Nothing says Christmas like a good a cappella special.
And when you think of effortless five-part harmony, you think of the two-time Grammy Award-winning and multiplatinum recording group Pentatonix. A cappella groups don't get any better than this.
A Pentatonix Christmas Special airs at 7 p.m. Wednesday on NBC. (Note: That's Wednesday. Some new readers have been getting confused lately. Today's column runs on a Tuesday, but it covers programming airing today and Wednesday.)
To add more star power to the hour special, the gang will welcome special guests Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson to join in with their holiday favorites.
It's amazing what rich, intricate music can come out of a finely tuned a cappella group. The term, Italian for "in the manner of the chapel," describes singing without any instrumental accompaniment.
Interest in the form increased in 2009 when NBC produced the a cappella competition series The Sing-Off. Pentatonix formed for the show's third season in 2011 and won. They are the most successful of all Sing-Off contestants.
Internet savvy young folks, the Pentatonix members then turned to YouTube and social media to build their fan base. It worked. To date, they have 11.5 million subscribers and 1.8 billion video views.
The group signed with RCA Records in 2014 and their holiday album, That's Christmas to Me, went platinum that year and double platinum this year -- the highest-charting holiday album by a group since 1962, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
For the record, Mitch Miller & The Gang (remember them, fellow baby boomers?) topped the 1962 chart with Holiday Sing Along With Mitch.
Pentatonix started with three high school friends from Arlington, Texas -- Mitch Grassi and Kirstie Maldonado (both 24), and Scott Hoying, 25. Bass singer Avi Kaplan, 27, joined the day before the Sing-Off auditions, as did beatboxer Kevin Olusola, 28.
The group's name comes from the pentatonic musical scale and the fact there are five members. They changed the last letter to X just to stand out.
Pentatonix is on the final leg of its 2016 World Tour.
• SNL special. The Pentatonix special will be followed at 8 p.m. Wednesday on NBC with the two-hour Saturday Night Live special consisting of holiday-theme sketches from over the years.
I'm sure they'll include Adam Sandler's "Chanukah Song." Sing along: "Put on your yarmulke; Here comes Chanukah. So much funukah; To celebrate Chanukah."
• Voice finale. If you like karaoke singing, don't miss tonight's two-hour Season 11 Voice extravaganza.
First up at 7 p.m. is a recap of Monday's final live performances, followed at 8 by the results of America's vote and the naming of the Season 11 winner, who will then, after 15 minutes, disappear into obscurity along with all the other past winners.
The Final 4 are Billy Gilman (Team Adam); We McDonald (Team Alicia); Sundance Head (Team Blake); and Josh Gallagher (Team Adam).
Alas, team Miley has been shut out. Don't feel sorry for her; she was paid an obscene amount of money to be a judge this season.
• Survivor, 7 p.m. Wednesday on CBS. The two-hour Season 33 finale finally rolls around. As I've written before, I stopped watching this reality show around Season 20 when it featured contestants from previous seasons for the fourth time.
Nonetheless, Survivor soldiers on and remains popular, averaging between 8 million and 9 million viewers each episode. This season was Millennials vs. Gen X and was set (again) in Fiji.
Tonight's episode will be No. 497 for the series that debuted May 31, 2000, with Survivor: Borneo. How long ago was that? Host Jeff Probst was a young-ish 39 back then. People magazine named him one of its "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2001. He's 55 now, but aging nicely.
• Hulu news. Attention, subscribers to the streaming service. All 10 episodes of the comedy/drama Shut Eye are now available for your bingeing pleasure.
Shut Eye stars Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice, Fargo) as Charlie Haverford, a former big-time Las Vegas magician (think illusionist David Copperfield) who flamed out and devolved into a small-time Los Angeles storefront psychic fleecing a gullible public.
He's also a bagman for the Roma family that controls the storefront psychic scam in north L.A.
KaDee Strickland (Private Practice) plays Charlie's wife, Linda. Bonus: The marvelous Isabella Rossellini is a mob matriarch.
The charming Donovan is a joy to watch, but the series as a whole is uneven.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 12/13/2016