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Area singers, singles get a shot at TVBy ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV Critic
© St. Petersburg Times The growing glut of reality TV/talent contest/relationship shows has brought two new opportunities to the Tampa Bay area, giving residents a chance to become the first Nashville Star or the next Bachelor. It starts at 4 p.m. today, when 38 contestants meet at Stumps Supper Club at the Channelside complex in Tampa, as round two of country music powerhouse WQYK-FM 99.5's local Nashville Star competition unfolds. Culled from an open audition Sunday, the singer/songwriters will perform today hoping to advance to round three at 6 p.m. Monday. In the end, one winner picked by WQYK will be sent to a regional competition; the victor there will head to Nashville for the national contest, which will feature 10 competitors vying for a recording contract with Sony Music in a countrified version of American Idol to be aired on the USA Network. "We're truly looking for talented singer-songwriters . . . not just somebody who can sing a Mariah Carey tune," said Heidi Heinz, director of marketing and promotions at WQYK, one of 43 radio stations nationwide sending competitors to the contest. ABC affiliate WFTS-Ch. 28 and WPOI-FM 101.5 will accept applications for the network's next Bachelor installment from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Dish restaurant in the Centro Ybor entertainment complex in Ybor City. The show, which features one man choosing a potential mate from a field of 25 women, completes its second installment Wednesday. The network has finished filming a Bachelorette edition featuring Miami Heat dancer Trista Rehn, a finalist in the first Bachelor series, and it is seeking both men and women for the third Bachelor version. Prospects must be older than 18, childless and not involved in a committed relationship. At the casting call, candidates will be asked to fill out an application (organizers suggest downloading a copy at abc.abcnews.go.com beforehand) and record a three-minute video in which they explain why they should be chosen for the show. Because they're seeking only one man and 25 women, organizers expect to see more females than males at the auditions, which also will be held in 14 other cities. "What we've found is that we get our best nominations for The Bachelor from women suggesting friends or co-workers," said Kate DiRenna, a spokeswoman for the show. "We're looking for people who are sincerely looking for that special person and not their 15 minutes of fame." St. Petersburg resident and balance artist Douglas Cyr appears tonight on Fox's 30 Seconds to Fame talent contest. The show, in which contestants must keep the audience's attention for 30 seconds, airs at 8 p.m. on WTVT-Ch. 13. Mark Nakamoto, 24, of West New York, N.J., is the lucky viewer who won the $1,045,000 prize from ABC's Push, Nevada game. The gimmick of the Ben Affleck/Matt Damon-backed mystery show, which was scheduled for 12 episodes but ran for only seven, was that viewers had to collect clues in each episode in hopes of winning the $1-million prize. The "final" clue was broadcast during ABC's Monday Night Football on Oct. 28. It led viewers to a series of letters taken from prior episodes' clues that, together with a cipher, corresponded to a telephone number. Less than two minutes after the final piece of the puzzle was broadcast, Nakamoto, an assistant editor for a Manhattan publishing company, was the first of more than 10,000 viewers to figure it out and call in. -- Material from Times wires was used in this report.
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From the wire |
