Showing Out

You know that song that plays at the end of the CBS broadcast of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game? The one that’s been played every year since 1987? Well Jennifer Hudson’s going to give it a shot. According to the AP, the Oscar-winning soulstress will perform the David Barrett tune “One Shining Moment” this year, making her the first woman to sing the tune (previous singers include Teddy Pendergrass and Luther Vandross). ”The song inspires you,” Hudson said in a release. ”It moves you. It motivates you and helps you reach that goal and that dream.” The song has already been laid down in L.A. on February 13th with Harvey Mason Jr., her producer who played for the Arizona team that reached the Final Hour in 1988. Guess Hudson really is a dream girl.

We usually don’t keep up with the sports talk here at Showing Out, but this one is worth mentioning. According to Yahoo, Allen Iverson, star player for the Philadelphia 76ers, may have played his last game for the team. After he missed six games to deal with medical issues concerning his daughter, the officials are considering giving him the boot. According to Yahoo’s sources, coach Eddie Jordan spoke to the players on Sunday to tell them that Iverson may not be returning to play after he missed the All-Star game. Though there hasn’t been any official announcement or decision made just yet, it doesn’t look like things are turning up roses for Iverson. Yikes.

Very interesting news item here. Magic Johnson, whose Magic Johnson Enterprises has partnerships with Starbucks, 24 Hour Fitness and T.G.I. Friday’s, is about to make his next purchase. According to Bloomberg News, the retired NBA star is in talks to purchase Johnson Publishing Co., owner of Ebony and Jet magazines and an archive of photos that document American black life for the past half a century. “There have been discussions,” said Eric Holoman, president of Los Angeles-based Magic Johnson Enterprises. “There’s no definitive agreement.” Though there haven’t been any official announcements made as of yet, this would be a good look for Johnson Publishing, since ad revenue at Ebony declined 38 percent to $35.5 million last year on a 39 percent drop in ad pages. Maybe Johnson can work some of that Magic into boosting sales.

In case you were worried about Shaq’s kitschy sports competition show never hitting the small screen again, you can put those fears to rest. According to Variety, ABC has renewed Shaq Vs. for a second season, with Media Rights Capital and Dick Clark Productions on board to produce another six eps of the show. On the series that aired last summer, Shaq trained for a week in a respective sport to compete against professional athletes (with a handicap, of course), with the basketball giant playing against Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor in beach volleyball, Michael Phelps in swimming and Oscar de la Hoya in boxing. This time, Shaq will be put in non-athletic competitions such as spelling bees or competitive eating, though he will still do sports-related challenges. We’re surprised they haven’t mentioned that Shaq will also be competing in the Shaq-Fu challenge – that game was hard!

Last night, the Super Bowl became more than just another one for the sports record books - it became one for the TV history books, too. According to THR’s Live Feed, Super Bowl XLIV set a new all-time U.S. ratings high, with 106.5 million viewers tuning in to check out the New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts game. The game was not only the first sports program to pass the 100 million viewers mark, but it edged out the series finale of M*A*S*H, which set the record with 105.97 million in 1983. This year’s Super Bowl was also up 8% from 2009’s Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Arizona Cardinals showdown, which had a record-breaking audience of 98.7 million viewers. Not bad at all! Nicely done, Americans.

This Saturday marks the SNL debut of basketball legend Charles Barkley, who hosts the first show of the decade. Above is the promo clip for the episode (which features a performance from Alicia Keys), and by the looks of Barkley’s “acting” skills, this SNL is going to be a clunker. Throughout the promo, Barkley and cast member Jason Sudeikis play off of one another, joking about Barkley’s height and showing that Sudeikis is actually pretty talented when it comes to spinning a basketball on his finger. Too bad a spinning basketball won’t be a big enough distraction from Barkley’s subpar acting this weekend. Check him out when he blunders on the show this Saturday night.

One of the joys of our childhood was playing NBA Jam for Sega Genesis until our thumbs ached. So it brings us even more joy to hear that EA Sports is reviving NBA Jam and bringing it exclusively to Nintendo Wii (the only video game system that we own, yay us). According to ESPN, NBA Jam will ship to retail once EA announces its existence later this month, bringing the game back to life almost 17 years after it hit arcades back in 1993. And apparently, EA Sports hired the game’s original creator Mark Turmell to work on the newly vamped version. For those of you that are still scratching your heads over what this game actually is, all we have to say is “Boomshakalaka” to that.

Given the nature of the source material, we’re going to treat this one with a skeptical eye. According to Daily Mail, Hollywood producers (whoever those producers may be) are currently in the process of slapping together a made-for-TV movie about Tiger Woods and his recent scandal, with Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. attached as one of the potential stars to play the fallen golfer. On top of this dubious news, the Daily Mail even has unattributed quotes: “It will make a great movie as people love to see someone fall from the top and try to pick up the pieces of their life. Tiger’s scandal just proves the world’s biggest sportsman is human. Now the race is on to make the film while the public is still interested in the story.” Right. And Tiger also has alien babies by a Klingon. Thanks, reliable sources.

Sports and hip-hop: forever intertwined. So it goes for Ice Cube, who recently took a trip to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to commemorate the Los Angeles Raiders, who was the last NFL group to play in the stadium. Cube made the visit as part of ESPN’s 30 for 30, a documentary series that has people like Barry Levinson, Peter Berg and John Singleton hosting documentaries that blend archival footage with interviews with celebs, athletes and journalists. Cube’s doc, Straight Outta L.A., focuses on how the team has had an indelible impact on hip-hop culture. “The Raiders had a cast of characters that looked like a gang of pirates,” he said. “Any kind of outlaw mentality we loved. It wasn’t that they were bad. They just played by their own rules.” There’s no set air date for this one, but be on the lookout.

The reality show formula has been so washed and over-thought that it’s almost impossible to think of an area that hasn’t yet been touched. So we’re surprised that a reality show about a professional baseball player hasn’t been done yet - until now. According to THR, Detroit Tigers’ own Curtis Granderson is currently shopping his reality show dubbed Stadium Secrets to networks care of production shingle Authentic Entertainment. But unlike a normal reality series where cameras zoom around inside his house, this one takes him to the sports realm, with Granderson leading sports fans on an exploration of stadiums. “Authentic will be providing an exclusive, VIP experience for fans everywhere – a behind-the-scenes journey that will be exciting for all of us. I am eager to begin working on this project and look forward to a successful partnership,” Granderson said. Lucky for him, if this doesn’t work out, baseball isn’t doing so bad right now. Get that money, Curtis.