NBC RINGS IN THE HOLIDAY SEASON WITH MULTI-GRAMMY WINNER MICHAEL BUBLE IN HIS FIRST NETWORK TELEVISION VARIETY SPECIAL IN DECEMBER

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - August 1, 2011 - NBC will ring in the holidays this season with Michael Buble, the singer/songwriting sensation and three-time Grammy winner who will headline his first network television variety special in December, it was announced today by Robert Greenblatt, Chairman, NBC Entertainment.

Produced by Emmy Award winners Ben Silverman ("The Office," "Ugly Betty") and Lorne Michaels (NBC's "Saturday Night Live," "30 Rock"), the one-hour special will feature Buble as he performs hits from his latest holiday CD combined with sketch comedy segments.

"Michael Buble's popularity as a recording artist and performer transcends generations as he has entertained audiences across the world during his concert tours," said Greenblatt. "His 2010 appearance on 'SNL' was the top-rated network telecast of the night and demonstrated that his considerable talents extend beyond singing. NBC is pleased to kick off the holiday season by presenting Michael's first network television special."

Buble, the son of a Canadian commercial fisherman, spent six summers as a teen working on a salmon boat before he was discovered in 2000 by award-winning record producer David Foster when he performed at the wedding of the daughter of the-then Prime Minister of Canada, David Mulroney. Buble's debut album, "Michael Buble," produced by Foster and released in 2003, featured a range of standards including "Fever," "The Way You Look Tonight," "For Once in My Life," "Moondance" and "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine." The album went to the top 10 in Canada, the U.K., South Africa and reached #1 in Australia.

After Buble appeared on NBC's "Today" show on Valentine's Day in 2003, the album went Gold in the U.S. In 2006, his second album, "It's Time," won four Juno Awards, including Album of the Year and received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album -- an honor that he won in 2008 for his third album, "Call Me Irresponsible."

Buble repeated the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2010 for "Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden" and again in 2011 for "Crazy Love." "Crazy Love" also won four Juno Awards, including Single of the Year for "Haven't Met You Yet," which has been described as the hopeful "knock on the door for anybody harboring a longing for love" -- and which Buble says he wrote for his wife, Argentinian actress Luisana Lopilato, whom he married in March 2011. "Crazy Love" debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart and was his fourth #1 album on Billboard's Top Jazz Album charts. Buble has sold more than 35 million albums worldwide.

Silverman and Michaels are executive producers of the one-hour special from Electus and Broadway Video.