The Voice

[GrantDawg]

Surprised we had no seperate thread for this one yet. Anyone watch it? We watched last night, and I have to give it a thumbs up. It is a very interesting format, with the celebrity coaches competing for the best "team" of singers. I enjoyed the interactions between the coaches. It was less scripted than most of these shows (though you know the producers encourage that "hold your hand over the button but don't push" move). It is pretty funny to see their reaction when they turn around and see who is singing. Either relief when they picked someone that has a good look, disappointment when they miss with someone, or regret when they let someone go they could have actually worked with.

It was enjoyable and fun. If it were an either/or situation for me, I would watch this over AI. I doubt it will have AI's popular appeal. It might not even make it past a season, but it would if I had a choice. Much, much, much better celebrity panel, complete change up of format, and a fun competive rivalary between the coaches is going to make it fun to watch.

[Ksyrup]

I mentioned it a bit in the AI thread. Based on the 12 minute preview I saw last week, we recorded it. But at 2 hours long and running until 11pm, we couldn't watch it last night (my wife's asleep by 10:30), so we watched Deadliest Catch and will watch this when we get the chance. I saw a few positive reviews, and a couple negative. I'll be curious to see what the ratings are like.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I mentioned it a bit in the AI thread. Based on the 12 minute preview I saw last week, we recorded it. But at 2 hours long and running until 11pm, we couldn't watch it last night (my wife's asleep by 10:30), so we watched Deadliest Catch and will watch this when we get the chance. I saw a few positive reviews, and a couple negative. I'll be curious to see what the ratings are like.

Yeah, I knew you did, but I didn't want to bury discussion there. I am wondering about ratings as well. I am seeing guesses everywhere from "AI like" to "NBC-Like" .

[Ksyrup]

The ratings are in for the new NBC singing competition, The Voice, and they’re good:

Via THR
The Mark Burnett-produced singing competition improved NBC’s season average in the time period by 89 percent. With a 5.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 11.8 million viewers overall, it is the top-rated series premiere on a major network since CBS’ Undercover Boss debut following the 2010 Super Bowl.

The Voice bested Glee 4.6 vs. 3.4 (from 9-9:30) and Dancing With the Stars 4.9 vs. 3.5 (from 9-10 p.m.).

Very good news for 4th place NBC.

That's pretty solid, considering it went up against Glee and DwtS, which I assumed would eat into its audience.

[stevew]

I can't believe that Christina would lower herself to the level of the other artists on the stage. Which I'm sure that someone will provide evidence that she hasn't outsold Cee Lo or Blake Shelton in years(actually believable). Anyways, it was interesting for me because I can only think that she is absolutely hemorrhaging cash to a nearly unprecidented level if she needed to take part in another karaoke show for unsigned artists.

I mean, Frenchie Stewart.....wtf. Why are we going there again.

Anyways, it's an abomination to live television, but people seem to be interested in this variety show craptacular format anymore. I'm sure NBC will run it over and over again and will lose 50% of their ratings each week.

How many more times do we need to hear amateurs blare ironic covers of 80s songs that have been cleared for usage on TV. It's fucking old already.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

That's pretty solid, considering it went up against Glee and DwtS, which I assumed would eat into its audience.

Looks like the Voice audience came from somewhere other than DWTS. The weekly results show, which Voice was up against, had ratings that were up 17% from last week (no doubt due to having a recap show as a lead-in rather than the already-cancelled Jamie Oliver disaster).

That somewhere was, in part, Glee. Down 11% vs last week to a new season low.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by stevew

I can't believe that Christina would lower herself to the level of the other artists on the stage.

That's okay, I was disappointed they put her tired ass on the show at all. To the point that I might have given it a try for at least a few minutes just to see how the two guys did except I wasn't willing to endure her to get that chance.

Anyways, it was interesting for me because I can only think that she is absolutely hemorrhaging cash to a nearly unprecidented level if she needed to take part in another karaoke show for unsigned artists.

Never mind the embarrassment at the Super Bowl, it' more likely because she hasn't had a hit single in 3 years nor a successful album in 5 years & is coming off an absolute disaster of an album in 2010. Not to mention an incredibly decline in US sales over the course of 4 English-language albums (9m to 4m to <2m to <300k). She's to the point of needing the visibility, if not for her recording career (whatever is left of it) then for her perfume line & maybe to remind folks that she didn't die during her recent drunken escapade.

[Ksyrup]

I had never heard of or seen Blake Shelton before this show...he looks like the illegimate love child of Tom Brady and Jason Newsted:

[stevew]

Between that album and that movie that was apparently awful(Burlesque), she is on the shitter. I believe, however, that she is still a more noticeable name than any of the other acts on stage. But recent history does seem to suggest that she's barely hanging onto a career, so I am probably just overrating her appeal/popularity level.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

More likely it's because she hasn't had a hit single in 3 years nor a successful album in 5 years & is coming off an absolute disaster album in 2010. She's to the point of needing the visibility, if not for her recording career (whatever is left of it) then for her perfume line.

Don't forget the Super Bowl abomination, too.

She sucks. She is everything that is wrong with vocal styles in the past 10-15 years or so. That fuckass melisma/warbling crap that pop singers do to prove they are "real artists."

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by stevew

Between that album and that movie that was apparently awful(Burlesque), she is on the shitter. I believe, however, that she is still a more noticeable name than any of the other acts on stage. But recent history does seem to suggest that she's barely hanging onto a career, so I am probably just overrating her appeal/popularity level.

This is Mariah Carey after Glitter-type career restoration stuff.

Look, Mike Tyson did a reality show about his love of pigeons that I thought was not only a good show (although probably should have been a documentary rather than a series) but made him human and somewhat likeable. These shows can do wonders. Just look at the week-after sales figures for singers/mentors who appear on American Idol.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by stevew

Between that album and that movie that was apparently awful(Burlesque), she is on the shitter. I believe, however, that she is still a more noticeable name than any of the other acts on stage. But recent history does seem to suggest that she's barely hanging onto a career, so I am probably just overrating her appeal/popularity level.

She's not more notable today, at least not than Green. The guy has done a great job of riding a song that theoretically couldn't get airplay into a pretty good profile of late. Shelton's job is to grab the folks who aren't into pop or rap & while he's had some success (most notable with Some Beach) is easily the lowest profile of the three.

[stevew]

There's also the guy from Maroon 5

[GrantDawg]

It is pretty crazy impressive numbers for The Voice. It gain every half-hour. Does many shows do that at the 10-10:30 block? I wouldn't think so. That is usually a pretty low rated block, isn't it?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by stevew

There's also the guy from Maroon 5

Who was apparently considered recognizable only to his mother (notice how they don't even bother to put him in the promos, or at least not any I've seen).

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Who was apparently considered recognizable only to his mother (notice how they don't even bother to put him in the promos, or at least not any I've seen).

Really? I saw him all the time, and he was one of the reasons I was excited about the show.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

It is pretty crazy impressive numbers for The Voice. It gain every half-hour. Does many shows do that at the 10-10:30 block? I wouldn't think so. That is usually a pretty low rated block, isn't it?

Eh, varies. I mean, NCIS:LA did over 10m total (not demo'ed) Live+SD last week at 10p for a repeat. The audience exists, just depends whether you can tap it.

[RainMaker]

Christina Aguilera is all sorts of hot.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I watched the show and thought it was pretty decent. I think it'll be more entertaining when they start dropping people, but this was a hell of a lot more watchable than some asshole cooking a steak or a sports draft.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Really? I saw him all the time, and he was one of the reasons I was excited about the show.

Lemme rephrase that, I believe you see him in the clips, but anonymously, i.e. I don't recall every seeing/hearing his name in the promos. I couldn't have told you who the guy was (and almost asked earlier why they left ostensible rock out of the mix).

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Christina Aguilera is all sorts of hot.

Yep. And she definitely provided some visibility last night. Thank you very much.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Don't forget the Super Bowl abomination, too.

She sucks. She is everything that is wrong with vocal styles in the past 10-15 years or so. That fuckass melisma/warbling crap that pop singers do to prove they are "real artists."

Vocal masturbation ... some things should be done in private.

[Thomkal]

just finished watching it and enjoyed it-liked the playfulness and competition between the coaches and that there were no awful singers shown-none of them were bad, a few I certainly wouldn't have picked that the judges went crazy for like the 22 year old man they all wanted, and the 40+ year old rocker chick at the end. But overall a good start to the show I think.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

there were no awful singers shown-none of them were bad,

I decided to give it a spin and this is the number one reason why I enjoyed it. I don't want to hear somebody sing that is as bad, or worse, then me. It's a waste of time.

We'll see if they can get the actual show right. That remains to be seen, obviously.

[Alan T]

My wife watched this show last night while I was working on the computer and I actually found myself enjoying it (which is odd since i have no desire any longer to watch American idol or other similar shows).

I think the part I liked the most was the interaction between the coaches though. I wonder how long that would last before it got old to me.

[Ajaxab]

I haven't seen episode 2 just yet, but enjoyed episode 1 a whole lot more than American Idol. My wife and I were thinking that they should make one change though. The coaches shouldn't be able to see the singers at all until the singers have made their choice. That would make things that much more interesting.

[GrantDawg]

This show was fun. They go into "battle" stage next week, with the singers actually singing a duet with only one of the two going forward. It will be interesting to see how it goes from here, but the blind auditions were fun.

[Ksyrup]

The change I want them to make is that the coaches can't see each other until the song is over, so they don't know if any of them have chosen a particular singer or not. It seemed like some of them were choosing (or not) because they knew what the others were doing.

[MikeVic]

Yeah I overall liked the choosing stage. But from here on out, I don't know how it'll be any different from other shows like this.

[Ksyrup]

Well, the next 4 weeks are not going to be live - there will be 4 "battles," I guess, between 2 singers for each of the 4 coaches. There will also be some additional mentors/coaches involved as well. For each team, the coach will choose 1 of the 2 to "win" the battle and stick around for the live show. Ini 4 weeks, half of the 32 people will have been cut, leaving 4 for each team who will somehow compete in the live shows. That's the general gist of it, I believe.

[GrantDawg]

The Voice ratings were up 10% over the premier, and won the night in the prime demos. Next week is just one hour, and doesn't start till 10PM. It has been its highest rated hour, so maybe it is a good strategy. It just seems like you lead the night with a big hit. I guess they are just scared to go head-to-head with the DWTS results show and Glee.

[Ksyrup]

First ep was pretty solid, but the second was much less so - some of the acts straight-up sucked. And if you're going to suck, I guess I'd rather laugh at it (AI) then feel uncomfortable and pity for the person. So the show lost its momentum. We never got around to watching the first battle show, and with word that due to loss of viewers they are going back to 2 hours shows, we decided to give up on it.

[Alan T]

Yes, I enjoyed the first show much more than the battle rounds thus far. I think the first show was enjoyable for me because of the celebrities competing against each other in trying to sell themselves to the contestants. The various little jabs and such were fun to watch and it was a unique way in my opinion of narrowing down the field further.

Now to the battle rounds, it pretty much has digressed for the most part into any other singing competition on tv. The contestants compete and the judges only have nice things to say about them. It gets a little boring after a few of them for me. Plus, I have to say a battle between a soloist and a duo just seems weird to me.

I'm still watching, with the hope once we get down to the final 16 (four per team), and it goes back to being team vs team again, or whatever the format is that we will see more competitiveness between the celebrity coaches again. I think after a few weeks now, I've realized that is why I'm watching this show and if that doesn't occur then this is nothing different than the other 37897 singing competitions on tv.

[Alan T]

Anyone else still watching? I liked this week's performances much much better than the battle rounds. Still not quite as enjoyable to me as the audition process rounds though. Maybe because it was something new then and next time around it won't be as interesting to me.

I do like how the mentors really seem to be getting invested in some of the singers and I enjoy how they put on more of a performance than in other shows where you just have someone out there singing.

I also like the Maroon Five guy alot and think he has the right balance of funny wit, intelligence feedback and think he is an excellent judge. Christina Aguilera has just become overbearingly annoying to me though I think . I just cringe when I hear her, look at her or anything at this point.

[Rizon]

/disappointed

Thought this thread was going to be about the Bene Gesserit.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Anyone else still watching?

I dunno about here but nationally it's still hanging in there pretty darned good. Down 5% vs last week but still in the 4's. Declined steadily during the two hour episode this week but that looks almost directly connected to people switching over for the NBA as the game got late (i.e. Voice dropped & hoops climbed against each other while other stuff was holding mostly steady)

[Ksyrup]

For whatever reason, even though I liked the first ep a lot, I didn't find the second nearly as enjoyable - I thought the talent fell WAY off - and we stopped watching after that. But I hear it's doing good in the ratings, and with the X-Factor having some crazy crap going on, I wonder if this show is going to steal Simon's thunder?

[Matthean]

I don't watch the show so I'm not sure how they were featured, but here's a link to an mp3 by elenowen. It's free with just your e-mail and zip code for the download. You can "pay" for it via posting on social media, or e-mailing about it to others, and there is the actual tip option.

http://noisetrade.com/elenowen

[GrantDawg]

I just caught up with this (baseball has been distracting). The battle rounds were not great. Some of the choices were shockingly bad (the girl that had already written a number one song for Reba, and out sang her competitor by miles, got dumped basically because the other girl wore booty-shorts and yelled a couple of times. That was awful. So was Elenowen getting cut. Sucky choices).

That said, the performance show was spectacular. The judges picking on each other, performing with their teams. The singers actually singing songs that fit them and not having some stupid "theme week" forced down their throats. Dia Frampton singing that Kayne West song......goosebumps.

I'll take this over AI any day of the week.