The New season of Nashville Star begins tonight. It’s moving from the USA network to NBC and will be broadcast on Monday nights at 9/8c. Tonight’s premiere is 2 hours. Next week, the show cuts back to 90 minute episodes.
The show begins with a look at the audition process, which has already taken place. The competition begins as the 12 finalists perform in front of judges Jewel, John Rich and Jeffrey Steele. The judges choose who is going home and at the end of the episode, they vote off one of the contestants.
Anyhoo, why a post about Nashville Star you ask? ‘Cause I’ve decided to cover it. Persuaded by Tyson, the awesome Idol spoiler from Idol Forums who attended the taping of the first episode. He’s promised more inside info, so how could I say no? I LOVE ME SOME SPOILERS! Heh.
I’ll start a new post before the show begins tonight. Don’t forget, I’m also covering Canadian Idol (more auditions tonight!) as well as So You Think You Can Dance, so it should be a pretty fun summer on the blog!
Tyson sent the nifty picture of the new stage above.
So. Here’s the scoop if you want to know. Spoilers After the JUMP….
The taping went pretty well.. they started at 8:30pm CST on Monday night, and it was finnished around midnight. I will attach a picture of the new stage to this e-mail.
Here is the cast list (in performance order), along with the songs that they sang and a little bit about them:
Pearl Heart - sang ‘Wide Open Spaces’ by Dixie Chicks
Info: Family Trio. Angela and Amy, 20, are Twins, and their 17 year old sister Courtney
Tommy Stanley - sang ‘Walking In Memphis’ by Lonestar
Info: Tommy is in the armed forces. They had a special Military Casting Call aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. There were around 10 people from each branch of the military scattered throughout the theatre.
Shawn Mayer - sang ‘Take Another Piece of My Heart’ by Janis Joplin
Info: The judges told her that there is already one Gretchen Wilson, and that she doesnt need to follow someone elses path.
Third Town - sang ‘Elvira’ by Kenny Rogers
Info: Third town is made up of three guys. I’m not for sure if they are brothers or just friends. They are all three the lead singers, and it was terrible. They talked back to the judges, which in my opinion, is a big no no. Especially for the first show.
Coffey - sang ‘Drift Away’ by Dobie Gray
Info: African American, Single Father. His daughter was in the audience.
Sophie & Laura - sang ‘Stand By Your Man’ by Tammy Wynette
Info: Sophie & Laura are best friends. Sophie is 16 and Laura is 18. The judges praised them.
Gabe Garcia - sang ‘All My Exes Live In Texas’ by George Strait
Info: Very good. The audience loved him.
Alyson Gilbert -sang ‘Suds In The Bucket’ by Sara Evans
Info: Not memorable enough.
Ashlee Hewitt - sang ‘Bubbly’ by Colbie Caillat
Info: It was simple, yet very good.
Charley Jenkins - sang ‘I Like It, I Love It’ by Tim McGraw
Info: He went through the audience during his performance. The judges didn’t like it. He is sort of like a Garth Brooks Wannabe.
Justin Gaston - sang ‘Drops of Jupiter’ by Train
Info: Justin is a male model. The judges didn’t like his performance.
Melissa Lawson - sang ‘Something To Talk About’ by Bonnie Raitt
Info: Melissa is a 32 year old mother of 5. The judges gave her a standing ovation. Possibly the best of the night, and the audience LOVED it.
Guest Artist - Taylor Swift - She sang ‘Picture to Burn.’
The winner/winners of this years competition will receive a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records, and an opportunity of a lifetime to sing at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
The judges deliberated and had to decide which contestant they would send home. They selected two contestants that they felt did the poorest of the night. The two that they selected were Charley Jenkins and Alyson Gilbert. The judges each stated who they wanted to vote off.
Jeffrey Steele chose: Charley Jenkins
John Rich chose: Alyson Gilbert
Jewel chose: Charley Jenkins
Therefore Charley Jenkins was sent home at the end of the show.
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I’m interested in Nashville Star, so, will be stopping here for recaps, spoilers, and, any tidbits you offer. Thanks!
I haven’t watched this show before but I’m looking forward to it. I’m glad you’re covering it, MJ. Thanks.
Never watched before, but maybe Ill check it out sometime. Im hooked on the Bacherlette so it may interfere with me watching, so Ill come here for the scoop.
We’ve watched every year and enjoyed it. I’m surprised to see groups/duets this year — they’ve always been single acts, haven’t they?
We loved Brad Cotter a few years back, but he’s disappeared off the face of the earth. Have any of their winners done much? I guess I really wouldn’t know as I don’t really listen to much country music. I guess it doesn’t really matter; it’s something to watch this summer along with SYTYCD.
Sorry guys, but I love Billy Ray Cyrus. He completely cracked me up during Dancing With The Stars. He’s taken a lot of hits recently with his “famous daughter”, but he’s always come across as genuine to me. Can’t wait to get my mullet back on.
Great additions to the blog for this summer, MJ! This and SYTYCD should keep this joint jumpin’! Thank you!
Nashville Star is such a fun show. They move it along much quicker than AI and
it’s great that they oust someone on the same night as performances (no results night ie). I am thrilled it has been picked up by major network. This will be fun.
Busy, busy MJ!
My son’s guitar/bass teacher sent in a tape for this show last year. We were so hoping to see him on tv but alas, he never got a call back. I guess, at least thru last year, rather than do mass auditions like AI, the producers had you send in a tape and they called you if they wanted to see you in person.
MJ - you just can’t stand all the free time when Idol ends can you? The withdrawals are too much!! :) I’m excited that NS has moved to a network I can watch because i’ve heard good things, even though I’m not into country music!
Thanks for picking it up too!!
I’ve caught a few episodes in the past and liked it (I thought the judges critiques were better than those on AI) but always forgot when/where it was on. I’m going to try and catch it tonight. I’m glad that they got picked up by NBC.
Not a country lover — except for a few artists — country just never appealed to me. I wonder if there is going to be cross-polination? Meaning, since half the singers in Idol end up in country, will country allow pop singers in their competition?
Off the top of my head, Bon Jovi, Jewel, Kid Rock, the Eagles and Bruce Springsteen have all been played on Country Music video channels within the last few years (I can’t vouch for radio play because I don’t get any country radio stations) and recently I heard that Jessica Simpson has cut a country single. So I don’t think they are opposed to cross-over.
MJ you do so much!
Anyways, glad to see Nashville Star is on a better station, a better day and a better time! I remember it being on Saturday nights on USA at like 10PM! So I saw a few episodes but would always forget…now I hope to watch the season! It’ll help me get through the AI withdrawal…haha
Besides keeping the blog busy, I realize that the most fun I have is covering a show while it’s in progress, rather than the aftermath, which can become a bit gnarly.
AI will remain the main focus of the blog, but I hope to always have at least one currently running show to cover, just to keep things from getting stale around here. :).
And no, I’m not going to cover Simon’s show “America’s Got Talent”. The show is too much to take on for me at the moment, and I don’t have a lot of interest in plate spinners. ;).
i like Nashville Star. it is a fun show. i guess they changed the voting. we use to be able to call in our votes (limited #). the only winner i really liked was chris young. talk about yummy. :P http://www.chrisyoungcountry.com/
he is currently touring with martina mcbride. his album did ok.
I noticed this had moved to network TV. I guess there’s something to it. I don’t have anything else to do on Monday’s so what the hell! If something strikes me, I might blog about it but I doubt it. I’m already behind on SYTYCD! I’ll just have to direct my two reader here!! LOL
Thank you MJ!!! I love Nashville Star! I did not check out the spoilers above so I can be suprised, lol.
Hope you cover America’s Got Talent too.
MJ.. Check your e-mail!
tyson
MJ- Don’t you have anything better to do?
This show is so rigged! Don’t waste your time with it.
Charley will be voted off tonight, but that’s NOT who the judges wanted to choose. They wanted to give GASTON the boot, but NBC Executives wouldn’t have it. NBC TOLD the judges who to pick. It’s all a bunch of made-up crap for ratings, and nothing to do with actual talent like it should be. NBC wanted to keep the underwear model (Gaston) on to appeal to the younger crowd. I’m sure they’ll focus on Jenkins’ weak spots tonight just to make him look like the worst, but he wasn’t. He was slated by audience members to be in the top 5. There just isn’t any “Real” in Reality television. All of these shows are getting really old. Oh, and just for the record, Melissa Lawson will win this. Well….she should. :-)
countrycritic - in case you’ve missed it, AI’s well manipulated by the producers as well. No surprise to anyone around here :)
And I think MJ shall be keeping the fanwars at bay with additional shows being covered. In the past I have seen things get nasty in the ‘off season’ around these parts, because you know, my idol is better than your idol!! Though 3 of them at once… such a brave lady to take it all on!! We appriciate it!
The same thing you just said about Nashville Star goes for American Idol as well. Since I attended the taping, and you still have not seen it.. you do not know how good or bad the contestants were. Watch the show tonight, and then post. You will see who “should” have been voted off.. and it definately wasn’t Justin Gaston.
mj, thanks for the coverage of NS! I’ve watched every season.
It really is a great show!
Also, thanks for covering Canadian Idol. It was really good last week.
I cant wait until tonight. I find that I prefer CI to AI. It reminds me of AI
before all the pimping began and the CI Judges are so much better, IMO.
I’ve never watched Nashville Star, but had planned to this season to see if any of the Sixwire members are playing in the house band. Some of them had played on the show in prior seasons, according to what I’ve read.
I just checked out all their Myspace pages, and don’t see any reference to it, though …. :(
Six wire is now playing on CAN YOU DUET. It comes on Friday nights. I like it, some may not, but I do. And I enjoy seeing Six wire play.
Thanks, gatater! I didn’t know they were playing on Duet. I’ll check it out, definitely. I love Sixwire.
Tyson….In reality it took several takes before Justin finally sounded somewhat descent. NBC will manipulate the contest to make the contestants sound good or bad- it’s not that hard to do. When it’s live we shall see…won’t we? Actually I won’t be watching NBC and their rigged show, but I’ll read the blogs.
Well I sat up and watched tonight and mostly was disappointed. There were only a few I liked. I think the last one, the mother of 5 boys was awesome and she sold her song. Seemed most of them were trying too hard to get the audience into it and in doing so, lost contact with their song. Sometimes it is best to just sing the heck out of the song the first time you are seen and let it do the work for you. But, this is entirely my opinion, lol.
Gatson was awful, but hes pretty.
I was a bit underwhelmed. (And I actually like some country music.) Very few real standouts, and normally Nashville Star is loaded with strong talent. Maybe they’ll improve over the next couple of weeks, but all in all, not an auspicious start.
I also like “Can You Duet,” and I think that Joey & Rory are going to win, with Catelin (sp) and Will coming in 2nd. Rory has actually written songs for some of the top notch country singers, so, they aren’t strangers to the country music world.