Last night NBC aired an 11-minute preview of its upcoming series The Voice, which premieres next week (April 26). And if we walked away from this glimpse at the reality singing competition with one thing now made perfectly clear, it’s that Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine are not judges in the American Idol sense, but rather coaches who will guide auditioning artists through the competition. Head below to watch Blake, Adam and Cee Lo duke it out over who gets to mentor budding country singer Patrick Thomas.
After the four stars of the program belt out Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” host Carson Daly explains the show’s concept: the competing coaches are to choose a team of eight singers from a batch of singers invited by producers to audition on camera. The coaches, as we’ve previously seen, have their backs to the singers because “on this show only the voice matters.”
The artist earns a spot on one of the teams if the coach hits their buzzer and swivels their throne-like red chair around. The real fun for the viewer comes into play when more than one coach turns around, because then we get to watch, say, Xtina and Cee Lo plead their cases for why the artist should choose one of them over the other.
There’s more jibber-jabber about battle rounds, where the coaches cut their teams from eight to four, and then American votes each week during the final live performance round. (The ultimate winner scores a record deal with Universal Republic.) But let’s get to the classiest part of the preview, which is Christina’s request to country crooner Patrick Thomas: “You’re a cutie pie, Patrick! Can you take your hat off? Can you take your pants off?”
Overall, The Voice doesn’t look like the tired Idol retread many were likely expecting it to be—and it’s a good thing, too, because with the four main personalities involved, we were hoping for watchable show. (Don’t think we didn’t notice that bro bonding that must have happened between Levine and Shelton in the lead-up now, or the amazing on-stage chemistry between Cee Lo and Xtina while they performed “Crazy.”)
Consider our DVRs set to record, NBC. Especially if there’s more naughty vamping from Xtina in store!
What’s your first impression after this sneak peek at The Voice?
I have to hand it to Mark Burnett… I don’t like reality talent competitions at all, and never watch them, and yet I am really looking forward to this show, and interested to see how it pans out! And yes, the judges are a HUGE draw, and it just keeps looking better.
it looks SOOOO damn good. that Crazy performance had me in tears of joy. i love the authentic way the coaches communicate… i’m sold.
This show is gonna be such a hit! I truly believe they will find someone worth while in this competition
I love Cee Lo! The judges are awesome! This is gon’ be great because in American Idol i do sometimes feel as though they judge the person on their looks and its all funny if they’re bad. So I’m just dying to see the first episode!