By Daily Press staff
You don’t need to go coast to coast to find new talent to idolize. All you need is access to cable channels.
Downbeat Showdown on CityTV of Santa Monica Channel 16 and LA 36 is hosted by popular hip hop poet, actor and teacher Joe Hernandez-Kolski, a.k.a. “Pocho Joe.” The show will take his Downbeat 720 show to television. Most Santa Monicans know Downbeat 720 as a safe, free mentoring forum for teens to express their talents in front of an audience and have fun while gaining confidence on and off the stage.
“Downbeat Showdown is a true talent competition for eighth to 12th graders inspired by the wonderful success of our 4-year-old Downbeat 720 high school open-mic program at the Miles Memorial Playhouse,” said Santa Monica’s cultural arts supervisor, Justin Yoffe.
Kids compete in three categories: singer, band and poet. Viewers are judges and you can vote either as a member of the audience when the show is taped live — at the Miles Memorial Playhouse at 7:30 p.m. every Tuesday from Feb. 21 to March 21 — or online at www.DownBeatShowdown.org. Online voting starts the following Thursday at noon and goes to Sunday at midnight. Competitors in each category will compete Feb. 21, Feb. 28 and March 7. The championship round is on March 14, and the final winners will perform on March 21.
Each show will air seven times on CityTV: 8 p.m. Thursdays, and 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. each Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The show will air Saturdays beginning Feb. 25 on LA 36 at 10 p.m. For more information, contact CityTV station manager Robin Gee at (310) 458-8590. Pre-Oscars at the library
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 22, 2006. Read the original PDF.