Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Last week, The Voice held us in suspense about who would advance to the semifinals from Team Blake until the show’s closing minutes.

Don’t expect that kind of suspense this week.

The eight semifinalists are scheduled to perform in a two-hour show that begins at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Which means we’ll likely find out very quickly what happened in the voting for Team Adam and Team Cee Lo.

One thing is certain:  We’ll get a special performance of a new Maroon 5 song, “Moves Like Jagger,” featuring Christina Aguilera.

The recorded version of the song also features Christina and will be available for download immediately after the show.

So, like Idol, The Voice is clearly willing to let musician judges use the show to promote their own material.

Unlike Idol, I’m hoping these judges get a whole lot more critical of the performances beginning Tuesday night.

Because, of late, they’ve seemed very Idol-like. One vague reference to pitch problems was the only hint of criticism in last week’s critiques.

That hasn’t been a major problem yet. It doesn’t take trained ears at home to tell the difference between Vicci Martinez and Devon Barley on Team Adam. Or between Javier Colon and Tori and Taylor Thompson on Team Cee Lo.

But the Voice is likely to wind up with lots of very talented performers in the semifinals. Distinguishing the excellent, from the good, from the mediocre is going to get more difficult.

It’d be nice to get an assist from the judges.