‘America’s Got Talent’ returning to Las Vegas

All roads lead to Las Vegas. Including the one that leads "America's Got Talent" back to Neon Nirvana for the fifth time in six years.

Moving over from the Palms, the NBC talent competition checks into Planet Hollywood's Theater for the Performing Arts on Wednesday for an eight-day stay.

During the closed-set shoot, "Talent" judges Howie Mandel, Sharon Osbourne and Piers Morgan will conduct callbacks for hundreds of acts, choosing about four dozen to compete on the show, explains executive producer Jason Raff .

Planet Hollywood's "great big stage" provides an ideal setting for the showbiz hopefuls, Raff notes -- as does Las Vegas as a whole.

Las Vegas "is the point" of the show, he says, because "if you're a variety act, you want to be in Las Vegas."

Just ask Mirage headliner Terry Fator, a previous "America's Got Talent" winner, or last season's victor, singer Michael Grimm, who returns to Green Valley Ranch for a concert next week. From magician Nathan Burton to Recycled Percussion, "we are taking over Vegas," Raff says of previous "America's Got Talent" contenders.

The Las Vegas shoot will provide three hours of TV -- one hourlong episode and one two-hour installment -- scheduled to air July 5 and 6. ("America's Got Talent" begins its sixth-season run May 31 with footage of the show's cross-country tryout tour .)

Road Range: Driving around Las Vegas can be an adventure.

That's one way to describe a Range Rover TV commercial scheduled to continue a three-day shoot today and Tuesday.

The international ad, titled "Loud City," will feature 25 "little Vegas vignettes" to be intercut with shots of a new Range Rover cruising the town, past such very Vegas sights as Cirque-like street performers and assorted Elvis impersonators riding motorcycles.

The ad's producer and director "love downtown," so many of the vignettes will spotlight Glitter Gulch, notes Chris Ramirez of Las Vegas-based Lola Pictures, who's serving as the local producer, coordinating with officials from the British advertising agency behind the spot.

Planned locations include the Golden Nugget pool and casino, Binion's, the Little White Wedding Chapel and the Tod Motor Motel.

Tonight's schedule calls for a rock band on the roof of the Emergency Arts building, where Lola Pictures is headquartered.

Chances are, they'll all look great -- because Matthew Libatique , "Black Swan's" Oscar-nominated cinematographer, is the ad's director of photography.

Lola Pictures cast 60-70 featured performers for the spot, along with about 200 extras and 50 local crew members, Ramirez reports.

Also expected on the road(s) in Southern Nevada this week: History's "Top Gear," which is scheduled to gear up from Mount Charleston to the Strip later this week.

Quick hits: Also on this week's location schedule, the travel show "Next Stop," which airs in syndication -- and as in-flight entertainment on sponsor Alaska Airlines' planes, according to host and executive producer Jon Olson . The half-hour episode, which debuts in August, will focus on "everything but the Strip," visiting the Fremont Street Experience, Lake Las Vegas and Black Canyon (for whitewater rafting), among other destinations.

And Style's reality series "Giuliana & Bill" is expected back in Las Vegas on Thursday for a four-day visit. E! News anchor Giuliana Rancic and husband Bill plan to be downtown and on the Strip; one of their stops includes a Saturday afternoon stint hosting at Palazzo's Azure Luxury Pool.

Carol Cling's Shooting Stars column appears
Mondays. Contact her at (702) 383-0272
or ccling@reviewjournal.com.