Dispatches from the Fox Upfront
Ok, full disclosure-I was late to this one. Deadlines, traffic, blah, blah, blah. Upfront five out of five in four days-running a little slower than usual in stilettos.
I can say already that it's going two billion times better than Fox's upfront nightmare last year (rain, crowding into the Armory, late start, botched comedy by that late-night Spike guy). This year's show is at the City Center-*much* nicer seating, at least.
I think I missed the comedies Back 2 You and The Return of Jezebel James. Peter Ligori's just finished going through the reality fare with two music shows, Nashville and Next Great American Band and a kitchen competition.
Next up-dramas. This bunch looks pretty high-brow for Fox. The post-Katrina cop show "K-Ville" gets polite applause.
"New Amsterdam," which Liguori calls a "detective show cloaked in a romantic fable." The lead looks like Denis Leary. I think the conceit is that he never grows old. More polite applause.
"Canterbury's Law," Julianna Margulies' post-"ER" series TV return. Clearly a showcase for her and she's good. Louder applause for this one.
"The Sarah Connor Chronicles," some kind of "Terminator" update with lots of special effects. Looks tres expensive-guess that's good if you're into all that futuristic stuff.
Liguori runs through the network's schedule. He says they're not satisfied with just being the network leader and that they're "really gonna go for it" this season with more. He takes a fake call from "24"'s Jack Bauer alerting him that his hour's up and tells the crowd, "the bar's open. I'll see you at the party."
american youth symphony commented:
America's Hot Musician May Seek an Injunction to Halt the Broadcast of American Idol Spin Off "Search for The Next Great American Band"
Washington, DC May 14, 2007- America's Hot Musician, a reality competition for instrumental musicians, www.americashotmusician.org, may seek an injunction to halt the broadcast of Search for The Next Great American Band, a spin off of American Idol by its producers FreemantleMedia North America.
American Youth Symphony (AYS), a non-profit organization promoting instrumental music in the MTV/Hip Hop Generation and producers of America's Hot Musician, contends possible copyright infringement.
According to Variety.com, Cecile Frot-Coutaz of FreemantleMedia said,"the 'Idol' brain trust first decided to do the new show at the end of last year's 'Idol'."We sort of thought it was a no-brainer and asked ourselves why we hadn't thought of it before," she said. "It's a natural extension of 'Idol'."
However, American Youth Symphony contends it had conversations with FreemantleMedia in February 2006, three to four months before the American Idol season ended, "as a good faith measure to alert them about our program and to make sure no potential legal conflicts existed", says Gregory Charles Royal, Artistic Director of AYS and creator of America's Hot Musician."We shared our format and title ideas and were given a greenlight as far as they were concerned. Their only caveat was against any use of the word 'Idol' in our title", says Royal.
America's Hot Musician ran as a pilot on YouTube and several PEG channels across the United States in 2006. Currently, the national version of the show will debut on the Oxygen Network in July, 2007 and begins taping in late May. Musicians from all over the country will compete and the show features National Symphony Orchestra Violinist Marissa Regni, Ex-Kittie Bassist Talena Atfield and Royal, a former trombonist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
The program formats are very similar in particular, that musicians of every genre are allowed, audition rounds, interpersonal exploration of the competitors, number of semi finalists and finalists, and frequency. Also, it is unclear whether bands- as opposed to individual musicians-are truly the focus of the show.
"We may seek some sort of injunctive relief because aside from the possible copyright issues, the FreemantleMedia producers seem, according to published reports, intent on rushing their show to the marketplace, which would be in direct competition with our program set to air beginning July," says Susan Veres, AYS Executive Director.
"The mission of our program, to promote instrumental music in the MTV/Hip Hop Generation,and provide non-traditional music advertisers, such as schools, a platform to recruit on national television, is too important a cause not to fight for", says Royal.
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Private Contact:
American Youth Symphony (202) 302-6703