Nick Lachey
Production began this week on NBC's a capella competition The Sing-Off, which is being pre-taped over the next few weeks to air this fall.
That means even though the show has been upgraded to regular series status, NBC and the show's producers have opted not to try and make The Sing-Off a live TV event (in the vein of American Idol or The Voice).
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Nicole Richie
Nicole Richie and designer John Varvatos have signed on as celebrity mentors on NBC's new reality series, Fashion Star, the network announced Thursday. They join fellow mentor Jessica Simpson and host Elle Macpherson.
"NBC could not have asked for better additions to the celebrity mentors than John Varvatos, one of the most well-known menswear designers in the nation and international style icon and creative director, Nicole Richie," Paul Telegdy, NBCS' executive vice president of alternative programming, said in a statement. "Both are trendsetters and tastemakers and their design skills and expertise will be invaluable to our contestants on the series."
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Jessica Simpson
Jessica Simpson has signed on as a celebrity mentor on NBC's Fashion Star, the network announced Monday.
Hosted by Elle Macpherson, Fashion Star is a new realty competition series that searches for the next big brand in fashion, and...
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Cee Lo Green
Even Carson Daly was suspicious of The Voice's bright red swivel chairs.
On NBC's new singing competition, things kick off with those chairs and blind auditions. Four celebrity coaches sit listening with their backs to the contestants. Should they like what they hear, they slam down on a large button and their chairs swivel to the front. This means they want to guide that contestant through the competition, helping them with everything from their song choices to their style.
Daly, the late-night talk show host and former MTV veejay, first thought it might be "gimmicky" but ultimately found it to be "a great idea in an American Idol world."
"Young people seem to be so enamored with just becoming famous," Daly says. "This immediately takes all of that out. Here, you need skill. You need to be an artist that established artists want to help mold."
And there's the difference: The Voice, adapted from a massively popular Dutch format, aims not to take on Idol in its own game, but to elevate the game itself. Rather than leaving the contestants to plod along, choosing ill-suited songs or worse, the show enlists its coaches — Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton — to mentor the hopefuls. And in a unique twist, the contestants will cherry pick their coach should more than one of them swivel forward.
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