25 June 2008

"Nashville Star" cancels Pussycat Dolls


The Tennessean Updated: 6/25/2008 3:03:01 PM Posted: 6/25/2008 3:01:07 PM

By Beverly KeelCelebrity columnist - The Tennessean

When I tuned in late to Monday's "Nashville Star," I thought I caught a performance of the scantily-clad female pop group Pussycat Dolls. I was wrong, but only because the NBC reality show cancelled the pop group's booking -- and replaced them with a similar group.

"We booked the Pussycat Dolls last Thursday, and then Friday (their label, Interscope) wanted to add Clique Girlz, which didn't make sense for the show," says the show's publicist, Carrie Simons.

She says the show cancelled the Dolls and replaced them with Danity Kane. That's the group that won Diddy's MTV reality show, "Making the Band 3."

On Monday, "we're going back to country," says Simons, adding that the contestants get surprise visits from their family.

She explains that the pop group was booked because Monday's episode was pop goes country, which meant the contestants sang pop songs in a country manner.

She says the country music talent search show, which airs live from Nashville, has to "balance out country enough with people who think it's still country and western, but it's not."

"It has to be broad enough to get people who don't thnk they like country music to watch," she says, adding that once they start watching the show, they'll be reminded that they enjoyed country performers like Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler on "American Idol."

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