The new host for Nickelodeon’s hit show Blues Clues was announced yesterday and while this is a huge deal for 90 kids the world over, it’s even bigger news for Filipino millennials as the guy replacing host Steve Burns is a Filipino-American.
In a video posted by Nickelodeon, actor-singer Joshua Dela Cruz shared what the audition process was like for him. Apparently, he had to do it in front of the Steve himself.
“I was starstruck but at the same time immediately felt comfortable with him. He was just so generous with his time and with his energy. It was a huge huge moment for me to meet the person that I was watching on TV growing up and to find out that he was so cool,” he said.
So who is Dela Cruz?
We did a little digging (sans handy dandy notebook, unfortunately), and found that he was part of the ensemble in the Broadway production of Disney’s Aladdin. He was even an understudy for Aladdin, Broadway World reported. Dela Cruz was also part of Here Lies Love, the off-broadway musical about former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos.
On TV, he appeared on the show BULL and Time After Time.
See him in this YouTube video singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
And here, in a staging of King and I at the North Shore Music Theatre.
You can also see his dance skills in this video:
Apart from a different host, Blues Clues also underwent other changes — including one in the title. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the reboot will be called Blue’s Clues & You.
Dela Cruz also hinted that everyone’s favorite handy-dandy notebook will be back but not exactly like the small spiral notebook we’ve come to love.
“What they’re going to do with it excited me very much because the notebook will be back but it may not be the way that you remember,” he says on Nickelodeon’s video.
The new show will be similar to the original and will still have Dela Cruz looking for clues left by his dog Blue (duh) while interacting with the audience.
According to Variety, production will start in Toronto this month and the first season will have 20 episodes.
What do you think the mysteries will be this time? Time to sit on our thinking chairs and try to figure it out.
