Wayne Brady

Fox and NBC kicked off their karaoke wars this week with the premieres of "The Singing Bee" and "Don't Forget the Lyrics." While I was secretly hoping the shows would slink away into "National Bingo Night"-style obscurity, "The Singing Bee" became the summer's most-watched program on Tuesday, and "Lyrics" held its own on Wednesday (it also airs another new episode tonight). Lest you be confused by the similar-sounding shows, I've put together this handy guide to help you tell them apart:

Photos courtesy of NBC and Fox

• Diddy's longtime girlfriend and mother to their children, Kim Porter, has apparently moved out of their shared NY apartment. Looks like that didn't stop him from enjoying his annual 4th of July party in the Hamptons! - Page Six
• After splitting up back in February, Johnny Knoxville officially filed for divorce on Tuesday. It's always sad to hear about breakups, even when he's a Jackass. - People
• Al Gore's son was pulled over for speeding and was caught with drugs in his car including marijuana, Valium, Xanax, Vicodin, Adderall and Soma. Uh, at least he was driving a hybrid? - Reuters
• In other celebrity breakup news, comedian Wayne Brady filed for divorce from his wife on Tuesday citing "irreconcilable differences." According to a statement from his rep the two are still best friends. - TMZ
• Former Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson and his wife Kristen gave birth to a baby boy, Mason, on Tuesday. Congrats to the happy couple! - Kevin's MySpace

Source

Earlier this week, I mentioned that "Don't Forget the Lyrics," Fox's new singing reality show, sounded an awful lot like "The Singing Bee," a similar show that NBC has planned for fall. Well, NBC thought so too, and it's going to hustle and throw its show on the air early, so it will premiere July 10 — beating Fox's show by one day. Given that it wasn't supposed to air till fall, the show currently has no host, prizes or rules. Hey, what's better than a karaoke competition show? A poorly conceived karaoke competition show!

I'm guessing the conversation at NBC this week went something like this:

NBC Executive #1: Larry! We have a programming emergency! Fox just totally stole our brilliant idea for the show that embarrasses people by making them forget song lyrics on national TV!

NBC Executive #2: (Heavy sigh) I suppose we should have seen this coming. Nobody knows bad singing like Fox ...

NBC Executive #1: Clearly, someone over there is still crying into his Wheaties because we stole the idea for that boxing show a couple of years back. What are we going to do?

NBC Executive #2: Calm down, Jim. We can get that show on the air in minutes. I mean, all we need are a few idiots to sing, right? We can find those on the streets of LA any day of the week.

NBC Executive #1: You're totally right! Throw 'em on a sound stage, buy some Party Tyme Karaoke CDs, and we're all set!

NBC Executive #2: We'll need a host, though. Hmm, Bob Barker's too dignified for this, and we've already got Howie Mandel occupied. I'm not sure if Penn Gillette got another job after we trashed his last show ... Hey! What about Wayne Brady? He's not doing anything, right?

NBC Executive #1: Sorry, man. Fox got him too.

NBC Executive #2: No prob — I've got Rosie on speed dial. She's cool again, right?

Photos courtesy of Fox and Source

• Wayne Brady has been tapped to host Fox's "Don't Forget the Lyrics!" The show will ask contestants to sing the missing lyrics to up to 10 songs for the chance to win $1 million. This sounds suspiciously like NBC's "The Singing Bee," and America certainly doesn't need two karaoke-themed game shows. For that matter, America doesn't need one karaoke-themed game show.
• For the second week in a row, the bad reality roundup includes a Donald Trump project. This time, it's "Pageant Place," a show for MTV that will follow Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA living in the same apartment during their reigns. Apparently, the three beauty queens always live together, so my biggest question is: How has this not been filmed before? (And, on a related note, how do those three egos fit in a New York-sized apartment?)
• VH1 has a whopping five new reality shows in the pipeline. Worst among them: "Danny Bonaduce’s Child Star,” featuring the former Danny Partridge looking for the next great kid actor/stage parent combo, and "The Salt 'N' Pepa Show," following the trio's attempted reunion. (But I'm not going to lie: "America's Most Smartest Model," hosted by Ben Stein, is probably going to be awesome.)

Oh yes, there's more, so read more

Yes, I know we can't shut up about this show. We have been saying it is the new Friends forever, but we just wish there was more buzz about it so we'll keep writing until everyone else wants to copy Lily and Robin's latest haircut. Anyway, for those of you who are in the know, how hilarious was Monday's episode? Robin's deep dark secret as a Canadian pop star was brilliant. We were so excited to find the music video online so we could keep laughing our way through the slow news until we can finally eat some turkey.

For those of you missing out, you should make a point to set those TiVo's. And this just in - we hear that Barney’s brother, James will be played by guest star Wayne Brady - another fabulous comedian. We can't wait to see these two in action together next Monday. Here's a sneak peek with Megan Mullally as their mom.