THE TV COLUMN

Aguilera, Green back on The Voice for Season 5

Carson Daly, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green of NBC’s The Voice mug for the camera at the recent TV Critics Summer Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Carson Daly, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green of NBC’s The Voice mug for the camera at the recent TV Critics Summer Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

NBC’s The Voice was one of the bright spots for the fourth-place network last season.

Season 4 saw substitute judges Shakira and Usher filling in for regulars Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green. I thought the subs (especially Shakira) did a better job, but the original duo will be rejoining Blake Shelton and Adam Levine when Season 5 debuts.

The plan, as of now, is for Shakira and Usher to return for Season 6 in the spring.

The original trio, along with host Carson Daly, appeared at the recent TV critics summer press tour to tout the show and answered questions about why no breakout star has emerged from the series so far.

Doubt me? Do you actually remember Javier Colon, Jermaine Paul, Cassadee Pope or Danielle Bradbery?

Neither do I, but those were the winners of The Voice’s first four seasons. The Associated Press reports that Colon’s first post-Voice album sold only 46,000 copies.

American Idol can boast success for winners and nonwinners. Think winners Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Phillip Phillips, and seventh place (!) Jennifer Hudson(an Oscar for Dreamgirls) and runner-up Katharine McPhee (star of NBC’s Smash).

Even Kellie Pickler (sixth place, Idol Season 5) was a hit on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, winning Season 16 over Disney Channel teen du jour Zendaya.

But Idol also has its share of duds.

Lee DeWyze won Season 9 (the unfortunate Ellen DeGeneres season) in 2010, but his debut album, Live It Up, only sold a disappointing 151,000 copies. I have to think hard to even recall DeWyze (who opened for Toad the Wet Sprocket on Wednesday at Juanita’s in Little Rock), while runner-up Crystal Bowersox (who also played Juanita’s this month) is still fresh in my memory.

McPhee was the runner-up to Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks. Taylor who? He was the one with the prematurely gray hair. Yeah. That one.

So, not many Idol winners actually become idols, just like none of the winners of America’s Next Top Model have lived up to that show’s overly optimistic title.

But exactly what is the purpose of all these singing competition shows? Is it to find marketable stars, or is it simply to give viewers the drama and entertainment of the possibility of discovery? I’ll go with the latter and if a contestant happens to hit it big, that’s all the better.

Asked on the press tour about the show’s goals, Levine agreed.

“A lot of things have to happen in order for that to take place,” Levine told The Associated Press about stardom. “I think the goal of the show is to do what we can do for these amazing singers while they’re on the show. I think that we all know that the lightning in a bottle you have to capture in order to be successful in this business is extraordinarily difficult. I’m not sure that that is the overall mission statement of the show.”

Aguilera added that overnight-stars from The Voice are unrealistic.

“It doesn’t happen like that,” she said. “It didn’t happen that way for me either.”

The 32-year-old singer cited her beginning on The Mickey Mouse Club and mentioned others who started careers on that show, including Britney Spears, Justin Tiberlake and Ryan Gosling.

“Right after the show, did we rocket to success right after? No. It takes time.”

So maybe there’s hope yet for David Cook. The winner of Idol Season 7 will have to get a record deal with someone first.

The two-hour Season 5 premiere of The Voice kicks off at 7 p.m. Sept. 23.

No Joy. Last Friday was 70-year-old Joy Behar’s last day as co-host of ABC’s The View. That leaves only the creator, 83-year-old Barbara Walters, from the original cast, and she’s departing next year.

In naming new co-hosts, ABC hopes to skew the show toward younger viewers. The View is replacing departed Elisabeth Hasselbeck with Jenny McCarthy, but no word on other replacements.

According to Nielsen, the median age of The View’s audience is 61.6 years old.

Lost daughter. Amber Tamblyn (Joan of Arcadia) will join the cast of Two and a Half Men as Jenny, the long-lost illegitimate lesbian daughter of Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen).

Cast member Angus T. Jones (Jake) has been demoted to a recurring character, and I don’t expect him to recur all that often.

In November, Jones had a “come to Jesus” moment and let loose some disparaging remarks about the hand that feeds him. He quickly tried to apologize for labeling his show “filth” and suggesting it’ll rot your brain, but the damage was done.

I met a 21-year-old Tamblyn in the summer of 2004 at a network event on the infield of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The fresh-faced former child star (General Hospital) seemed genuinely excited about having Arkansan Mary Steenburgen play her mother on Joan. I would be surprised if she has the same wholesome experience after a season of mucking about on Men.

Season 11 of Two and a Half Men arrives Sept. 26.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email: mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Weekend, Pages 32 on 08/15/2013

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