Celebrity Duets was 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.

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.

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.

Simon Cowell of American Idol and The X Factor fame created the program, and Wayne Brady of Whose Line? fame, who himself is a singer and was 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[link]

• Chris Jericho - 1st Eliminated (Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006)
• Lea Thompson - 2nd Eliminated (Friday, Sept. 8, 2006)
• Carly Patterson - 3rd Eliminated (Friday, Sept. 15, 2006)
• Cheech Marin - 4th Eliminated (Friday, Sept. 22, 2006)
• Jai Rodriguez - 5th Eliminated (Friday, Sept. 22, 2006)
• Hal Sparks - 3rd (Friday, Sept. 29, 2006)
• Lucy Lawless - Runner-up (Friday, Sept. 29, 2006)
• Alfonso Ribeiro - Winner (Friday, Sept. 29, 2006)

Results summary[link]

Duet partners[link]

• 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

The Contestants's Specific Duet Partners[link]

• Alfonso Ribeiro - Michelle Williams, James Ingram, Jeffrey Osborne, Deniece Williams, Chaka Kahn, 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[link]

• David Foster
• Little Richard
• Marie Osmond

Host[link]

• Wayne Brady

International Versions[link]

Country	Name	Host	Network	Date premiered
Arab World	ديو المشاهير Duo El Mashahir	Dina Azar	LBC	October 22, 2010
Lithuania	Žvaigždžių duetai'	Vytautas Kernagis Algis Ramanauskas & Inga Jankauskaitė Rolanda Vilkončius	LNK	June 2, 2007
Philippines	Celebrity Duets Philippine Edition	Ogie Alcasid and Regine Velasquez	GMA Network	August 11, 2007

External links[link]

• Celebrity Duets at the Internet Movie Database
• Celebrity Duets at TV.com

Nesma Mahgoub, (نسمة محجوب) (born September 26, 1989) is the winner of the Star Academy Arab World, the 8th season. She is the second Egyptian to win in the show, after Mohamed Atieh, the second female contestant to win, after Shada Hassoun, and the second candidate to win in the Arab show by singing mostly the western genre, after Nader Guirat.

During the show[link]

Nesma was never a nominee. In the reality-TV part of the season, the production maintained for her a low profile. Not only that her acting ability is modest and she could not take part in the scenes that come along in this type of show, but, also, the production took care to make her character come across as positive.

Life before Star Academy[link]

Before participating in Star Academy Nesma was studying Journalism, Mass Communication, Theater, and Music at the American University in Cairo. Her mother taught her music and reading notes. She has her own band named Origin.

About her[link]

Nesma enjoys playing the piano.

External links[link]

• Nesma's page on Star Academy 8's website
• Star Academy 8's official website
• Nesma Mahgoub on Facebook
• Report about Nesma winning Star Academy 8
• Star Academy Arab World's article on Wikipedia, sends you directly to Star Academy 8