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Cher performs new music on “The Voice”

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:53:00 +0000

1980s pop star Cher performed new music, "It's a Woman's World," on last night's "The Voice" season finale, making it her first performance on live television in over a decade. The singer, 67, admitted to HollywoodLife.com that she was nervous about it: "“It was frightening and fun, when you haven’t actually been live and been in front of an audience. It wouldn’t be bad if it was a concert, but to be in front of a gazillion people made it a little bit uncomfortable and nerve-racking. Plus, I have had some really hard times with my throat. I went to Russia and had something and my voice hasn’t been great, so I was really nervous. I think what I didn’t have with my voice, I covered with having a good time!”

If the singer was nervous, though, she certainly didn't show it. Cher returned to the stage in true Cher fashion, with a wig that turned her into some really weird bird. Watch her performance, below:

The persistence of Carson Daly: How an MTV personality became face of “The Voice”

Thu, 02 May 2013 23:30:00 +0000

In the early 2000s, Jimmy Fallon had a "Saturday Night Live" bit that always slayed. Impersonating the host of MTV's "Total Request Live," the popular Mr. Fallon would announce, "I'm Carson Daly, and I'm a massive tool!"

Given the popularity of the after-school program, in which Daly introduced a countdown of hit music videos and interviewed musicians, all while tweenage girls shrieked in the studio, the joke was lost on no one. Amid the candy-colored universe of Britney videos, girls who wanted to meet Justin so bad, and in-studio Mariah breakdowns, the stolid host seemed ... well ... a bit dull.

Maybe there's a reason why vanilla is such a popular flavor. Carson Daly -- a massive tool, we all agree -- is the MTV star who survived. Sure, you probably don't watch his late-late-night talk show "Last Call." But somebody does: It was recently renewed for a 13th season. He's the host NBC turns to on New Year's Eve, to counter first Dick Clark and now Ryan Seacrest on ABC. When speculation grew that Matt Lauer was on the outs on "Today," Daly's name not only made the list of potential replacements, but he seemed to be trying out, subbing for Willie Geist during the 9 a.m. hour and joining the panel of "Today's Professionals."

“The Voice” keeps rolling right along

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:25:00 +0000

“The Voice” returned for its fourth cycle last night with two new, one-named judges replacing Christina Aguilera and Cee-Lo: Shakira and Usher. In the two years since “The Voice” premiered, judge shuffling has become common across all singing competition shows, with unpredictable effects. “Idol” survived the loss of Simon Cowell, Britney Spears didn’t make “X Factor” a smash, Nicki Minaj may be the best judge in that singing show’s history, but that hasn’t had much bearing on the current iteration of “Idol’s” ratings. Even more than the other singing franchises, however, “The Voice” seems judge-proof— not because the judges don’t matter, but because the format makes it harder for the judges to be boring. Even if they have nothing insightful or sharp to say about the singing, at least they have something sharp and insightful (or fine, semi-sharp and semi-insightful) to say about each other. "The Voice" remains a more polished piece of entertainment than its peers.

“Smash” goes splat in the ratings

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:29:00 +0000

All the retooling was for naught, it seems.

"Smash," the critically derided show that maintained a baseline decent audience last spring (composed of so-called hate-watchers), isn't even fun to hate anymore: Only 4.5 million viewers tuned in to last night's second-season premiere, with a teensy 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

The series was heavily promoted during last year's Super Bowl and began its life as a promising collaboration between new NBC president Robert Greenblatt and director Steven Spielberg. Show creator and playwright Theresa Rebeck departed last year after a power struggle with the network; new showrunner Joshua Safran (late of "Gossip Girl") gave the season premiere a more professional, less haphazard sheen.

NBC, which spent fall in recovery, buoyed by football, "The Voice" and new hit "Revolution" -- none of which is currently on the air -- can only hope that "The Voice" can work its magic on the schedule when it returns.

Cassadee Pope wins Season 3 of “The Voice”

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:45:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — Cassadee Pope, who was country singer Blake Shelton's protege on the third season of NBC's "The Voice," has won the show's competition.

The 23-year-old singer is stepping out into a solo career after performing with a band called Hey Monday. Her victory over Scottish native Terry McDermott and long-bearded Nicholas David was announced at the end of a two-hour show Tuesday.

"The Voice" has grown into a hit for NBC and was the key factor in the network's surprising success this fall.

The show's status was affirmed by the stream of hitmakers who performed on the finale. They included Rihanna, Bruno Mars, the Killers, Smokey Robinson and Peter Frampton.

Just how bad was Jim Lehrer?

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 19:29:00 +0000

It sort of works.

h/t ThinkProgress

NBC’s surprisingly good September

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:28:00 +0000

Last night, word leaked out that NBC will not be going ahead with “Mockingbird Lane,” its high-profile reboot of “The Munsters.” Despite detailed explanations of how the new project would be edgy and different from the 1960s sitcom, and the promise of a big, strong cast that included Eddie Izzard and Portia de Rossi, it always sounded like a pretty bad idea, or at least one that would be very difficult to execute well. The restraint shown by NBC in not ordering the series, one NBC has been talking about and up almost since the arrival of Bob Greenblatt, its still relatively new president, is another good sign for the network, which is having a surprisingly good autumn. Aside from airing “Guys With Kids” this fall, NBC is having the best pilot season of all the networks.

Let’s take Adam Levine seriously

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:11:00 +0000

Of the four judges or celebrity contestants or coaches -- or whatever you call them -- on “The Voice,” Adam Levine is the worst vocalist. Blake Shelton’s voice is sturdy and dependable like an old pickup truck. Christina Aguilera has strong, ostentatious pipes. And Cee Lo Green has proved his vocal chops on solo albums like “Cee Lo Green… Is the Soul Machine” and even the weirdly overlooked “The Lady Killer.”

But Levine, who also fronts Maroon 5 -- so he represents “rock” on "The Voice," which returns tonight on NBC -- doesn’t possess a whole lot of physical or interpretive range. He tends to linger in the mid-range, although on slower songs he does try to hit higher notes, which only reveals his limitations. Lately, he has been favoring AutoTune, but to his credit, that’s more an interesting aesthetic device than a shortcut corrective measure.

“The Voice” names winner in season finale

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:31:00 +0000

The final four contestants were whittled down to one last night on NBC's "The Voice," the "American Idol" competitor that we liked from the very beginning.

Javier Colon beat finalist Dia Frampton by only two percent of the vote to win the show's first-ever competition. His celebrity coach was Adam Levine from Maroon 5 (his fellow competitors were coached by Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, and Blake Shelton).

With his victory, Colon -- who made two albums with Capitol in the past -- has won a contract with Universal Records, as well as $100,000.

Watch the moment of truth here:

Why “The Voice” deserves to topple “Idol”

Wed, 04 May 2011 13:05:00 +0000

I have a crush on NBC's "The Voice" (Tuesdays 10 p.m./9 central). Whether it will blossom into an obsession remains to be seen, but I can already tell you that just two episodes into its run, the show is giving me everything I used to get from "American Idol," plus things that "Idol" never thought to provide.

For one thing, there's something at stake for the judges. The auditions began last week and wrapped up last night. By the end, the show's celebrity judges/mentors, or "coaches" -- Christina Aguilera, Cee-lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton; all influential and accomplished pop music stars -- had placed eight performers in their personal stables, for a total of 32 personal votes of confidence.

This is a huge difference from "Idol," a show where the judges are detached from the singers' struggles. They sit there like decadent aristocrats readying a thumbs up or thumbs down, confident that about 90 percent of the decisions pertaining to a singer's fate will rest in the hands of the audience; all they really have to do is make pithy remarks. The hard work of shaping the performers' technique and stage presence falls to guest gurus (this season it's Interscope Records founder Jimmy Iovine), plus whatever big-name composers, performers or record producers stop by.