‘60 Minutes’ airing lip-sync scandal
CBS’ “60 Minutes” will air a special report on the Ashlee Simpson lip-syncing scandal Sunday night.
When Simpson ran off the “Saturday Night Live” stage last week after a recording started playing of her voice singing the wrong song, “60 Minutes” cameras were there to record her embarrassing exit and the reactions of “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels and other shocked staff members.
Cameras also caught the dress rehearsal of Simpson’s performance when she also ran offstage “because her voice failed her.”
“SNL” had allowed “60 Minutes” at Saturday’s show to tape a piece about how the show is conceived, written and produced each week.
Simpson has claimed that acute acid reflux disease left her without a voice the night she was the musical guest on the live late-night show, leading to the decision to use backup recordings of her voice while performing.
Two networks tackle 9-11
After three years of largely avoiding the subject in entertainment programming, suddenly two networks are reportedly at work on miniseries projects about the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
NBC on Wednesday announced its intentions to develop a miniseries chronicling the events leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with writer Graham Yost (“Band of Brothers,” “Boomtown”).
Now comes word that ABC is working on a similar project, also based on the report of the federal 9-11 commission. The report, which has become a best-selling book, is a public document, so rights to it are not an issue.
NBC says aloha to ‘Hawaii’
NBC has pulled the plug on “Hawaii,” the cop show set in guess-which-state that was drawing barely 8 million viewers despite the cool scenery.
The network is moving “LAX” from Monday night into “Hawaii’s” 8 p.m. Wednesday time slot. In mid-November, NBC will fill the Monday slot with “The 24 Million Dollar Hoax,” a reality show that has a woman trying to make her family think she won the lottery.
‘Nanny’ nixed by WB
The oft-hexed WB sitcom “Commando Nanny,” based on the real-life experiences of reality TV kingpin Mark Burnett, has been given its walking papers without ever airing an episode.
“Commando Nanny” was “Survivor” and “The Apprentice” producer Burnett’s first venture into a scripted series. The show was loosely based on his first years in Los Angeles, when he took a string of nanny jobs shortly after leaving the British military.
Without “Commando Nanny,” The WB has been filling the Friday time slot with repeats of “Reba” at 9:30 p.m. That will continue for the time being.