DISTINCTIVE NEW FAMILY COMEDIES, ACTION-DRIVEN NEW DRAMAS AND QUALITY RETURNING SERIES HIGHLIGHT DIVERSE AND BALANCED 2013-14 NBC PRIMETIME SCHEDULE

Three New Comedies Anchor Thursday Lineup, With Sean P. Hayes and Michael J. Fox Returning to Their Sitcom Roots at NBC

Coming Off Its Stellar Fourth Season, ‘The Voice’ Returns on Monday, Tuesday

Riveting Drama ‘The Blacklist’ Earns Coveted Monday Lead-Out Timeslot From ‘The Voice’

‘NBC Sunday Night Football’ Ready to Once Again Rock Ratings with Powerhouse Pigskin Schedule

NBC Using Promotional Power of Winter Olympics to Launch Four New Series, Including Jason Katims’ Comedy ‘About a Boy’ and J.J. Abrams’ Drama ‘Believe’

By Jamie Ruby

The Celebrity Apprentice returns for a six season, with an All-Star edition, beginning Sunday, March 3rd on NBC. In preparation, Donald Trump, as well as celebrity contestants La Toya Jackson and Bret Michaels, talked to the press earlier in the week about the new season, the charities they are playing for, and some of whom and what we can expect.

According to Trump, the series is doing extremely well in the ratings, "It's the number one show at 10:00 on Sundays..it has been doing very, very well in the ratings and so I would anticipate that it would continue onward.

"... This is our 10th year, it's our 13th season. So it has been a great success and it continues to do very well in the ratings."

By Jamie Ruby

At 90, seven-time Award Winner Betty White is still at the top of her game in acting and comedy. White, who's been in the business for almost 70 years, is probably most known for her role as Rose Nylund on the long-running sitcom The Golden Girls and possibly for her role as Sue Ann Nivens on Mary Tyler Moore. White currently stars in the sitcom Hot in Cleveland, as well as stars in and executive produces NBC's Betty White's Off Their Rockers.

Chris Coelen, who also is an executive producer of the series, is the founder of Kinetic Content LLC., whose television series credits also include You Deserve It, Perez Hilton All Access, as well as other cable series.

Off Their Rockers, which was adapted from the hit Belgium series Benidorm Bastards, is a hilarious hidden camera show where senior citizens prank unsuspecting people of a younger age.

By Karen Moul


This week Julio Cesar Castillo became the first contestant in The Voice to sing his audition number in Spanish. He chose “La Bamba,” the Mexican folk song popularized Richie Valens back in the 1950s. Although the song is well known to American ears, it was still a risky move.

“You have to take a risk to stand out,” explained Castillo in an interview the day after the show. “I just went for it. So I'm glad I got the results I did and I'm glad I did it.”

The risk paid off, as Blake Shelton spun his chair almost immediately and was followed later by Cee Lo. Before choosing a coach, Castillo told them of his love for mariachi, a form of Mexican folk music, and Cee Lo invited him to sing a bit.

He fell in love with mariachi around the age of six. “I started listening to music because of my parents and my grandparents,” he explained, “and it’s part of my roots. “And ever since I was young, I had a feeling that that type of music was something I wanted to get into, which I did and I'm still into.”

Is it something he'd like to try on The Voice?

“I’d definitely like to try it on the show. I'm not sure what America’s reaction would be,” mused Castillo, “but like I said before, it’s good to take risks sometimes. And sometimes, the outcome’s even better than you imagined.”

Before the night was over, Castillo and country singer Casey Meussigmann signed up for Team Blake while Adriana Louise got all four judges to turn and joined the one-named Aquile on Team Christina. Mackenzie Bourg chose Cee Lo as his coach and Adam Levine went home empty handed.

Scifi Vision caught up with the contestants the day after their auditions.  

By Karen Moul

Last season on The Voice, Daniel Rosa didn’t make it past the blind auditions. When none of the judges turned around, he asked what he could do better, and they suggested he work on his pitch.

Rosa took the advice to heart and when the Voice powers-that-be invited him back to try again in season three, he was ready.

“The greatest thing that ever could have happened to me,” he says, “was to not make it on the show last season. I was very inspired to move on.

“I needed a lot of work. I learned that I needed to trust myself. I knew that I needed to work on my stage presence. I still do,” confesses Rosa, who admits that this week’s episode was the first time he had ever performed with a mic in his hand.

“I was terrified holding that microphone, so I didn't last season and this time I did. So it was really liberating.”

It wasn’t just Rosa’s new-found poise and confidence that drew notice; his arrangement of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” caught the attention of Cee Lo and Blake, both of whom spun their chairs and made a play to add him to their teams. But the real highlight was seeing all four judges’ obvious delight in Rosa’s return.

In the end, Rosa went with Team Cee Lo, and he looks forward to the battle rounds.

“I don't know what I'm going to bring to this next season,” he muses. “I just know that last season helped me so much to get here so I feel like a completely different person from last season. So I think that's really going to help me through.”

Cee Lo also added R&B singer Trevin Hunte while Adam selected Bryan Keith and Joe Kirkland. Christina went with Devyn DeLoera and De'Borah. The big winner was Blake, who snagged two of the most telented singers of the evening, Scottish rocker Terry McDermott and yodeler Gracia Harrison.

By Lynn Tackitt

When a lot of us were little girls, it was often a good night of television when you could sit down and watch The Miss USA Pageant. All the beautiful young ladies with graceful elegance in their evening gowns and their confidence as they walked the stage in their bathing suits, showing off different talents to show off a well rounded sophistication. It filled the evening with dreams of one day becoming one of the Miss USA winners. You got to meet them a little when the finalists answered questions on events of the world.

Looking back on that, I now realize how hard it must be to be a judge and pick a suitable winner in the short time that they get to evaluate the contestants - the importance of picking a young woman to take the title of Miss USA and do justice to the long line of pageant winners.

What was once thought of as just a beauty pageant has turned more and more to young women bringing attention to more important causes and making people aware of issues that should be brought to light.

By Jamie Ruby

Last week on The Celebrity Apprentice, the contestants were cut down from five to three. Two out of the three will be chosen to move onto the final round, where they must create, host, and sell tickets to a celebrity charity event. The winner of the title of The Celebrity Apprentice will be announced next week on the season finale.

The three finalists recently sat down and talked about their time on Celebrity Apprentice with the digital media.

By Jamie Ruby

NBC's top rated summer reality series America's Got Talent returns tonight for its seventh season. This season the judges Howie Mandel and Sharon Osbourne are joined by radio personality Howard Stern, who promises to bring a unique perspective and brutal honesty to the show.

Stern recently talked to the media in a press conference about his time on America's Got Talent.

By Jamie Ruby

Donald Trump returns with NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice, which is currently in its fifth installment, the twelfth in The Apprentice series overall. This season, eight celebrities compete, not for a job, but to raise money and awareness for their charities.

In the recent special three-hour episode, two celebrity contestants were eliminated - Debbie Gibson and Dee Snider.

Mr. Trump, along with the two recently eliminated contestants, recently talked to the digital media about their time on the show as well as their plans for the future.