The Voice 2012-Losers and Winners With Christine Aguilera the Biggest Winner of All.

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We finally got the contenders down to a final ten, as of this paragraph, will update later as I watch the shows before the date of this post.

One thing I will discuss is Christina Aguilera. Goodness has this almost has-been managed to re-market herself using every trick in the book?

Understand that Christine does have a very good voice but hey, this is the singer who FORGOT the words of the National Anthem during a recent outing, even though she screamed she'd practiced but proof soon came out that she cut the practice short.

Come on! Watch her damn show The Voice! Watch American Idol! Watch the X Factor! America's Got Talent! There's THOUSANDS of singers, all of them dying to lead the singing of the National Anthem at a major sport event, all of the willing to put in the extra practice time!

That's when I lost respect for Christina Aguilera and all her recent in-our-face crap hasn't swayed me.

But she does know marketing and somehow she's managed to get her mug all over the place. I just watched a Dateline episode that had a major portion devoted to interviewing Christina. I wanted to reach through the TV set, pull her out by her neck, and throttle her.

First, the nothing burger Dateline interviewer asked Christina what she thought of her son.

Seriously, the interviewer came up with some slobbering question about measuring the joy Christina's 4 year old son brings to her life. This gave Christina, as was the plan, time to beguile and move us with how much she loved her little boy, how he was the joy of her life, how she soooooo loved the toddler.

Like not a single one of us watching love our own children that we needed Christina Aguilera to tell us how much MORE she loves HER child.

It was a gag-me moment.

I know it sounds like I have a grudge against Aguilera and I do. She was too damn lazy to learn the words of the National Anthem when she was scheduled to perform it in front of the country and that's a big minus for me.

She came back and got this gig on The Voice. Add to the humor of it, she got all three of her co-hosts, Blake, Adam and CeeLo, to do a duet with her.

And still she's a big stuffed marshmallow too lazy to learn the National Anthem. I don't like her for that and how she couldn't be bothered to learn it.

Below all posts on this Blog on this subject:

The Voice 2012 Begins: It's Not DUETS, It's Not American Idol, It's Not X Factor. It's THE VOICE. But is it any good?

The Voice 2012 Teams Formed and Competing. Let's Take a Look and Predict.

The Voice 2012-Stealing and Competing and It Becomes Quite a Hit and Quite Entertaining
http://patfish.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-voice-2012-stealing-and-competing.html

Tuesdays NBC at 8 pm/7c. Check listings as times vary

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The Voice 2012-Stealing and Competing and It Becomes Quite a Hit and Quite Entertaining

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I've been following NBC's "The Voice"for yea many weeks, along with X Factor. Each show has a separate set of talents and, of course, different rules.

It's on The voice that I note the oddest contenders.

Which is not to say there's anything wrong with odd. Odd people are people too. Further, when we're talking entertainment and such as stage presences, well, odd is good.

First, there's Melanie Martinez, an Adam team member. Melanie's cute but come on, she looks like Minnie Mouse. I don't get the bows in the hair and the childish look. But Melanie does have a very unique voice. I doubt she'll win this thing but she shouldn't pass by our lives without note for her spirit and courage to dare to look different.

Then there's Nicholas David, who's not all that odd looking though he looks nothing like a rock star, go with me here. Nicholas is a fellow who's made a complete change in his life, losing many pounds, converting to a more devout religion, marrying and now with two children. He looks like the guy behind the hardware store counter to me. David is on CeeLo's team .

Rudy Parris looks like the singer Meatloaf. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Rudy's been a backup singer for Buck Owens, raised his daughter alone, is on Blake's team and I don't think he'll win this competition.

On Christinia's team we have De'borah. No that's not a mistake. I suppose her name is Deborah but De'borah (pronounced D...bor….ah…) appears to be deliberately altered to create this new name. De'borah, dear Lord, she's a fine sweet woman-child but evidently she has gender issues. De'borah plays piano and alleges to have been blocked from a musical future because of, well...her gender issues. She's one to watch I tell you and, on some level, she's entertaining. But she's no winner of this or even any of the more popular musical competitive reality shows.

So The Voice now goes on to what they call the "Knockout Rounds". With each team now culled down via the Battle rounds, where the celebrity team captains choose who competes against who and with what song, the Battle rounds involve the contenders not knowing in advance who they will sing against and further, song choice is determined by the contenders. The Knockout rounds are advertised to be swift, challenging and will narrow down the competitive field for the coming lives rounds.

From the show's web site:

At the end of the battles, only the strongest members of each coach's roster remain and proceed to the new knockout rounds. The artists will be paired again with a member of their team, but this time they find out only minutes before performing who they are being compared against. The artists each select their own song to perform individually, while their direct competitor watches and waits. They are vying for their coach’s confidence and decision to take them to the live shows. Their coach will choose the winner and the artist not selected will be sent home.

In the final live performance phase of the competition, the top artists from each team will compete each week against each other during a live broadcast. The television audience will vote to save their favorite artists and the two artists with the lowest number of votes will be sent home each week. In the end, one will be named “The Voice” and will receive the grand prize of a recording contract.

Below all posts on this Blog on this subject:

The Voice 2012 Begins: It's Not DUETS, It's Not American Idol, It's Not X Factor. It's THE VOICE. But is it any good?

Tuesdays NBC at 8 pm/7c. Check listings as times vary

Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

The Voice 2012 Teams Formed and Competing. Let's Take a Look and Predict.

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I wrote about the X Factor yesterday and I then noted that The Voice has been beating X Factor in the ratings.

Which is a bit of a surprise in that The Voice, in my estimation, has not been promoted or hyped anywhere near the league of X Factor. Simon Cowell had a vaunted history with his American Idol background and Fox's enthusiastic endorsement of his new endeavor.

Whereas The Voice features four moderately well-known singers with a format that has a bit of a twist to it but still would be considered by most to be the come from behind singing competitive reality show offering, at least compared to X Factor.

Instead I read that The Voice, by premiering ahead of X Factor and by offering many episodes in a week over the introductory period, has been forging ahead of X Factor in the ratings.

The four coaches have, as of this writing, chosen their protégés and I've got, for now, just a couple to watch for.

One of the odder contenders is Melanie Martinez. She definitely has one of the more unusual voices I've heard in all of the various singing competitions. She sports an unusual look as well, featuring big hair bows and somewhat childish outfits. But she's good and quite intriguing.

So many of these singing competitive reality shows are now filled with young people, age 16, even younger, as the older have already applied at the various other venues.

Alessandra Guercio is one such young woman, a mere 16 years old, but she has it al: a beautiful voice, a great look and a very definite stage presence.

Another young singer, this one male, to watch for is Avery Wilson, a 16 year old whose voice made me pause to listen.

One other standout is an older woman, Nicole Nelson. I doubt she'll win this thing as she's probably too old. No matter how noble the judges et al to these older contenders, they seldom win. But Nicole has a beautiful voice and she sang one of my favorite songs for her audition., "Hallelujah".

Still I point her out as one to watch and I'd be delighted if she were to win this thing.

We're following The Voice so come back to this Blog regularly and see what we think and you never know, we may have some fine snark we'll be serving up.


Below all posts on this Blog on this subject:

The Voice 2012 Begins: It's Not DUETS, It's Not American Idol, It's Not X Factor. It's THE VOICE. But is it any good?

Tuesdays NBC at 8 pm/7c. Check listings as times vary

Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

The Voice 2012 Begins: It's Not DUETS, It's Not American Idol, It's Not X Factor. It's THE VOICE. But is it any good?

So autumn 2012 is revving up and we've got X Factor and The Voice beginning their series' runs.

I was pondering whether to even bother with The Voice this year because, well frankly, I didn't much like it last year.

I thought the quality of the competing contenders to be sub-par, way below American Idol, even X Factor, contenders.

However I have, so far and after two rather distracted viewings, noted that the contenders on this year's The Voice are way above my expectations.

One cutie pie, Melanie Martinez, has the most unusual voice I've ever heard. Her "look" is a bit childish and quirky but it suits her very well.

A couple of youngsters also tried out and to my surprise they were outstanding.

Alessandra Guercio is a mere 17 years old. She has an outstanding voice, she's beautiful, she has the X Factor and could be a shoo-in for American Idol.

However she is a contender on The Voice and we shall see.

Another youngster-Avery Wilson, is a mere 16 years old and he too is American Idol/X Factor material.

NO WAIT!

The X Factor is where the rappers and gangsta singers go to win. None of the above mentioned contenders are out of the mainstream.


This year we still have the same "tem Captains":Adam, Blake, CeeLo and Christine.

I don't much like CeeLo. It's not that he's lacking talent. It's that he mumbles when he talks, he's somewhat boring, I don't know what the deal is with his birds and cats.

We'll be following The Voice for its run so come back to this Blog for updates.

The Voice airs Tuesdays NBC at 8 pm/7c. Check listings as times vary

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Wrapping Up Celebrity Apprentice, The Voice, Survivor-2012. Some great, some so-so, some awful.

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I can't imagine three reality shows as different from each other as the three which have been covered in this Blog for the duration during 2012.

Donald Trump began with a very successful reality series called The Apprentice. Once the thrill of that wore out Trump introduced The Celebrity Apprentice and this has been very successful as well.

The celebrity contenders play for charities which they specify at the beginning of each challenge. In addition, shown at the beginning of each CA episode there is shown a short vignette of the prior week's winner delivering the winning to check to the charity of their choice.

Some of the charities picked by these celebrities are weird. I recall a contender who had a charity that existed to help the people of Palestine. Say what? The people of Palestine have been living just fine on the largesse of the United Nations and neighboring Israel. This season there was at least onoe charity designated that somehow helped lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered, dear Lord, just dear Lord, what sort of financial help do these people need beyond that of a heterosexual?

Still and so it's kind of a standard for this sort of thing. It would be in very bad form for "celebrities" to be winning for their own presumably already wealthy selves.

I thought by the time I wrote this article that Celebrity Apprentice would already have its winner. Not so but this will still be my final post on the matter. I think Arsenio is going to win.

The Voice uses celebrities too. Four "famous" singers are put in the position of blindly choosing teams for amateur unknown singers to pit against the others' teams and to have one contender go on to win the entire contest.

The Voice will forever be most notable by my experience for having the absolute longest, the most grueling, the horror of watched pots never boiling…..ENDING!

At one point, I'm not making this up, there was a longish segment involving CeeLo and his cat!

The judge-singers sang their tunes solo, they sang their tunes with their chosen contenders/team mates, they sang their songs as a group. Guest singers including the child Justin Bieber finally sang his song they'd been hyping the entire season, did I mention Ceelo's cat?

The contender I chose to win, for no other godforesaken reason that I like him the best, was current opera singer Chris Mann. Mann came in fourth out of the final four featured in that endless finale. Tony Lucca, former mousekateer who I despised everything about, came in third, thank God for small favors. Juliet, a Janis Joplin wannabe and nowhere even close, was second place.

The winner of The Voice 2012 wasn't half bad. Jermaine Paul is the father of four kids, he had a good voice if a little wobbly from time to time. I just saw Jermaine perform on the Ellen DeGeneris show. He sang well and he was all along one of my favorites on The Voice. If my guy Mann couldn't win, I'd have chosen Jermaine to win without hesitation.

On to Survivor One World. I've been complaining about this reality series on every post so I'll stop.

This particular season was a bit interesting in that the series started with two tribes, each composed of all one sex. As the season ended there was one tribe left and it was composed of ALL WOMEN!

For the most part I'll probably never be a big Survivor fan. I find the challenges boring and all too similar, the austere basis of how the contenders live is not made clear, the drama of the contender interaction is too busy to follow. That host fellow is right boring as well.

Survivor One World was won by Kim Spradlin. I checked my track of the immunity, elimination and reward challenges and Kim did pretty much nothing of any great note except in late april she won the immunity challenge.

These types of shows do have a "jury", a panel of former contenders that come back when the show is down to under five and they decide who will win the prize. I must suppose Kim did a great job of keeping a low profile, hiding any great challenge she might have presented and I guess she was a nice sort in that by culling my notes I find nothing bad about her.

However great my joy for these three shows, or not, they did entertain me in some form or fashion if for no other reason, by providing fodder for these Blog posts.

Click on the appropriate label tags on the right sidebar to access all this Blog's posts on these shows.

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The Voice 2012-Final Four and Not a One Anywhere Near an American Idol Contender

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There's four left in the NBC challenge to American Idol and they are, all things being equal and after careful thought, probably the best of the lot.

I've been right along complaining about this group of contenders that were no match for the American Idol finalists. Which could be because they likely couldn't even make the finals for American Idol but that's just a guess.

The winner will be announced tonight, Tuesday May 8,2012.

Let's take a closer look at the finalists.

Tony Lucca is well liked by America. He's been in the top for several weeks. I don't like him. I don't like his stupid hat, I don't like his shadow beard, I don't like the way he be-bops about and tries to be so cool. I don't like his singing and I don't believe for a second he'd make it past the first round in the American Idol tryouts.

Jermaine Paul does have a nice story. He has four children and does seem like a really nice fellow. He seems to be the counterpart of American Idol's Joshua except Jermaine doesn't carry notes quite as well. His last performance was Journey's song "Open Arms" and I heard a couple of off notes. That being said, he did a pretty good job of it and I would be happy if he won.


Juliet Simms and Tony Lucca can walk out that door together as far as I'm concerned. She's a Janis Joplin wannabe and not so good at it. On at least one week she had to be saved by Ceelo. I'd be very surprised if she won.

Chris Mann would be my choice to win this thing. Chris is an opera singer and he does have an almighty voice though at times it seems not very practiced. He sings powerful songs like "The Power of Love" and "Ave Maria". Chris has said that he wants to cross over to popular music from the opera genre and he can probably succeed with ballads and the like. As to how "popular" his music would be, this remains to be seen.

Below, chris mann sings AVE MARIA


So I hope Chris Mann wins, or Jermaine Paul. I sure hope Tony Lucca goes nowhere and Juliet really does not have any great talent. If she wins it will be a sad, sad commentary on this series.

But that's my opinion and we shall see. I'm right about as often as Dick Morris, for the record.

Other posts on this Blog on The Voice 2012

The Voice 2012-Battle Rounds an Intriguing Way to Cull Down the Competition

The Voice-Another Singing Competitive Reality Series Begins Its Run Against American Idol

Few Good Voices on The Voice 2012; Lots of Celebrity Squabbles

The Voice 2012 Bores On; Contenders Can't Sing and Not Looking Too Good Either



Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

The Voice 2012 Bores On; Contenders Can't Sing and Not Looking Too Good Either

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So there's eight contenders left on The Voice which, I suspect, is only being watched by me and a few others. The remaining contenders are:

Chris Mann -Christina
Lindsey Pavao- Christina
Erin Willett- Blake
Jermaine Paul- Blake
Jamar Rogers -Cee Lo
Juliet Simms- Cee Lo
Katrina Parker- Adam
Tony Lucca -Adam

I was kind of leaning towards Pip to win this thing as he's young and cute and might have garnered a teeny bopper type of vote at the least.

Because frankly folks, the singers on this series are not that good and I whisper, they're not even all that good looking. Now I understand that the ersatz notion behind "The Voice" is that the contender is beloved based only on his or her voice and the blind auditions tend to lend credibility to this nice notion.

Katrina Parker's been hanging on by a thread. Twice she's had to sing against another to remain in contention. Twice she's won, pulled through by Adam. Adam's other contender, Tony Lucca, twice came in on top in the voting by America so he's liked by the viewers.


Christina's two final contenders are Chris Mann, who sang one of my favorite tunes: "When I Ruled the World", and who is an opera singer with a tendency to lose his grip on the note from time to time. But he's got talent and could carry this contest.

Lindsey Pavao was saved once by Christina and my notes indicate she's just average.

As for Blake's contenders, Erin was saved once by Blake. She's performed admirably well during this contest considering she's gone through the illness and death of her father. Jermaine's held his own and should not be ruled out.

Ceelo's Jamar Rogers is a crowd favorite and I'd give him even odds to win this thing. He's twice came in the top and for one of his duels he sang a great big "I Want To Know What Life Is". As for Juliet Simms , she's got a Janis Joplin type of growling voice, she's different, that's for sure. She was voted to the top for one week but I'd be real surprised if she wins this thing.

For now, I see two winners: CeeLo's Jamar Rogers and Christina's Chris Mann.

I shall watch the finish to this series and finally will have a grip on how it works.

Other posts on this Blog re The Voice 2012:
The Voice 2012-Battle Rounds an Intriguing Way to Cull Down the Competition

The Voice-Another Singing Competitive Reality Series Begins Its Run Against American Idol

Few Good Voices on The Voice 2012; Lots of Celebrity Squabbles

The Voice Performance round airs on NBC Monday 8pm/the elimination on Tuesday at 8pm.


Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

Few Good Voices on The Voice 2012; Lots of Celebrity Squabbles

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The Voice 2012 Offers Mediocre Talent


It's no American Idol, folks, write that down.

That goes in terms of format and singing talent because as I've continually asserted, if the contenders could REALLY sing, they'd be on American Idol.

At any rate, I suffered through the battle rounds, an interesting concept but boring I thought. How this works, the coach selects two of his contenders out of twelve that he or she selected at the so-called "blind auditions". The two selected sing the same song, at the same time, a song as selected by the coach. The coach/mentor then chooses the contender he or she liked best by the "battle".

I thought this kind of boring but it was okay as a background show, one that could allow for such as posting on a Blog while listening with one ear.

At some point each coach ends up with 6 contenders out of the original 12 survivors of the blind auditions. Now comes the rounds where America votes. On each performance night, two of the coach's teams perform for America. The mentor selects the songs they sing. America votes.

The top three for each mentor are pronounced safe. The bottom three must perform again, choosing their own song this time I believe. The mentor chooses one to save and two are then sent home. The first two performance shows had the  mentors' contenders vying for America's votes.



As of this writing each mentor has four contenders in the running. Their pics are below.

BLAKE's Team:
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Jermain, Rae Lynn and Erin came in the top 3. Blake saved Jordis.

Rae Lynn, as her name might imply, is the "Skylar" of The Voice. She's not near as good but she's ok.

Jordis came in the bottom three. She sang "Alone" by Heart, not an easy song but one of my faves. Her voice really is not strong enough to carry it but she did deserve the save that Blake sent her way.

Erin lost her father right before her performance. She gave a great performance, for her father she said.

Jermaine came in the top three. He sang "Living on a Prayer". I didn't think he was good at all.

Christina's Team:
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The top three on Christina's team were Jesse, Lindsy, and Chris

Christina saved Ashley, who was in the bottom three.

Chris is an opera singer, so he claims. He sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water". He hit some really bad notes but still, he came in the top three.

I thought Lindsey to be completely average. She too came in Christina's top three.

Ashley is 17 years old, she sang a Lynn Morrisette song. She pales compared to American Idol's Jessica.

Jesse sang "What a Wonderful World", a crooner of a tune but he did a great job of it.


Adam's Team:
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The top three voted in by America on Adam's team were Tony Lucca, Mathai and Pip. Adam saved Katrina.

Mathai definitely has the most unique voice, by which not necessarily the best voice. But if this show is to live up to what its name implies, Mathai should be in line to take the prize.

Pip is a young one, 19. He sang "When You Were Young". I liked his performance, he's cute. The judges didn't seem to like him but he did come in the top three.

Tony Lucca was so lackluster I have no notes on him at all.

Katrina is an okay singer but she wasn't out of place in that bottom three. She definitely deserved to be saved but I don't see her winning this thing.

Cee Lo's Team:
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The top three voted in by America on Cee Lo's team consisted of Juliet, Jamar, and James. Cee Lo saved Chessa.

James had a very boyish voice, not big league at all. I don't think he'll be around long and, indeed, am surprised he made it through to the top 3.

Juliet sang and odd song for a female-"Roxanne". She has a low growly voice and she could hang in there quite a while, might make to the top three.

Jamar sang a song so forgettable that all of memory was the fact that he had people walking around on stilts as he sang. Blake complained about this and it was really silly.

Cheesa sang a song by Thelma Houston and she was okay.

So if it seems like I have no enthusiasm this would be because I don't.

For now I'd choose Christina's Jesse or Adam's Pip that seem most likely to win this thing, with Cee Lo's Julieta dark horse that could pull it out.

Below previous posts on The Voice on this Blog

The Voice 2012-Battle Rounds an Intriguing Way to Cull Down the Competition

The Voice-Another Singing Competitive Reality Series Begins Its Run Against American Idol

The Voice airs on NBC Monday nights at 8 pm. The elimination round is on Tuesday nights.

Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.