How Pops qualified as judge in CBS’ The World’s Best

Now it can be told: Three months before Pops Fernandez (finally!) announced on her Instagram that she is sitting as a judge in the CBS talent search The World’s Best, Funfare already broke the “scoop” on Oct. 19, 2018.

Here’s what Pops posted on her IG POPS FERNANDEZ (Concert Queen Official Page), complete with a photo showing her covered with a large Philippine flag:

Representing the #Philippines as one of the 50 #walloftheworld judges in @theworldsbestcbs hosted by James Corden with the Hollywood superstars drew barrymore, faith hill and ru paul. Watch the BEST talents from all over the world compete for #theworldsbest title…WATCH the premiere on Feb. 3 right after the #SuperBowl...

The show consists of 10 episodes.

That Funfare “scoop” titled “Pops qualifies for CBS’ show The World’s Best” (courtesy of this corner’s Very Deep Penetration Agent/VDPA in Hollywood) reported that when Pops flew to the States at that time, she didn’t give any hint what she was going there for, except to say that she was taking a vacation.

According to Funfare’s VDPA, Pops actually passed the screening for the CBS talent competition The World’s Best.

Quoting a story about the project, the VDPA said The World’s Best “hails from reality TV heavyweights Mark Burnett and Mike Darnell, the forces behind two of the biggest talent competition reality series of the current unscripted wave, The Voice and American Idol. Burnett is executive producing NBC’s The Voice which is overseen by Darnell at Warner Horizon; while Darnell in his role as head of reality at Fox, Darnell developed and launched American Idol and steered the show for its first 12 seasons.”

The World’s Best is described as “a first-of-its-kind global talent competition that features acts from every genre imaginable, from every corner of the planet.” The contestants are tasked not only to impress the American judges (Drew Barrymore, RuPaul and Faith Hill) and 50 world experts (Pops among them. ­— RFL) but also to break through the “wall of the world.” One of the 25 participants from every field of entertainment will be chosen the winning act to be crowned as The World’s Best.

The other good news is that one of the 25 participants is our very own TNT Boys (Mackie Empuerto, Keifer Sanchez and Francis Concepcion) who were named Push Music Performance of the Year in the recently-concluded Push Awards for their performance of the Bee Gees song Too Much Heaven in the ABS-CBN show Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids.

…among them the TNT (Tawag Ng Tanghalan) Boys Keifer Sanchez, Francis Concepcion and Mackie Empuerto (below, with The World’s Best host James Corden on the show’s teaser).

Since its launch in 2017, the TNT Boys (TNT stands for Tawag Ng Tanghalan), they have performed in Little Big Shots US, UK and Australia, and starred in their first successful major concert at the Araneta Coliseum in November last year. They have also performed for heads of states including Pres. DU30, Singapore Pres. Halimah Yacob and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.

Barrymore was reported to have raved about the performance of the TNT Boys in an exclusive teaser of The World’s Best which she posted on her Instagram account to promote the airing of the show.

“You know, I have a soft spot for kids. I was a kid performer, but I have kids now. This is a whole other thing. You possess a gift, you’re just that good,” said Drew in the clip, which also showed judges Grammy-winning artist Faith Hill and drag queen superstar RuPaul beaming after the trio’s performance of Listen. The act also earned a standing ovation from the three superstar judges, as well as the show’s “wall of the world,” which features 50 of the world’s most accomplished experts from every field of entertainment.

That October 2018 scoop mentioned that The World’s Best is being produced in partnership with MGM Television and Warner Horizon Unscripted & Alternative Television, and with Burnett, Darnell, Alison Holloway, Brooke Karzen, Barry Poznick and Dan Sacks as executive producers.

Casting for the show started just a few weeks after the new show was announced last February.

Added the VDPA, “An L.A.-based talent scout was asked by a friend of one of the show’s producers to recommend a Filipino artist and the talent scout chose Martin Nievera to be interviewed by the executive producer. Martin impressed the executive producer but there was a hitch — conflict of schedules. It turned out that Martin was committed to do shows until Valentine’s next year so he couldn’t do the VTR scheduled this month and in November. Pops was the last to be interviewed and she passed. She’s now doing the VTR.” (The VDPA mentioned Lea Salonga and Billy Crawford as among those also recommended.) 

According to the same report quoted by the VDPA, “CBS, which finds early reality success with adventure competition series Survivor and The Amazing Race as well as the voyeuristic Big Brother, has stayed away from the shiny floor/talent competition genre…but the time has come to take talent competition shows to the next level and bring in judges from around the world to decide on the ultimate winner.”

By the way, it’s reported that each expert will be paid SAG/AFTRA scale with all travel expenses paid (i.e. flight, hotel, etc.) and given per diem for additional expenses.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)