The Voice

Last night NBC premiered its new series The Voice. Thank God, because NBC has been beating me to death with commercials for it since about January. Anyway, I gave it a shot. I skipped Body of Proof last night to watch it.

It's sort of a twist on the old American Idol gig. Wannabe singers audition. But the four judges -- Adam Levine from Maroon 5, Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green of Gnarls Barkley and FU fame and country star Blake Shelton have their backs turned, so they can't crush on a hot singer and drool and pick someone simply because they're hot, as Randy, Stephen and J-Lo on Idol are wont to do. If they like the singer's voice, they hit a magic button and their chair turns around. If multiple judges turn, they have to compete to have the right to work with that singer. Each judge will work with eight singers over the course of the season.

It's a good show. All four judges have personality and were great. It's also nice to see Christina Aguilera, who's had a rough year -- a divorce, a box office and album bombs in Burlesque and Bionic, flubbing the national anthem at the Super Bowl,  and an arrest for public intoxication -- bounce back. (I'll admit, I've always thought she was hot, so I'm crushing on her.)

I did find the second hour of the two-hour premier to be less interesting. Most of the singers are good, so you don't have the guilty-pleasure trainwrecks that carry Idol for its first few weeks. But it'll be interesting to see how The Voice develops.