THE VOICE v BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT

Britain's Got Talent Judges

The Voice Judges

The battle between two talent-based TV series has commenced. Last Saturday, the BBC launched the first episode of The Voice, which has arisen from America after proving to be a hit. This was the same night ITV began yet another series of Britain's Got Talent, featuring the comeback of the Cowell.

It has been proven over years that what appeals to a British audience is watching talented hopefuls seek the chance of stardom in front of thousands of people, (or watching talent-less nobodies dream too big for their ability).

The two series over lap each other by twenty minutes, and last Saturday in this time period it was proven that The Voice gained a bigger audience than BGT.

But why?

The Voice has now aired in Britain after proving a hit in the US last summer, gaining more hits over all than X-Factor USA did in the Autumn. Being a brand new show, audiences will be intrigued to see what differs from the conventional talent search, (four millionaires with either their pants or head too high).

The judges alone are a selling point for The Voice with an impressive line up of Will.i.am, Jessie J, Tom Jones and Danny O'Donoghue from The Script, which all come from a different background of music.

The shows signature gimmick is that the auditions are done with the judges having their back to the singer, judging them on their voice and voice alone. I applaud the BBC's intentions of sticking solely to their true talent and having less hope-fulls gaining recognition for their physical appearance.

Daring to be different, if more than one judge agrees to take on the singer in their group, the auditionee must then choose between the handfull of celeb judges themselves, (which leads into a rather embarrassing public display of begging from the panel).

It seems a mature, straight to the point way of finding talent across our nation. They've cut the novelty acts such as Wagner from The X-Factor, who provide laughable entertainment for a few weeks and then just become irritating.

But is this what we want? There is a reason conventional star-search programmes such as Britain's Got Talent has been airing for five years. It seems we as pubic would happily sit and be entertained for 80 minutes, lead through by Ant and Dec running round different cities and showing us the best and the embarrassing of each.

Are we actually not sick of seeing the "everyday person become a popstar" and help them sire to stardom and become yet another multi-millionaire singer? Or are we secretly more entertained by laughing at those talent-less nobodies? 

J Marie Cooper, The Voice UK, Blind Auditions 1, hosted by YouTube
Photography by Google Images