# Celebrity Duets

Celebrity Duets is an American reality television show, of the progressive game-show type, which combined celebrities of different backgrounds with professional singers in a weekly elimination competition.

## History

The show was a take-off of the Australian series program It Takes Two and its predecessor, the BBC's Just the Two of Us; however, unlike the British and Australian shows, the celebrities sang with different partners each week. Indeed, Celebrity Duets was meant to be transmitted in the UK first, under the title Star Duets. But the BBC bought the format before Simon Cowell got to produce it on ITV. There was even court action, which the BBC won. Thus, Star Duets never came into production.

## Transmissions

The show debuted on Fox, with a 2-hour premiere installment on August 29, 2006. It then moved to its normal Thursday timeslot the following week, and stayed there until its season finale on September 29, 2006.

## Associated personnel

Simon Cowell of American Idol and The X Factor fame created the program, and Wayne Brady of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame, himself a singer and the former host of a variety show on ABC, hosted the show. The judges were renowned composer and producer David Foster, rock and roll pioneer Little Richard, and singer Marie Osmond.

## Contestants

| Celebrity | Notability (known for) | Placing |
| Alfonso Ribeiro | The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor | Winner (Friday, Sept. 29, 2006) |
| Lucy Lawless | Xena: Warrior Princess actress | Runner-up (Friday, Sept. 29, 2006) |
| Hal Sparks | Former Talk Soup host | 3rd (Friday, Sept. 29, 2006) |
| Jai Rodriguez | Emmy Award-winning television host | 5th Eliminated (Friday, Sept. 22, 2006) |
| Cheech Marin | Stand-up comedian & actor | 4th Eliminated (Friday, Sept. 22, 2006) |
| Carly Patterson | Former Olympic artistic gymnast | 3rd Eliminated (Friday, Sept. 15, 2006) |
| Lea Thompson | Film & television actress | 2nd Eliminated (Friday, Sept. 8, 2006) |
| Chris Jericho | WWE wrestler | 1st Eliminated (Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006) |

### Results summary

| Celebrity | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| Alfonso Ribeiro | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Winner |
| Lucy Lawless | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Runner-up |
| Hal Sparks | Safe | Safe | Bottom three | Safe | 3rd place |
| Jai Rodriguez | Safe | Safe | Safe | Eliminated | |
| Cheech Marin | Safe | Bottom three | Bottom three | Eliminated | |
| Carly Patterson | Safe | Bottom three | Eliminated | | |
| Lea Thompson | Safe | Eliminated | | | |
| Chris Jericho | Eliminated | | | | |

## Duet partners

* Michael Bolton
* Boyz II Men
* Chaka Khan
* Jesse McCartney
* Clint Black
* Smokey Robinson
* Dionne Warwick
* Gladys Knight
* Brian McKnight
* Patti LaBelle
* Kenny Loggins
* Richard Marx
* Randy Travis
* Belinda Carlisle
* Peter Frampton
* Taylor Dayne
* Aaron Neville
* Lee Ann Womack
* James Ingram
* Wynonna Judd
* Michelle Williams
* Jeffrey Osborne
* Anita Pointer
* Toby Keith
* Dennis DeYoung, formerly of Styx
* Deniece Williams
* Dee Snider, of Twisted Sister
* Al Jarreau
* Sebastian Bach, formerly of Skid Row
* Bonnie Tyler

## Duet partners by contestant

* Alfonso Ribeiro - Michelle Williams, James Ingram, Jeffrey Osborne, Deniece Williams, Chaka Khan, Jon Secada, Gladys Knight
* Lucy Lawless - Michael Bolton, Smokey Robinson, Kenny Loggins, Dionne Warwick, Richard Marx, Bonnie Tyler
* Hal Sparks - Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Wynonna Judd, Dennis DeYoung, Dee Snider, Sebastian Bach
* Jai Rodriguez - Gladys Knight, Michelle Williams, Brian McKnight, Taylor Dayne, Patti LaBelle
* Cheech Marin - Peter Frampton, Randy Travis, Clint Black, Aaron Neville, Al Jarreau
* Carly Patterson - James Ingram, Lee Ann Womack, Anita Pointer, Jesse McCartney
* Lea Thompson - Randy Travis, Michael Bolton, Belinda Carlisle
* Chris Jericho - Lee Ann Womack, Peter Frampton

## Judges

* David Foster
* Little Richard
* Marie Osmond

## Host

* Wayne Brady

## Ratings

For the season, the series averaged 3.8 million viewers, making it the lowest-rated Fox series of the entire season, and indeed one of the lowest-rated programs on any network for the season that year. This ratings failure precluded any production of a second season.

## International versions

    Currently airing franchise
    Franchise no longer in production
| Country | Name | Host(s) | Network | Date premiered | Judges | Winner(s) |
| Arab world | ديو المشاهير Duo El Mashahir | Dina Azar (1-2) Hilda Khalife (3) Annabella Hilal (4) | LBCI (1-3) Murr Television (4) | October 22, 2010 | Romeo Lahoud (1-2) Joumana Haddad (1) Marwan Rahbani (1) Abdullah Bakhir (2) Osama Rahbani (2-4) Hassan al-Raddad (3) Mona Abu Hamza (4) Tariq Abu Jouda (4) | Season 1, 2010: Nadine Al Rassi Season 2, 2011: Maggie Bou Ghosn Season 3, 2012-2013: Tony Abu Joudeh Season 4, 2015: Tony Issa |
| Hungary | A nagy duett | Claudia Liptai (1-4; 6) Majka (1, 4) Attila Till (2-3; 5) | TV2 (1; 3-6) Super TV2 (2) | April 8, 2011 | Tibor Kasza Klári Balázs (1-3) Ákos Dobrády (1-3) Andrea Szulák (4-5) Cooky (4-5) Adri Nagy (6) Joci Pápai (6) | Season 1, 2011: Ferenc Molnár & Nóra Trokán Season 2, 2013: Attila Kökény & Katinka Cseke Season 3, 2014: Hien & Cooky Season 4, 2016: Szilvia Péter Szabó & Péter Pachmann Season 5, 2017: Veca Janicsák & Kornél Simon Season 6, 2018: Tamás Horváth & Andrea Balázs |
| Jordan | Celebrity Duets Jordan | Mona Al Omari | Channel 1 Jordan | January 7, 2021 | Omar Al-Abdallat Zain Awad Najem Al-Salman | Season 1, 2021: Rahaf Sawalha |
| Lithuania | Žvaigždžių duetai | Vytautas Kernagis Algis Ramanauskas and Inga Jankauskaitė Rolandas Vilkončius | LNK | June 2, 2007 | ? | Season 1, 2007: Renata Ražanauskienė & Deiviu Season 2, 2008: Romas Bubnelis & Aiste Pilvelyte Season 3, 2009: Giedrius Leškevičius & Mia Season 4, 2010: Marius Jampolskis & Iruna Puzaraitė Season 5, 2011: Rūta Pentiokinaitė & Merūnas Vitulskis Season 6, 2012: ? Season 7, 2013: ? Season 8, 2014: Donata Gutauskienė-Laisva & Radzi Season 9, 2015: Simonas Storpirštis & Liepa Mondeikaitė |
| Philippines | Celebrity Duets: Philippine Edition | Ogie Alcasid and Regine Velasquez | GMA Network | August 11, 2007 | Mitch Valdez (1) Mitch Valdez (1) Louie Ocampo (1) Buboy Garovillo (1) Freddy Santos (2-3) Danny Tan (2-3) Tessa Prieto-Valdez (2-3) | Season 1, 2007: Tessa Prieto-Valdez Season 2, 2008: Bayani Fernando Season 3, 2009: Joel Cruz |