Tag Archives: Cee-Lo

Ya gotta hand it to The Voice – the show has found a way to constantly keep evolving. Whereas most competition-based reality shows feature the same type of contest week after week, with hopefuls being sent home in the same way on each episode, The Voice totally flips the script every few weeks. The “battle rounds” continued tonight, and wrap up in two weeks. Then it’s the start of the live shows, where singers will presumably be sent home based on viewers’ votes. But for now, it’s still head-to-head competition decided by the judges. Basically, the show has taken the formula for the early rounds of American Idol, and made it ten times more nerve-racking for the contestants, which of course makes it 1000 times more entertaining for us. 

Cee-Lo’s team was up first on last night’s show pitting my favorite contestant, big gay bearded Nakia, against some dude with an afro named Ty who I have no memory of from previous episodes. Like last week, Cee-Lo trotted out celebrity assistant coach Monica (Yep, she’s still alive) to help with the rehearsals. Following the usual advice that doesn’t actually mean anything (“make it about you”) the two Texans took the stage to sing a Ne-Yo song that that didn’t really suit either of them. Predictably, gentle giant Nakia crushed the competition like he was rolling over in bed and forgot his skinny, unmemorable one-night stand was still laying next to him. Not my best metaphor, but you get the point. Gay Beard moves on, Forgettable Fro goes home. 

Next, Blake Shelton set up the night’s most interesting competition pitting ex-druggie Jared Blake against hipster folk duo Elenowen. Despite the obvious two-on-one advantage, Elenowen were the obvious favorites, having actually made it into the competition legitimately, not on a second chance pity vote, like Jared. After some tough-love coaching from Blake, everyone stepped in front of the judges. I haven’t seen this many people on stage since my last Wu-Tang concert so it was difficult to tell who deserved to move on. It was obvious, however, that Elenowen had been falling back on the cute harmonizing couple gimmick for some time, so it was nice to see judges refuse to fall for it and unanimously declare Jared Blake the superior singer. 

Moving right along, Adam Levine pitted Javier, who may be the best technical vocalist in the competition against some hippie named Angela, who, again, I don’t remember at all. At this point there are still too many contestants on this show, which inhibits the drama. I guess I could go back and read my old recaps to refresh my memory about people like Angela, but…meh. Javier and Angela duked it out, singing “Stand By Me” for the judges. They even stood by each other…um, cute, I guess. But at the end of the day, singing is a vicious bloodsport and somebody had to go down. Predictably, Javier emerged victorious. Smart money’s on him to take the whole competition. 

Next, Christina Aguilera pitted big bald lesbian Beverly (props to this show for featuring lots of big gay people who could potentially scare off viewers in the midwest) against big boring Justin. This was another match-up with an obvious favorite as Christina chose a song by The Who, which suited Beverly’s rocker style perfectly. Justin held his own surprisingly well, but *yawn* in the end Beverly came out on top. All kidding aside, I don’t think there was a single weak performance tonight. Still, the judges need to start setting up some less predictable  match-ups. I’m looking forward to the narrowing of the contestant pool and the start of live performances, both of which should help heighten the drama on an already very fun to watch show. 

OK, this is what we’ve been waiting for. Before tonight, aside from the (kinda dumb) gimmick of having the judges face away from the stage so that they can’t see the singers, The Voice was basically a slightly hipper version of American Idol. Now that the best contestants have been chosen, it’s time for the battle rounds, in which the singers go head-to-head, and the coaches make their final cuts, chopping their teams in half. This should be far more interesting than watching Paula Abdul Christina Aguilera attempt to hit on the male contestants while at the same time struggling valiantly to keep from falling out of her spinning chair. 

The first battle for Christina’s team was between Tarralynn Ramsey and Frenchie Davis, a match-up that Tarralynn says she saw coming because she and Frenchie are both “great singers,” by which I’m sure she meant, “We’re the only two black chicks on the team.” Before the face-off, however, the contestants met with the celebrity coaches and the celebrity coaches’ celebrity friends, because no one has ever become a great singer without talking to 500 famous people first. Christina and Aussie singer Sia coached Frenchie and Tarralynn through their rehearsals of “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” (a song that I’m sure was chosen because Beyonce is also a “great singer”) and following a Don King-esque intro from Carson Daly, it was finally on. After a battle worthy of Rockys I-IV (this show really invites the boxing metaphors) Frenchie emerged victorious, shooting Tarralynn an awesome, final “Go home b!tch” look.

Next up was the battle Patrick Thomas (boring cowboy) and Tyler Robinson (gay Mormon). Coached by Blake Shelton and Reba McIntyre (this show kinda overdoes it with the star power) the mis-matched duo were asked to sing “Burning Love” by Elvis. Elvis is kinda country (he died on a gas station toilet) and kinda gay (dude wore a sequined cape) so the song selection made for an interesting battle. Alas, the gay Mormon brought about as much soul to his performance as you’d expect from a dude in a bow tie, and the cowboy rode to an easy victory. Cowboys 1, Gays 0. It was like the Bush/Kerry election all over again. 

Next, Adam Levine chose Casey Weston and Tim Mahoney for a battle of young versus old, attractive versus vaguely potato-shaped. They sang “Leather and Lace” which, thanks to Google, I now know is a song by Don Henley and Stevie Nicks. Forget that thing I said earlier about The Voice being hipper than Idol. Obviously, this is a song for old haggard people, so 18 year-old Casey seemed to be at a disadvantage, but apparently, she exchanged throats with a 70 year-old chain smoker before the show. Casey triumphed over washed-up perennial loser Tim who was sent back to the midwest, presumably to wrap his lips around the tail pipe of a running car. 

Cee-Lo chose Vicci Martinez and Niki Dawson for the night’s final and most boring match-up. Vicci and Niki (Christ, even their names rhyme) have similar vocal styles, and even though Vicci is the peppy lesbian who was given the long back-story treatment in the premiere, Niki came out on top (lesbian pun not intended). The most interesting part of their face-off was the fact that Cee-Lo brought in former R & B superstar Monica to help coach. I always assumed that Brandy stabbed her to death after they fought over that boy in the mid-90s. 

All kidding aside, last night’s episode of The Voice was far more entertaining than the first two, and the unique format really sets it apart from the rest of the reality show pack. Now that the contestant pool has been narrowed down, we can get to know the singers a bit better, thus heightening the drama. Before tonight, I was worried the proceedings would get a bit dull and I was planning on watching the rest of the season just so in the hope of a drunken Xtina outburst, but now I’m legitimately anxious to see what will happen next.

Hopefully, The Voice won’t devote its first five minutes to explaining its premise every week, as it did on last night’s episode. I couldn’t tell if the show is really that complicated or if Boredom Personified (aka, Carson Daly) just makes everything feel like advanced calculus. Either way, once the competition got going, it promised to be just as lively and talent-filled as last week’s premiere. The first contestant, Cherie Oakley is already an old pro in the music biz. She’s an accomplished back-up singer who’s written hit songs for artists such as Reba McIntyre. Depending on your perspective, this highlights one of the things that makes The Voice either cooler or lamer than American Idol. These ain’t hopeful up-and-comers; many of these contestants are established artists who just haven’t hit it big yet.

Naturally, Cherie had talent, but she was almost as bland as Carson’s intro. Despite the fact that she chose a song by Blake Shelton’s fiancee, Miranda Lambert, only Christina Aguilera turned her chair around for Cherie, thus adding a fourth member to her team. Looks like Christina’s about as selective with her singers as she is with her men. Next came some breathy med school nerd who the judges took pity on. He ended up getting hit on by Christina (a requirement for all male contestants) and teaming up with Adam Levine. He was followed by a dude who was seriously named Josh Hand and who talked in a lot of funny voices, mistakenly believing that this made him funny. Thankfully, he won’t be returning in future weeks, otherwise that may have been it for me and The Voice. Dude was annoying even by reality show standards. 

Christina picked a 16 year-old girl who was obviously there just for her, but after that, because this was another two-hour episode, I watched the Heat/Celtics game for a while there was a lot of filler material, with far fewer stand-out contestants than in week one. They did that thing where we “play along with the coaches” by not seeing the contestant until one of the judges picked her. Holy sh!t snacks, she has tattoos! Hopefully, this show will lean heavier on dramatic competition and less on gimmicky BS in the coming weeks. 

The judges went on to pick a gay Mormon, the chunky gay bearded guy who sings the Cee-Lo song in the promos, and a mustachioed dude who has yet to realize he’s gay. Then there was a chick from Utah who wasn’t gay, but was almost certainly a closet Mormon. After all the gays and Mormons had been chosen, Cee-Lo picked two god-awful pig farming twins, because, well, there was no one left. The rest of the judges went back and filled out their rosters by picking people they passed on the first time (Who planned this show?). Finally, the judges have their teams of eight assembled, and it’s time for the brutal celebrity death match to commence. What’s at stake? I really have no idea. 

So, now comes the real test: when the show attempts to transition from Idol-like talent show to Survivor-like team-based reality show. It’ll be fun to see famous people compete with one another, but I couldn’t help but wonder this week, as a couple of the judges chose longtime professional singer-songwriters, what kind of advice will these stars have for established music biz insiders, many of whom have been in the industry for longer than the coaches. I guess time will tell, but there’s no question it will be entertaining to see these four big-timers duke it out for America’s approval. 

(Photo via WENN)

NBC’s new reality TV show has given NBC a huge ratings spike! According to The Hollywood Reporter, NBC’s ratings were up by 89 percent from its season average. And with a 5.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic, The Voice is the top-rated series premiere on a major network since CBS launched “Undercover Boss” following the 2010 Super Bowl.

We are thrilled because we are loving the show. NBC will be replaying last night’s premiere tonight at 9pm. Check it out if you haven’t already. Thus far it looks like Adam Levine‘s team is the strongest. Adam, Christina Aguilera, Cee-Lo and Blake Shelton are all battling it out, as well as the contestants, on the show this season. It really is two competitions in one. Genius!

We’ve posted some videos from last night’s premiere after the jump.