Real life singing idols playing coaches: (clockwise from top left) Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Blake Edwards and Cee Lo Green mentor contestants on 'The Voice'
MANILA, Philippines – For those with dreams of making it big in the mainstream, they’d do everything, it seems, including sing for their supper! And audiences are still quite taken with valiant efforts especially when it comes with a good voice and great personality. Why else would singing talent competitions like “American Idol” exist? And how else would another one survive?
Showing for the first time in Asia on AXN in a two-hour premiere on Aug. 21, the new talent show “The Voice” will be aired every Sunday night at 8 p.m. But while it already premiered in the US back in April—to mixed reviews, actually, with bloggers praising the show on various social networking sites but with critics left underwhelmed—the show promises to wow fans of singing competitions with its new take on the genre.
Trumping the fact that in this show, “the contestants are judged solely on their singing talents,” the concept is a little less straightforward than those of other similar competitions and seems to be aimed at giving contestants an even playing field. In “The Voice,” the contestants will go through what is called the “blind audition” process, wherein they will sing to judges—referred to as coaches, by the way—who are seated with their backs towards them, presumably so they are not influenced by the physical attributes of these contestants.
Seated in 180-degree swiveling chairs, the coaches—Christina Aguilera, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green and country star Blake Shelton—only hear the contestants; when they like what they hear, they hurry up and press a giant red button. Their chair swivels and they will finally see the contestant whose voice has blown them away. If none of the judges turn, the contestant is booted out. If one turns, he or she immediately becomes the coach for the contestant.
The fun begins when more than one coach turns. In this case, the power shifts and it is now the coaches that have to plead their case to the contestants and ask them to join his or her team. The audition process goes on until the four coaches each have his or her eight team members.
What also sets “The Voice” apart from other singing competition reality shows is the level of genuine involvement the coaches have with their team members, sharing invaluable input and experience to help their team members realize their potential. In a press conference in Los Angeles, Aguilera pointed out, “There is no good and bad. This isn’t about tearing people down. I want to bring these people up. The Voice really does stand for what it says.”
This fresh approach may have been branded as a gimmick, if a complicated one at that, in the beginning, but the numbers proved the show’s detractors wrong—for the first season, at least.
Reportedly, this is the only show on a major US broadcast network that has seen its rating rise 10% for its second episode, coming from a high of 11.8 million viewers for its premiere. Furthermore, the show proved a hit among the younger 18-34 demographic. And with iTunes purchase counting as votes for the contestants, you can bet the show is at least making some serious cash on the side.
With a mix of contestants with ages ranging from 16 to 42, the musical styles are truly varied. But while it seems that the coaches are attracted to contestants singing in their own genre and vice versa, the excitement builds when all the coaches try to recruit the same contestant, like they all did for a country singer, who, not surprisingly, picked Shelton as his coach. In another instance, other woman who seemed to be a shoe-in for Aguilera’s team opted to go with Green instead.
Other surprises in the premiere episode was the first-ever married couple who auditioned with a duet; and there’s the return of controversial former “American Idol” season two semi-finalist, Frenchie Davis, who was disqualified from “AI” for “a decision I made in the past”—posing for some topless photos when she was 19 years old.
Another highlighted contestant was this young girl who wanted to prove that she doesn’t rely on her good looks—apparently, her YouTube video got one million views in three days in Europe—to get ahead. Taking the “blind auditions” as a chance to prove that her talent outweighs her pretty face, the young lady even cried as she chose Green as mentor over Shelton and Levine.
With just as much drama but a lot more work to be done for the contestants, “The Voice” has had a promising start. It might take a while before the show’s momentum puts it up to par with the long-running “AI” show, but they have definitely stirred the pot. While we would have wanted to see the “blind auditions” really maximized in the show, perhaps “The Voice” might actually revitalize the TV genre that has become quite tedious to watch already.
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