Television news from metro.us/newyork

'Hip Hop Squares' host Peter Rosenberg on finding 'the real gold'

PAT HEALY, BOSTON — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:21:24 -0400

When considering entertainers like Ghostface Killah, Fat Joe, Amber Rose and Bam Margera, the first word that comes to mind is not usually "square." But when Peter Rosenberg, host of the new MTV2 show, "Hip Hop Squares," talks about the celebrity participants on the show, this is the word he most often uses.

"There are all of these cool people in a situation where they don't have to try to be cool," says Rosenberg, who is best known as a DJ on New York City's Hot 97. "We had the hottest street and radio artist, 2 Chainz, and based on his persona, the idea of seeing him having fun and being casual is just awesome."

"Hip Hop Squares" is based on the classic game show, "Hollywood Squares." As was the case with that show, which reached peak popularity in the 1970s, nine famous personalities sit in the squares of a tic-tac-toe board. In this case though, most are affiliated with the world of hip-hop. While two contestants play tic-tac-toe against each other, they consult the celebs on trivia questions and can decide to take their advice or disregard it.

In one episode, Rosenberg poses the question: "Who is the female recording artist with the most No. 1 hits?" to which Nick Cannon, seated in the center square, excitedly shouts, "That would be my baby mama, Mariah Carey!"

The contestant disagrees.

"Those moments were awesome," laughs Rosenberg. "Every once in a while, we get moments where it's this no-brainer. ... And yet, people would still get it wrong. When those moments happen, that's when I think you get the real gold of the show."

It's hip-hop to be square

One of the slogans for "Hip Hop Squares" is "when the game show becomes a party," and it isn't unusual to see one of the "squares" with a drink in his or her hand.

"There was some partying," Rosenberg acknowledges. "There were episodes where it was out of control, but I don't know if I'd blame it on the partying so much as the cast of characters we had. It certainly had a feel that reminded me of the original ['Hollywood Squares']."

Tune in

"Hip Hop Squares" premieres Tuesday at 11 on MTV2.

TV picks: Monday, May 21

AMBER M RAY, NEW YORK — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:15:28 -0400

"American Ninja Warrior"
REALITY. This ultimate obstacle course, imported from Japan, sets up its hurdles on the Las Vegas Strip, where everyday athletes attempt to prove themselves as "Ninja Warriors" — or at least the guys and gals most capable of jumping over odd objects and climbing through rope ladders.
Season premiere, 9 p.m., NBC

"I Cloned My Pet"
REALITY. People unwilling to say goodbye to dear departed Fido bypass the old adopt another pooch from a shelter route and go directly to the DNA wizards willing to replicate their pets.
10 p.m., TLC

"Clash of the Commercials: USA vs. The World"
SPECIAL. Heidi Klum and Kevin Frazier host this "battle" of international advertising. Come on, Madison Avenue — don’t let Don Draper down.
10 p.m., CBS

"The Bachelorette"
REALITY. The 19 finalists move into a Charlotte mansion, then perform with characters from "Sesame Street" to raise funds for a local hospital. Hopefully the frat boy bachelors learn a few things about manners from the Muppets while they're at it.
9 p.m., ABC

'House' closes its doors

MONICA WEYMOUTH, PHILADELPHIA — Sun, 20 May 2012 17:20:36 -0400

If you're one of the dedicated few who have been faithfully showing up to your weekly "House" appointments, you know it's been amateur hour at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital for the past couple of episodes. But with Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) on his death bed and Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) staring down prison, we're betting tonight's two-hour finale will be packed with familiar faces. Here's who we expect to make an appearance -- or at least send flowers.

Dr. Cuddy
Mark our words: Lisa Edelstein has spent the past three months at pilates for her final pencil-skirt close-up. She may be through with Dr. House, but she’s not through with bending over a too-low desk to sign off on charts.

Chase
Over the past eight seasons, Chase handed in his letter of resignation more often than House quit Vicodin. You can expect Jesse Spencer and his soap opera-hot Aussie accent to be back in a white coat tonight.

Kutner
Sure, Kal Penn's character committed suicide when the actor went to work for Obama. But being alive isn't a prerequisite for a "House" cameo (see right), and these days Penn only has "Harold & Kumar" commitments.

Amber
Amber's (Anne Dudek) death and follow-up House hauntings didn't really make sense the first time around in Season 5. But now that Wilson is dying, an appearance by his ex-wife's ghost is a little less desperate.

Cameron
She's been lurking around the department ever since she officially quit Dr. House's team, and she's always good for the pesky dose of morality that the series thrives on dissecting. Jennifer Morrison will be in the building tonight -- although probably not too close to real-life ex-fiance and onscreen ex-husband Jesse Spencer.

Don't fear the reaper

Although the episode is titled "Everybody Dies" -- a play on House's usual motto, "everybody lies" -- it's not necessarily the terminally ill Wilson whose time is up tonight.

For a show that has never played by the reaper's rules, it seems unlikely that House's best friend --
and the show's only consistently likable character -- will flatline. Now, as for House? That's
a different story.

HBO's 'Girls' seeks hipster extras

CASSANDRA GARRISON, NEW YORK — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:47:44 -0400

Calling all "Hipster Types" — we've got the job for you! HBO's much-discussed series "Girls" is going strong and preparing for its second season. Only this time, they want more hipsters. Any kind of hipsters. All the hipsters.

In a casting call posted on Backstage titled "'GIRLS' SEASON 2, HIPSTERS," casting directors seek people with an authentic hipster look. What exactly is a hipster look? Well, as defined by Central Casting New York, it includes super-edgy traits like "tattoos, piercings, colored hair."

Behold:

Central Casting New York is casting background for the second season of HBO's Girls, a comedy about the experiences of a group of girls in their early 20s. Lena Dunham and Allison Williams star. Robb Fitzgerald, extras casting. Shoots May 15-Aug. 28, 2012 in the NYC area.

Seeking—Hipster Types: male and female, 18-30s, all ethnicities, all types, specifically seeking people with tattoos, piercings, colored hair, and unique looks.

For consideration, email pix & contact info via Back Stage; indicate "Hipster" in both the cover letter and "submission question" fields. Pay provided.

Pay provided? What kind of pay? A real hipster would prefer bartering anyway. Geez. They can't just be bought, you know.

(via Gothamist)

TV picks: Weekend, May 18-20

AMBER M RAY, NEW YORK — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:00:00 -0400

"The Simpsons"
COMEDY. Lady Gaga brings her "Born This Way" message (and a crazy outfit or five) to Springfield.
Season finale, Sunday, 8 p.m., Fox

"Saturday Night Live"
COMEDY. Mick Jagger shows off his moves like … uh … Jagger when he hosts the "SNL" season finale. Arcade Fire and Foo Fighters provide the music, because maybe the other Stones were finally like, "Ah, we're too old for this s---."
Season finale, Saturday, 11:30 p.m., NBC

"Mrs. Eastwood & Company"
REALITY. Clint Eastwood — the very last person on Earth whose family we ever expected to view via reality TV — allows cameras into his home, mostly to focus on his wife, Dina, and her management of the South African boy band Overtone.
Series premiere, Sunday, 10 p.m., E!

"The Celebrity Apprentice"
REALITY. Clay Aiken and Arsenio Hall compete for the prestigious apprenticeship that exists in title alone.
Season finale, Sunday, 9 p.m., NBC

"The 2012 Billboard Music Awards"
SPECIAL. We can just call this The Adele Show, right? Considering these awards are handed out to artists based partially on album sales and airplay, that seems about right.
Sunday, 8 p.m., ABC

Who got kicked off 'American Idol' last night? Joshua Ledet!

NICK DUSSAULT — Fri, 18 May 2012 09:38:13 -0400

Hard to believe it's been 12 years since Nikki McKibbin, Justin Guarini and another unknown named Kelly Clarkson battled it out for the right to compete in the big finale of "American Idol." Still harder to believe, however, is that all these years and all these finales later people are still talking about two fundamental issues, relevance and song choice.

Last night’s results show proved once again that little progress has been made on either front. The show opened with a series of three montages of the semi-finalist’s triumphant returns to their respective hometowns, set to the 1967 Simon & Garfunkel hit "Homeward Bound." Great song, but not exactly reaching out to the show's biggest demographic.

Next up was a contestant cover of Earth, Wind & Fire's 1978 cover of the Beatles' 1966 hit "Got to Get You Into My Life." Again, great song, but these poor kids looked like they were fronting a wedding band playing to a bunch of people doing the bump at a local function hall. Nobody's downloading that mess.

The final nail in the relevance coffin came when it was time to pay tribute to Donna Summer. The disco diva, who had appeared on the show and whose songs are absolute classics, deserved much more than a mere mention. But if that's all you’ve got, could they have found someone other than Tom Hanks' wife and Carol Bayer Sager to do it?

Ah well, enough filler, time to get to the business at hand. Given that they have 60 minutes to make a 30-second announcement, they actually do a nice job recapping the performances complete with color commentary from music executive Jimmy Iovine.

They should make him a judge. The three celebrities haven't offered one critical piece of feedback all season. If they take their advice, every one of these contestants believes they'll have a great recording career ahead of them. Someone needs to tell them the only also-rans that most people remember are Sanjaya and William Hung. Only one of them got a recording contract. If you aren't familiar with those names from the golden age of "Idol," simply look at those links and you'll be able to guess which one got signed.

Joshua Ledet was the first to go under Iovine's microscope and he failed to impress with his screechy rendition of Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind." (Personally deaf seems like a better option after hearing it.) But it was his bastardization of "Imagine" that really caught the bulk of Iovine's criticism. Bad song choices indeed, but what he did with them made it even worse.

Next up was a foolish skit featuring Jennie from the Block answering multiple phone lines in her dressing room (as if). It was supposed to be a funny plug for the newest "Ice Age" film. It wasn't.

With nothing but time, Lisa Marie Presley got to perform her newest single "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet." Hmm...heard that title before. The whole schtick looked like it was lifted from a Tim Burton movie. Not exactly appealing to the girls who do the voting (and the downloading).

Not so for contestant Jessica Sanchez who fared much better in Iovine's opinion but still didn't wow him. She got mad props for her rendition of a song made famous by Judge Tyler's band "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." Must be something 16-year old girls like about this song. Allison Iraheta blew the judges and the crowd away with her version of it in 2009. Coincidence? Hmm.

Speaking of 2009, next up on the filler parade was that season's runner-up Adam Lambert. Hawking his latest album "Trespassing," the flamboyant song bird never disappoints. His earrings, nail polish and T-shirt were all perfectly matching canary yellow. Oh yeah, and he sang some song.

Finally, the last recap of the night was Phil Phillips who Iovine believes won the night with his version of Bob Seger's "We've Got Tonight." Not sure if Bob, or any of his legions of fans, would agree, but they're not the ones doing the voting, are they?

Finally, Seacrest breaks the news that it's time for Josh to head back to the Big Easy. After what he did to "Imagine," it's hard to debate America's choice on this one.

Next week, it's Jessica Sanchez versus Phil Phillips. It's looking good for Phillips as history seems to favor the cute young guy who plays guitar. Remember Kris Allen and Lee DeWyze? Nobody else does either, but they did win this thing once upon a time.

TV picks: Thursday, May 17

AMBER M RAY, NEW YORK — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:15:37 -0400

"Community"
COMEDY. NBC burns off three episodes of the cult comedy to end Season 3. At 8 p.m., the study makes a high-stakes (video game) play to aid Pierce in receiving his inheritance from Hawthorne Enterprises. Then at 9, the group attempts to wrestle control of Greendale from Chang, who has taken over the campus. Finally at 9:30, Jeff faces off against an old law firm foe when Shirley and Pierce go to "Greendale Summer Fun Court" over a disagreement about their sandwich shop.
Season finale, 8 p.m., NBC

"Grey's Anatomy"
DRAMA. Yes, yes, this melodrama takes place in a hospital. But does every season finale really have to be about the doctors finding themselves in a life-threatening situation?
Season finale, 9 p.m., ABC

"Person of Interest"
DRAMA. The name of a psychologist with a high-powered clientele pops up, but maybe Finch and Reese should be more concerned with the state of The Machine, considering this season finale is titled, "Firewall."
Season finale, 9 p.m., CBS

"Scandal"
DRAMA. Scandal hits home when Quinn finds herself in a tragic and compromising position.
Season finale, 10 p.m., ABC

"30 Rock"
COMEDY. Jack asks Liz to officiate his vow renewals to Avery. Because if your marriage can survive a kidnapping, it can survive anything — or at least that's a decent way to attempt to prove it.
Season finale, 8:30 p.m., NBC

'Game of Thrones' star Richard Madden: Robb Stark bares all

AMBER RAY, NEW YORK — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:59:27 -0400

In two seasons of "Game of Thrones," young Robb Stark has grown from dutiful teenage son to upstart "King in the North." It was an accelerated maturation, to say the least, one thrust on him when the monarch in the south murdered his father, whose men in the north now fight a war against the crown in Robb's name. But the meteoric rise to power hasn't come without growing pains, explains actor Richard Madden, who steps into Robb's furs and armor with a stoic optimism.

How is Robb adjusting to the title of King in the North?

He's learning by doing. A lot of the time, in front of his men, you see him posturing. Robb is acting. He's been very clever and made some great decisions and earned the respect of the people who follow him, but a lot of the time he is pretending to be king. It doesn't feel real to him. It doesn’t feel where he's supposed to be, but he is. And he needs to take on that role. By having to pretend to be a man, he becomes a man.

What have you learned about Robb this year that you didn't know last season?

I learned a lot about how he follows his heart. Last season he was kind of pushed into situations and making decisions based on what his father would do — that's what drove me as an actor last year, I kept thinking, "What would Ned do?" Then into Season 2, he's making these decisions himself.

What excites me the most about him this year is everything that happens to him is a "first time." And I think in everyone's lives those are exciting moments, those first times. I learned how he deals with situations. And I've learned that Robb is one of the most honest, genuine characters. Everything he does is for the greater good.

But just like every other character in the show, sometimes your own desires get in the way, and you can become selfish, or you can take liberties because you end up getting too much power — especially for Robb, who is quite young. But I don’t think there's an arrogance to Robb yet. Sometimes bits of that filter in, and sometimes he needs to act an arrogance to keep the respect. He's gained that, and I like that about him. Everything he does he's worked for, and he's honest, and he gets what he wants through his actions rather than some of the other characters who can talk their way into situations — or out of situations.

The battle against King Joffrey, who had Robb's father beheaded, is a dark and violent journey. But every time a Stark comes on screen, there's this flicker of hope. …

That things can work out, that things could be perfect.

Do you get that feeling reading the scripts?

There's bits of me as an actor that go, "What would this be like if Robb were king?" That would present its own challenges, but things could be really good. I think Robb would be such a great king.
But you know, on the same hand, that's not where his heart lies. He was raised to be Lord of Winterfell and that's where he wants to be — he wants to be looking after his people in the North. He's fighting for the cause even though he doesn’t want to be king. He wants the world to be a better place; he wants the world to be just and fair and right, and that's what I love so much about him. That drives him to carry on this path of being king and fighting this war; that comes from him wanting the right things to happen.

He meets a woman this season who questions him on that precisely: Why are you fighting? Why do you want to be king?

He's spent so much time being a king and leading an army, and then he meets this woman who is a real breath of fresh air and calls him out — she doesn’t curtsy to him, she calls him out. He's a boy, she kind of sees him as a man, she asks, "What are you doing? Why is this happening?"
She makes him question himself. He's never been asked these questions before — no one ever says to him, "Why are you doing this, actually? Are you doing the right thing?" And then he works it out and says, "Yes I am, actually."

It gives him a renewed confidence. She's willing to be persuaded if he can tell her this is a good thing and it's right. But he has to work hard — she's not going to make it easy for him.

Since you've teased a relationship, and since this is "Game of Thrones," has basically every interviewer asked if we're going to be seeing you naked?

Yeaaaah. [Laughs.] Um, yeah. You're gonna see a little bit more of Robb in the flesh this season, I will give you that.

[Whispers.] You might see him with his clothes off at some point. [Laughs.] Oh dear, oh dear.

I'm used to going into my trailer and there being furs and furs and leather and furs and furs and leather and armor and then, you know, there may have been one day I went in and there was much, much less than that. [Laughs.] So that's a different challenge Robb has to face.

Follow Metro's television critic Amber Ray on Twitter @AmberatMetro.

The CW brings old favorites to new schedule

AMBER M RAY, NEW YORK — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:35:15 -0400

The CW is building its 2012-13 schedule around familiar characters and storylines. The network announced the pickup of the "Sex and the City" prequel "The Carrie Diaries," following a 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw; "Beauty and the Beast," a cop drama-spin on the old fairy tale; and "Arrow," based on the DC Comics' hero Green Arrow.

The final new series added to the CW lineup is "Emily Owens, M.D.," starring Mamie Gummer as a surgical intern who discovers that working at a hospital feels a lot like high school.

Returning series include "90210," "Gossip Girl" (which will enter its sixth and final season), "Hart of Dixie," "Supernatural," "The Vampire Diaries," "America's Next Top Model" and "Nikita."

The CW will roll out its new fall schedule in early October.

THE CW’s 2012-2013 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE

MONDAY
8:00-9:00 PM 90210 (New Night)
9:00-10:00 PM GOSSIP GIRL (New Time)
(THE CARRIE DIARIES premieres January, 2013)

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM HART OF DIXIE (New Night)
9:00-10:00 PM EMILY OWENS, M.D. (New Series)

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM ARROW (New Series)
9:00-10:00 PM SUPERNATURAL (New Night)

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM THE VAMPIRE DIARIES
9:00-10:00 PM BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (New Series)

FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL (New Night)
9:00-10:00 PM NIKITA (New Time)

VIDEO: 'Don't Let Me Die': Bobby Brown's song for Whitney Houston on 'The Tonight Show'

CASSANDRA GARRISON, NEW YORK — Thu, 17 May 2012 10:50:11 -0400

An emotional Bobby Brown took the stage on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and performed a song that was clearly about dealing with the death of his ex-wife Whitney Houston.

The heartfelt lyrics offered a glimpse into Brown's regret about their fractured relationship and the hope that he doesn't suffer the same fate as Houston. The song is featured on Brown's new album, set to be released in June.

Whitney Houston died in February after a long history of substance abuse. Since her death, Brown has said in interviews that Houston was hooked on drugs long before she met him and he claims he "didn't get high" before meeting her, contrary to the popular public opinion that he responsible for her downward spiral into addiction.

But between interviews, Brown has apparently been busy song-writing, as he demonstrated last night. His song for Whitney features lyrics like:

I didn’t realize that every breath I took was from you ... You were my air.

Don't let me die, girl.

I guess I messed up pretty bad, I didn’t know who you were, I didn’t know what we had. Now I’m stuck living in the past, trying to get the pieces back, but I guess now you’re gone.

See the performance in the video below. Go to 38:42 to hear "Don't let me die."