Raven-Symon to Star in Broadway's 'Sister Act'

Raven-Symon will take over the leading role of Deloris Van Cartier in the Broadway musical "Sister Act." Tony and Olivier Award nominee Patina Miller, who currently plays Van Cartier, will give her final performance on Sunday, March 18. Symon will begin starring in the production on Tuesday, March 27."Finding an actress who can play Deloris in Sister Act is no easy feat," said producer Whoopi Goldberg in a press release. "Luckily for us, Raven is more than up to the challenge and I think audiences are going to be wowed by her performance;we couldn't be more excited that she's joining the company."Symon most recently starred on the Emmy-nominated Disney Channel TV show "That's So Raven" and ABC Family's "State of Georgia." She also appeared on NBC's long-running hit "The Cosby Show" and has recorded several music albums. This will be the 26-year-old's Broadway debut. She is not the only former Disney Channel star to be gracing the Great White Way this season. Nick Jonas of "Jonas L.A." is currently headlining the revival of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." "Performing on Broadway has always been a dream of mine and I am beyond thrilled to be making my debut with this role in such a fantastic show," said Symon in a press release. "I can't wait to get onstage and share her story with audiences eight times a week.""Sister Act" is a musical adaptation of the 1992 film of the same name, which starred Goldberg as a lounge singer hiding out in a convent while on the run from the mob. The production will celebrate its first anniversary on Broadway on April 20.

Mixed recent results for nets' weekend fare

The broadcast systems do a reasonably good job of delivering rankings for that low-ranked weekend hrs with unscripted and news programs -- but not every one of them work. Fox struck out Saturday using its Jennifer Lopez-fronted Latin Americas talent show "Q' Viva! The Selected." And on a single evening, NBC's burnoff of "The Firm" ongoing to create small amounts. Based on preliminary Nielsen national estimations for Saturday, "Q' Viva" came only .7 rating/2 be part of grown ups 18-49 and a pair of.two million audiences overall from eight to ten p.m. -- behind ABC, Univision and CBS within the demo. 1 week earlier, Fox did single. rating for Saturday by having an hour of "Cops" along with a repeat of "The Finder." And also at NBC, "The Firm" -- demoted from Thursday recently -- settled for any prelim .4/one in 18-49 and a pair of.two million audiences, doing exactly the same demo score since it's repeat "Smash" lead-in. Faring better on Saturday was ABC's limited-run news series "20/20: My Extreme Affliction" (prelim 1.3/4 in 18-49, 4.9 million), which compares the lives of individuals with a few of medicine's most two opposites or who've unbelievable capabilities. It won from 9-11 p.m. using the net's best showing within the slot because the Miss America Pageant in The month of january. As well as on Friday, the Large Four have started to the realization that alternative series are the best way to use the outlet hour, where roughly just 30% from the country's under-50 adult human population is watching tv. CBS and NBC began the growing season with costly scripted skeins "A Gifted Guy" and "Chuck," correspondingly, but go inside a new direction this winter. On Friday, the attention won with feel-good reality show "Undercover Boss" (prelim 2./7 in 18-49, 9.six million) and NBC was around the upswing with genealogy-designed reality show "Who Do You Consider You're?Inch (prelim 1.5/5 in 18-49, 7.six million), which appeared to obtain a week-to-week boost by spotlighting Reba McEntire. ABC remains enhanced within the hour too with entreprenuerial-designed reality show "Shark Tank" (second-place 1.7/6 in 18-49, 6.a million) and Fox is solid with Gordon Ramsey restaurant skein "Kitchen Bad dreams." Despite a repeat "Kitchen Bad dreams" within the mix (1./3 in 18-49), the Large Four combined for any combined 6.2/20 in grown ups 18-49 in Friday's 8 o'clock hour -Up from the 4.4/15 around the comparable evening last year. Also of rankings note over the past weekend would be a strong perf for "Saturday Evening Live," located by She. The show averaged a 5.5 household rating/14 be part of Nielsen's metered-market overnights, its the second best result of year (behind just the evening NBC broadcast a Saturday playoff game in primetime). Contact Ron Kissell at ron.kissell@variety.com