Entertainment

Chris Jericho is accustomed to faking it. But the professional wrestler didn't fool the judges on Celebrity Duets. Tuesday night, he was eliminated from the latest "talent" competition featuring people you may or may not have heard of.

Free of discernable prowess, actor/pot-humor icon Cheech Marin or gold-medal-winning gymnast Carly Patterson of Allen could as easily have been the first to go. Well, there's always next week. That's when viewers begin whittling the remaining field of seven celebrities not known for their singing talents even among those who know who they are.

Fox's Duets is the most recent example of an emerging reality TV genre that tries to put D-list celebrities out of their comfort zone – if that's even possible – and it's all for charity. The winner receives $100,000 for his or her favorite cause. The show looks like it spent less than that on production values despite backing from American Idol -rich Simon Cowell.

Claims that this group of mostly actors had vocal chops proved to be an overstatement except when it came to the two contestants with – you guessed it – professional singing experience. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Jai Rodriguez and actor Alfonso Ribeiro (Silver Spoons, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) have starred in Broadway musicals, and it showed. (Mr. Jericho has a rock band that releases its own records. Enough said.) As the title suggests, the celebs were paired with real singers, half of whom appeared to be promoting cover albums, the latest craze among legends late in their careers. Why else would they do it? Randy Travis, Smokey Robinson, Michael Bolton, Gladys Knight, Peter Frampton, James Ingram, Lee Ann Womack and Michelle Williams may be asking themselves the same thing.

Marie Osmond was the most levelheaded of the three judges, accentuating the positive without purely sugarcoating the truth.

Songwriter-producer David Foster played the contrarian, doubting Mr. Ribeiro and audience favorite Hal Sparks (Talk Soup, Queer as Folk), who occupied the second tier along with actresses Lea Thompson (Back to the Future, Caroline in the City) and Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess).

Little Richard was the Paula Abdul with his stream-of-consciousness ramblings. He also flashed bawdy humor and sly putdowns. "I didn't know you sing," he told wobbly warbler Mr. Marin. "Did you know you sing?"

Later, he appeared excited by Ms. Lawless' sultry duet with Mr. Robinson, "Ooo Baby Baby." "It made my big toe shoot up in my boot," he said.

In the end, Mr. Jericho's fate was "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" after he butchered the Stevie Wonder classic.

E-mail mmendoza@dallasnews.com

Celebrity Duets

C- 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays starting next week, Fox (Channel 4). Hosted by Wayne Brady. 1 hr.