Idol Chatter & Voice Views

When the new Bravo show “Platinum Hit” debuted Monday night, everyone knew there would be one strong connection to American Idol.

After all, the two celebrity “faces” of the program are host Jewel and lead judge Kara DioGuardi, who spent two years in that role on Idol.

And good ol’ Kara shows no shyness about judging. On Monday’s premiere, she told one trio of singer-songwriters that the song they had written was “trite, confusing and uninspiring.”

Wow. Take note Jennifer Lopez. Take note Steven Tyler.

But it turns out Kara isn’t the only Idol connection to “Platinum Hit.”

One of the 12 contestants — down to 11 after Monday’s elimination — is Jackie Tohn, 30, of Oceanside, N.Y. You might remember Jackie as a semifinalist on Idol Season 8. That’s her pictured above.

Another is Scotty Granger, 23, of New Orleans, who introduced himself as a creative director of Jordin Sparks, Idol’s Season 6 winner.

On the debut show, the 12 contestants were given 30 minutes to write a hook for a song about Los Angeles. Jewel and Kara selected their four favorite hooks. Then the contestants were split into groups of three and asked to complete the song in one afternoon, then perform it for the judges.

Turns out Jackie and Scotty produced two of the judges’ favorite hooks. But by the end of the show, they were on opposite sides of the judges’ favor.

Jackie and her team were praised and rewarded with second place and safety for their song, “City of Dreams,” which you can download from iTunes, a la Idol and The Voice. (Just search for Platinum Hit and you’ll find all the songs from Monday’s episode.)

But the judges determined the song written by Scotty and his teammates — Elvis fan Brian Judah and Elton John fan Nevin James — to be the worst of the four, meaning one of them was going to be ousted from the competition.

For a while it looked like Scotty might be the one, since he wrote the hook the song was based on. In the end, Nevin got sent packing.

And so we embark on the journey that will become Platinum Hit. Presumably, 10 weeks from now, a winner will be crowned. The winner will receive $100,000, a songwriting contract and a recording contract.

The show clearly intends to focus more on personalities and group dynamics than Idol or The Voice. Jackie is quickly carving out a niche as one of the more opinionated contestants, which is sure to earn her a fair share of airtime.

But the cast also includes a 23-year-old diva from New York named Sonyae Elise and a 23-year-old egotist from Burbank, Calif., named Nick Nittoli.

Nick seems to think he’s the reincarnation of Michael Jackson. The other contestants: Oh, they’re talented, he says. But it’s like a lot of Jackson brothers performing around the real star.

Hmm. That said, the song written by Nick’s group was declared the best on opening night.

Platinum Hit will air every Monday at 10 p.m. on Bravo. DVR’d so I could skip through the commercials, the debut episode was surprisingly entertaining.