One of these days, reality TV producers will run out of show ideas. That day hasn't arrived yet.
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“Clash of the Choirs”
Five music stars create choirs in their hometowns
When: 8 tonight
Where: KNSD/Channel 39/Cable 7
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As the writers' strike drags on with no end in sight, the TV landscape will become more cluttered with a variety of reality shows that run from the silly (contestants are strapped to a lie detector and asked to reveal their most intimate secrets on Fox's upcoming “Moment of Truth”) to the recycled (NBC is dusting off the '80s, testosterone-heavy “American Gladiators” for next month).
“Clash of the Choirs,” however, doesn't fit into either category and is more in line with such feel-good reality shows as “The Biggest Loser” and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” It is the holiday season, after all.
In NBC's new reality competition series debuting tonight, five music superstars – R&B legend Patti LaBelle, blue-eyed soul singer Michael Bolton, former 98 Degrees star Nick Lachey, one-time Destiny's Child hottie Kelly Rowland and country music singer Blake Shelton – travel back to their respective hometowns to create a new choir from scratch.
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After choosing the amateur singers American Idol-style (no professionals are allowed), the stars worked with their 20-member choirs for three weeks and prepared them for a live musical “sing off,” during which viewers can vote for their favorites – also “American Idol”-style.
Are you sensing a pattern here?
The winning choir will donate the “significant” prize money (NBC isn't saying how much) to its charity of choice.
“Choirs” is a four-night event with the finale scheduled to air at 8 p.m. Thursday. The show will feature music genres ranging from today's pop hits to traditional holiday classics to inspirational gospel.
Unlike “Idol” and “Dancing With the Stars” and “America's Got Talent” and “So You Think You Could Dance” and, well, just about every other competition reality show on television, there are no judges on “Choirs.” After the choirs perform, the stars offer their critiques, but it's up to viewers to pick a winner.
“I didn't want to judge people and tell them that they're not good,” LaBelle says. “My whole problem was having to say no to people. But what I said to the ones who didn't make it (was) that doesn't mean that it's the end of your life. Patti LaBelle does not control the rest of your life.”
Bolton, who has sold more than 53 million records and crooned with the likes of Ray Charles and Luciano Pavarotti, says he's thrilled to be part of such an uplifting show in which the participants are built up, not torn down.
Going back to New Haven, Conn., was particularly moving for Bolton. The auditions were held at Toad's Place, a famed local club two miles from where Bolton once lived. (Bolton's mother and siblings still live close to the Connecticut hot spot.)
The Grammy-winning singer also performed at Toad's Place when he was an unknown artist struggling to make a living for his three young daughters.
“It was intense,” Bolton says of returning home. “I didn't expect it to feel that way. Whether our rent checks bounced or how much food there was for that week – that's literally what Toad's Place reminded me of and where it took me in time because that's how we fed our families back then. And if it snowed ... downtown would be shut down so you had no gig. You'd go home and you said, 'OK, it's frozen broccoli night.'”
Bolton says that working with a group of amateur singers required some patience. He knew they were nervous, so Bolton kept things light on stage and would joke around to relieve the tension.
LaBelle's approach, however, was a little different and more old-school direct. Her advice: “No punks allowed,” LaBelle says. “You have to go out and really want to win and you really have to leave all your shyness at home.”
Although “Choirs” is a competition, it hasn't started out that way. None of the stars is talking trash about the choirs, and there haven't been any rivalries among choir members.
But Bolton says that's bound to change.
“It'll probably escalate as we get to the performances and people start to really understand that there is a competition going on,” he says. “You have to step up ... this isn't just like relaxing and singing along with a song on the radio.”
