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Showtime at the Apollo is back — and it’s ready for its prime-time close-up.
The live talent competition from the famed Harlem theater — launching spot for renowned entertainers such as Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder — was a late-night staple from 1987 to 2008. Its new weekly reboot on Fox premieres March 1 at 9 p.m. ET.
Emmy Award-winning Steve Harvey, 61, who credits the Apollo for launching his own stand-up career, will fit hosting duties into his already packed TV show docket ... now that a network is finally taking his advice to bring back the show.
“I have been telling them for years that this show should be on prime-time TV, but nobody listened to me,” he says. “But now that I have several proven shows on TV everybody goes, ‘What does Steve want to do?’ I am so busy, but the show means so much to me.”
Here, Harvey shares his thoughts about the brutally honest Apollo audience and how the father of seven keeps churning out hits of his own.
Host Steve Harvey and Sarah Ikumu, from "Britain's Got Talent," on the set of "Showtime at the Apollo."
Fox
Showtime at the Apollo was American Idol before American Idol. What can we expect from the show? How is it different from other talent-search shows?
First of all, there's no panel of judges. The judges are the audience, and for them, the mark is pretty high 'cause they’ve lived in Harlem for years and had all of the greatest entertainers in the world there. They don’t allow for half-stepping.
What makes the Apollo so iconic?
It’s funny, I interviewed Bruno Mars, and he did his last special at the Apollo because his father, a very accomplished musician, told him, "Son, you can perform anywhere in the world but until you do it at the Apollo, you ain’t done nothing." Most people from music backgrounds understand that.
I have introduced so many people on that stage over the years. It is the ultimate proving ground because if you can perform at the Apollo, you pretty much know you can make it anywhere.
