One of my favorite reality TV shows hasn’t been on for quite a while, but I just saw the news that Last Comic Standing will be back on NBC this Spring 2010. That’s great to hear since I really enjoy this show. They’ve had a few down moments, but for the most part it’s just the very best of the comedic acts and that’s great.

Here’s a snippet of the news from TV Guide:
New host Craig Robinson (The Office) will usher in Last Comic Standing’s seventh season on June 7 at 8/7c. The show will move to its regular time slot at 9/8c the following Monday, June 14.

I’m not sure how much the host really matters. So, they can keep switching for all I care. Just make sure they give us plenty of comedy and we’ll be all good. Since it’s on network television, it’s clean comedy too. It’s like the only place you can find clean comedy. Maybe that’s why I like it so much.

Check out the following list of music from the NBC Sing Off finale:

Contestant Performances:
Voices of Lee – Stand by Me – Ben E. King
Voices of Lee (Swan Song) – So Long, Farewell – Sound of Music
NOTA – Lean on Me – Club Nouveau
NOTA (Swan Song, if needed) – It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday – Boys II Men
NOTA – Down – Jay Sean
Beelzebubs – Where Is The Love – Black Eyed Peas
Beelzebubs (Swan Song) – We Gotta Get Out of This Place – Animals

Judges’ Performance
Nicole Scherzinger – You Don’t Own Me – Lesley Gore/Dusty Springfield/Joan Jett
Natasha Bedingfield – Pocketful of Sunshine
Ben Folds – Why Can’t We Be Friends – War

Guest Star
Smokey Robinson – Tracks of My Tears
Bobby McFarrin – No Title Available

Watch the full video of NBC Sing Off streamed for free online.

The three finalists on NBC’s new show The Sing-Off will be performing Monday night with Bobby McFerrin, Natasha Bedingfield, Ben Folds and Boyz II Men! I’ve really enjoyed this show and it will be interesting to see how they integrate the three finalists with these other singers.

Here’s a sneak preview of the Sing Off finale:

The winner of the Sing Off receives a recording contract. Not a bad deal at all.

It’s pretty cool that NBC and The Sing-Off is posting the music from the various Sing Off contestants on iTunes. They’re a little slow to get it up on iTunes, but it’s nice to be able to purchase the a capella version of the songs from your favorite groups on The Sing Off. Considering this is their first season doing it, I’m impressed that they were able to put this on iTunes. Most TV shows need a couple seasons before they’re organized enough to put the music on iTunes (see American Idol).

Without further ado, here’s the music from The Sing Off a capella groups:
The Sing-Off Contestants – Under Pressure (from “The Sing-Off”) – Single – Under Pressure (from “The Sing-Off”)
Nota – I’m Yours (from “The Sing-Off”) – Single – I’m Yours (from “The Sing-Off”)
The SoCals – Somebody to Love (from “The Sing-Off”) – Somebody to Love (from “The Sing-Off”)
Beelzebubs – Magical Mystery Tour (from “The Sing-Off”) – Single – Magical Mystery Tour (from “The Sing-Off”)
Beelzebubs – Magical Mystery Tour (from “The Sing-Off”) – Single – Magical Mystery Tour (from “The Sing-Off”)
Voices of Lee – Unwritten (from “The Sing-Off”) – Single – Unwritten (from “The Sing-Off”)
Face – Livin’ On a Prayer (from “The Sing-Off”) – Single – Livin’ On a Prayer (from “The Sing-Off”)
Noteworthy – Think (from “The Sing-Off”) – Single – Think (from “The Sing-Off”)
Solo – Whatcha Say (from “The Sing-Off”) – Single – Whatcha Say (from “The Sing-Off”)
Maxx Factor – Dancing Queen (from “The Sing-Off”) – Single – Dancing Queen (from “The Sing-Off”)

Also, in case you missed an episode of The Sing Off, you can download the first 2 episodes of it on iTunes as well:
The Sing Off Pilot
Big Hits and Guilty Pleasures

Sing Off seems to be going strong on NBC.  Only challenge last night is that it went up against the finale of So You Think You Can Dance.  That’s not a good thing since there is likely quite a bit of cross over between viewers of those 2 shows. Time again to list the music from last night’s episode of The Sing Off. Up next I’ll do a post with links to the music from the actual groups on The Sing Off. Here’s the list:

Under Pressure – “The Sing-Off” Contestants

Superstar Medley Song List
Voices of Lee – The Beatles – Paperback Writer /Oh! Darling /All You Need Is Love
Nota – Jackson 5 – I Want You Back /I’ll Be There /ABC
Beezlebubs – The Who – Behind Blue Eyes /Who Are You /Baba O’Reilly
Maxx Factor – Beach Boys – God Only Knows /Wouldn’t It Be Nice /Good Vibrations
The Socals – Journey – Anyway You Want It /Open Arms /Don’t Stop Believin’

Judge’s Request Song List
Voices of Lee – Michael Jackson – Man In The Mirror
Nota – Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer
Beezlebubs – Neil Diamond – Sweet Caroline
The Socals – The Bangles and Simon Garfunkel – A Hazy Shade of Winter

Yep, you know the Pure TV Network is all about the music on reality TV shows. NBC’s new show Sing Off seems like the next good fit for listing the music. Luckily, I have a nice inside connection that sent me the full list of music from Sing Off.

From last night’s Group Choice selections:
Voices of Lee – Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield
Nota – I’m Yours by Jason Mraz
Solo – Whatcha Say by Jason Derulo
Beelzebubs – Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles
Maxx Factor – Dancin’ Queen by ABBA
The SoCals – Somebody to Love by Queen
Face – Livin’ On a Prayer by Bon Jovi
Noteworthy – Think by Aretha Franklin
Cast Song – Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie

From last night’s Big Hit and Guilty Pleasure selections:
Voices of Lee – No One by Alicia Keys and Freedom 90 by George Michael
Nota – Down by Jay Sean and Stayin’ Alive by The Bee Gees
Beelzebubs – Right Round by Flo Rida and Come Sail Away by Styx
Maxx Factor – Love Story by Taylor Swift and Rehab by Amy Winehouse
The SoCals – Already Gone by Kelly Clarkson and Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now by Jefferson Starship
Noteworthy – Viva La Vida by Coldplay and Hold On by Wilson Phillips

Enjoy!!

Looks like Superstars of Dance had some pretty good ratings for it’s premiere of the show. TV Guide said that NBC’s Superstars of Dance premiere had 10.4 mil viewers for the 9 PM hour. The 10 PM hour of NBC’s Superstars of Dance was the top show for that hour at 10.07 million viewers. Those are pretty good numbers for the premiere of the show. The biggest concern I have is that the number of viewers went down in the second hour. The show could have been produced a lot better and hopefully the trend of less traffic won’t continue, because I love dance shows.

All in all, I don’t think that Nigel and Simon will have a problem with 10 million viewers. Pretty decent for the first season of a show I’d say.

Superstar of Dance Dancers
Irish Step Dancers (Ireland Group) – Incredible to watch. Having a bunch of beautiful girls didn’t hurt either. The guy in the front that was kind of running around wasn’t very good, but it was fun to watch.

Robert Muraine (US Solo) – Robert had performed a couple times on So You Think You Can Dance. I still love Robert and he does some incredibly things. I think he had a really poor song choice and the camera angles didn’t do what he did justice. However, I could watch him dance over and over again. Check out some of his better stuff from So You Think You Can Dance.

Carolina Cerisola (Argentina Solo) – I’m sure that Argentina has a better solo dancer than this person. She wasn’t horrible and she got better once the music picked up. However, she definitely wasn’t a superstar. Carolina could have also left the hat out of the routine completely.

Anya Garnis and Pasha Kovalev (Russian Ballroom Duet) – Another set of dancers from So You Think You Can Dance. They should have stuck to their audition for So You Think You Can Dance. This one had way too much foreplay and not enough action. The song was horrible and it wasn’t nearly as good as I’ve seen them do. Whoever choreographed this number was horrible. Pasha and Anya are so much better than this. Russia should be disappointed and should ask Karina Smirnoff to come on the show, but I’m pretty sure Dancing with the Stars won’t be giving her up anytime soon.

Nishi Munshi & Sangita Sanyal (Indian Bollywood Duet) – An interesting Bollywood Duet with 2 very beautiful girls. Something seemed just off. I think maybe the song was too fast and so they didn’t have a chance to complete all the various moves. Of course, maybe I’m just not as familiar with Bollywood and so I needed more time to enjoy the moves.

Sean Robinson (Australian Tap Dancer) – What the heck was he wearing? The problem with tap dancing is that we’ve all seen tap dancing. In fact, most of us have even seen some great tap dancers. Unfortunately, he’s probably not even as good as those other tap dancers we’ve seen.

Bei Zheng (China Ribbon Dance) – Much better than I thought it would be. I guess I was just a little disappointed, because ribbon dancing is much cooler when there’s a whole crowd of people doing a ribbon dance in well synchronized patterns. Bei did represent China well.

Gumboot (South Africa Group Dance) – Definitely not the most impressive dancing I’ve ever seen, but I enjoyed watching it thoroughly and couldn’t stop watching. I think the fact that it was pretty unique made it fun to watch and very entertaining.

Contemporary Dancers (Australia Group Dance) – Some interesting material. I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t get over the knee pads. Why have those annoying looking black knee pads. Just looked odd and annoying. A bunch of really great dancers on the floor. Would have just liked to see a little better choreography.

Damien O’Kane (Ireland Solo) – Pretty good. I much prefer Irish step dance in a large group. Also, I would have preferred seeing a girl do the solo, but that might just be because I’m male. I’m surprised the judges scored him so high. Didn’t deserve that high of a score.

Sduduzo Ka-Mbili (South Africa Solo) – A zulu dance? I like the name of the dance. The guy was very flexible. However, it just felt like an odd mix of cheerleading, contemporary and the lawnmower move some high school students might do. A lot of energy coming out of that man.

Georgia Ambarian & Eric Luna (US Duet) – Some absolutely jaw dropping lifts. I once saw the US Amateur Cabaret Championships and it was one of the most thrilling performances I’d ever seen. This wasn’t quite up to that level, but still should have been scored higher than they were scored. 7, really?

Miriam Larici & Leonardo Barrionuevo (Argentina Duet) – Honestly, is this the best Argentinean Tango they could find? Maybe I’m just used to the US version (if that exists), but I was rather disappointed with what can really be an incredibly sexy and wonderful dance to watch. I will admit that the section at the end where they were doing all sorts of quick kicks was pretty nice, but otherwise it felt really flat.

Julia Bantner (Russia Solo) – Seemed like a very russian style, a russian song and a russian look. I enjoyed her dancing a lot and wish that all of the dances would have been as good as hers. Too bad the judges didn’t like it at all. I’d love to hear why the judges scored what they did.

Amrapali Ambegaokar (India Solo) – Incredibly impressive. Could be my favorite dance of the night. A great display of dance from India and an even better example of the types of dances that should have been brought to the show. The bells around her ankles made the spins even more interesting and fun to watch.

Shaolin Monks (China Group) – A stunning performance and a great way to end the show. Some people might say Kung Fu wasn’t dancing, but it was indeed great dancing. All of it except for the little spear stunt at the end. I enjoyed it thoroughly and they certainly deserved the high score they got. The kids were really fun to watch too.

Check out the final Master Scoreboard for each country (not that they really mean anything):
Argentina 123
Ireland 123
China 117
Australia 114
Russia 114
United States 114
India 113
South Africa 112

Hosts
Michael Flately should stick to dancing and stop the judging. He just added nothing to the show. Susie Castillo was surprisingly good. The biggest problem for her is that there wasn’t any rhyme or reason to when we’d see her and when we wouldn’t. I hated that they didn’t have continuity in that regard.

Judges
Honestly, what’s the point in showing the judges. They pretty much say nothing. If they aren’t saying anything, then showing them revealing the scores is incredibly boring TV.

Also, Did China know how to speak English? maybe that’s why he only ever gave a score of 8. It’s the only score he knew how to say. Sad, because there are so many Chinese that speak English better than most Americans. Ok, so he scored a few other things, but it was just embarrassing.

See you tomorrow night. Let’s hope it’s a little better than tonight. It wasn’t horrible tonight, but I expected more from Nigel.

ARGENTINA
Sandar serves as coach for team Argentina.
The judge for team Argentina is Maria Pogee.
cabaret artiste soloist
Carolina Sarasola – contemporary Tango dancer soloist
Miriam Larici & Leonardo Barrionuevo – Argentinian Tango duo
group performing Gaucho style dance in which the Gaucho’s use their bolas’ to produce intricate rhythms

AUSTRALIA
Jason Gilkison serves as coach for team Australia.
The judge for team Australia is Kelley Abbey.
Sean Robinson – tap dance soloist
contemporary dancer soloist
Latin ballroom duo
group performing contemporary dance

CHINA
Matthew Ahmet of Britain serves as Coach for team China.
The Judge for team China is Master Haiyang Wang.
traditional Chinese ribbon dancer soloist
double whip soloist
acrobatic ballet duo
The Shaolin Monks Kung Fu group “Shaolin: Wheel of Life”

IRELAND
Marie Duffy Pask serves as Coach for team Ireland.
The judge for team Ireland is Daire Nolan.
Damien O’Kane – Solo Step Dance
Irish Step Dancers. This team is assembled from different groups currently performing all over the globe.

INDIA
Nakul Dev Mahajan serves as coach for team India.
The judge for team India is Shirish Dayal.
Amrapali Ambegaokar – Bharantanyam dancer soloist
Kathak soloist
Nishi Munshi & Sangita Sanyal – Bollywood duo
group performing Bhangra

RUSSIA
Stanislav Issaev serves as coach for team Russia.
The judge for team Russia is Mikhail Smirnov.
ballet dancer soloist from the world famous Bolshoi Ballet
Julia Bantner – contemporary dancer soloist from the world famous Bolshoi Ballet
Anya Garnis and Pasha Kovalev – ballroom duo
group performing Cossak

SOUTH AFRICA
Tandi Bhengu serves as coach for team South Africa.
The judge for team South Africa is Harold Van Buuren.
hip/hop dance soloist
Sduduzo Ka-Mbili – Afrofusion dance soloist
World Champion jive-inspired dance duo
Group performing Gumboot, a style of dance that was born in the gold mines of South Africa

UNITED STATES
Marguerite Derricks serves as coach for team USA.
The judge for team USA is Tony Selznick.
Robert Muraine – popping dancer soloist
tap dancer soloist
Eric Luna and Georgia Ambarian – World Champion cabaret style ballroom duo
group performing hip hop

In about an hour I’ll be sitting down to enjoy the premier of Superstars of Dance. I really can’t wait to see what Nigel Lythgoe has planned since leaving American Idol. The previews have looked amazing and I love the work that Nigel Lythgoe has done on So You Think You Can Dance, so I’m excited to see what he’s going to do with the broadening of what we consider dance.

Check out this video of the Superstars of Dance hosts, Michael Flatley and Susie Castillo, and Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe explains a little bit more about what I’ll see on Superstars of Dance.

I love the idea that there’s really 4 competitions going on at once. Basically Superstars of Dance brings together dancers from 8 countries each doing a solo, duet, and group dance. Each category of dance competes against each other and then each country competes against each other in the overall score.

Let’s hope that Nigel does a good job covering the scores of the various dancers. Otherwise, following 4 competitions will just be confusing and not very good television.

Here’s a nice set of video interviews with the various Superstars of Dance contestants:

As always, I’ll be doing my best to compile a list of the various music used on Superstars of Dance. I have a feeling that it will be difficult to compile, but I’ll do the best I can. If you’re from one of the 8 countries and know the music from your country that was used on Superstars of Dance, then let me know and I’ll add it to my Superstars of Dance music.