Who Should the New American Idol Judges Be?

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This past week, when American Idol concluded its twelfth season by crowning Candice Glover (who edged out Woodville's Kree Harrison), it was also announced that the show's latest lineup of judges is kaput. Randy Jackson went first, followed by Nicki Minaj. We're guessing that leaves Keith Urban and Mariah Carey, unfortunately the least interesting judges, but they've still got time to bail before the next season if they wish.

But, ladies and gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the technology. We can just hire more celebrities to fill these empty seats and no one will be the wiser. Ideally, we can even hire new celebrities who would be dramatic, flamboyant, and/or completely off the wall so that this show could get some viewers back.

In light of all this, we've compiled a short list of our favorites to replace Jackson and Minaj for next season that will hopefully make its way to Fox HQ through the power of the internets.


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Five Bands Who Could Replace The Roots On Late Night

Categories: TV Party

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Seth Meyers
This past Sunday, NBC announced that Seth Meyers will officially take over as the host of Late Night, when Jimmy Fallon succeeds Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show in early 2014. But with Meyers set to inherit a show with a tradition of turning talk-show hosts into late-night greats (David Letterman and Conan O'Brien precede Fallon), the real question is, who will take over for The Roots?

It might seem like a silly question, but historically speaking, The Roots are the first real band to ever be asked to become a house band. Not only that, but the critically acclaimed group has garnered just as much (if not more) success as Fallon, and often times share the spotlight with both the host and the show's guests.

While Meyers has yet to say whom his house band will be -- or if there will indeed be one at all -- Rocks Off is already brainstorming names for who could possibly replace one of the coolest house bands in late-night history.


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The Five Greatest South Park Musician Cameos

Categories: TV Party

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Last week I looked at some of the worst musical guests on The Simpsons, a show almost as well-known for the appearance of musicians as Saturday Night Live, though with a hit -or-miss success rate since they can't just have the musicians come on and perform their songs.

Rewind:

The Five Worst Musical Guests In Simpsons History


This week, I wanted to take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum with some of the best to ever appear on South Park.

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10 Controversial Artists I Want to See on the New Arsenio

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Arsenio Hall and Snoop Doggy Dogg in 1994
Woof woof woof woof woof.

Get used to that, 'cause Arsenio is back. Nearly two decades after The Arsenio Hall Show disappeared from TV's late-night landscape following a five-year run, the man himself is being recalled to duty by CBS's syndicated-programming wing. The new Arsenio debuts in the fall, reportedly in an early-late-night slot like 9 or 10 p.m. Houston time. (Check your local listings.)

How? Why? I don't care. This is excellent news for '90s nostalgists. The original Arsenio was the first late-night talk show aimed at young people, and the show got creative with its guests. You were as apt to see Hall interviewing "Macho Man" Randy Savage as you were to find an entire episode devoted to humoring Louis Farrakhan. The musical guests were even better.


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NBC's The Voice Holding Houston Auditions Next Saturday

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One of these people could pick your hopes of a singing career apart.
This just came in over the transom. Popular NBC singing show The Voice will hold auditions for its upcoming season next Saturday at Reliant Center next Saturday, February 9. All musical styles are being sought, so all you polka-loving kids, now's your chance!

Further details, per the NBC Universal release:


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American Idol Returns, Selling More Drama Than Music

Categories: TV Party

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The new season of American Idol's judges (L-R): Mariah Carey, Keith Urban, Nicki Minaj and Randy Jackson
If you can believe it, American Idol kicks off its twelfth season tonight on Fox. But not just on Fox. Here is how One India Entertainment, "India's No. 1 Language Portal," announced the news at 18:03 IST (India Standard Time) today:

MUMBAI: After the successful run of The X Factor USA while cashing in on the post-digitization opportunities among English GECs, BIG CBS LOVE, the leading English GEC amongst elite urban women, is all set to air the 12th season of the world's most loved singing reality show, American Idol, concurrent with the U.S. (GEC = "General Entertainment Channel")

Like one of its main ("presenting") sponsors, Coca-Cola, Idol has become one of the leading exports of American culture around the world. The culture it is exporting is not pop music, but one of runaway cross-platform integration, relentless branding and fully integrated corporate/media partnerships. Idol has so much product placement now that it might as well not even cut to the actual commercials, but of course that's not going to happen.


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Before Tonight's New Trapped In the Closet, We Recap the First 22 Balls-Crazy Chapters

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The "Ain't This a Bitch?" Face you will come to know very well.
Christmas is coming early for many of us. As you probably already know, the next 18 installments of R. Kelly's gloriously batshit hip-hopera Trapped In the Closet are premiering on IFC tonight. Just in case you haven't seen the first 22 -- yes, twenty-two -- chapters in this ongoing, one-music-video-at-a-time epic saga, let us recap them for you. This is going to be a long one, so let's not waste any time or words, but get right into it.


Chapter 1: R. Kelly is Sylvester, waking in an unfamiliar bed. Kisses from an unfamiliar woman, Cathy. "She ain't you," R. Kelly sings -- infidelity. Cathy's husband Rufus just got home. Sylvester hides in the closet. Husband enters, knows something's wrong. He searches, Sylvester's phone rings. Sylvester draws a gun. Rufus opens the closet.

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Texans-Bears: The 10 Best Rapper Tweets

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Slim Thug is pretty good at celebrating Texans wins.
Houston has a professional football team, called the Houston Texans. A lot of people like them; some are rappers.

The Internet has several forms of social media; one is called Twitter. A lot of people use it. Some of them are rappers.

Like last week and every other week prior, we perused Twitter during Sunday night's game against the mighty Monsters of the Midway (that'd be the Chicago Bears, yo) and grabbed the ten best tweets from the aforementioned rappers on the aforementioned social-media platform.

Malibooyah.


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Jan Hammer and the Top 10 TV Theme Songs of the '80s

Categories: TV Party

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Not a lot of television shows win multiple Grammys. Then again, not a lot of television shows ever sounded (or looked) like Miami Vice. The cutting-edge series perfectly captured the pastel zeitgeist of its time when it debuted in 1984, influencing film, fashion, design and music in a way that few TV shows ever will.

A major piece of the show's successful formula was Czech composer Jan Hammer's sleek, synthesized score, including his iconic theme song. Released as a single in November 1985, the tune was a legitimate pop smash, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and bagging the Grammys for both Best Instrumental Composition and Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Not bad for a guy who looked like George Constanza with a keytar.


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A Playlist for Tonight's Hurricane Sandy Telethon

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The music business was hardly spared the effects of Hurricane Sandy. As reported by our New York sister blog, Sound of the City, dozens of shows in the New York-New Jersey area were postponed or canceled; the resulting travel snafu has scuttled touring plans as far away as tonight's (former) Houston show by rapper Rakim. The Brooklyn warehouse of garage-rock/rarities label Norton Records took on four feet of floodwater.

Tonight at 7 p.m., NBC and several cable networks will broadcast Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together, a one-hour telethon to raise money to help the Eastern Seaboard recover from the effects of Sandy, now estimated to be the second most destructive storm to strike the U.S. behind Hurricane Katrina. Much like our own Ike in 2008, it could be months or maybe years before the region fully returns to normal. (Have we, yet? What is "normal," anyway?)

Scheduled to appear on Coming Together are Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Bon Jovi, Sting, Christina Aguilera and Jimmy Fallon, and no doubt a few special guests TBA. Since it's only an hour long, they will all be forced to choose their songs very carefully. We decided to offer a few suggestions, because don't people in that part of the country have enough on their minds right now?

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