NICKELODEON TO PARTNER WITH BABY2BABY
FOR BLUE’S CLUES & YOU! “BLUE FRIDAY” TO HELP PROVIDE ESSENTIALS TO FAMILIES IN NEED THIS HOLIDAY SEASON
Net to Also Premiere Brand-New Blue’s Clues & You! Episodes Filled with Family Fun, Guest Starring Steve Burns, Donovan Patton and Carolyn Fe
Share it: @Nickelodeon #BluesCluesAndYou #BlueFriday
BURBANK, Calif.–Nov. 10, 2020–Nickelodeon is partnering with national nonprofit organization
Baby2Baby this holiday season for the first-ever
Blue’s Clues & You! “Blue Friday,” dedicated to celebrating families, on Friday, Nov. 20. In honor of “Blue Friday,” Nickelodeon will make a donation to Baby2Baby to support their mission of helping kids and families who need it most. The net will also premiere all-new
Blue’s Clues & You! episodes filled with family fun, featuring Josh’s (Josh Dela Cruz) “lola,” his grandmother (Carolyn Fe), and his cousins Steve (Steve Burns) and Joe (Donovan Patton).
Baby2Baby provides children living in poverty, ages 0-12 years, with diapers, clothing and all the basic necessities that every child deserves. Throughout the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis, they have provided over 40 million essential items including diapers, formula, soap, shampoo, masks, hand sanitizer, baby food and more to some of the most vulnerable children across the country impacted by the pandemic.
Viewers can get into the holiday spirit with Josh and his family with two brand-new
Blue’s Clues & You! premieres:
- On Friday, Nov. 20, at 11 a.m. (ET/PT), fans will meet Josh’s “lola” in “Blue’s Big Baking Show,” as Josh and Blue spend the day making bibingka, a cake from the Philippines that is “masarap” (delicious)!
- In the holiday-themed episode, “Blue’s Night Before Christmas,” premiering Friday, Dec. 4, at 11 a.m. (ET/PT), and directed by Burns, Josh and Blue play Blue’s Clues to figure out what Blue wants for Christmas, decorate with Steve, help Joe wrap presents, and celebrate a night full of holiday traditions.
Following the linear premiere of “Blue’s Night Before Christmas,” the episode will be available to watch on Noggin, Nickelodeon’s interactive learning service for preschoolers, beginning Tuesday, Dec. 8. Noggin will continue to spread cheer with a holiday hub featuring over 50 pieces of festive long and short-form content, including: holiday-themed shorts; full-length episodes of hit series
PAW Patrol,
Bubble Guppies,
Peppa Pig and more; games; play-along videos; and e-books.
The new Blue’s Clues & You! consumer products line has been garnering several key industry and consumer awards since it launched at retail this summer. Walmart hosted their first-ever “Top Rated by Kid Toy Awards” last month in a nationally televised special where it was announced that the Blue’s Clues & You! Peek-A-Blue plush won “Most Huggable Toy.” Consistently rated among top preschool toys across all retailers including Walmart, Target and Amazon, fans can play along with Blue’s Clues & You! at home with a consumer products line that incorporates key elements from the show that reinforce problem solving and creative play, and enables them to engage with Blue and Josh in all-new ways. Toys, apparel, sleepwear and other products are currently available at all retailers nationwide.
A remake of the groundbreaking, curriculum-driven interactive series Blue’s Clues, Blue’s Clues & You! has a new generation of preschoolers searching for clues with beloved puppy Blue and new live-action host Josh (Josh Dela Cruz). The series features new CG-animation for Blue and Magenta, brand-new elements and refreshed iconic items from the original series including an updated Handy Dandy Notebook equipped with smartphone technology and the return of fan-favorite characters. The current second season of Blue’s Clues & You! will explore Josh’s Filipino-American heritage by incorporating traditional foods and Tagalog language, and continue to introduce kids to advanced subject matter such as sign language, geography, climate, science and emotions. The series airs regularly weekdays at 11 a.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon.
Baby2Baby is a nonprofit organization led by Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein that provides children living in poverty, ages 0-12 years, with diapers, clothing and all the basic necessities that every child deserves. In the last 9 years, Baby2Baby has distributed over 100 million items to children in homeless shelters, domestic violence programs, foster care, hospitals and underserved schools as well as children who have lost everything in the wake of disaster. Every year, Baby2Baby serves hundreds of thousands of children across the country.
Nickelodeon, now in its 41st year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The brand includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, digital, location based experiences, publishing and feature films. For more information or artwork, visit
http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of ViacomCBS Inc. (Nasdaq: VIACA, VIAC).
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How a Canadian actress is helping kids connect with Filipino culture on U.S. TV
Carolyn Fe appears as beloved grandma Lola on Blue’s Clues & You
Carolyn Fe had no clue her heritage would be under the spotlight after stepping out of her audition for Blue's Clues & You!
The Nickelodeon remake of the popular 1996 educational series Blue's Clues is part of the growing trend of inclusive kids programming that is more reflective of its diverse audience.
The reboot premiered last year with new host Joshua "Josh" Dela Cruz, a Filipino-American. His nationality was a mystery on the show until the preview of an upcoming episode that introduced a new character named Lola, Josh's grandmother, played by Fe.
"I don't know when the idea to bring Lola came, when it came and who decided," says Fe.
"But I am very grateful because this representation really takes us away from the stereotype that everybody else has given us as Filipinos."
The Canadian actress, who calls Toronto home but is now in Montreal staying with her parents during the pandemic, says the show will be an upfront "grounded representation" featuring Tagalog language, food, how the young respect their elders, and other aspects of the Filipino culture at home. She says Lola will be a recurring character.
'We've been silent for so long'
Many Filipinos are immigrants to faraway lands who pride themselves on integrating into new societies and see that as part of who they are. But according to Fe, Blue's Clues & You! pulls back the curtain on the subtleties of what it means to be Filipino and showcases a culture that is rarely noticed.
Fe can relate. She was born in the Philippines but her family then moved to the U.S looking for a better life. They immigrated to Canada when she was eight and settled in Montreal. She moved to Toronto to further her acting career.
The promo for the first episode featuring Fe showcases Dela Cruz greeting Lola with a "mano," a Filipino gesture signifying respect for elders, before sitting down to eat bibingka, a traditional rice cake from the Philippines.
Carlos Bustamante, who spent years hosting YTV's The Zone in the early 2000s, knows full well what the introduction of Fe's character means to Blue's Clues & You. He remembers when he was the Filipino-Canadian face for a generation of kids.
Depicting Filipino tradition and language as a normal, everyday way of life is what Bustamante calls "the most important thing" on the show, and he says something he heard Fe say in an interview resonates with him.
"We've been silent for so long," he quotes her as saying.
Bustamante recalls a time when kids programming introduced different cultures by explaining them to their young viewers.
"The centre is still, for lack of a better term, North American Caucasian kids ... which is why the opposite thing is explained," he told CBC News. But Blues Clues & You! is different, he says.
The "matter of fact" way of depicting culture on the show is what makes differences seem normal rather than emphasizing "otherness," and he says these small acknowledgements mean everything to Filipinos.
'A beloved figure'
"Lola [is] coming in as a beloved figure. Everybody loves their grandmother. That's who she is," Bustamante says.
"To the kids watching, [they say] 'Oh that's Josh's grandma. He loves her like how I love my grandma.' That's a doorway to understanding culture."
The moment Fe clued in to the significance of the show for Filipinos was when she received widespread applause from Filipinos across North America and worldwide, including in the Philippines.
Yet, she says, the work is never done.
She says, while movements like Black Lives Matter still have their own fight, "[Filipinos] now have a platform to work with."
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‘Blue’s Clues & You’ host Joshua Dela Cruz on having a ‘lola’ and eating bibingka on the show
Los Angeles — It is always a joy and pride when ceilings are broken in Hollywood and a Filipino actor like Joshua Dela Cruz comes along to host a popular children’s show on television like “Blue’s Clues & You.”
The good looking and charming 29-year-old Joshua, who was chosen out of 3,000 actors who auditioned for the part, considers himself lucky for bagging the coveted gig as host of the rebooted Nickelodeon children’s TV series.
The Broadway veteran who performed in such shows as “The King and I,” “Aladdin,” “Encores! Merrily We Roll Along” and David Byrne’s “Here Lies Love,” is humble about his major breakthrough role making him the first Filipino, the first Asian American host of the iconic show after former hosts Steve Burns and Donovan Patton.
The second season of “Blue’s Clues & You” even introduced Joshua’s grandmother (lola) in the person of actress Carolyn Fe and of them eating a favorite Filipino delicacy, the bibingka (rice cake).
We were able to interview Joshua recently and below are excerpts of our conversation:
How does it feel to be the only Filipino-American hosting a children’s show on mainstream television?
I am so blessed and I'm so excited to go to work every day. I love my job. I love the people that I'm working with. Our second season is airing. We're filming our third season, and I still can't believe that I get to do this for a living. I never saw myself on television. I never saw myself reflected in a way that I related to and where I could be silly and vulnerable and ask for help. And I get to do all of these things in this show and help kids now all over the world now that we're there in the Philippines and Brazil and Australia, not just the States. And so I'm so happy. I'm ecstatic. And I still can't believe it. It's weird.
You have a Lola in this season. Talk about having Carolyn Fe and working with her.
She is amazing. She is so funny. She is so talented. She's an incredible musician and an incredible actor.
When we first met, we got along so well instantly. And the fact that I get to be a Filipino-American in this role, on this kind of show, and the fact that we get a lola and that Carolyn is our lola and introduces the entire world outside of the Philippines — that lola is grandma, that mano is showing love and respect. And that bibingka is just pure joy is so incredible. It's incredible that we get to celebrate who we are on such a stage, and in doing so, connect us all together. That just because we say things differently, it doesn't mean that we're all that different. That we all are related. That we're all connected.
You have done a lot theater also. Do you miss doing theater?
I do. I miss theater so much. There's nothing like doing a show live in front of an audience and feeding off of their energy and feeding off of the energy of the cast. And it's the same show technically every night, but it's never the same show every night. There's always something different that's going to happen.
And so I definitely miss it, and I hope to return one day soon. I'm working on a few projects, and I hope that once we're over COVID, they'll pick up and that we'll return to Broadway or return to somewhere in between shooting “Blue's Clues.”
Do you think this is a time where Filipinos are being highlighted in Hollywood? We have like Jon Jon Briones in “Ratched,” Isa Briones on “Star Trek: Picard,” Nico Santos on “Superstore” and Jacob Batalon as well on “Spider-Man.”
You know, it's an amazing time to be alive. We have a lot of leading men and women and Filipino performers and actors that are being celebrated for who they are, not just for the color of their skin or just because they're Filipino.
They get to embody a character for once, and they get to embody a character that isn't a caricature or a joke or a villain or a foreigner. In my case, I get to be a Filipino-American. And those two words are never really spoken in the same sentence. Like when I was growing up, you're either Filipino or you're all American, and all American doesn't look like me. So, it's an incredible time to be alive.
I hope that kids growing up right now and seeing the things that they see on TV, whether they're Filipino or not, they know that anything is possible and that the future is just beginning. So, get in there, work hard, be kind to each other and continue to love what you do.
I know you were born in Dubai, but how Filipino are you? Do you cook Filipino food? Do you speak Tagalog?
So, I'm going to say this. I speak a little bit of Tagalog. I always understand when I'm getting yelled at, but I'm currently learning Tagalog because I want to talk to my lolo fluently while he's still around. So, that's kind of been my side project that I've been working on.
I know I have cooked Filipino food in the past. I've cooked adobo, pancit, biko. Biko is one of my favorite things ever. So in our show, we cook bibingka, but in my family, we cook biko. So, I remember lola making biko and showing my mom her biko recipe. And then my mom showing me her biko recipe. The fact that we share a recipe on our show means so much to me because I can relate to that.
So, Filipino food is something that I love, something that we would cook. My wife and I have made vegan versions of it. So, this is why I say that. I'm maybe a little bit less Filipino than I was maybe four years ago, because we've been vegan for four years. I remember when I told my mom. I was like, "Hey mom." She's like, "Do you want ..." I was like, "Oh, Amanda and I are actually vegan now." She's like, "Why?" (laughs) And we've done it for multitudes of reasons, but we are making vegan Filipino food. And there are more restaurants that are Filipino and vegan.
And so, it's only going to get better and better for vegan Filipinos. We'll be able to call ourselves Filipino once again. (His wife is actress Amanda Phillips.)
Have you been to the Philippines lately?
Not lately. I haven't been to the Philippines in over 10 years now. Oh, I went when I was in high school, right before my older sister was going into college. They wanted us to go home because that was one of the last times, we would all be together. And so I haven't been to the Philippines since then.
I was supposed to be there. Amanda and I were supposed to be there in July. But then unfortunately, the pandemic kind of let loose and scrapped those plans. But I plan to be there as soon as we're on the other side of this and as soon as we're all healed as a world to be able to go back and show Amanda everything that I'm so proud of and everything that has made me who I am today.
Talk about your parents as well. Did they encourage you to become an actor? Or, anybody in the family did? Are your two sisters also into acting?
It's so funny because I think my mom didn't realize what she was doing when she was talking to me. I still watch a lot of TV, but I used to watch a lot of TV growing up, and she used to say, "Josh, you watch so much TV, why don't you just be an actor?" And I remember saying like, "I'm not going to be an actor, mom, I'm going to be a lawyer." And here we are today. I hope to play a lawyer on TV or in a movie one day so that it can kind of come full circle.
So outside of that, no. My sisters were the dancers and they were the performers and I didn't come into performing until later on in my life. And when I did, my sisters were always the ones to give me notes and give me criticisms and help me improve. And so, I remember I got a scholarship to go study musical theater at a conservatory in New Jersey at Paper Mill Playhouse, an incredible regional theater there. Their education outreach is amazing. The shows that they put on are amazing. They make theater accessible. And so I got a scholarship to study there. And that was when I realized that's what I wanted to do for a living. And my parents, they were so scared, but they were incredibly supportive, and my teachers were incredibly supportive.
When we did the show, I remember my parents were just so happy. There was a show at the end of the conservatory, and they were just blown away. Even my sisters, they were like, they gave me a couple of notes, but I remember them smiling and being like good job, and that meant so much to me.
While I am the first actor in the family, I'm definitely not the first performer. That goes to my parents, because they love singing, and then to my sisters because they taught me how to become a better performer when they would watch me, and they've always been supportive. I'll never forget that.
I know you're into healthy living and healthy practices, practicing the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. So talk about how does it help you in your career as an actor?
It's so funny because martial arts is something that has always been in my life. I studied karate when I was younger, and then I studied Taekwondo when I was a little bit older.
Then when I got into theater, I didn't really have time. Then once I was in “Aladdin” on Broadway for long enough, I wanted to go back into martial arts, but I really wasn't allowed. It was kind of under the table that this is happening. I didn't tell anybody really that I was doing Jiu-Jitsu. What I found was that it was an incredible mental and physical practice where it taught you that you can't just muscle everything. You have to be patient, you have to breathe, you have to be present, and you have to use the tools that you have. You can't overexert yourself blindly.
I think Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is one of those martial arts that's incredibly helpful. If we ever have kids, I want all of my kids to do it. I think the Philippines is one of the countries that would produce some of the best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners in the world. I have no doubt in my mind. I hope that Jiu-Jitsu, if I can be a part of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to the Philippines, that would be such an honor for me. But yeah, if you're able to take Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, I highly recommend it.
Are you still pinching yourself that all these things are happening to you? What would you advise your younger self now?
Yes, I'm always pinching myself. I don't believe that this is happening. Every day, I wake up and I'm so grateful and I'm also in disbelief that it's still happening. If I were to tell my younger self to give my younger self advice, it would probably to be patient. It wouldn't be to don't be afraid of the hard work.
I'm very easily overwhelmed and Jiu-Jitsu and my wife and my family, my faith, and the people around me has helped me realize to take it a step at a time. Just like we say in the show. Take it one step at a time, and nothing is impossible if you do that. I would tell myself, it's okay to be afraid. It's okay to be scared. It's just going to take hard work, and you can do that. So don't be afraid. It's okay. I think that's what I would tell my younger self and just see what happens.
You have a dog in the show, but do you have a dog in real life?
We do have a real dog. His name is Ali. He is a tiny little Maltipoo — a Maltese Mini Poodle — and he is the pride and joy of my life and Amanda's.
A fun fact, in season two, he is on set with me virtually every day. So, if you're watching a season two show, he is just off camera or hiding somewhere on the set. He's always there. He gets his daily dose of bacon from the crew behind my back, of course. We're still lucky to have him. He's our mascot for the show. — LA, GMA News
“Blue’s Clues & You” is aired weekdays at 9:00 a.m. on Nickelodeon and daily at 10:45 a.m. on Nick Jr.
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Originally published: Tuesday, November 10, 2020 at 19:35 GMT.
