UPN is betting that America wants its own hip-hop idol, too.
The network is embarking on an "American Idol" star search of its own to find the next hip-hop king or queen.
"The Missy Elliott Project" began a nationwide search yesterday in Los Angeles for suitable contestants. The potential young Missys will travel with the hip-hop star, live together on the road and fight for the klieg lights of stardom.
Casting sessions in Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Dallas and Arlington (on March 17) will follow. Would be hip-hoppers should prep a three minute routine highlighting their singing, rapping and dancing skills. Go to www.upn.com for more information.
Who hasn't wished to see his or her boss taken down a peg or two, even if only for a week? TLC's newest reality show gives viewers that delicious, albeit vicarious, pleasure.
"Now Who's Boss," debuting at 10 tonight, lets some of the country's biggest bosses see what life is like at the bottom of the work totem pole.
Loews Hotels Chairman and CEO Jonathan Tisch, Club Med Americas CEO John Vanderslice and Dan Brestle, group president of The Estee Lauder Companies, all take part in the show's intriguing premise.
Viewers can watch an airline executive serve drinks to weary passengers and a hotel mogul make beds like a chamber maid in the hourlong episodes.
The six-week series convinced Mr. Tisch to implement a similar program within his company so his fellow executives never lose touch with their employees and their duties.
Communications regulators plan no fines against NBC television stations that aired U2 rock singer Bono shouting an expletive during a national awards show last year, an official familiar with the matter said Friday.
As early as this week, the Federal Communications Commission plans to deem Bono's comment to be profane but not impose a fine since the agency is changing its policy on the matter, said the source, who requested anonymity.
Some on the five-member FCC wanted to impose a fine on the NBC stations that aired the 2003 Golden Globe Awards show in which Bono made the comment.
The decision reverses an earlier FCC staff decision that ruled the incident did not violate the agency's rules on indecency. That move created an uproar among family advocacy groups, who complained about the growing coarseness of television.
A spokeswoman for NBC, which is owned by General Electric Co., was not immediately available to comment.
Are reality TV fans singing "Ding-dong, the witches are dead," following Thursday's dismissal of two of the genre's most memorable villainesses — "Survivor: All Stars'" Sue Hawk and "The Apprentice's" Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth?
Maybe. But life goes on for the two.
Both have climbed back on their brooms and flown off — perhaps to bigger and better things, TV Guide Online reports.
On "Survivor," Miss Hawk became the second castaway this season to up and quit after suffering an emotional meltdown in the wake of her run-in last week with Richard Hatch's genitalia. Miss Manigault-Stallworth, meanwhile, was fired from "The Apprentice" after she suffered an emotional breakdown in the wake of her run-in last week with a falling poppy seed.
The two, however, have wasted no time making the talk show rounds. During an extremely awkward interview with Harry Smith on CBS' "The Early Show" on Friday, Miss Hawk was reunited with Mr. Hatch and confirmed that she has since made peace with him.
On NBC's "Today," Miss Manigault-Stallworth danced around the L-word herself when she suggested her "concussion" could have been prevented had she been advised to wear a hard hat at the construction site.
The pranksters behind "South Park" once tried to peddle their ribald stories via the Internet. The finished product proved so offensive the episodes never aired.
Trio's "Shocked," debuting at 9 tonight, recalls that doomed project as part of a new, 30-minute documentary.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone signed on to produce new cartoons for Shockwave.com in 1999 that would make their naughty Comedy Central cartoon look tame by comparison.
"Princess," the story of a lap dog who observes the very crude world from her canine perspective, proved so outrageous that the Web site refused to broadcast them.
Tonight's special will offer clips from the two completed episodes and feature interviews with Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone, the creative team which seemingly stumbles with any project outside its "South Park" comfort zone.