The Voice down to its final three
Say what you will about Christina Aguilera’s wardrobe choices; The Voice is still going out on a high note.
With about 12 million U.S. viewers (and about 1.5 million Canadian viewers) tuning in to see Xtina and co. per week, the seemingly silly spinning-chair show no one thought would hold up next to American Idol is, well, holding up.
Season 3 of the NBC reality TV singoff will wrap with Tuesday’s final results episode, where either Nicholas David Mrozinski of St. Paul, Minn., Cassadee Pope of West Palm Beach, Fla., or Scotland-born Terry McDermott will receive the $100,000 payout, a record deal with Universal Republic Records and instant fame (or at least 15 minutes worth).
What’s refreshing for a show of this sort is that none of the last three standing are glossy highschoolers with crying stage moms. Rather, Team Cee Lo Green’s Mrozinski, 32, is a soulful family man who looks like a member of The Sheepdogs. Team Blake Shelton’s Pope, 23, is a pop-punk powerhouse who’s toured with Fall Out Boy. And Team Blake’s fellow husband and father McDermott, 35, has more in common with Rod Stewart (especially in the coif department) than, say, Phillip Phillips.
With all of their contestants out of the game, judges and mentors Aguilera and Adam Levine are left to watch Green and Shelton’s final entries duke it out. But given Levine’s brash ‘tude and Xtina’s hot-pink highlights (and both of their tendencies to perform on every second episode), the panel’s noisier residents — and built-in ratings boosters — likely won’t go unnoticed in the final hours.
The Voice’s elimination process began Sept. 10, and the show has managed to get from the blind auditions (cue the spinning chairs) to the grand moment of victory in just three short months — two months less than it takes us to find out who wins Fox’s American Idol. The time commitment per episode is also less; The Voice typically airs 60-minute episodes as opposed to Idol’s two-hour epics (Tuesday’s finale being an exception). (Tuesday, NBC, CTV)
• After discovering Jane is a Christmas baby, the gang sets out to throw her the anti-festive bash she’s always wanted on a Happy Endings episode called NoHo-Ho. Nice try, guys, but anyone who shares a birthday with Christmas knows there’s no getting around presents packaged in Santa wrap. (Tuesday, ABC)
• They’re fresh, they’re cute and they have the tastiest muffin tops in Chicago. But only a handful of cupcakes — baked to perfection by four competitors — will be served to VIPs at the Windy city’s Magnificent Miles Lights Festival Parade after Tuesday’s Cupcake Wars episode, Cupcakes on Parade. Ready, set, whisk. (Tuesday, Food)
• Yes, A Charlie Brown Christmas has had more replay than the average celebrity sex tape. Does that make the lighthearted Peanuts perennial any less essential this Christmas? Nope.
Tune in Tuesday for the digitally remastered 1965 special, in all its shoddytree/awkward-dancing/sar