Idol Chatter & Voice Views

OK, these Emmy nominations are a joke.

American Idol was not nominated for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Reality — Competition Program.

The Voice was.

What in the world were they thinking?

The only Emmy that The Voice deserves after Season 2 is an Emmy in reverse — an Emmy for doing the least with the most.

In Season 2, The Voice corralled a considerable amount of hand-picked vocal talent. The show, indisputably, has the most charismatic judging panel among the singing competitions.

So what did The Voice do with all that talent. It screwed up Season 2 in almost every imaginable way.

Let’s count the ways …

* It expanded the field of contestants from 8 per team to 12. Expanded the field so much, that singers disappeared for a month at a time as auditions and battle rounds took up week after week.

* The show didn’t even try to disguise the fact that the auditions and the battle rounds were filmed in one day. So we watched Christina, Cee Lo and the gang wear the same outfits for a month. Not wise with outlandish dressers like Christina and Cee Lo.

* Idol has made more of an effort the last two seasons to keep singers in their comfort zone. “The Voice?” Judge-selected song choices ranged from confusing to downright stupid. Christina put country-pop duo The Line on stage with a rapper named Moses Stone in a battle round, then had them sing “Satisfaction,” a rock song. How was that going to be good?

* Idol judges have often been criticized for not being harsh enough. Newsflash — compared to the love-fest coming from the judges on The Voice, Jennifer, Steven and Randy were the second coming of Simon Cowell.

* The audio mix on the show was a mess. Half the time, you can’t hear the singers over the background music. And you’d think hearing the singers would be job one on a show named “The Voice.”

* The format is such that singers don’t exactly become household names — certainly not the way they do on Idol. On American Idol, a finalist sings live 20 times before being crowned the show’s champion. On The Voice, we’d heard the singers perform live three times before the finals, heard them sing four times if you want to count the blind auditions.

And, for all the blather coming from the judges about how the contestants now have great careers ahead of them, the show has failed to produce a star. Indeed, no one from The Voice has made more than a post-Voice ripple in the music business at this point.

An Emmy nomination for The Voice?

Apparently so. But it’s undeserved.

Editor’s Note: Go here for a full list of Emmy nominations.