Season 2 of The Voice returns Sunday, Feb. 5 after the Super Bowl on NBC.

This article was written by Denise Martin.

Link to the original article:The Voice Season 2 Scoop: More Blind Audition Rounds, Bigger Teams - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

Kaley Cuoco to Host People's Choice Awards, Eddie Murphy Developing Beverly Hills Cop Series-TVLine

Just call her the hostess with the mostess.

CBS has announced that Big Bang Theory‘s Kaley Cuoco — who had a successful stint as Teen Choice Awards’ emcee last August — will host the 2012 People’s Choice Awards on Jan. 11.


“We are thrilled to welcome Kaley as the new host of People’s Choice Awards 2012,” executive producer Mark Burnett said in a statement Thursday. “She’s been making people laugh on top-rated comedy series for the last decade, first with 8 Simple Rules and now with The Big Bang Theory… I’m looking forward to working with her on a fun-filled, comedy-packed show in January.”

Ready for more of today’s TV dish? Well…

• Eddie Murphy is looking to bring Beverly Hills Cop to the small screen. “What I’m trying to do now is produce a TV show starring Axel Foley’s son,” the actor says in the new issue of Rolling Stone. “And Axel is the chief of police now in Detroit. I’d do the pilot, show up here and there.”

• NBC has temporarily halted production on its buzzy midseason thriller, Awake. According to Vulture, executive producers Kyle Killen and Howard Gordon “needed the time to hash out where future episodes were headed.” At press time, Awake had six episodes in the can.

• Former Monster Garage star Jesse James is returning to Discovery Channel to compete on American Chopper, EW.com reports. His two-part episode airs Dec. 5 and 6.

• Jerry O’Connell is at it again! The pilot season staple has sold a multi-cam comedy about fatherhood to CBS, per Deadline. O’Connell would star in and produce the potential series.

• Gilbert Gottfried has scored a potentially recurring guest spot on NBC’s Law & Order: SVU. According to TV Guide Magazine, the comedian will appear in the Nov. 30 episode as the precinct’s new IT guy who we’ll likely see “from time to time.”

• Disney’s Suite Life on Deck star Debby Ryan has booked a guest spot on a November episode of ABC’s Private Practice, E! Online reports. The starlet will play Hailey, a young girl Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) meets in rehab.

• NBC’s The Voice has tapped actress/R&B singer Christina Milian as its backstage Social Media Correspondent in Season 2, which premieres Sunday, Feb. 5 immediately following the Super Bowl.

This article was written by Megan Masters.

Link to the original article:Kaley Cuoco to Host People's Choice Awards, Eddie Murphy Developing Beverly Hills Cop Series

Playboy Club Exclusive: Voice Winner Javier Colon to Channel Ray Charles-TVLine

NBC’s The Playboy Club (premiering Monday at 10/9c) continues to channel its inner American Dreams by casting real-life performers as the mega-musicians of yesteryear. The latest to take part in the singing ’60s: The Voice champ Javier Colon.


TVLine has learned exclusively that Colon will appear in the sixth episode of the series’ maiden season as legendary blues singer Ray Charles. The reality show champ is set to perform the Charles classic, “Let the Good Times Roll,” during his guest spot.

Exclusive: Smallville‘s Cassidy Freeman to Recur on The Playboy Club

Also time-traveling for the series this fall is songstress Colbie Caillat, who as previously reported will portray “It’s My Party” crooner Lesley Gore, and singer/songwriter Rafael Saadiq, making like R&B musician Sam Cooke (“Twisting the Night Away”).

This article was written by Megan Masters.

Link to the original article:Playboy Club Exclusive: Voice Winner Javier Colon to Channel Ray Charles - TVLine