True Jackson VP is a new show from Nickelodeon that will air this Saturday Night at 9:30pm. It features KeKe Palmer (Akeelah the Bee & Disney Channel's Jump In) being the star of the show. Her character, True Jackson is 15 yrs old & she has just landed herself a dream job. Becoming VP at a fashion empire. Here is some information about KeKe Palmer's new show.

Nickelodeon - True Jackson VP

Looks like a good show. I'll probably see it on Saturday night since I have nothing to do this weekend.

I just saw the two episodes on Turbonick.

It's cute. Nothing really good, but it would be good to watch if there's nothing else on. I'm glad that they're plenty of adults running around instead of the kid characters completely dominating everything. Keke Palmer is a decent enough actress and I like that True has a bit of character to her instead of being the Canon Sue that usually dominates these types of shows.

My fave character is the receptionist guy.

I caught this OnDemand. I thought it was cute fluff.

I also loved the receptionist.

I saw the first episode of this and thought it was really bad. KP is not what I'd call a great comedic actress. (Not that she's any worse than the leads on a lot of these shows.) Also, her two best friends...well, Lily and Oliver they ain't. And I found the female BFF especially annoying and obnoxious. And the cute love interest seemed oddly smarmy to me. Although I think they were going for mysterious and enigmatic or something.

And, even for a teen show, this dropped the ball on the humor more than once. A lot of the "jokes" got not one laugh from me or the audience. And since the audience usually laughs at everything even remotely funny on these kinds of shows, that's saying something.

However, the female adult antagonist (Amanda, I think) was pretty funny.

Of course, I often dislike the first eps of these shows only to have them become guilty pleasures. (Hannah Montana.) But I really don't see that happening with TJVP.

I'm happy to see that the love interest will be returning next week. I've actually missed the character because he was introduced in the pilot and just sorta disappeared.

I'm just glad to see one of my favorite stand-up comics, Greg Proops get some work. He's well used here as True's boss.

If anyone doesn't remember he was a regular on "Who's Line is it Anyway?"

I love the wardrobe and hair on this show.

The show as a whole is okay. Nothing too exciting.

I thought the most recent episode was good. It was nice to see Andy Richter in something recently. As a whole, I thought it was the best episode to date and am glad that True isn't as selfish as the girls on Disney (*cough* Miley Stewart*cough*Alex Russo*cough*). Thought the elaborate Chess gameboard set with the cast dressed up as Chess pieces was hysterical. And I must say that the scenes with Kopelman are actually hilarious.

Ashley (aka Lulu) does seem talented. And what is nice is how humble the stars have managed to be.

Keke Palmer confirmed on her myspace that she is planning to do a new movie called "Oreo", which is based off a book. The story is about parents who decide they don't want to take care of they're kids anymore, so they turn them into adoption and run off. When the oldest grows up (Keke), she tries to find the parents to confront them on why they didn't raise them and become irresponsible. It's said that they plan on shooting the movie either later this year or early next year.

Out of curiosity, how do we know these kids are humble? If they are, maybe it's because outside of Keke they aren't all that famous. Or because their show just started and isn't exactly a staggering hit yet.

I didn't see the new episode, so I have no opinion on that. But nothing I've seen from sidekick girl impresses me. Lulu is just straight up annoying as of right now. The guy friend is pretty much just there. As of now as far as sidekicks on kids shows go, these two are pretty forgettable.

I think both Ashley Argota (Lulu) and Matt Shively (Ryan) are pretty funny and add a lot to the show. Lulu can be annoying sometimes but also very hilarious, unlike on Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place", where the best friend on that show (Harper) is just gratingly annoying and not funny at all.

From what I saw in they're interview with Entertainment Tonight, they all seem pretty humble and down to earth:

Keke's ET Online Profile

From what I've seen in the ratings, the show is a smash hit and (according to Keke's myspace) is renewed for a second season.

I think Nick is making a comeback with they're shows and movies (iCarly, True Jackson VP, H20, Spectacular, Merry Christmas Drake & Josh) and that the overrated Disney, despite good ratings, should take note.

I dunno, Lulu and Ryan are pretty much the same character, except different genders. It kind of gets annoying that True seems to be the only one with any sense in the show, but it isn't annoying because unlike most teen girl shows, True isn't very selfish and will admit when she's wrong.

I wasn't making a comparison to Disney and I agree that Harper is incredibly annoying on WOWP. I think she's the worst part of that show. That doesn't make these two any better. I think my issue is that on a lot of these shows, both Nick and Disney, the sidekicks are often the most entertaining part, or rather the most interesting characters. These two don't really have much in the way of personalities and as pointed out by MegaJ, both seem to have the common sense of fleas.

I'm not sure if it's being written that way to overemphasize that True does have it together for the most part. If anything, it makes me question why somebody like True would be besties with two idiots. Let alone have them screwing up her job.

I also will argue that I don't think Spectacular counts as Nick making a comeback. Spectacular hasn't exactly been much of a success. iCarly, yes, for sure.

iCarly is definitely a hit. And iGo To Japan and Merry Christmas, Drake and Josh did outstanding in the ratings. But the rest is questionable. TJVP has good ratings for a Nick show, which is why it was renewed, but it's hardly a smash hit. And Spectacular wasn't a blockbuster by Nick's standards, let alone Disney's. (Because, if you want to be the next HSM, less than 4 million viewers ain't gonna cut it.)

As for DC being overrated, I don't think it is. At the moment, and for several years, its been the more successful of the two networks when it came to original live-action movies and series. Nick seemed to be doing a good job of catching up, especially late in 2008. But, at the moment, DC is on top. And, in a weird way, I think Nick lost some momentum with Spectacular.

Other way around actually, Nickelodeon still does better overall in the ratings but Disney has been making strides. This is mainly because of Spongebob and Fairly Oddparents...Nickelodeon does a lot better with animated shows and I don't think even Hannah Montana can touch Spongebob.


I think it's on it's way there, Nick has smartly packaged the show with iCarly and this week it seems Miranda Cosgrove and Keke Palmer are going to be promoting Nick shows.

The thing that I like about Nickelodeon over Disney is mainly the fact that their shows are targeted towards both sexes. Despite having a female lead, there's nothing inherently "girly" about iCarly (versus Hannah Montana with all it's girly merchadise and stuff) and it does well in the ratings with both boys and girls. True Jackson is a bit like this too, Ryan's a big enough dope and prominent enough so boys don't feel totally awkward watching this show.

I did say live-action original movies and series. I know Nick's animated shows are very successful. (Although I'd take Phineas and Ferb over either of Nick's two biggies at this point.) But I think they seriously want to be just as successful with their live-action stuff, too.



The merchandising for Hannah Montana might be girl-centric, but the show itself isn't all that girly. In fact, the male characters (Jackson, Oliver, Ricko, even the dad) are featured pretty heavily. Although I can understand why the average male tween would think the show was for girls and wouldn't watch.

I do agree that Disney is probably viewed as a more girl centric network than Nick. I also agree with Bitterswete that in reality a show like Hannah isn't ridiculously girly, but I understand that it is perceived as such, especially with the marketing. Most boys aren't going to admit watching a show of the sort. Then again, I'm also not sure I see them admitting to watching something like True Jackson either, which is set in the world of fashion.

Not to mention that like Hannah, there are clothing lines for iCarly and even if it hasn't been released yet, there will be for True as well. But I do concede that the appeal for iCarly seems to be a bit more gender neutral. Maybe this is something Nick is trying to get back to because for awhile that wasn't true of their programming. Shows like Zoey 101 and Unfabulous certainly weren't geared towards male viewers. Maybe it helps that Miranda Cosgrove was already known from her role on Drake & Josh, a show that was already a hit with male and female viewers.

But I also think Disney has mostly stuck with what's worked for them. I don't think it's entirely a coincidence that minus Suite Life, their last two shows featuring male leads were the two shows the network ended up cancelling before their time.

Definitely. I think the folks at Disney realized DC was losing the boys to other networks, namely Nick. But, while Disney want to keep those male viewers, they don't want to fiddle too much with what's working for them at DC and maybe risk messing things up. So their solution was to launch a whole new network, Disney XD, that's specifically targeted at young male viewers. And I think most young male viewers would pick Aaron Stone (with the fights, action, and cool gadgets) over True Jackson (a show about the wacky goings on at a fashion house).



And even both versions of The Suite Life have been almost as much about the female characters as the twin boys.

I do agree that Suite Life has been just as much about London, Maddie, Bailey, etc. as Dylan and Cole are, thus both versions doing well. Both Phil of the Futureand Cory In The House didn't have those female charecters featured predominately enough, thus neither show making it past a season three.

Although I do realize that Disney is mostly about girls (Hannah Montana, Raven, Lizzie, Sonny, Selena of WOWP, Naturally Sadie, Cheetah Girls, HSM, etc.) that the only way a show will work for both is if it's like Even Stevens and Life With Derek, about feuding brother/sister relationships.

But TJVP has mananged to be a success on Nick without True being as self absorbed as the girls on Disney. With Raven, Miley, and Selena's charecter on WOWP, they only doing things for themselves and put other's feelings to the side, whereas, in this recent episode, True confesses to the accountant about spending money on the company's credit card and shows good examples. Something that's rare to see on a Nick/Disney show, especially on Disney.

Well a common theme on all of these shows is that the main character does something wrong, realizes they did wrong, confesses, and learns a valuable lesson. So True did something wrong, felt bad about it and confessed to it. How's that different from what typically happens on a Disney show?

The difference was (if you saw the episode) that True, although felt bad about what she did and schemed at first, went to the accountant to straighten out things. Whereas on WOWP, Alex would usually scheme and screw up on purpose over and over again, not learning her lesson till the end. Not to compare, although that's a bad habit I seem to be having.

Alex is a special case. Most lead characters on DC shows end up feeling bad after their scheming, just like True, so there's no real difference there. But, as someone over in the Wizards of Waverly Place thread concluded, they seem to have decided Alex works better as an unapologetic bitch who doesn't often feel bad about the trouble her scheming causes, which makes her unique among Disney and Nick heroines.

The thing with True, is that it seems like while she does learn lessons and stuff, like 90% of the kids in kidcoms, she's not actively getting into trouble. Unlike Raven, or Hannah (Easily Forgiven...) most of the hijinks she gets into aren't really her fault/innocent mistakes/little stupid teenage stuff with no malice. And she seems very earnest and honest and WANTS to improve at her job and prove she deserves to be there at Mad Style.

Despite my dislike for the character, I do like that she's different from most of the kidcom female leads. I usually find myself rooting against her all the time. Total Jerkass.

Even though I realize that realism isn't exactly the intended goal on any of these Nick/Disney tween shows, and they all have major logic loopholes, I've come to realize that my biggest problem with this show is I can't get beyond the premise, or at least how that premise is executed. I can possibly buy in the far reaches of my brain that True, who seems like a fairly together and responsible girl, might get a job at Mad Style (Is that even the name of the company?). C'mon, I grew up on the likes of Doogie Howser.

But the last episode I saw was with the corporate retreat and the secrets, and while I was glad to see Dave Foley, there are like maybe nine people max at the retreat thingy, four of whom are the kids. Not to mention the receptionist and a temp.

Then I'm supposed to swallow that the head of this huge corporation is confiding info about possibly selling the company to sidekick #1 as they have a heart to heart in his office? Heck, who needs business advisors when you can just sort out all your problems by talking to a teenage airhead?

I don't know. The setup is just so beyond reality that I feel like the show would be better played as if the show knew it was in on the joke, or if it was played out more in true fantasy style. But the show plays everything so earnestly I find it hard to take.

Other than True Jackson & that assistant who can't stand her (Amanda), I'm still not feeling this show. Why does True have to have such morons (LuLu & Ryan) as her friends? Her friends are not funny & they're very irritating. Both LuLu & Ryan are making me hating this show. Poor True Jackson.

As for the show, even though Hannah Montana isn't as great as it used to be, True Jackson VP will never reach their popularity. I don't think it will be even as remotely popluar & entertaining as iCarly. At least, iCarly have Seddie (Sam & Freddie) that you can really like.

Actually, the latest ep of TJVP beat Hannah Montana. It got 4.4million while HM got 4.2 million and iCarly beat the crap out of pretty much every cable show this week. I think the success of HM, ratings wise, is often overestimated. It usually gets around the 3/4 million mark, which is good, but most of the relatively successful tween shows like Wizards Of Waverly Place/repeats of iCarly/TJVP and even Sonny With A Chance gets about that much as well.

I'm not a fan of TJVP and I much prefer iCarly and even HM over it. The characters (True, Lulu and Ryan) failed to interest me the first time I watched, so I find it hard to be invested in the show, but I think it's doing just fine with the ratings. Granted it's not as much of a runaway hit as iCarly and doesn't have a "star" like Miley as the lead, but I'm sure Nick is happy with how it's doing.

Well, it had the huge lead-in from iLookAlike. I don't think we'll get a true sense where the ratings are until there's enough episodes to repeat often. Though TJVP didn't do too badly against Wizards that Monday Spectacular! premiered.


Lulu and Ryan are basically the same character and it annoys me greatly. I wouldn't miss them if they were taken out completely.

Nick also pimped TJ pretty hard leading up to those episodes. And there's nothing wrong with that. But will they have to keep pimping it that hard to get good results, or will it eventually take off on its own.

The ratings the night of Spectacular's premiere say TJ isn't a very strong show yet. While it tends to do well following iCarly (especially a well-rated iCarly), it does not so well without iCarly as a lead in.

I hadn't even noticed that the two friends are essentially playing the same character until it was pointed out here. But yep, they pretty much are. Which also explains why the friends aren't working. Most of these shows have relatively memorable sidekicks, who wind up not only being funny on their own, but they can essentially hold down at least a subplot just by playing off each other. Lulu and Ryan don't work because when they play off each other, they are essentially the same, so the dynamic is just totally flat.

Exactly. Carly has Sam and Freddie, Miley has Lilly and Oliver. In both those cases the actors play off each other really well and are interesting on their own (more interesting than the main character IMO) making it easy for the writers to take focus off the main character and give the sidekicks screentime. I just don't get that from Lulu and Ryan and I don't even see much chemistry between either of them and True.

I don't know, maybe this show and the characters might grow on me if I keep watching, but I just can't get myself to keep watching this show. I don't dislike any of the characters and I quite like Keke Palmer, but I just can't get invested.

I think this show is improving. The newest episode had the blonde from MAD TV as well as Racheal Harris, who was like a Joan Rivers spoof on the red carpet. I thought she was real funny. This show seems to take to the "mature" route that other Nick shows have taken in terms of jokes.

I only caught the very beginning since it was on right after iCarly, but I have to say Ashley Aragota (sp?) has gorgeous hair. It's just so long and shiny and thick. I envy her.

And is that guy who "holds" True at the beginning supposed to be the love interest? He's pretty bland.

I think that Lulu's hair is a little too long. She could get a haircut or at least trim it a bit.

Yep, that guy holding True in the beginning of the episode is Jimmy and he is supposed to be her crush. I think he's supposed to be the added "eye candy" to the show.

I think the funniest of the show are Greg Proops and the guy who plays Kopelman.

What mature route is this show taking in terms of jokes? There's still plenty of the tripping and falling and/or physical type humor.

In terms of some of the jokes like Ryan thinking another guy was attractive.

Some people thought that True's dress that she wore at the Stuntie awards was revealing. I think may just be seeing things. I didn't see anything revealing about it.

EDIT: I'm looking at a rerun of the episode and her ta-tas do looked tweaked enough that you can see them through the purple dress.

Yeah, I noticed True had a little headlight thing going on with the dress. The director should have noticed.

TJVP ratings from Saturday

The latest episode, "Red Carpet", got over 2.6 million viewers. Still a hit but an obvious drop from last episode.

Not to be a thorn in the constant Disney vs. Nick ratings war and I also realize it's harder to compare the shows directly since the nets don't even air their stuff on the same night, but those numbers are not all that great for a new episode of True. Not that they are horrible on their own exactly, but True finished behind all of Disney's Sunday night line-up, and both Wizards and Sonny weren't even airing new episodes. Granted though iCarly's numbers were down too for whatever reason, so True didn't quite get the lead-in it usually gets.

Maybe this show is too dependent on iCarly at the moment? I still think it's doing well enough for a new show without being an overwhelming success, but anytime it doesn't have the iCarly lead in or iCarly has a bad ratings night, this show suffers.

I agree with that Lizzie. I totally get why they pair this up along with iCarly. Of course they are hoping that ratings magic will rub off here. Understandably so. But I agree in the sense that I don't think this show is enough of a draw yet to be a stand alone. Maybe it will in time, but as of right now not so much. As it is, iCarly had an off night and yet True still bled well over a million viewers from it's lead-in.

I'm more trying to figure out why iCarly was so off it's game on Sat. I don't think whether it's a good or bad episode much matters because likely once regular viewers are tuned in they aren't going to change the channel as long as it's a new episode, which it was. Was there something major on Saturday that would draw the attention of kids?

Hannah was about par for the course, but that's Sunday. And the other Disney shows were repeats.

Lack of aggressive promotion maybe? I remember seeing the iLook Alike "event" promo almost every few minutes on Nick, but the iWant My Website Back promo was released much closer to the actual airing and wasn't plastered over every commercial break. I have no idea what else was on at the time though, so there could've been some other show or event pulling the kids away.

I just saw this episode of TJVP and I actually thought it was quite funny, especially at the end with all the stunt people. I usually don't laugh at the jokes on this show, but the new episode was a first for me. Also, I LOVED the dress Lulu wore at the end. I covet it.

If ratings were depressed across the board Saturday night, but less so on Sunday, it tells me that a line heard in a lot of households last weekend was "watch True/Carly/whatever one of the dozens of times it's rerun in the next week or two-- I'm watching the basketball tournament tonight."

Which, by the way, might also appeal to some of the tween/teen audience that normally would watch these shows.

I think that Keke will make a smooth transition from child star to adult star, unlike the others on Disney. I mean, she's already starred in Akeelah and the Bee, as well as Madea's Family Reunion, and the Sundance premiered Shrink with Kevin Spacey. Therefore, she has the more repsectful career, unlike the overhyped Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, who will have a harder time shaking off they're Disney days. How many stars of Disney and Nick in the past several years can say that they worked with Kevin Spacey.

I kind of forgot that the one playing Jimmy was on Life With Derek as Casey's boyfriend.

I don't think Keke is that great an actress to tell you the truth. I watch her in Akeelah and the Bee, then I watch her in something more recent, and I don't see a whole lot of improvement.

However, I do think the fact that she was known before (and is still known beyond) her work on Nick (and Disney Channel) will help her transition to non DC/Nick stuff more easily. But that's more luck than anything else. When an actor is first starting out, they will take what they can get, basically. They're just happy to get work. But there's always a chance that the first thing an actor becomes widely known for will also end up typecasting them. It just so happened that KP was first recognized for the types of projects that don't really have that typecasting side effect.

I agree with Biterswete. I like Keke and I liked her from what I saw of her pre-Disney/Nick, but she's not in the same situation the others are. If she had gotten her big break with Nick or Disney, she would be having the same trouble shedding that image that the others do. She would be typecast as a Nick or Disney kid. Fortunately for her, she became recognized in the industry for Akeelah and the Bee and got some respect from the industry pre going the Nick route. As a result, she will have an easier time transitioning out of this phase.

Is it luck? I don't know. I do agree that at the beginning of any actors career it's generally luck of the draw. You take what you can get. And while I find Keke talented, I don't think she's any more talented than some of her Nick/Disney peers. She just has more street cred due to her pre Nick/Disney work.

I have a feeling will see some Luyan (Lulu and Ryan) later on in the show, probably within the next several episodes. They seem very compatible to me.

Also, Jennette McCurdy (aka Sam of "iCarly") will guest star on an upcoming episode as a leader of "the Pinks", a group of girls that are the popular girls in True, Lulu and Ryan's school that bully those that aren't as popular (like True and Lulu). True will be trying to impress them in an upcoming episode.

I gave this show another try because it was on after iCarly. I'm still not loving it, but I find myself laughing more when I watch it. Jimmy chasing Lulu around frantically with the whistle and everything was pretty funny as was Amanda trying to work the copy machine. Is "Kopelman" some sort of inside joke that I'm not getting?

I could see them putting Lulu and Ryan together at some point (there seems to be a bit of an awesome "sidekick pairing" revolution going on right now), but they're practically the same person, so I dunno. I can even see potential in Lulu/Jimmy as crazy as that sounds. I don't get True/Jimmy. There's no spark there.

Ratings are in for the new episode of TJVP and "Switcheroo" received 3.65 million viewers. Obviously, iCarly does help this show a lot in terms of ratings.

Did they change the actor who plays Jimmy? Maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't thin the Jimmy that drove the gang to the Stunties is the same Jimmy whose band played at that dance.