Life after 'American Idol': Kellie Pickler, Scotty McCreery, David Cook

CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD - "Lance Bass vs Kellie Pickler and Ernie Hudson vs Nene Leakes" - The celebrity families competing to win cash for their charities feature the families from award-winning country music recording artist Kellie Pickler; and Lance Bass, member of the multi-platinum pop boy band *NSYNC. In a separate game, family members from NeNe Leakes, star of ABC's "To Tell the Truth," will compete against the family of actor Ernie Hudson. The second season premiere episode of "Celebrity Family Feud" airs SUNDAY, JUNE 26 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Kelsey McNeal) KELLIE PICKLER, STEVE HARVEY, LANCE BASS

Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD - "Lance Bass vs Kellie Pickler and Ernie Hudson vs Nene Leakes" - The celebrity families competing to win cash for their charities feature the families from award-winning country music recording artist Kellie Pickler; and Lance Bass, member of the multi-platinum pop boy band *NSYNC. In a separate game, family members from NeNe Leakes, star of ABC's "To Tell the Truth," will compete against the family of actor Ernie Hudson. The second season premiere episode of "Celebrity Family Feud" airs SUNDAY, JUNE 26 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Kelsey McNeal) KELLIE PICKLER, STEVE HARVEY, LANCE BASS

By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Monday, June 27, 2016

Kellie Pickler is a game show producer's dream. She's naturally exuberant and excited and just a tad bit flaky - in a funny, charmy way. Since she was on "Idol" a decade ago, that aspect of her has not changed an iota.

During Sunday night's second season debut of "Celebrity Family Feud" on ABC, she was totally hyped up when she approached the dais and bumped rears with Lance Bass, her opponent. Then she missed the buzzer completely when host Steve Harvey asked a question.

Later, Pickler was asked to fill in the blank "Making [blank]" and uttered "bust a move." They allowed her to adjust that to "making a move." Didn't get any points but that ultimately wasn't a terrible answer.

She became all flustered when asked what could Harvey wear to make him look sexier and she said "boxers." And when she was asked what only her spouse could do to her butt, she practically turned red saying "pinch it."

Fortunately, her team destroyed Bass' family with a clean sweep of all four rounds.

During the Fast Money round, one of her relatives garnered a respectable 137 points. Pickler walked on hoping that she had already gotten 200 so Pickler wouldn't have to play. Nope. Then she tried to calculate how many points she needed to win. Harvey helped her out: 63.

First question: who would be an shocking person to receive a naughty text from? She said "relative," which was too vague and received zero points (Top answer: mom). Then she was asked how important sex is with her spouse from 1 to 10 and she said 10 but then pondered it too long before going to 9. That received 14. Third question: something babies throw. She said throw "up" and in vomit. That only got five points. She was still 41 points short.

Fortunately, the producers clearly want the celebrities to win money for their charities by making it easier to win Fast Money than on the regular show. How?  The final two questions both had only two truly conceivable answers, allowing for two very high point totals.

Question four: ("Name something you surf"). The only real choice: water or the Web.

Pickler's relative had chosen water. She picked the Internet, which garnered 51 points. That got them over the top.

So Pickler and her family won an unspecified amount of money for the USO.

Pickler never got around to the final question, which also really had two answers ("Name a type of flake"): Frosted or Corn.

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INGLEWOOD, CA - MAY 01: Singer Scotty McCreery attends the 2016 American Country Countdown Awards at The Forum on May 1, 2016 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images for dcp)

Credit: Rodney Ho

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Credit: Rodney Ho

The man who robbed season 10 winner Scotty McCreery in 2014 pled guilty Monday.

21-year-old Mikkail Shaw was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon.

According to police, three armed people burst into the apartment in Raleigh on May 5, 2014, and took wallets, cash and electronics. A search warrant says the robbers were armed with two pistols and an AK-47 assault rifle. They forced McCreery and his friends into a closet, then told them to count to 100 before they could come out.

He wrote about it in his recently released book "Go Big and Go Home."

“I’m thinking I’m going to die any second,” he wrote. Fortunately, the men didn’t recognize him or kidnap him. They just took his phone. Lesson: “Never, ever open your door at 2 a.m. for a stranger.”

He added to me a few weeks back in an interview: "Everyone is still alive and well. That's what I'm thankful for."

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Dunwoody native Ryan Seacrest teamed up with Atlantan Usher to talk about branding with AdWeek:

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Credit: Rodney Ho

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Credit: Rodney Ho

Season 8 winner David Cook is coming back to Atlanta after a visit to Terminal West earlier this year. This time, he is going to be at the new City Winery October 4.