Dannii Minogue reunites with sister Kylie Minogue for X Factor TV special

The Minogue sisters, Dannii and Kylie, are joining forces on the X Factor. Source: Supplied



 
Cameron Adams, The Sunday Telegraph, reports

This year's X Factor has scored a major pop culture coup - reuniting Dannii and Kylie Minogue on screen.

It is the first time the musical sisters have worked together on Australian TV since a Young Talent Time concert in 1987.

"I don't even want to think of how long ago that was," Kylie said. "My hair was bigger, my waist was smaller ... good times."

Dannii, one of the judges on this year's X Factor, recruited sister Kylie to mentor her contestants on the reality TV hit.

The sisterly episode was filmed in New York last week, where Kylie is working on her new album.

It will air later this year on Channel 7.

It is Dannii's first time as a judge on the Australian X Factor, after finding success on the British show.

While the pair are no strangers to passing comment on singers on reality TV shows, until now it's been at home in private.

"Usually we're in pyjamas and ugg boots," Dannii said. "So this is a change. Kylie is a huge X Factor fan."

Older sister Kylie was Dannii's first choice as mentor, a role she performed on the UK X Factor four years ago.

"Dannii is so good at this, I'm just along for the ride," Kylie said. "It's really fun to do something together, so it was a done deal when she asked me.

"This feels normal for us. This kind of show is one of Dannii's natural habitats, but I do feel at home on a TV set and being with my sister. If you've grown up being a tennis player you're comfortable on a tennis court, we're both comfortable in this environment."

Kylie said she is unsure whether she would audition for The X Factor if she was starting out in the industry.

"I have questioned that myself. I don't know. I'm sure I wouldn't make it through. I really am."

Kylie will release a 'buzz' single from her 12th album, Skirt, shortly.

Channel Ten's Young Talent Time reboot hosted by Rob Mills will not be extended beyond one season

Facing end after one season ... Young Talent Time host Rob Mills with crew member Adrien Nookadu. Picture: Adam Ward Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

It recently got the bump from prime-time Sundays to the Friday night "death slot" and word now is that Channel 10 may limit its love affair with the Young Talent Time reboot to just the one season.

Announced in a blaze of glory at last year's media launch and tipped as one the network's big hopes of 2012, YTT has steadily seen its ratings dwindle, opening with just over 1.1 million viewers before tanking to its most recent figures of just over 600,000.

Talk is that the expensive junior talent show, helmed by Rob Mills, is set for the scrapheap after it winds up its first and only season though a Ten rep said yesterday the network was confident it would "settle in" to its new "family friendly" Friday night home.

Channel Ten starts ratings war

Top: New CEO of Channel Ten James Warburton enters the Network Ten offices at Pyrmont on the first day as CEO. Picture: Stephen Cooper.

The Sunday Telegraph reports

THE new-look Channel Ten is hoping to steal the march on its competition, launching its revamped Sunday night schedule three weeks before the start of ratings season.

Having been sidelined on "gardening leave" for six months, Ten's new boss James Warburton has fired the first shot in the battle against rival network chiefs, David Leckie at Channel Seven and David Gyngell at Channel Nine.

Mr Warburton is banking on prime-time music and comedy to blitz Nine and Seven's current affairs programs, with the revamped Young Talent Time the jewel in the crown.

He declared the all-new line-up would "reset a connection point with our viewers and set the agenda for Ten, day one, every week".

In an aggressive start to the week and to the ratings year, Mr Warburton told The Sunday Telegraph that Ten's ratings season starts on Sunday, January 22, three weeks ahead of the official start of ratings on February 12.

In a pre-emptive strike to own the night, Ten will air the first episodes of Young Talent Time, featuring one-time contestant Tina Arena as a judge.

Also debuting is hit US comedy New Girl and the acclaimed US drama Homeland. While Ten has aired its new offerings ahead of the ratings season before, chief programming officer David Mott said Ten had never showed its hand this early.

"It's a reflection of Ten's determination to lead, not follow, in 2012," Mr Mott said.

"We've regained our focus, and this shows our confidence in our slate, as well as its depth. It's the first of a few announcements we will be making."

Ten's Sunday night schedule will open with Young Talent Time featuring Arena, as judge and mentor for the reboot, from 6.30pm.

New episodes of comedy hit Modern Family will follow at 7.30pm, ahead of the Australian debut season of cheeky US comedy New Girl, starring Zooey Deschanel at 8pm.

The pace changes at 8.30pm with US psychological drama Homeland, starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis.

Mr Warburton took up his CEO role at Ten last Monday, after being forced to sit out six months following a court battle with his former employer, Channel Seven, in May 2011.

He was originally to start as Ten CEO last July, but a NSW Supreme Court embargo on his working meant the former Seven Network executive was forced to cool his heals until New Year's Day.

In his first week in the job he said Ten was overly reliant on reality shows such as MasterChef Australia, with the poorly performed Junior MasterChef and the failed The Renovators expected to be axed.

Announcements on a female host to join controversial Kiwi broadcaster Paul Henry and Dr Andrew Rochford at the helm of Ten's new morning television experiment, Breakfast, and a new member of The Circle following the departure of Chrissie Swan, are also expected.

Lyndall Wennekes' 11 years of preparation for Young Talent Time

New Young Talent Time contestant Lyndall White. Source: Herald Sun

The Herald Sun reports

SHE'S 15, has been singing and dancing for 11 years and has a dream to turn all her performance training into a career.

And Lyndall Wennekes' time starts now after the Sydney schoolgirl was chosen to be one of 10 permanent performers on next year's new version of Young Talent Time.

It's believed up to five 15-year-old permanent performers will be announced, each of whom will leave the troupe at the end of the year because of the age cut-off of 16.

Wenneke was chosen from more than 30,000 hopefuls who applied to be on the Channel 10 show.

"It has been a dream since I was a little kid for something like this to happen, but I never expected it so it has been really cool," she said yesterday.

She joins the only other permanent member to be announced, Adrien Nookadu, with whom she practised some moves yesterday.

 

Full circle for Tina Arena's Talent

Old buddies: Tina Arena and Johnny Young. Picture: Rohan Kelly Source: Herald Sun

Andrew Drummond, The Herald Sun, reports

AS a judge and mentor on the reincarnated Young Talent Time, Tina Arena is expecting to cop some abuse from Australian audiences.

Aged seven when she first appeared on the hit variety show, Arena is now 44, an international and multi-platinum-selling artist and mother of one.

The songstress said she is returning to offer her experience to the next generation but is tight-lipped about her approach when it comes to offering constructive criticism to aspiring young stars.

"I have no idea what I'm going to be like in any of those forms," she said of the dual role as judge and mentor on the show, which is due to screen next year.

"I guess it's a question of tuning in and finding out, because I don't have a clue," said Arena, who found solo success in the 1990s with singles such as Chains and I Need Your Body.

"I'm a very spontaneous person in everything that I do in my life. I don't calculate anything. I work very much from my emotions, and what I get at that particular moment is what the people will then hear.

"I'm sure Australia will abuse me though, I have no doubt about that." Arena, who has lived in Paris for years, said she still considers herself Australian.

Her decision to return to Young Talent Time was inspired by a desire to share what she had learnt throughout her career.

"It's time to give back," she said from Paris.

"I've been privileged enough to amass so much information and so much experience over the last 35 years of my career. There comes a time when you've got to give that back.

"I see it as a responsibility, but a willing responsibility, on my behalf."

Arena will spend five months in Melbourne and Sydney next year recording the show, which will coincide with her own Australian performances.

"I'm very excited about it," she said.

"I'm so excited about spending time with my family ... taking my son to school there, hanging out with Mum and Dad."

Arena will be joined by a second, as yet unnamed, judge on the new Young Talent Time, which will be hosted by Rob Mills.

Tina Arena to receive top French honour

Seven News reports

Australian singer Tina Arena will on Wednesday be presented with one of France's highest honours for her contribution to culture and the arts.

The Victorian-born songstress who initially found fame as a seven-year old on the hit Australian variety show, Young Talent Time, will accept the Ordre national du Merite (National Order of Merit) during a special ceremony in Paris.

The 44-year-old mother-of-one, who topped international charts in the 1990s with her hit Chains, has released numerous albums, performed on stage, and at the 2000 Sydney Olympics sang The Flame during the Games opening ceremony.

She now lives in France, where she has released French language albums, although is planning a return to Australia to appear as a mentor and judge on a new incarnation of Young Talent Time, due to screen on television in 2012.

Arena will be presented with the Order, founded in 1963 and second only to France's prestigious Legion of Honour, by French Minister for Culture and Communication, Frederic Mitterrand.