ACADEMY AWARD AND GRAMMY(R) AWARD-WINNING SUPERSTAR JENNIFER HUDSON TO PERFORM ON THE "BOSTON POPS FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR," AN ENTERTAINMENT SPECIAL HOSTED BY EMMY AWARD WINNER MICHAEL CHIKLIS, STAR OF THE NEW CBS DRAMA SERIES "VEGAS," AND FEATURING THE BOSTON POPS LED BY KEITH LOCKHART, TO BE BROADCAST LIVE WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, ON THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK

Academy Award and GRAMMY(R) Award-winning superstar Jennifer Hudson will perform on the BOSTON POPS FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR, an entertainment special to be broadcast live from the Charles River Esplanade in Boston, Wednesday, July 4 (10:00-11:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT) on the CBS Television Network. For the second consecutive year, Emmy Award-winning actor Michael Chiklis, star of the highly anticipated new CBS drama series VEGAS, will host the special.

Hudson will perform some of her biggest hits with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra under the direction of conductor Keith Lockhart.

The BOSTON POPS FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR, now in its 39th year, is the orchestra's annual free outdoor Fourth of July concert and is sponsored by Liberty Mutual Insurance, one of America's leading insurers, offering auto, home and life insurance for individuals and families, as well as a variety of insurance products and services for businesses. The entire concert will be broadcast in HD (high definition), courtesy of Liberty Mutual Insurance. In addition, the final 20 minutes of the broadcast, featuring the spectacular fireworks display, will be presented commercial-free by Liberty Mutual Insurance.

Jennifer Hudson is an Academy Award-winning actress and GRAMMY Award-winning recording artist. In 2007, she won an Academy Award for her role as Effie in the smash hit Dreamgirls. Her performance also garnered a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA and an NAACP Image Award. Hudson most recently appeared on the big screen in the Farrelly brothers' comedy The Three Stooges, which opened April 2012. She received an NAACP Image Award nomination in 2009 for her role in The Secret Life of Bees, and co-starred in the box office hit Sex and the City: The Movie.

Hudson's 2008 self-titled debut album won a GRAMMY Award for Best R&B Album, which was presented by one of Hudson's idols, Whitney Houston. The certified gold album entered Billboard's Top 200 at #2 and has since sold more than 1.1 million albums worldwide. Her sophomore album, I Remember Me, debuted at #2 on Billboard's Top 200 and R&B Albums charts and has since been certified Gold in the U.S. Recently, she received a 2012 Billboard Music Award nomination for Top R&B Album and also took home two 2012 NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Music Video and Outstanding Album. She also collaborated with Ne-Yo and Rick Ross on the title track for the film Think Like a Man, which opened in April 2012. Hudson has been the national spokesperson for Weight Watchers since 2010.

Michael Chiklis stars as gangster Vincent Savino in the upcoming CBS drama series VEGAS, which also stars Dennis Quaid, and will premiere Tuesdays at 10:00 PM on the Network this fall. This summer, Chiklis can be seen starring opposite Adrien Brody in the indie comedy High School. Chiklis and his rock group, The Michael Chiklis Band, also perform a song featured in the movie and on the soundtrack. Recently, Chiklis launched his music career with the band, which so far has released two singles, "'Til I Come Home" and "Make Me High," currently available on iTunes and most other digital platforms. Currently, The Michael Chiklis Band is making its debut album via Extravaganza Productions, Chiklis's new production company, which is also developing a number of projects for film, television and music.

A native of Lowell, Mass., Chiklis began entertaining his family with celebrity imitations when he was just 5 years old. He has been acting professionally since earning his Equity card at age 13 while appearing in regional theater, and later graduated Boston University School of Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Known for his portrayal of Detective Vic Mackey on the groundbreaking series "The Shield," Chiklis has earned numerous awards and accolades for his performance, including the Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Drama in 2002, the Golden Globe and Emmy Awards for Best Actor in a Drama Series in 2003 and the declaration from TIME magazine that Chiklis "gave TV's performance of the year." In addition to his critically acclaimed acting on "The Shield," he also assumed the role of producer and director for many of the show's episodes. Chiklis's other television credits include starring roles in the series "No Ordinary Family" (which he also helped produce), "The Commish," "Daddio," the television movie "The Three Stooges," and guest-starring roles in "Murphy Brown," on the Network, "Miami Vice," "L.A. Law" and "Seinfeld." After his role on "The Commish" wrapped, Chiklis went to Broadway, starring in the one-man show Defending the Caveman. A notable actor on the silver screen, Chiklis has starred in the films Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer as Ben Grimm, aka Marvel Comics' popular character The Thing, Eagle Eye, Rise, The Tax Man, Last Request, Body and Soul and the controversial Wired, in which he played John Belushi, a role he auditioned for days after his college graduation.

Having led more than 1,300 Boston Pops concerts, Keith Lockhart is now in his 18th season as Boston Pops Conductor. He has made 70 television shows, led 34 national and four overseas tours with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and recorded 11 albums. His tenure has been marked by a dramatic increase in touring, the orchestra's first GRAMMY nominations, the first major network national broadcast (on CBS Television) of the Fourth of July spectacular from the Esplanade and the release of the Boston Pops' first self-produced and self-distributed recordings with Sleigh Ride, America, Oscar & Tony and The Red Sox Album. He also led the Pops for Chris Botti's In Boston CD and DVD, which received multiple GRAMMY nominations in 2011.

The Boston Pops, now in its 127th year, has a rich and storied history that began with its founding in 1885. The Boston Pops Orchestra has distinguished itself as the founder of and leader in its genre, presenting the best of a wide variety of music from jazz to pop, indie rock to big band, film music to the great American songbook, and Broadway to classical. Though Arthur Fiedler's nearly 50-year tenure as Pops conductor (1930-1979) established the Boston Pops as a national icon, Conductor Laureate John Williams (1980-1993) and present-day conductor Keith Lockhart (1995-present) have shepherded the orchestra through three decades of tumultuous change in the world of music. The Boston Pops, "America's Orchestra," performs for an audience of nearly 900,000 people annually in Boston, across the country and around the world, and reaches millions more through its recordings and television broadcasts. For more information, visit www.bostonpops.org.

Boston 4 Productions (www.july4th.org) has produced this annual event for the past 39 years, for which approximately 800,000 people pack Boston's Charles River Esplanade. In addition, more than seven million people across the country and the globe join the Boston Pops through the annual televised broadcast, sponsored by Liberty Mutual Insurance.

"Helping people live safer, more secure lives" since 1912, Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance is a diversified global insurer and the third largest property and casualty insurer in the U.S., based on A.M. Best Company's report of 2010 net written premium. Liberty Mutual Insurance also ranks 84th on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S., based on 2011 revenue. As of Dec. 31, 2011, Liberty Mutual Insurance had $117.1 billion in consolidated assets, $99.3 billion in consolidated liabilities and $34.7 billion in annual consolidated revenue. Liberty Mutual Insurance offers a wide range of insurance products and services, including personal automobile, homeowners, workers compensation, property, commercial automobile, general liability, global specialty, group disability, reinsurance and surety. Liberty Mutual Insurance (www.libertymutualinsurance.com) employs more than 45,000 people in more than 900 offices throughout the world.

The BOSTON POPS FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR broadcast and live event will be produced by Boston 4 Productions and White Cherry Entertainment, in collaboration with IMG Media. Boston 4 Productions' David G. Mugar is executive producer. Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner will produce the national telecast; Michael Mathis of IMG Media and Sheryl Bourisk for WBZ-TV will produce the local telecast seen on WBZ-TV Boston. Glenn Weiss will direct both the local and Network broadcasts.

RATING: To Be Announced