The basic premise of Celebrity Duets is a celebrity performer will be paired with a recording artist and they will sing and be judged like on American Idol. The difference is the judges are not going to embarrass the celebrity performers.

Just a few years ago this show would have been impossible to get off the ground. No celebrity or recording artist would trust a TV producer, or be willing to perform like this. But Simon Cowell is no ordinary producer. Mr. Cowell is fast becoming the reality Aaron Spelling, someone who is just in touch with what America wants, and gets the ratings to prove it. Ultimately that is why these artists and celebrities have signed on. He knows how to market and sell a show, and he has also proven that his shows help raise sales of the artists that have been on it, and keep other non A-list celebs in the limelight. If this show takes off you can expect a much better selection of celebrities and performers to be on season two.

So I am sure you are curious who are the celebs and who are the peformers?

The host of the show is Wayne Brady and the celebrities are Chris Jericho (WWE World Champion), actress Lucy Lawless (“Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Battlestar Galactica”), actor Cheech Marin (“Cars,” “Nash Bridges”), 2004 Olympic Gold Medal-winning gymnast Carly Patterson, actor/director Alfonso Ribeiro (“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “All of Us”), Jai Rodriguez (“Queer Eye”), actor/comedian Hal Sparks (“Queer as Folk”) and actress Lea Thompson (“Back to the Future,” “Caroline in the City”).

The recording artists are Clint Black, Michael Bolton, Belinda Carlisle, Taylor Dayne, Peter Frampton, Macy Gray, James Ingram, Wynonna Judd, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx, Brian McKnight, Aaron Neville, Smokey Robinson, Randy Travis, Dionne Warwick, Lee Ann Womack and others.

The show will premiere on a one-time-only special night with a two-hour episode Tuesday, Aug. 29 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) on FOX. The Celebrity Duets performance show will have its time period premiere Thursday, Sept. 7 (9:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed). 

Also just announced, Marie Osmond is going to be one of the judges.

Below is a transcript of a conference call Simon Cowell just did with the media. While I was not one of the participants, I thought some of you might want to read it. Enjoy.

M. Cherkezian          Have you confirmed the third female judge?

S. Cowell                    Not confirmed, but I have an idea who it’s going to be.

M. Cherkezian          Okay.  Will it be female?

S. Cowell                    It looks like female, yes.  This person is a recording artist.  But that could all change, but I don’t think it’s going to.  It has to be confirmed in the next 24-hours because we’re on-air in a week.

Moderator               Our next question is from Rodney Ho with the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

R. Ho                      Can you give us a little bit of a sneak preview of the actual formatics of Celebrity Duets?  How is it going to play out?

S. Cowell                    Yes.  I mean we spent a lot of time thinking about what was the best way to test the non-singers.  I’ll refer to them as the non-singers.  We thought the best way of doing this was is that every week, they have to team up with one of these legendary singers. 

                                    So in the first two-hour show, you’re going to see, there are eight celebrity non-singers and obviously eight legendary singers.  The first hour, each celebrity will be teamed up with one of the singers.  In the second hour, they’re going to be teamed up with a different singer.  So it’s almost like a different discipline each time and they will have to sing, for instance, a rock song and a ballad.  Part of the fun for the audience is going to be is that you won’t know who the singer is until they walk out on the stage.  So the non-singer will start and then ten seconds later, out will walk the singer you’re going to recognize. 

Moderator               We’ll go next to Jon Bream with the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  Go ahead.

J. Bream                  I just wanted to say as a music critic, I always appreciate your honest spot-on critiques.  It gives credibility to my profession.

S. Cowell                    Oh, thank you very much.  I appreciate that.

J. Bream                  I had a two-part question about tips for competitors.  One, what tips do you give to competitors on the Celebrity Duets show and then, what tips do you have for competitors for just kids coming to the American Idol auditions here in Minneapolis in a couple of weeks?

S. Cowell                    Well, that’s a very good question.  Let me answer the second part first.  Which is on American Idol, which is try and be original, the big problem we normally have are people coming in doing third-rate, fourth-rate Mariah Carey impersonations.  So we normally say to them be unique, be original.  That’s normally the best advice I can give.

                                    On the Celebrity Duet, I think it’s shut your eyes, hold your breath and hope for the best because this is going to be tough.  I mean it’s hard enough when you sing in public when you’re used to singing and most of these people on this show aren’t.  Now the fact that we are teaming them up with some of the best singers of all time, the Patty LaBelles, the Gladys Knights, that’s a nightmare.  So there’s not much advice I can really give them.

J. Bream                  So this is a planned train wreck for some of them.

S. Cowell                    Well, no.  I mean, look, there are so many celebrities who wanted to come on this show, who genuinely couldn’t sing a note.  Every one of these people genuinely believe they have a great singing voice - genuinely.  We auditioned them three or four times.  So they all think they can win.  They all think they’re going to probably have big successful recording careers at the end.  But I’m not going to lie and say I know what advice to give them when you’re singing with, as I said, Patty LaBelle or Smokey Robinson.  I just wouldn’t know what to do other than try and stay in tune and be good.

J. Bream                  When you auditioned them, did you critique them?

S. Cowell                    No, I stayed away from it.  But I have all the tapes.

Moderator               Next, we have Eric Deggans with the St. Petersburg Times. 

E. Deggans              What is it about these shows, having these celebrities do things that they’re not familiar with that engages viewers?  How did you figure out a way to bring a twist to this that would be unique?

S. Cowell                    Well, I’ll be honest with you.  I really like Dancing with the Stars.  I thought it was a really fun show to see people like - whoever it was - Nick Deshea’s brother trying to be a dancer or the football players.  I thought it was a great format.  I always felt the second I saw it, that it would actually work as a better singing show than as a dancing show.  But we had one big problem.  To make it work, we would have to bring in legendary artists.  You couldn’t team up a celebrity with a vocal coach.  It just wouldn’t work.  So we went into this with if we could get the Smokey Robinsons, the Gladys Knights of this world, we have a show and if we don’t, we won’t. 

                                    To be truthful, I never in a billion years thought that they would come on the show.  Then when we found out that these artists were willing to come forward, a) I was surprised and b) I thought we have the makings of a really great, difficult talent competition here.  It’s a show I would love to watch myself.

E. Deggans              Does it help or hurt that you’re associated with American Idol?

S. Cowell                    I think it helped because Idol has been so successful.  Artists are artists.  They don’t want to be on a show, no one is going to watch.  I think it helped them believe in the fact that it could be successful, but I’ll be honest with you.  The credit goes to the producers on this show because they’re the people who book the talent.

Moderator               Next, we have Marisa Guthrie with the New York Daily News.

M. Guthrie               So I’m wondering, do you ever get tired of hearing bad singers?

S. Cowell                    I get tired of hearing mediocre singers.  But when they’re really, really, really bad and I watch it back on the show, I like it.  I don’t like it at the time, but I like watching it back.

M. Guthrie               How many bad celebrity singers came through?  You said a lot of people wanted to be on the show.  I know you’re not going to name names.

S. Cowell                    I’m not going name the shame here, but a lot.  It’s the same kind of thing that happens on Idol, a lot of people who obviously think they’re fantastic in the shower.  We put them in a recording studio and they were absolutely hopeless.  Mike Darnell at Fox, he was very clear with me from day one.  He said, “One of the reasons I’m going to make this is is that these people have to be good because otherwise, it’s not a show you’re going to want to watch.  We want some fantastic performances and some surprisingly good performances.”  He always stuck to that.

M. Guthrie               Why do you think these celebrities want to do this?  I guess the same question for Dancing with the Stars.  Why?  It seems like they’re just setting themselves up for--

S. Cowell                    I don’t know what it is.  There are certain people I know, and I’ve met them, who have said, “God, I’d love to go on that Dancing wit the Stars show because I think I’m a good dancer.”  They’re very well known people.  I think it’s the same thing with this show.  The people who we booked, they were really keen to be on the show.  I guess it’s something they’ve wanted all their lives, which yes, they’ve happy being actors, actresses, whatever they are.  But probably deep down, they’ve dreamt of being number one in the charts or something because they’re taking it really seriously. 

Moderator               Thank you.  We’ll now go to the line of Hal Boedeker with the Orlando Sentinel. 

H. Boedeker             Can we go on with this idea, though, have they been training?  Can you talk a little bit more about these particular singers?  Can you give us some idea of how good you think they are?

S. Cowell                    Well, I’m not going to say which ones I think are the best now because I think that’s the fun for the audience.  But for me from what I’ve heard, there are two or three people who can win.  They’ve been taking vocal lessons.  They’ve been practicing for weeks.  We’re putting them with really good coaches.  We have the Idol MD on the show, Ricky Minor, who’s working closely with them.

                                    Let’s face it.  On this show, they have to be good because they know who’s going to be joining them halfway through the song.  So they’re treating this very, very seriously.  They’ll be as prepared as they can possibly be, but that can all fall part on the night with nerves.  I think the point where when you’re on stage and you’ve started a song and then you look behind you and on walks Gladys Knight, I mean that’s a scary moment.

H. Boedeker             I didn’t understand.  They know who’s coming out, though.

S. Cowell                    They will know very shortly before their performance.  The audience won’t know until the singer comes out, as to exactly who they’re going to be singing with on the night.

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