My wife and I began watching “The Voice” on NBC early on. She was tired of American Idol and I stayed with this season until Pia Toscano was voted off. I then decided that I had had enough of it also. I think we thought the Idol format is worn out and even though the judge change was a slight improvement, it wasn’t enough for us.
So enter “The Voice”: a fresh, new idea where talent is king – not appearance or appeal and has the key piece for us – mentoring! In my opinion, “The Voice” is what a talent-reality show should be: choose someone only by what they are being graded for. So vocally, the judges only were able to LISTEN to the audition song. They couldn’t watch too. Then, only IF they liked what they HEARD could they turn around in their chair to see them and then that judge does their best to get that person on their team. No fashion show, no cool moves or entrances … just singing! We LOVED that!
Then Mark Barnett – the creator/executive producer is the 2nd genius in that he chose judges with hearts – not big egos (even though there was some ego in one of the judges – the only female on the panel and she had blond hair and her first name was Christina). HOWEVER, the other 3 heart driven judges overshadowed that.
But let’s talk about Blake Shelton. He’s a country singer who I knew about who recently married the ultra-country Miranda Lambert (who hunted and killed her own food for her wedding reception – uh huh!). Blake – from the start – acted like a proud and protective father to his contestants, agonized when one was voted off and made sure his choices got their fair shake in the program. Then to top it off, he picks the two most unlikely – introverted (TO THE MAX!) young ladies. I was thinking to myself: “Blake! What are you seeing here dude:?” But then he really begins to walk with them to help them. He even took them in his private jet to one of his show dates, brought them on stage to sing with him in front of thousands! He showed two inexperienced but slightly talented ladies that THEY COULD DO THIS – they just needed confidence and dang it, he was on a campaign to get them believe it. Oh, and one other thing, every time a judge had the opportunity to do a performance on the show, the other 3 got their spotlight. But Blake? He shared the stage with his remaining contestants. The dude only cared that he helped these people win.
So we get to the final week (this past week) and the FINAL two standing included one heck of a young man, Javier Colon – a father of 2 little girls and a crooning voice that WILL be on your nearest radio/download soon! And then – young Dia Frampton – Blake’s hand 
picked finalist to compete for the top spot and be “The Voice” ($100K recording contract and more). He did a duet of a Tom Petty song with Dia and they knocked it out of the park. I told my wife as I watched, this is NOT the same girl I doubted when Blake chose her. He had succeeded! He had infused his experience and confidence into this girl like a massive blood transfusion and it showed! It was incredible to watch! Why don’t you?
In the end, Javier won and honestly, he’s the guy with the talent that will go far and with his humble attitude and demeanor, he was the obvious winner. But to me, the success story was Blake and quiet little Dia. What progress and how far she came to become a 2nd place finisher! Because Blake Shelton took the chance, saw something few others even imagined, that young lady’s life has changed for the positive and she will always know – as she credited him on the show – he was the reason why!
American Idol – best of luck to you but in our home – you are history. You moved away from discovering raw talent and developing it. And now we have “The Voice”, the new kid on the block that understands reality has REAL in it and judges that are caring and concerned people who will step out of their performance zone to help some raw but talented folks be something special. Wish you were on in the fall but we’ll wait until next spring for season two – it will be worth the wait!
What we need are more Blake Shelton’s in the entertainment industry! This guy is something special!
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