The folks at the Toronto Star have asked me to recap this week’s first three episodes of Season Three of The Voice. You’ll find the night one recap here among The Star’s on-line blogs. UPDATE: Here’s the Night Two recap.
This is the “blind audition” part of the show, where judges Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera push their buttons and turn around in their big red chairs if they like what they hear on stage.
Not being a regular watcher of this reality talent search series, I was surprised by how NBC devotes so much time to spinning sad sack back stories about every single contestant. They’re like Olympic profiles, with the human interest tales cranked way past 11 on the Sammy Maudlin-o-meter.
The other thing that struck me is how much fun Blake Shelton seems to be having, genuinely enjoying the singers and goofing on his judging peers. You can tell this dude won as top mentor last year.
NBC extended The Voice to three nights this week just to try and screw with the second season premiere of Fox’s The X Factor, which also starts Wednesday. Who they really screwed, however, was CTV, which had had to juggle these two shows, bouncing them between CTV and CTV TWO.
The Voice vs. X Factor head-to-head Wednesday will pit former Mouseketeers Aguilera and Britney Spears against one another in the ratings. Spears in Simon Cowell’s pricey pickup to try and boost X Factor beyond last season’s less than spectacular debut. May the best diva win.
