Good question. We'd forgotten all about this and confess we had no clue as to the answer. Once we got to researching it, our lack of knowledge became less surprising, however, since it turned out to be pretty tricking finding out much about this show, including who won.
Here's the background. In January 2005, Wayne Newton started a reality television show on "E!" called "The Entertainer." It was based on a similar formula to the likes of "American Idol," "X Factor," "America's Got Talent," and so on, with 10 hopefuls from different disciplines (singers, dancers, a magician, etc.), chosen from a pool of over 25,000 hopefuls, battling it out in various challenges, with losers eliminated during the course of the 12-episode run. The best performers were promised a spot on Newton's next tour (a promise on which he evidently delivered, judging by some comments we read on chat forums, where people had seen the live shows), with a grand prize to the winner stated as being a $1-million, year-long gig headlining in their own Vegas production. Wow, that's some prize!
In fact, it sounded so awesome as to not make sense, since even already-famous acts that tank will find themselves unceremoniously dumped, regardless of how long of a run they may have been offered. If the Box Office receipts don't justify the residency, you're out, no matter who you are or how much your catastrophe may have cost. (Witness, for example, the early close of Viva Elvis from that Las Vegas darling and seemingly untouchable stable called Cirque du Soleil; Criss Angel likely only made it past his disastrous and justifiably lambasted debut on the Strip because BeLIEve was "too big to fail" and its demise would have left too much egg on too many faces.) What casino in its right mind would guarantee a full year headlining in their showroom, for a million-dollar salary, no less, to a complete unknown? Well, it turns out that casino was the Las Vegas Hilton (which has had a habit of making some questionable decisions on the entertainment front, to say the least), whose penthouse suite acted as HQ for the shows. But more of that later...
So, while grand ringmaster Newton appeared as "Himself," and evidently "punk'd" the players each week with trickery and surprises, the other contenders were dubbed with character titles including: The Magic Man; The Country Girl; The Showstopper; The Sexy Diva; The New Yawker; The Wild One; The Joker; The Wise Guy; The Temptress; and The Ice Queen, and in each episode there was some kind of challenge, pitting individuals or teams of contestants against each other. To give an idea, episode titles included: "Street Performing," "Vegas Tourism Commercial," "Dueling Lounge Acts," and "Concierge Challenge," the official hyperbole for which read as follows:
Wow, talk about drama. This episode kicks off with some high-stepping excitement, as a pair of sexy showgirls escort the gang to a party in the penthouse--complete with entertainment, beautiful Australians and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. [Ed: Wow, indeed! All that, AND Wayne Newton? Who could ask for anything more?] Then the cast heads out to Wayne's estate, where he escorts the contestants around the grounds. And what a tour it is: Wayne shows off his horses, his fleet of cars and trophy room with notes, photos and memorabilia from friends and fans, like Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. Oh, and we meet Charlie, Wayne's penguin. Yes, penguin. [Ed: What? There's a penguin? You can keep the Australians AND the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, if we can have the penguin. Loveloveloves us some penguin.] Then on to the challenge. Nat and Theresa choose teams that will perform the duties of a concierge. Nat's team must plan and execute a bachelorette party, while Theresa's group has the challenge not only of planning a couple's renewal of vows that involves a four-legged ring bearer, but they must also compete without Paul. Both events succeed--don't miss Joe's contribution to the conclusion of the bachelorette party--and though there's some tension over who might be eliminated, Wayne sets his sights on Paul. Wayne tells Paul that he will learn more from his mistakes than from his successes, and then he eliminates him."
What any of this has to do with honing a headlining Las Vegas act currently escapes us, but whatever it is, Paul ("The Wild One") evidently didn't have it. Not to worry, though, as apparently the shows were aired in the wrong order and Paul was back the following week!
Perhaps the reason for the scant information available online about this forgotten (at least by us) reality show can be deduced from one reader review we read, that went like this:
"Even though the show never caught on with the mainstream, it has remained a cult favorite since 'E!' broadcast it last spring. Never before had a reality show that had been doing so poorly, intentionally and repeatedly prolonged its run by having numerous non-elimination episodes. Showbiz veteran Wayne Newton took 10 hopefuls and wrung them through the wringer, by tricking them time after time. While the show itself wasn’t always 'good,' it was always fun to watch Wayne mess with the contestants. However, it was never fun to watch Wayne himself, as he looked he walked out of a plastic-factory accident...All in all, this show needs to come back, and have more characters take the same bad advice again and again."
When it came to finding out who actually won, this took us some time, but since magician Nathan Burton, who is currently performing on the Strip and has been for some time, was one of the contestants, we thought perhaps it was him. Wrong! We wrote to Burton's wife/manager, who responded thusly: "I forwarded your message along to Nathan, who asked me to tell you the winner was a singer named Delisco [Ed: "The Showstopper"] and that Wayne was really great to work with."
Aha! So, armed with this new knowledge, we went in search of Delisco, who we do now vaguely remember as having performed somewhere in Las Vegas. That "somewhere" did indeed turn out to be the Las Vegas Hilton, where he closed (according to an old copy of the Las Vegas Advisor newsletter), in January 2006. We subsequently found that Delisco had opened in September 2005, so that's not quite a year, according to our math... (Oh well, who's to call "E!" and the Wayner liars for a mere seven-month discrepancy. And far be it from us to say, "Told you so!" -- see above). As an aside, did Mr Las Vegas personally put up that million-dollar salary, we wonder? We seem to recall reading somewhere that he did and, if so, it makes more sense of the whole unlikely scenario, although it probably also registers pretty prominently in the long string of dubious financial decisions the singer has made. But we digress.
As to Delisco's career post-"The Entertainer" and post-Hilton, according to his website and LinkedIn pages, the "iconoclassic [sic.] showroom performer with orgiastic energy" has since gone on to tour in Europe, headline with the Royal Caribbean International cruise line, play the Venetian Macau, open the new Sands Casino in Singapore, and star (as he is currently) as Michael Jackson, in various productions. He's also an independent distributor of the Life Vantage anti-ageing antioxidant product. Oh well, it's a wise performer who doesn't put all his eggs in one basket, and by the sound of it, the boy done good, even if he didn't quite succeed in taking Vegas by storm. Perhaps it was simply a case of his paymaster running out of money.
