TCA: Fuse Lights Up Series With Frontmen From Gnarls Barkley, Blink 182
Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 8/7/2010 4:07:51 PM
Frontmen from Gnarls Barkley and Blink 182 get to headline their own shows on music-centric Fuse later this summer.
Blink's Mark Hoppus is up first on Sept. 16, with A Different Spin with Mark Hoppus, described at the TV Critic's tour in Beverly Hills Aug. 7 as a weekly venue for music fans to indulge their passion in music through interviews with mainstream and emerging bands.
Functioning as Hoppus' wing-woman will be comedienne Amy Schumer. Hoppus, a panel no-show as he is on tour in Europe with his band, described Schumer as "funny, smart, foul-mouthed and a true music fan."
Sal LoCurto, executive producer and senior vice president of programming of the network, said if "our product was a person, it would be Mark Hoppus."
Schumer said she didn't know Hoppus before the audition, but the pair immediately hit it off. "He's like a brother and we immediately started making fun of each other," she said.
Cee Lo Green, also founder of the hip hop group Goodie Mob, will debut his series, Lay It Down, in October. The show will deconstruct hip hop hits, determining the genesis of the beats and the lyrics.
"Honestly, I don't want to know everything about the process," a robe-clad Green told critics (the airlines lost his luggage, he explained). "No one told me exactly what caused (inspiration)." But insight provided by the artists will further their appreciation of their art form, he said.
There are three performances per artists per show, which is shot in Los Angeles in a club-like setting. Early guests include Public Enemy, Ludacris, N.E.R.D., Lil Jon and T-Pain.
An interesting side note: the show's executive producer is Jason Hervey, who played the bratty older brother in the 1980s' comedy series The Wonder Years.
The network will also launch a half-hour documentary series, Mad Genius. Producers said this will be the antithesis of VH1's Behind the Music, for it will focus "less on the madness and more on the genius."
Because of the focus, artists and their managers are "positive" about the show, the executives said.
"Geniuses" to be profiled include Brittany Spears, Ozzy Osbourne and Lil' Wayne. The artists themselves will not be interviewed, but insight will be provided by bandmates, family members and others within their inner circle.
The documentary series will arrive in late fall.
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