Show apologizes for 'Make-A-Wish' remark

'Superstar USA' told audience contestants helping charity

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updated 12:38 p.m. ET May 12, 2004

LOS ANGELES - The company producing an upcoming spoof of talent shows apologized for invoking the name of the Make-A-Wish Foundation during filming.

A producer of “Superstar USA,” which features untalented and unwitting singers, told a studio audience the contestants were being helped by Make-A-Wish. The group serves those with a life-threatening illness.

It was an apparent effort to keep the audience from jeering the contestants, who aren’t in on the joke.

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“In the course of the setup for one of the live performances, one of the producers ad-libbed something to the audience — who had been paid to be there — that may have offended someone in the audience, and for that we sincerely apologize,” said a statement this week from Next Entertainment.

The remark was not intended to be in the show and won’t be included in its broadcast, said the statement from Mike Fleiss’ (“The Bachelor”) company.

Warner Bros. Telepictures Productions, which is producing “Superstar USA” with Next Entertainment, issued its own comment.

“When you are trying to spoof the talent show genre and America’s obsession with instant celebrity and personal makeover, you risk offending certain people,” Warner said, describing the show as a “satirical hoax.”

The talent contest re-emerged as a hot TV genre with “American Idol,” a ratings winner for Fox. It produced its own anti-star, William Hung, whose inept singing and dancing have gained him a measure of fame.

“Superstar USA” debuts Monday on the WB network.