Clearly, We Wanna Hear More People Sing

If there’s one type of programming that’s reached a point of saturation on network TV, it’s the vocal competition series. Ever since American Idol exploded into a gigantic phenomenon (one which has since faded, though AI still draws big numbers), networks have scrambled to come up with the next big reality/competition series to replicate Idol’s success.

Among such networks is NBC, the ugly cousin of broadcast television. Once the pinnacle of ratings and creative success with shows like Friends, NBC has now become a mess of a network. Though NBC touts critically acclaimed comedies in Community and Parks and Recreation, the network’s ratings are less than stellar. NBC’s solution to this problem? See the photo below.

Either I just had a stroke, or Cee-Lo is Dr. Evil | Promotional photo courtesy of NBC

No, NBC didn’t make a spy procedural starring Cee-Lo Green as an eccentric cat-collecting evil mastermind (though I would absolutely watch that). Rather, the second season premiere of NBC’s The Voice put the network in an unfamiliar position: first place. The Voice’s post-super bowl premiere drew the largest ratings of any (non-sports) show in 6 years (37.6 million total viewers with a 16.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic).

NBC may have found itself at the top of the Monday night ratings rankings, but it remains to be seen whether The Voice can keep those viewers. In all likelihood, many of those viewers left the TV on after the Superbowl while getting drunk and making fun of Patriots fans.

The Voice’s incessant ad campaign has garnered high ratings, but the show itself is really just another run-of-the-mill reality show. NBC’s selling point, and admittedly the show’s most appealing element, is the blind auditions. The judges sit with their backs to the contestants, able to hit a button that turns their chair around. There is the requisite amount of sob-stories behind each contestant, but for those who can stomach that, the talent can be fun to watch. NBC screens the talent for The Voice, and thus we get no comically terrible auditions in the vein of Idol. These are pleasurable if subtle deviations from the vocal competition formula, but once The Voice leaves its blind audition rounds (and gets through its excruciatingly ill-planned “battle rounds”) the show just becomes a rote Idol riff with a host that is somehow less likeable than Seacrest (seriously, Carson Daly has been on TV for years and years and somehow still doesn’t know how to act like a personable guy. I’m 90% sure he is one of the giant lizard-aliens from V).

There’s nothing overtly offensive about The Voice, and I’m sure fans of such competition series will be pleased. But at the rate these networks are churning out these cheap, highly rated competition series, the less hope I have for quality scripted programs.

 

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