Billy Ray Cyrus by Tony R. Phipps/WireImage.com
Billy Ray Cyrus has been tapped to host the new season of Nashville Star, airing this summer.... TNT is airing "the best of Saving Grace" this Monday through Wednesday, from 10 to midnight/ET.... Reba McEntire will host the Academy of Country Music Awards for a 10th time, on May 18 on CBS.... Rossi Morreale (Foody Call...?) will host Can You Duet?, CMT's new music competition premiering April 14.
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Jamie Foxx courtesy Universal
He's come a long way from Ugly Wanda! Jamie Foxx received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday. "My grandmother's gotta be spreading her wings and flying around in heaven, just so happy," he told a crowd of well-wishers. Meanwhile, Reba McEntire has been named Billboard's first Woman of the Year, meaning, well, she's swell, and there will be lots of pictures of her in the magazine's October Women in Music issue.
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June 16 at 10 pm/ET: Kelly Ripa hosts a two-hour Oxygen special counting down The 50 Funniest Women Alive. Wait, is Kelly ineligible because she's host?! I will scream.June 18 at 10 pm: Logo premieres Curl Girls, a six-episode series based on the cabler's 2005 special and following a half-dozen lesbian surfers.June 20 at 8 pm: Oscar winner Morgan Freeman hosts AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies — 10th Anniversary Edition, a new countdown of the greatest films of all time. Beverly Hills Cop III, this is your big chance.June 24 at 8 pm: CMT Crossroads brings together for the first time... since the May 15 CMAs... Kelly Clarkson and Reba McEntire.
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Reba McEntire returns for an unprecedented ninth time to host the 42nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, to be broadcast live Tuesday, May 15, on CBS.... Disney Channel presents High School Musical: The Concert, an on-stage and behind-the-scenes look at the sold-out concert tour, on May 4. Speaking of Corbin Bleu's Sideshow Bob-esque hair, Jump In! arrives on DVD April 3.... Cheers barkeep Woody Harrelson's 68-year-old father, Charles, was found dead in his prison cell, apparently of natural causes, the Associated Press reports. At the time, he was serving two life sentences for the murder of a Texas judge.Thursday's Today's News was written by Ben Katner.
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Reba McEntire's eponymous WB-born series will conclude its six-season run with back-to-back episodes airing Sunday, Feb. 18, says TheFutonCritic.com. Some preview: Reba's worst nightmare is confirmed, there's a fire, and Barbra Jean ponders an out-of-town job offer.How will the CW fill its Sundays-at-7 slot? Amber Heard's Hidden Palms seems a bit racy for that family-friendly hour. Hmmm....
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Because I get questions about it every single week, I figured I'd weigh in on the CW's announcement this week that the former WB Friday sitcom Reba (once a bright spot on that dim night) is finally coming back on air. But very much on the margins. And there's a reason for that.November is becoming an unexpectedly busy month for series and season premieres: ABC's Day Break is filling in for Lost, CBS' 3 LBS is replacing Smith on Tuesdays, and ABC's wedding-day sitcom Big Day and NBC's long-awaited return of Scrubs (as part of a new Thursday two-hour comedy block) will both bow the week after Thanksgiving.And now Reba joins the party. But you'll have to make an effort to find her. The CW has scheduled the show for Sundays, in the unenviable slot of 7-8 pm/ET. On the first night back, Nov. 19, two new episodes will air back-to-back. After that, starting Nov. 26, an "encore" Reba will air in front of a "fresh" episode (as they used to be called on the WB). If it looks like the CW is bur...
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The CW has announced a Nov. 19 return date for Reba, starring country crooner Reba McEntire. The comedy will air two episodes, a rerun followed by a fresh one, on Sundays starting at 7 pm/ET. Meanwhile, for the next time an hourlong slot on the CW's slate opens up, a setside source tells TVGuide.com that Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson's steamy new serial, Hidden Palms, is laying in wait, champing at the bit to hit prime-time sooner than its originally expected January 2007 debut.
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Sunday's 90-minute Flavor of Love 2 season finale drew 7.5 million total viewers, making it VH1's highest-rated telecast ever and the No. 1 cable telecast for the night, but not the top non-sports telecast in all of basic cable for the entire year. That honor goes to the season opener of TNT's The Closer... Celebrity guest hosts will spell a busy, busy Meredith Vieira for "a couple of days" during the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire season currently in production, says the New York Daily News.... Megan Mullally, Dakota Fanning, Andie MacDowell and Beau Bridges have joined the guest list for the CMT Giants special honoring Reba McEntire, airing Nov. 18.UPDATED to correct one ratings superlative assigned to Flavor of Love 2 by the Hollywood Reporter.
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Question: Is there any way to appeal to the other networks in regards to picking up Reba? If the WB/CW still has a year on her contract, couldn't one of the other networks buy it? I am a huge fan of the show and really hate to see it go.
Answer: Apparently this can't be said often enough: Though it's not unheard of, networks aren't usually in the habit of stealing away or picking up shows from rivals, especially not one that has already run five seasons and doesn't exactly come cheap. The CW was stuck with a preexisting contract for the show when the new network was formed. Otherwise, Reba almost certainly would have been canceled. As it is, while the show is in production with new episodes, it's hard to imagine when or where they'll turn up on the CW's hodgepodge lineup. I've always contended that Reba and Reba McEntire herself would have been a better fit on CBS than on the WB, but that didn't happen and isn't likely to.
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Question: OK, please tell me what the new CW is thinking. I just read in the news section that the CW announced they will not be picking up Reba for next season. Yet when they first announced the merger, they listed Reba as an asset. Do they really have enough quality comedies in the works that they can afford to dump WB's No. 1 comedy? Is there any hope of Reba being picked up by another network? I am a huge Reba McEntire fan (both of her acting and singing). How can they treat this wonderful woman like yesterday's garbage?
Answer: All I can say is that CW must really not want this show on its schedule, because according to what the trades say, the network may have to pay a steep penalty to cancel Reba, which still had a year to go on its current WB contract (although in the long run, it may be cheaper not to produce a full season of episodes — don't ask me). To be honest, I was always puzzled about why Reba was on WB instead of on a more mainstream network like CBS, where she would be
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