TV Review, THE VOICE – Season 1- “Battles, Part 4”

NBC’s alternate reality version of AMERICAN IDOL excels with its coaches, but the Battle format leaves a lot to be desired. When THE VOICE premiered last month, it quickly proved to be one of NBC’s surprise breakout hits. It’s a reality music competition in the vein of AMERICAN IDOL , but the twist is, the “coaches” picked their favorites with the backs turned tothe contestants. They were judging them on talent, not by how they looked.
It was a great idea, and with strong coaches like Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine (of Maroon 5), it lended some fresh voices and some current pop validity to the proceedings.
Then the show started the Battles rounds, and well, things have been hit and miss since. Here’s the problem, “Battles, Part 4” is the fourth week we’ve had the contestants slowly widdled down to the final 16. Each coach picks 4 contestants apiece and in order to get there, they have to pit artists in a musical Tunderdome where two contestants sing off each other with only one leaving the victor. Curtis Grimes and Emily Valentine perform on THE VOICE - Season 1 - “Battles, Part 4”