Can Anything Save This £20 Million Turkey of a Show?
Queen__Bea
Posts: 1,124 Forum Member
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The Beeb must be looking at the plummeting viewing figures and thinking how on earth did we get it so wrong - again. They failed spectacularly with Fame Academy years ago, and clearly they learned have no lessons.
Like Eldorado, they are not going to simply cancel the show because it is a disaster - they will try to make their huge financial investment work before giving up. So expect at least one more series after this dismal start. But they need to get a grip with the following:
The judges are terrible. Tom Jones hasn't been a credible artist since the late 1960s - before he went to Las Vegas, met Elvis, blah blah blah and became the king of cheese. Jessie J comes across as an inexperienced, inarticulate, ungrateful chav. Danny is the most famous person no one had ever heard of, and his constant fist pumping, singing along with the lyrics, and crying to show how "passionate" he is has become very very tiresome. Will.I.Am may be a world class music producer, but he is no TV personality. He has no coherent views and mumbles nonsense in an almost inaudible staccato. They all interact very badly , and they have all discredited themselves by giving wild praise to really mediocre acts. Awful.
The contestants are not good enough. From Max (who just screams "I have a showbiz mummy" through everything he does) to the silly little bleach blond guy who looks like Freddie Starr playing Billy Idol), we are dealing with real second-raters here. People who qwould have either never made it to the X Factor live finals or who would have been put out in Week 1 or 2. The sob stories don't help. We've had too many sob stories in reality TV to really care anymore. So what, that woman is bald. So what, that guy has a dead Amy Winehouse haunting his every step. It just doesn't work. And to think, all of them were handpicked for the auditions by a production team who thought they were guaranteeing a good mix of entrants!
The live show just doesn't feel live. I just don't know why, but this is what really seems to kill the show - the live show has a really flat, naff feel to it. It doesn't feel like a big, shared, live Saturday night event. It feels like a kids Saturday morning show and with the crowd near the stage whooping and cheering for some really poor performances, again, it is just another rerun of Fame Academy. All it needs is Patrick Kielty and the whole sorry mess would be complete.
It's getting worse. The real reason people are turning off is because they realise it's all downhill from here. The best, most watchable part of the show was at the start with the judges turning in their chairs to "commit" to a voice. But of course, they didn't "commit" to a voice, they just selected fodder who were swiftly dumped to make way for an extremely dreary, shouty, boring talent show that is now just grinding on with no point. It's obvious that none of these people will ever be stars, so there's no edge to the show whatsoever.
So can the BBC salvage it? They are using our money to fund it, so unlike ITV they'll be under no pressure to dump it because of low ratings. But rather than let it stagger on like this, it'd be great if they did manage somehow to give us a big, live Saturday night show to rival X Factor. But they need to be brutal. They've invested £20 Million in this. What they've given us so far is not worth that money. It needs a total overhaul.
Like Eldorado, they are not going to simply cancel the show because it is a disaster - they will try to make their huge financial investment work before giving up. So expect at least one more series after this dismal start. But they need to get a grip with the following:
The judges are terrible. Tom Jones hasn't been a credible artist since the late 1960s - before he went to Las Vegas, met Elvis, blah blah blah and became the king of cheese. Jessie J comes across as an inexperienced, inarticulate, ungrateful chav. Danny is the most famous person no one had ever heard of, and his constant fist pumping, singing along with the lyrics, and crying to show how "passionate" he is has become very very tiresome. Will.I.Am may be a world class music producer, but he is no TV personality. He has no coherent views and mumbles nonsense in an almost inaudible staccato. They all interact very badly , and they have all discredited themselves by giving wild praise to really mediocre acts. Awful.
The contestants are not good enough. From Max (who just screams "I have a showbiz mummy" through everything he does) to the silly little bleach blond guy who looks like Freddie Starr playing Billy Idol), we are dealing with real second-raters here. People who qwould have either never made it to the X Factor live finals or who would have been put out in Week 1 or 2. The sob stories don't help. We've had too many sob stories in reality TV to really care anymore. So what, that woman is bald. So what, that guy has a dead Amy Winehouse haunting his every step. It just doesn't work. And to think, all of them were handpicked for the auditions by a production team who thought they were guaranteeing a good mix of entrants!
The live show just doesn't feel live. I just don't know why, but this is what really seems to kill the show - the live show has a really flat, naff feel to it. It doesn't feel like a big, shared, live Saturday night event. It feels like a kids Saturday morning show and with the crowd near the stage whooping and cheering for some really poor performances, again, it is just another rerun of Fame Academy. All it needs is Patrick Kielty and the whole sorry mess would be complete.
It's getting worse. The real reason people are turning off is because they realise it's all downhill from here. The best, most watchable part of the show was at the start with the judges turning in their chairs to "commit" to a voice. But of course, they didn't "commit" to a voice, they just selected fodder who were swiftly dumped to make way for an extremely dreary, shouty, boring talent show that is now just grinding on with no point. It's obvious that none of these people will ever be stars, so there's no edge to the show whatsoever.
So can the BBC salvage it? They are using our money to fund it, so unlike ITV they'll be under no pressure to dump it because of low ratings. But rather than let it stagger on like this, it'd be great if they did manage somehow to give us a big, live Saturday night show to rival X Factor. But they need to be brutal. They've invested £20 Million in this. What they've given us so far is not worth that money. It needs a total overhaul.
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Comments
*clapping*
Wow, much better than any dross from the Red Tops. Maybe you should apply for a job there? Or maybe you already are 'one of them'!
Well I'd rather enjoy a good show than complain about a bad one.
Maybe The Voice is just God's way of telling me to go out to the pub and get drunk on a Saturday night...:D
Byee.
LOL - always listen to God when he talks good sense.
I will just laugh at this one, not good enough contestants? At least 10 of the contestants left are better than half the dross that made TXF live shows. :rolleyes:
Humour/sarcasm bypass. Good.
I agree with some of it (esp freddie starr, poor lad!). I think the hand-picked contestants was a flaw - they didn't get to discover anyone, just pick out londoners and you tube contestants? great.
I also think it feels flat. I watch XF although hate pop music and simon cowell, and it is so contrived, but at the very least you feel the show has some drama and intrique, as annoying and scripted as it is. the voice is kind of dull atm but I'm hoping it will pick up and we will get some stand-out perfomances very soon.
I like the variety of songs used, and although this hasn't provided a knock-out performance yet, I hope they stick with the more unusual song choices as it's probably my favourite thing about the show.
You could at least check your facts before you started your rant. Bo's mother is ill in hospital with cancer. Your comment was extremely insensitive.
If even Kate Bush has the grace to send good wishes to Bo and her mother, the least you can do is get your facts right before you complain about her.
I have to agree. I keep seeing this tagline about lack of talent yet the talent on The Voice is far greater than anything on the last series of X Factor. You could post videos of some shocking live X Factor performers just to remind people!
No, just returning like for like.
My fault there - I tune out completely when it comes to these stories. I have removed the reference in my OP. Maybe that's a good reason to leave this stuff out altogether. Absolutely no offense intended and I hope said person gets well soon .:)
I did find your comments funny though, just not funny haha.:D
Well thank you for sharing.
Exactly. We all want a good, major, live show on a Saturday night. The Voice started off with a tremendous amount of goodwill, with great viewing figures. Those figures now speak for themselves.
Don't shoot the messenger!
I do like the 'coaches', they are all more credible than the XF judges. However, I have been disappointed at the descendency into cliche land of 'owned the song/made it your own' and 'journey', both of which should be banned. I agree that they should be harsher when needed and that they should probably talk less, be a bit sharper when making comments, so we can hear longer songs.
The Sunday night results show should be live, I don't care about 'saving license payers money' - too late for that.
One things about the Voice that widdles all over XF, is the live band. I love that part and its meant that songs can be re-arranged and made different, whereas XF backing tracks just make it sound like a glorified karaoke evening. I do agree that if the band were right out on the stage, it would be even better.
I really like the choice of songs overall, XF just re-use the same ones every year. Although, a couple have been a bit too obscure - I know music but there have been a couple of occasions where even I have had to struggle to know what it is. The general public need to recognise all songs on shows like this.
Overall though, the standard is so much higher than XF, which will just prove that too many viewers don't care about finding the best talent around, just to be 'entertained' by average singers who have a sob story.
I just wish more people would be less critical about these shows and just enjoy them for what they are. The Voice is very much enjoyed in my household and there are a lot of plus points.
Utterly irrelevant.
That's right. Posters saying 'well stop watching then' miss the point. I would like The Voice to be good, want to enjoy something with the family on a Sat night and am not a fan of BGT. But this is just not good enough and the mistakes are not forgiveable from a major broadcaster. You and other posters have articulated them very well. If we as non tv people can see instantly that the judging line-up doesn't work and that the host is mis-cast, how come it wasn't obvious to the BBC team in rehearsals? The fact that this is public money does make a difference.
saturday they alienated so many viewers with song choice
also having a top 20 is too many, should be a top 12 (quality not quantity)
also some of the strongest people getting ditched in battle rounds is flawed and now we are left with some people who are out of their depth
the panel is missing a "bad guy" simon cowell, craig revel horwood, jason gardiner play an important role in these types of shows
how boring was dancing on ice without the bitchy jason!
at the end of the day what cowell said is right, you do need more than a voice to be a star
Holly was a disaster, but I have to give it to the production team she has improved last weekend. Still some way to go.
I don't think there was anything wrong with focussing on the coaches. They did give constructive comments mainly, though I agree they also tended to give 'canned' comments ala X Factor when, I suspect they had nothing more (positive) to say. Right now I think they have done a good enough balance between the airtime given contestants and their coaches. Too much time for the former, and people accuse the show of following X Factor showing too much sob stories. Too much for the latter (how much more can we expect from them coaches?) and I will definitely fall asleep.
I do think the coaches should be 'coached' to take notes down, watch the rehearsals of the other contestants (other than their own team) and make some more eloquent comments about the performance, and adjust accordingly during the live shows (if, say, the live performance fared better than rehearsals or vice versa).
With regards to the battles round, I don't know how this can be improved upon. It's the same format in all The Voice show, and it's often the times when (like the US version) ratings starts to fall steadily until the live shows (and rating continue to drop, until it rise a little on the finals).
Song choices? I don't know, do you want only top 40 chart-toppers or cliche classics? Do you think that will draw more viewers in so doing. I frankly doubt that will help.
I just feel that the contestants are truly of a higher calibre singing wise compared with other talent shows out in the UK at the moment, and people just want to be 'entertained', they got used to overhypped, overly-scripted 'spats', making fun of joke acts or characters like Jedwards, Eggnogs and THE CLAW, or BRAT pretty teenager who bitches about her air-head mentor. Oh well...
Also, The voice hasn't used any cheap tactics to get one over on BGT, unlike Amanda Holden who took a swipe at Tom Jones' age, and Simon Cowell yesterday, who made a cheap dig at the voice when commenting on the Mend.
^^^
This!