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At 8pm tonight is the finale of our beloved little a cappella show. The ratings? Mostly meh, with a little bright spot of the repeat show on Saturday night: though it only got a 0.6 rating with 2.89M viewers, it bested Two and a Half Men, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and helped NBC win the night even before the big SNL numbers. Not bad for the little a cappella engine that could.So let's discuss what we think will happen tonight. I thought it was pretty clear from the beginning that we'd be down to Ten, Home Free, and Vocal Rush in the Finale - and I think it's obvious who our winner will be. Home Free is the perfect marketing opportunity for a label. They've got country (which still sells albums, Beyonce notwithstanding), cute boys, good personality. They'll do well, especially if they can break into that Straight, No Chaser adult fan base. If Ten had been able to get together a little in advance of the show and coalesce slightly more before filming, I think they might have had a shot at the win. But Home Free has the right niche and a proven ability to tour. Expect to see Nick, Shawn, Ben, and Jewel singing with the groups, as well as a finale-boosting appearance by Season 3 winner Pentatonix.
Last week, they announced that there will be a Sing Off tour, coming soon to a medium-sized auditorium or casino possibly near you. The schedule looks really rough (no days off for three months other than travel days) which makes me worried for the health of the voices on the tour. No word yet on which groups will be touring, but hopefully even the college groups will get to do a few days on break or near them.
So tell me, while we wait for tonight, what was your favorite performance this season? I'm partial to Vocal Rush, so I'll choose "Bottom of the River" as the winner for me. It was their first performance, and a strong introduction to what the high schoolers could do.
"Bottom of the River" was my favorite too, but I really enjoyed "Skyfall," "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark," and VoicePlay's "Play that Funky Music" (which surprised me, because I do not like that song at all.) Plus several of the ULTIMATE SING-OFFS, which were by and large pretty delightful.
ReplyDeleteHome Free is not my cup of tea musically, but I can't begrudge them their success at all and I hope they do sell tons of records. They have clearly worked incredibly hard and seem like good folks. I liked their last two performances much more than their first few -- it seemed like they were really pushing themselves and it showed.
Unsurprisingly, I agree with Victoria completely!
ReplyDeletecouple questions.
ReplyDelete1. Who is the host and why couldn't they find someone less wooden. Or maybe English isn't his first language and he's reading off the teleprompter phonetically. He was bad.
2. How real is this competition? From what I can tell, a bunch of these groups formed specifically for this show (on their own or show prompting?) and Saray mentioned that Home Free morphed into a country group. Follow up -- are the judges doing the actual judging or is a panel of anonymous producers in the back room picking the winner? I get the impression that the whole show is basically a giant commercial for the record company to promote who they think they can market and also to throw a couple other groups against the wall and see if anything else sticks.
3. This one is from the Wife, concerning last night's show. What's the deal with Jewel's boobs? Her bra and infrastructure must have cost at least $500 to get them to look like that. Me: they were distracting.
"Against All Odds" and "Bottom of the River" by Vocal Rush, "Skyfall" by Ten, and "Colder Weather" by Home Free.
ReplyDeleteI agree w/number 3, Jewel was distracting. Nick Lachey is passionate about singing, he was on that choir show, and he is clearly friends with the judges so he works for me
ReplyDeleteColder Weather made me feel better about Home Free's inevitable win.
ReplyDelete1. Nick Lachey is not a great host, 'tis true.
ReplyDelete2. Not so real. The judges do judge but don't think they're making decisions without serious consulting about the eventual winner. I think a large part of the reason for the precipitous drop-off in viewers was the inevitability of Home Free's win. (Our commenters were calling it in the first episode.)
3. Agreed.
Last year I called Pentatonix from the first episode (I've called all four winners from very early on - there's a reason that all the winners have been 4-6 people, virtually all male, with Kirsti from Pentatonix being the lone female winner).
ReplyDeleteBUT, the inevitability of Pentatonix's win in no way made last season dull, largely due to the fabulousness of the Aires' performances. Inevitability doesn't have to mean a boring show - it just did this year because most of the groups gave lackluster performances in most shows.
Last year had a deep bench, too; I think any of the last six groups would've been credible finalists. Few of this year's performances would've been among my top 10-15 of last season's.
ReplyDelete