"The Voice"

To me “The Voice” is supposed to be a show that is all about real talent, the best voice, the right attitude, and performance that makes a lasting impression on the audience. From that standpoint the producers truly succeeded in bringing in all musical styles to this new reality singing competition. But what else does the show offer?
In a way, it's almost unfair to judge a show this early, but the fact is that like American Idol, which was also finessing ratings for their first few episodes a decade ago, there are a lot of factors to weigh when launching a show with such star power.

There's the issue of pacing the singing competition to draw out the interest factor, and of course you need some laughs and compassionate moments while providing the best talent imaginable. In my point of view The Voice is moving along too swiftly. Granted, American Idol goes through the whole audition process and perhaps NBC didn't think this was entertaining enough to hold the audience’s interest, but I believe that the blind competitions could have been drawn out for one more week so the audience could learn more about the contestants on a personal level. Even when you visit the NBC The Voice website, the profiles of the contestants are very short, vague, and they don't really provide much history. Another real good example is when they showed the season premier with the debut of Patrick Thomas. Having never heard of this young country singer I wanted to know more about him because I really enjoyed his performance. You know I couldn't find anything about him on the internet; no website with a profile, bio, fan page. NBC couldn't afford to put something together for this kid? And what’s really sad is that Patrick Thomas still doesn't have a website! It appears that producers were either not very prepared for this show, or they simply feel that details about their contestants do not matter? To me the NBC Producers dropped the ball on this one...

Now, as far as the judges/coaches, opposite the premier of the "mean" judges on American Idol, The Voice coaches appear to have a great rapport and compete rather nicely -- for the most part. To me this is where The Voice differentiates from Idol the most and really makes the show more entertaining. Although it appeared as though the coaches were fulfilling their roles, for whatever the reason NBC has decided to fortify their celebrity cast with Reba McEntire, Monica, Sia, and Adam Blackstone for what will next be The Battle Rounds. I'm truly looking forward to the battle rounds, but I really hope that the pace of the show slows down a little bit and we, the audience, are afforded the pleasure of seeing more and learning more about these young, aspiring contestants is this great new reality singing competition?