Together again are judges Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams on the new season of The Voice Season 9 currently airing in East Asia on the AXN channel - The Voice (photo)

Video Beat - THE VOICE... the AMERICAN IDOL KILLER IS ON!!!

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

The 9th season of The Voice is on. Upcoming will be the final season of American Idol. While The Voice keeps its show fresh Idol lost the plot of who the stars should be. They chose their judges over their talent whereas The Voice got it right with a good balance between talent and judges. IN SUMMARY: Welcome to The Voice & GOOD RIDDANCE to AMERICAN IDOL

Monday, September 28, 2015

AMERICAN IDOL'S GRIM REAPER… is THE VOICE

You can say what you want about American Idol but the bottom line is when The Voice started to get it right in its third season and has emerged as the vocal talent show of choice… IS NOW ON!!!

Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Pharrell Williams have returned for their ninth (Levine and Shelton) and third (Williams) seasons as coaches, respectively. Gwen Stefani returned for her second season, after a season hiatus. The advisors for this season will include Missy Elliott for Team Pharrell, Brad Paisley for Team Blake, Selena Gomez for Team Gwen and John Fogerty for Team Adam. Rihanna served as an advisor for all teams during the knockouts.

The Voice continues to get it right by having the talent be the star while the judges have a formidable but balanced presence. Stefani and Williams seem to have a special bond given that they are the new kinds on the block since Shelton and Levine have been judges on the show since its inception.

Stefani and Williams seem to have shared interests in talent. During the first week of the blind auditions on three occasions they turned their chairs around while Shelton and Levine showed no interest. Two of the three talents chose Stefani to be their coach. The twist is there has yet to be a female coach to mentor a talent that won the contest.

One of the most outstanding voices thus far is 16-year-old Zach Seabaugh. The country style singer had a three chair turnaround and selected old country boy Shelton to be his coach. Country singer Emily Ann Roberts 16 is also a strong talent also chose Shelton to be her coach. By all appearances it's apparent the country genre is cool this season.

The other judges jokingly state that Shelton is the country Mafia. At the end of the day Stefani was the talents choice in winning five of the 25 contestants who selected her to be their mentor.

The oldest contestant thus far is soul singer Regina Love 51 who selected Levine to be her mentor. The youngest contestant is Braiden Sunshine 15 who chose Levine as a mentor.

Of the 25 singers that were featured on the telecasts six contestants had four chair turnarounds. They are Mark Hood 24, Jordan Smith 24, Barrett Baber 35, Blind Joe 32, Evan McKeel 20 and James Dupré 30. Levine landed three of the six while Shelton took two, Williams one while Stefani struck out. Dupre, a high school teacher could surprise with his interesting strong voice.

If the question is why did The Voice succeed and American Idol failed we have a perspective:

1. The Show is about featuring the talent and not the judges

2. Each season is kept fresh with a rotation of judges

3. A good balance of air time given to the talent and judges. Idol lost the plot when they focused everything on Jennifer Lopez as it was the Jennifer Lopez show and not American Idol.

4. The Voice has better talent and no age restrictions.

5. They have a no bullshit MC who sticks to doing the job and not primping and pimping himself as does Idol MC Ryan Seacrest.

. More inspirational given the age flexibility which opens up a wider spectrum of potential viewers.

7. Blind auditions where the judge's selections are purely based on what they hear and NOT WHAT THEY SEE.

8. The low key way in which the judges are portrayed on the program as opposed to Idols GRAND ENTRANCE of walking down a flight of stairs, which is retained Simon Cowell idea.

9. The Voice produces two seasons during a one year period.

10. The Voice also has numerous reruns of previous seasons throughout the year which keeps the show fresh in the minds of their viewers.

IN SUMMARY: Welcome to The Voice & GOOD RIDDANCE to AMERICAN IDOL

The Voice Season 9 airs in East Asia Tuesday and Wednesday nights on the AXN channel.

National Radio text is published in five languages, Thai, French, Russian, Khmer (Cambodian language) and English, Any of our foreign language material and our Roman Wanderaugh columns is legally available ONLY on our National Radio site. Our sports, entertainment and feature programming has been broadcast on over 1000 radio stations

© Copyright: National Radio. Any use of these materials, whole or in part, is prohibited unless authorized in writing by National Radio. Contact: nationalradio@yahoo.com All rights reserved.