Real Kato Blog: 2009 December

So, is anyone else watching "Sing Off" on NBC? It's like "Glee" meets "American Idol". In fact, it's so obviously a mash-up of those two shows, it almost makes you pity poor NBC for not having the ability to come up with any new ideas. Next year on NBC: We put eight high school glee clubs on a deserted island, where they must sing and dance for food and firewood! We'll call it "Lord of the Dance (and the Flies), Plus Eight". (Kate Gosselin hosts.)

I mean, "Sing Off" even features Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger playing the role of bubble-headed blabberer (a role made famous, of course, by Paula Abdul). And there's Boyz II Men's Shawn Stockman, who gleefully throws around terms like "pitchy" and "make it your own" so often that you keep expecting him to call someone "dawg" at any minute. They've got an awkwardly metro host in Nick Lachey. If they'd only found a crotchety Brit to be the third judge instead of Ben Folds, they'd have duplicated the Idol formula precisely.

Oh, and did I mention that one of the groups sang an a capella version of "Don't Stop Believing"? They might as well have been wearing "Glee" t-shirts.

Now, all that being said, we're fans of the show. The groups are sincere, and the performances are fun to watch. We like the Beelzebubs, a bunch of college guys from Tufts, who seem to be the most inventive group of the contestants.

NBC is slamming through the competition quickly (three two-hour episodes, and a finale next week), making this seem like more of a trial balloon than an ongoing series. I'm hoping that if they do decide to make this a recurring show, we'll get to see more of the early auditions and the elimination process.

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Posted by Ken in: music, television

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