Jewel proves her prowess as a professor of a cappella

Jewel adds her knowledge base to this Season's Sing-Off panel of judges

This new Season 4 of The Sing-Off a cappella singing competition show has rushed by so quickly, I haven't had an opportunity to give the judges props, especially new judge, Jewel, who replaced hit singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles who stepped down from the role of judge in order to promote her new album. 

The seven episode show, which debuted on December 9, 2013, and has aired three times each week, has only three more episodes left to air: tonight, tomorrow, and a finale on Monday. Now over halfway through, it's gone by far too quickly, in my opinion, and I'm sad that by this time next week, we'll be back to singing Christmas carols and listening to the same old tired musak that's filling up most of network televisions' airwaves this time of year. 

This past Episode 4, which aired on Monday, December 16 at 10 p.m., was an hour long show which featured four of the seven remaining competitors: Home Free, VoicePlay, Element, and Vocal Rush. 

The show has been judged by Ben Folds and Shawn Stockman, and hosted by Nick Lachey over its course of four seasons and has seen its ups and downs in ratings. The third judgeship role has been filled by Nicole Scherzinger in Seasons 1 and 2, Sara Bareilles in Season 3, and now Jewel in Season 4. 

I think many of us wondered how on earth the beautifully voiced Jewel would fare. A four-time Grammy Award nominee and platinum album seller, she has made her mark singing soulful emotional ballads, the equivalent of the chick flick for music. 

I must confess, I have been a fan of Jewel's since before most people ever heard of her. I've always admired the interesting texture of her soprano voice, found her songwriting intelligent and heartfelt, and even bought some of her CDs. But, what does she know about a cappella singing? 

Plenty, apparently. 

During the first episode, I was so shocked by her usage of vocal terminology, I almost wondered if Jewel would dethrone the great Professor Ben Folds as academia's premiere expert on singing. Her knowledge of technical terms and acute observations have put her at least on an equal footing. What I was not prepared for is her vast knowledge of music in general, factoids and little gems of trivia about the original recordings of the songs which are featured on this season of the Sing-Off. To put it simply, Jewel is a jewel. 

Though she talks about ten miles a minute, you can learn something from listening to Jewel. This particular episode, while taking notes and transposing her comments, I have defined some of the musical jargon she has tossed out within parentheses to make it easier for those of us at home without dictionaries handy to understand. 

Folds, while no longer throwing out the big words this season 4 (though Lachey did accuse him of being a sesquipedalian) has decided this season to instead come up with odd little non-word sounds to emulate various inanimate objects, such as: a walking bass guitar, a tree, and a refrigerator, to date. As a writer, this has been a challenge attempting to transpose and quote these vocalizations. 

In the meantime, Stockman talks mostly with his hands and vocal expressions. I have also enlisted parentheses to help illustrate these moments when I feel it's important to use a gesture as a quote.

Season 4 Episode 4 Recap – "My Generation"

Home Free

Minneapolis, Minn

5 men

https://www.facebook.com/homefreevocalband

http://www.homefreevocalband.com/

covering "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash

As a professional touring a cappella group, Home Free's Rob Lunquist explained that the group lives out of an RV and does about 250 shows a year. That kind of experience shows in their live performances, which are always tight, always harmoniously perfect, and truly entertaining. Their particular rendition of "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash was absolutely momentous. 

Tim Foust, started off the night by capturing the audiences' attention by spotlighting his deep rich bass vocals, singing slowly and deliberately:

"Love is a burning thing. 

And it makes a fiery ring."

The key changed as regular lead vocalist Austin Brown took over the next two lines: 

"And bound by wild desire, 

I fell into a ring of fire." 

The first verse took the band a full 32 seconds to deliver, twice the amount of time they would deliver the second verse, and captivated the audience with every single note and syllable. The group is only given about two and a half minutes to perform a song before the judges, and these four lines represented one fifth of their allotted time. 

"You guys opened and you encapsulated something about the song which is sad, and it was perfectly executed," said Folds.

"You know, June actually wrote this song when she met Johnny, and she was still married, which gives it a lot of heart and a lot of feel, of like, you're sinning. So that poignancy was really brought out by that beginning," noted Jewel, speaking of June Carter Cash.

The group then upped the tempo and launched into a full group chorus, of "I fell into a burning ring of fire," complete with voice emulated drums and bass. Each verse which followed was up tempo and bouncy, what Stockman termed as a "reggae dance hall beat." 

"I would have never thought of anything like that, but it worked. Like, it absolutely worked," said Stockman.

The song featured bassist Tim Foust on lead vocals. With each incredible note he delivered, it was apparent that we were watching a star perform. His control of his own four-octave range is incredible, reaching up into falsetto F#3 during one emotional verse, then back down to end the song in a fog horn like depth of a low F#0, that Judge Jewel noted to be over three octaves apart. 

Lachey marveled at the feat, "Shoot the floor! Have you ever heard anybody sing that low before? I don't know if I've ever heard anyone hit a note that low."

Folds thought the arrangement was awesome, "Tim, you went from being an instrument this time to being human. And it was so great… it was because before you've been … like the singing refrigerator guy, 'wom om bu om bu,' but this time, like the tree, like the wise tree. Maybe a wise tree is a better, you know? …And then, the end, with that massive heavy low note. it's just a great way to leave everyone going, holy carp,* what was that?" 

"That was sick," said Stockman.

Their performance nearly insures them in one of the four coveted spots in the finals, assuming they can continue at this level.

VoicePlay

Orlando, FL

6 men and women

http://thevoiceplay.com/

https://www.facebook.com/VoicePlay

covering "Don't Speak" by No Doubt

If anyone asked me, "who is the Pentatonix of Season 4," I'd have to say VoicePlay. Their three part harmony, bass, and drums, with a lead female vocal has made them the act that no one saw coming, especially after a rocky start this season. However, even Pentatonix was in the bottom at one point, but faced with the threat of elimination, pulled themselves up and kept going, and that's what VoicePlay has also done. And done well, I must say, as they performed an interesting version of "Don't Speak" by No Doubt.

After getting the assignment, band member Earl Elkins voiced concern, "We don't normally do emotional songs. We're not really a ballad style group, which it's gonna be difficult." The five-man backing group usually performs upbeat pop songs to tourists around the Orlando area, and added in their friend Honey LaRochelle for standout leads during the Sing-Off competition.

Judge Folds, who mentored the four groups this episode, suggested that they "put the song first in this one. I think you guys are at your best when you're really focused to the song, and then you can just tell the story," said Folds. "You're unique anyway… The things that you already are, are going to do their own work… Kick its ass."

The group started the song out with a delicate intertwining of high harmonies backed up by a light rhythm section, then came together perfectly as a group, each solidly hitting their marks. The highlight of the performance was an interesting Middle Eastern sounding solo, by Eli Jacobson, not an easy feat.

"That was amazing, just from the beginning," said Stockman. "It's really right now about arranging, and you guys showed a different side to yourselves that we haven't seen before. The way that Honey and Layne (Stein), how you guys just started the whole thing off. Everybody was like (mouth open in gawked amazement), It was like, you had us!"

Folds complimented them for their wise arrangement for this particular song, "All the things you started with that were sort of your liability,… the way that you would jump from one thing to another so quickly, kept us from knowing who you were. That time, you used all those dynamics to say something and it was really awesome."

Jewel broke down the song piece by piece, illustrating how the groups' changes made the song work, "You guys did that great and you used a lot of dynamic (variation and gradation in the volume) to help serve that point, starting in pianissimo (very softly), and then building, and you know you're crescendoing (gradually and steadily increasing) into forte (a loud forceful tone) and then into fortissimo (a very loud tone), really getting big, and then dropping back down, using the real sensitive vocal breakdown that you did out of the bridge was really beautiful. You guys did a great job considering a lot of different dynamics."    

"That was emotional," summed up Stockman.

Element

New York, NY

10 women

https://www.facebook.com/Elementvocals

covering "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by the Supremes

One of the difficulties with a large group, and especially an all-female group, is arranging a song in such a way that the lead vocal can be easily distinguished. Element was able to achieve this task by trading off lead vocals amongst their very talented pool of vocalists after listening to some sage advice by mentor Judge Folds, "Who ever's singing needs a clear space to sing. If you have other singers in your range backing you up, they're not backing you up anymore, they're getting in your way," he explained. "It could be one person singing and everyone else could be Shh Shh whispering."

Their cover of the Supremes, "You Keep Me Hangin' On," was a personal one, "That song's really about female empowerment, and I can see why you guys chose it. I know that's really a mission for you guys and I think we definitely felt that. There's a lot of sincerity in the lead vocal," noted Jewel. 

However, the groups' rendition seemed a bit too nice. Folds suggested that they dig deeper, "You have such kind faces," said Folds, "Julie (Manjula Raman), you almost got pissed, like, you almost summoned a little bit of anger. Go ahead and drive it home and get pissed about it. It's okay."

Despite their efforts, they were unable to impress the judges enough to survive this round and were sent home. "I liked what you guys did. I just felt like there were moments where some of the harmonies were kinda muddy. They were a little unglued, which made it for me, not as dramatic as it could have been," explained Stockman, "It just felt like one movement and it just wasn't enough change for me in the midst of that record."

Vocal Rush

Oakland School for the Arts high school in Oakland, CA

12 young men and women

https://www.facebook.com/osavocalrush

http://www.oakarts.org/school-vocal-music/647-vocal-rush-info-page

covering "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler

Once again, the talented kids of Oakland School for the Arts Vocal Rush impressed us, this time with their amazing rendition of "Holding out for a Hero," by Bonnie Tyler. Noting their handicap, mentor Judge Folds suggested during rehearsals, "It's down to technique right now, because what you don't have going for you is …15 years on the stage or touring constantly together, so make sure that your T's are dotted and your eyes are crossed."

What I enjoyed most about watching Vocal Rush perform is the wide range of vocal talent: For this song, the group featured its deep rhythm section and strong lead vocals, something that you wouldn't expect from high schoolers. Add to that their multi-ranged harmonies and impressive dance moves, and you have a recipe for success.

"The fact that you're young and you have no fear, ya'll just go for it. Ya'll give your one hundred percent… every time you perform, and that's what's so great about you guys, and not only that, to be the youngest crew in this whole thing, you guys are so musically intelligent," praised Stockman.

"The bass and drums. You guys really really held it down this time in a way that you hadn't before," said Folds, "The double chorus at the end, was like you just about hit your limit, but when you ended it and you landed the plane, it was awesome. and I can't tell you how much I like watching you sing. And, It's just an inspiration. When I was your age, I was an idiot," joked Folds.

"I think you guys make this sound cool. I loved the rap. I thought that was really great. It took me by surprise. I didn't expect that," said Jewel, "And again, there's so many single voices, but you guys sound so warm and so rich, your tones are just beautiful, and they're blending beautifully. 

The group was given homework on ways to improve, "If there was one tiny chink that is in your armor, it's that your youthful exuberance can also just be a slight achilles heel, because you do get a little bit excited, and sometimes it just gets a little bit fast. You just get ahead of that tempo a tiny bit, and that's probably the only chink that I can find," noted Jewel.

"It fell apart just a little bit, but you picked yourselves back up. It's nothing else I can say except, awesome," said Stockman. 

* the word carp is implied. the actual expletive was bleeped out. 

Sing-Off Season 4 debuts Monday night at 9 on NBC

Local Orlando group VoicePlay will compete with the addition of renowned singer Honey Larochelle.

Just in case you missed all the hoopla, The Sing-Off, television's only a cappella competition singing show, has finally been renewed after a year of grass roots fan-based campaigning of tweeting #savethesingoff and will debut Season 4 on Monday, December 9, 2013. This season offers seven new episodes broadcast for three weeks on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays through Monday, December 23.

The show will air at 9 p.m. on NBC following The Voice singing competition show which airs at 8 p.m. Unlike The Voice, The Sing-Off does not allow a band or backing track behind the singers. Only a singer's voices may be used, and use it they do! Drums, bass, woodwinds and strings are all emulated using clever vocal tricks. It's an amazing feat – something everyone should witness first hand for themselves! 

Competing are ten groups from all walks of life: college clubs, professional groups, and high school classes from locations spanning as far away as Minneapolis to Puerto Rico.

Judging the competition this year are returning Judges, Smooth Shawn "groovemaster" Stockman of Boyz II Men and Professor "genius" Benjamin Scott Folds of Ben Folds Five. Adding to the mix is newcomer three-time grammy nominated Jewel who has been lighting up the television screen this past week in numerous promotional spots, appearing on everything from the Today show to the Chew. 

Not surprisingly, former judge Sara Bareilles will not return for she is busy promoting her new CD, The Blessed Unrest, featuring the huge hit song "Brave." 

Also returning is host Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees, who promises to entertain with his usual wit and charm. 

Unlike other performance competition shows, the show is taped and not shown live and contestants are eliminated by the judges for the first few rounds of the show. However, viewers will have an opportunity to vote for their favorite group in the finals. The winner will receive a $100,000 Sony recording contract.

Local Orlando group VoicePlay to compete

This year, Orlando's own VoicePlay, formerly known as 42Five, will be performing with the addition of well-known area singer-songwriter, Honey Larochelle. Larochelle has toured with Joss Stone, written songs for Macy Gray, and been taken under the mentoring wing of Roberta Flack. The group's 5-octave vocal range and unique high-low switch-off arrangements give them an excellent chance of getting all the way to the finals. There's a wonderful interview about them featured in the Orlando Sentinel (click here to read it).

You can also find their fun website here: www.thevoiceplay.com  Be sure to submit your answers to their questionnaire in the lab section and perhaps they will write a song about you! 

Sing-Off Season 4 Accepting Applications

On Wednesday, March 13, the producers, cast, crew, and loyal fans of The Sing-Off received the wonderful news that their beloved show had been picked up by NBC for a fourth season in 2013.  A call for applicants to audition was posted and word is spreading among the predominantly college-based a cappella community that group auditions will begin on Saturday, April 27th in Chicago.

Group Audition Dates:

Chicago	April 27
Nashville	May 4
Los Angeles	May 11
New York	May 18

More information can be found online at sing off casting.

The Sing-Off is an a cappella competition show that began airing in 2009 and features all-vocal musical performances of groups of four or more members competing for a $100,000 Sony recording contract. Acts are judged on their live performances by a panel of three experts and are encouraged to perform unique vocal arrangements of popular songs. Microphones are the only equipment permitted and are supplied by the show. The sounds of drums, horns, bass and other instruments are created solely through vocals.

The show had meager beginnings. It was slotted as a season end filler which ran in December 2009 in Season 1, then again in November and December 2010 in Season 2 where it gained high viewer ratings. In the fall of 2011, the Sing-Off was awarded a regular primetime Monday night spot. Unfortunately, it did not compete well against Dancing with the Stars which aired in the same time slot, and therefore was not renewed for 2012, instead being replaced with The Voice. However, confident that they had a healthy fan base, show owner Sony continued to shop the Sing-Off around to other networks.

What is unique to the Sing-Off are its overly enthusiastic fans. After the Sing-Off was not renewed by NBC for a fourth season in 2012, a fan named Dan St. John launched a #savethesingoff twitter and facebook campaign to gather signatures in an online petition to save the show. To date, over 38,000 signatures have been gathered, bringing the popularity of the show to the attention of the network.

During the Sing-Off's one year hiatus, a cappella music as a commercially viable art form has risen from the level of goody-two-shoes obscurity into the popular mainstream, thanks in part, to the Emmy award winning FOX TV show Glee; the hilariously funny $110 million-high-grossing hit movie Pitch Perfect; and the Sing-Off's own Season 3 winners Pentatonix, who have stormed across the country making musicial history by charting on Billboard and itunes.

Money talks, and a cappella is hot!

NBC finally saw the light and on March 13, word was leaked that the Sing-Off would return in 2013. On March 20, NBC made it official in a press release. The show is returning as a regular season ending filler during the holidays.

At the helm in Season 3: Dr. Ben Folds, Sara Bareilles, and Shawn Stockman.

What is unclear is who will head up the helm at the judges desk. Though Sony still owns the show, and Deke Sharon is still a producer and huge contributor, a new executive producer, Mark Burnett of Survivor and The Voice fame, has been brought in to help boost the shows ratings in its fourth season. Burnett may make changes.

In the past, the show's format consisted of three judges who made all of the preliminary decisions on which group shall move forward and which shall stay behind, with audience participation not allowed in the decision making process until the finale. A fourth regular cast member is a host who introduced the acts.

All three judges and the host are well-liked, admired by fans, and have the street-cred needed to be worthy of their roles:

I personally do not feel that the show can go on without the clever quips from "Professor" Ben Folds, who not only evaluates competitors objectively, but also is a veritable encyclopedia of musical and vocal terminology. Folds simply IS the show.

Shawn Stockman has become a regular feature as well, without whom the show could not survive. As an cappella performer with 25 years experience performing with Boyz II Men, he comes in tow with real-life working knowledge.

Sara Bareilles came on board as a judge in Season 3 to replace Nicole Scherzinger, who left to join the X-factor. Bareilles, though new, is a good fit for the show with her recent experience competing as a member of an a cappella group while attending college at UCLA. Her amazing vocal prowess, youth, and star success are a much needed asset. [Update: As of April 5, Sara Bareilles announced that she will not be returning to help judge the Sing-Off.]

The show's host, Nick Lachey, is perhaps underutilized. His 18 years with 98 Degrees have given him real life experience and yet he is given the neutral position as announcer. I am curious – how would he work as a judge? Perhaps he could slide into a judges chair if one of the others is unavailable. Or, perhaps his role could be expanded to help vet the applicants during the auditions before they are chosen to compete in front of the panel of judges.

All four celebrities have cleared their schedules by early August when the show usually begins taping.

Shawn Stockman and Nick Lachey are currently touring together through August 5 with The Package, a three-act power house featuring Boyz II Men, 98 Degrees, and New Kids on the Block. Ben Folds is touring with Ben Folds Five through July. Sara Bareilles is touring through May.

Save The Sing-Off petition reaches landmark halfway point

Yesterday marked a landmark victory for the fan-based movement to #SaveTheSingOff. The grassroots campaign reached 25,167 signatures by midnight, eastern time, Monday, June 4, just over halfway of its goal of 50,000 signatures. The fan-based group formed on Monday, May 14, just three short weeks ago. The online petition was created by Dan St. John of Lawrence, Kansas, to gather enough signatures to gain the attention of network executives at NBC. The halfway point now being reached, the movement is gaining even more momentum.

The Sing-Off television show, which aired on NBC for three seasons from 2009 to 2011 and features several a cappella groups vying for a Sony recording contract, was not renewed for a full season this coming fall.  Fans are hoping to bring The Sing-Off back in Season 4 as a five or six day post-season run in December, the slot in which it originally ran during both Season 1 in 2009 and Season 2 in 2010.

After higher than expected ratings in 2010, NBC gambled and ran the show for a full season on Monday nights from 8 to 10 p.m. in Season 3 in 2011. However, the show was head-to-head against staunchly established competition: How I Met Your Mother and Two and A Half Men on CBS, and Dancing with the Stars on ABC, so that the 2011 ratings were less than stellar.

By showing that viewers care, the petition should light a fire under NBC execs to possibly bring the show back in December 2012.

The Sing-Off is hosted by the dashing Nick Lachey, and judged by the ever intelligent panel of Dr. Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman, and Sara Bareilles.

I want to issue a huge congratulations to the wonderful grass roots campaign to #SaveTheSingOff. I especially want to acknowledge Dan St. John for his ceaseless promotion on both twitter and facebook.

Well done, Dan! Well done!

Fan petition to Save The Sing-Off reaches 20,000 signatures

This morning at 7:40 a.m., I was given the rare treat of being able to watch the number of signatures on the petition to Save The Sing-Off television show flip from 19,999 to 20,004.  The number had crept to just under 16,000 signatures on Friday, then surged over the long Memorial Day holiday weekend.

The show, which has aired each fall for three consecutive seasons from 2009 to 2011 and features several a cappella groups competing for a Sony recording contract, is currently on the cutting room floor of the NBC scheduling room. The show is hosted by Nick Lachey and judged by performers Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman, and Sara Bareilles. Because The Sing-Off enjoyed high ratings during the post-season five-day run in December 2010, the show was extended to run the full season in the fall of 2011. Unfortunately, it did not fair as well and struggled for viewership against hit shows such as How I Met Your Mother, Dancing with the Stars, House, and Ashton Kutcher's debut on Two and a Half Men.

The show will sadly not run the full season this fall on NBC. Whether or not NBC will pick it up for a short December run in 2012 is still a big question mark. Industry insider @mcbc noted on twitter:

"...that holiday thing is looking increasing unlikely. 10/90, 5/95 at best. And it would only be a reunion."

Undaunted, Sing-Off fans are not giving up! Here are just a few of the efforts currently in place:

Petition
The petition, started by Dan St. John of Lawrence, Kansas, now boasts over 20,100 signatures:
Sign the petition.

Twitter trend campaign
Fans are continuing to post #SaveTheSingOff on twitter.

Videos by Sing-Off competitors:

X-Factors from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois:
Cover of Eric Hutchinson's "You Don't Have to Believe Me" with an introduction and plea.

Members of Fannin Eleven from Wisconsin:
Cover of "Break Even" by the Script with a testimonial of the joy they experienced while on the show.

Pentatonix, Season 3 winner, from Arlington Texas;
Cover of Beyonce's "End of Time" with a request to sign the petition at the end.

@TVGrrrrl is finally on twitter #SaveTheSingOff #ImADamVP

After years of swearing I'd never have my own twitter account, I finally broke down and signed up last week under none other than, "@tvgrrrrl" (that's 4 R's in case you accidentally find the one with 3 R's – not me.)

Anyone living in Orlando knows that the number one way we all communicate around this part of the country is via person to person texting on our beautifully personalized androids and iphones. To reach the masses, Facebook is followed in Florida. Myspace here seems dominated by people looking to cheat and diehards who signed up a dozen years ago and refuse to admit that no one reads their page anymore. Twitter? I don't really know anyone who's on twitter who isn't also throwing the same posts into their Facebook account. So, it seemed silly to bother.

#SaveTheSingOff

Then, a grassroots campaign was launched by fans to SaveTheSingOff – that's The Sing-Off television show which aired on NBC from 2009 to 2011, hosted by Nick Lachey, and judged by Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman and Sara Bareilles. It is sadly absent from NBC's 2012 fall schedule and fans are rallying to save it, starting a petition (sign here), websites, and a twitter hashtag trending campaign for #SaveTheSingOff.

I feel a personal investment in the show, having watched from day one. My eyes glued to the set each episode, I shunned friends' invites to go clubbing and instead, made them watch with me, moving work schedules when needed, and even skipping class and faking the flu one December (shhh – don't tell). I was so thankful when Brighthouse Cable made shows available for on-demand-viewing, that I watched the show almost exclusively on channel 304 last season.  

I blogged about The Sing-Off from the beginning. Over a thousand people read my articles, and I think of each and every one of those readers as a gift. It makes all the time spent researching and fact gathering worthwhile. 

The whole reason I started this twitter account was to tweet the hashtag: #SaveTheSingOff. 

However, now that I'm here, follow me if that's your thing. Send me your thoughts on what you're watching on the boob tube. I love the weird and wacky off channels, love writing about what no one else is writing about, all those lower viewership shows on cable which are passed over by the mainstream media. 

#ImADamVP

I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention that Sing-Off judge Ben Folds (That's Dr. Folds to you and me) is launching his own CD with Ben Folds Five, sans a record label, using only a pledgemusic account where fans can prepurchase everything from CDs for $15, t-shirts for $27, vinyl for $25, and other goodies. That's akin to airing your own television show on youtube, without a network. Will it work? It seems to be picking up steam. 

Today, at 3 p.m. EST, BFF will be hawking more wares: actual handwritten lyrics "sealed with a kiss" from each of the gorgeous members of the band: Robert, Darren, and Ben. Oh, swoon! There are only 30 copies being sold for $400 apiece. For $2,500, twenty people can also have their own name added to the song, "Do It Anyway." I'm guessing without The Sing-Off paycheck, Ben Folds might need to raise a few extra bucks to cover the costs of putting out this project on his own. Judging from the success to date with 224% of the project funded and nearly 5,000 pledgers, I don't think this is an issue. His daring experiment appears to have paid off.

Go to this website and see how you do: Pledge Music. Should go fast.

If you're on twitter, send the link around about Dr. Fold's new project and add the hashtag: #ImaDamVp

#OnceUponAnotherTime

I must also mention that the angelic Sara Bareilles has just released a wonderful new EP, "Once Upon Another Time." The EP was produced and recorded at Ben Folds' Nashville studio. I've only heard snippets here and there, but it sounds simply lovely. Who else can solo a cappella and sound that phenomenal? The 5-song EP is available here on Amazon.com as an mp3 download for only $5 (okay $4.99, whatever). The EP has received the notoriously esteemed label of "Explicit Lyrics," due to her "Sweet As Whole" song (get it?). Bless her little heart. 

The song, Beautiful Girl is only found on the B-side of her vinyl record single, Stay. I was only able to find it from collectors for $30 apiece, so good luck on that one.

The songs are so wonderful, I'll bet we'll all most likely be hearing them on future television soundtracks.

Nielsen ratings signal doom for Sing Off as fans rally to save Season 4

Street Corner Symphony, a former competitor of The Sing-Off, is just one of the many groups and individuals who have have helped to spearhead the #SaveTheSingOff campaign by creating a website as well as Facebook and twitter pages.

On Sunday May 13 around 2 p.m., the news broke on @mcbc's twitter page that The Sing-Off television show featuring a cappella singing groups competing for a record contract was not on NBC's upcoming fall schedule, where it had run for three seasons.

For #acappella people ... BREAKING ... #TheSingOff not on the NBC fall schedule. A two-hour #Voice takes its place.

A minute later, it was revealed that the show also would not enter midseason:

Also, #TheSingOff is not slated for a midseason run. Looks to be effectively canceled.

For a normal television show, not appearing on a regular schedule is the kiss of death. Not so for The Sing-Off, which began as a post-season filler, airing as a 2-hour 4-day show in December 2009 and returning in the same slot for 5 days in 2010 for a second season, happily resulting in unexpectedly high ratings. Confident that a cappella was on a roll, NBC extended the run in Season 3, giving The Sing-Off its very own primetime slot on Monday nights from 8 to 10 p.m. Sadly, ratings suffered and the show has not been renewed. Though currently not slated to run at all, it is a logical transition for the show to return to its roots as a short post-season 5-to-6 episode series, running during December when musical holiday specials are quite popular.

Sure enough, an hour later, @mcbc tweeted:

Text from a NBC bud ... OH "#TheSingOff may return for a brief post-Thanksgiving run. Happy Mother's Day." #acappella

Fans formulate a #SaveTheSingOff campaign

By noon on Monday, May 14, word began to spread like wildfire amidst the tightly knit a cappella community.

Nick Lachey was the first to make note of the situation, tweeting from his @NickSLachey account that he was disappointed:

obviously bummed to hear that #singoff is not going to come back to @nbc this year. thanks to everyone who made the show so much fun to do!!

Just after 2 p.m., Sara D. (@wtrfallprincess), a fan and Straight No Chaser a cappella blogger, posted on her twitter account:

Save @TheSingOff!!! Bring it back, @NBC! #SaveTheSingOff

thereby creating the twitter hashtag, #SaveTheSingOff, which took off like wildfire, and was retweeted dozens of times.

Judge Shawn Stockman picked up the hashtag, retweeting it around 6 p.m. that night, quickly followed by judge Ben Folds, then host Nick Lachey, and new judge Sara Barielles around 9 p.m. Fans retweeted hundreds of times, causing the hashtag to trend in both Seattle, WA and Athens, GA that Monday night.

That evening, members of Street Corner Symphony announced that they had purchased the domain: savethesingoff.com and launched a simple website, also creating Facebook and twitter accounts for SaveTheSingOff.

By 7 p.m, fan Dan St. John had launched a petition via ipetitions.com and publicized it on both his twitter (@spicepirate00) and Facebook Sing-Off fan pages. [ Click here to sign the online petition. ]

And so began an all out multi-media social network grassroots campaign to "Save The Sing Off!"


It all comes down to numbers

Why so much fuss over yet another musical competition TV show? Don't we have enough of those out there already?

Sigh…

The Sing-Off is unique in that competitors must perform a cappella, meaning "without accompaniment." No instruments or tracks are used. Choral pedals, autotune, lip-syncing and other fakery are prohibited. Performers must stand alone on their own merits, singing into microphones on stage.

All that being said, networks like NBC are really only interested in the bottom line of dollar signs, not feeling groovy about presenting vocal music in its purest form. They want to sell commercial time for top dollar, and to do that, they need high-rating hits.

According to the Nielsen ratings, the industry standard for monitoring TV viewership, the two-hour Sing-Off only drew between 3.89 and 6.43 million viewers to watch NBC each hour on Monday nights from September 19 through December 5, 2011, unfortunately placing it last behind all of the other major networks of ABC, CBS, and FOX, winning out only over the CW.

It's no wonder. It was pitted against top ranked Dancing with the Stars (14.71 to 20.04 million viewers) on ABC and the powerblock of How I Met Your Mother (7.99 to 11.70 million viewers) and Two and I Half Men on CBS, which was enjoying a field day of increased ratings (9.69 to 27.76 million viewers) after everyone tuned in to see how Ashton Kutcher would do replacing the off-kilter-gone-bonkers Charlie Sheen. When the season premiere of House aired on FOX at 9 p.m. on Oct. 3 (5.85 to 9.77 million viewers), The Sing-Off did not stand a chance. [ Nielsen ratings published daily by: zap2it.com ]

On October 10, only four shows into the season, The Playboy Club, which had been scheduled to run on NBC after The Sing-Off and might draw viewers who tune in early, was replaced with an even lower rating Prime Suspect due to public criticism that The Playboy Club television show was too racy. The problem wasn't the show – it was a great, well-written and artfully produced drama, and less sexually charged than many daytime soap operas. I suspect that the campaign against The Playboy Club was probably spearheaded by the competition: Castle on ABC and a revamping of Hawaii Five-O on CBS, each used to taking the lion's share of viewers. Prime Suspect and Rock Center, which replaced Prime Suspect and debuted on October 31 on NBC, both also failed to garner many viewers.

Next fall, NBC will take a gamble and move their hit show The Voice to Mondays, paired with a new show, Revolution. Fortunately for them, Dr. House is on his way out, but I still wish them luck -- they'll need it. [Schedule grid by Entertainment Weekly.]


Who is this Nielsen and why doesn't he like my favorite shows?

The Nielsen ratings, which were first utilized by the television industry in 1950 when Milton Berle ruled the roost on the Texaco Star Theater, are kind of a bunch of hooey when you think about it, and should probably not be given so much gravity given the manner in which data is currently extrapolated. First, Nielsen only samples "about 20,000" households out of the 114 million TV viewing households across the United States. That's a mere .0175 percent, one in 5,700 households. These numbers are then multiplied by that area's population, with the assumption that if John Q Smith's family is watching Survivor on Wednesday night, so is everyone living in their 5700 neighbors' homes. [ source: The Nielsen Company Marketing video: Nielsen Ratings 101: Designing the Sample ]

The late Arthur C. Nielsen, Jr. defended the model:

"I try to explain how sampling works. Next time you have to go to the doctor and he wants to take a little blood, tell 'em you don't believe in sampling. Take it all."

However, even Nielsen recognizes that households, unlike blood, are not homogenous. Juan Mendizabal, SVP Field operations of Nielsen explains:

"No two homes are alike. That's why we have to have such a comprehensive training program,"

[ source: The Nielsen Company marketing video: Nielsen Ratings 101: Introduction video ]

Within the United States, Nielsen measures television audiences in 210 local markets [ source: Nielsen's December 31, 2011 annual report ] consisting of large metropolitan population centers [ list of local markets published by zap2it ]. This suggests that individuals living in smaller cities, towns, and rural areas are not being properly represented. It's unclear who is and who is not being tracked. For instance, is Chapel Hill, NC monitored? It is a major college town with a huge transient student population, but only a small number of permanent residents. What about the many vacation resorts, such as Disney World here in Orlando? I personally catch up on a lot of TV while relaxing on vacation.

In order to increase the sample pool, Nielsen also sends out approximately 2 million weekly paper diaries during sweeps months to be kept by people living in smaller areas (I actually was once the recipient of one of these). However, these figures are not shown on the daily ratings charts, because the paper diaries must be filled out, mailed in, and then processed. Only figures from the electronic monitoring devices installed in the 20,000 households nationwide are tabulated in the daily ratings published each morning after a show airs.

Though Nielsen now enlists modern high tech equipment to analyze viewership on all forms of media including televisions, on-demand, online, and personal handheld devices for up to three days after a show first airs, Nielsen is still only able to sample a tiny portion of the actual viewing audience – about half of those with electronic meters, or 10,000 households. One wonders why, with all the latest digital technology available, they don't simply work out a deal with the cable and satellite providers who are now capable of monitoring the viewership of their own customers. [ source: The Nielsen Company marketing video: Nielsen Cross-Platform Homes - Extended Screen Ratings ]

It is also questionable how many students are being monitored. With a show like The Sing-Off, featuring primarily college and university a cappella groups, I imagine that students are a huge percentage of their viewership and that this group is being underrepresented by the Nielsen ratings.

In addition, Nielsen's extrapolated ratings are not audited by an external source – no one really knows how accurate they are.


The Sing-Off "Shing-ed" 
in the short season

In previous Seasons 1 and 2 during 2009 and 2010, The Sing-Off was a post-season filler airing in December primarily against reruns and holiday specials being shown on other major networks. Ratings were much higher and grew from one year to the next. The fast pace of seeing the show unfold in two to three weeks time seemed to keep viewers interested enough to tune in each day the show aired.

In its debut in 2009, the two-hour 8 to 10 p.m. show ran on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday December 14 through 16, culminating in a Monday finale on December 21 the following week. Hourly ratings ranged from 6.31 to 7.43 million viewers and fans voiced that they were pleased with the new technical singing terms they were learning, such as 'Shing,' jokingly coined by Judge Ben Folds. This placed NBC in a respectable second place behind CBS in the Nielsen ratings.

In 2010, The Sing-Off moved to Monday and Wednesday and ran for two-and-a-half weeks, from December 6 to December 20. The show had gained momentum over the previous year with a dedicated fan following. Ratings improved, with a low at a respectable 6.67 million viewers and a soaring high of 9.66 million viewers per hour. The show usually placed second behind CBS, though it did fall to third behind ABC during one episode. However, it actually ranked in first place during its finale on December 20. It was the little show that could!


Why Season 3 failed

Although The Sing-Off could have effectively warranted eleven 2-hour episodes (plus a holiday special), the Season 3 format didn't really work for me. In my opinion, there were a few flaws in the production arrangement which made it less interesting than it had seemed in the faster paced shorter runs in previous seasons.

Although I found the show to be quite entertaining, Pat Fish wrote in The Morton Report, "Time (is) better spent watching paint dry."

Even Judge Ben Folds himself noted in his Sing-Off blog, that certain musically advanced groups, such as Afro Blue, might seem over-the-heads of the general public and felt the need to spice up his critique a bit with more colorfully descriptive dialog to keep them from appearing "boring."

The problem wasn't Afro Blue. Their fan following, who had sat quietly by, watching with approval week after week as their favorite group was pushed through to the next round, suddenly made their vast numbers heard when they protested vehemently after Afro Blue was eliminated by the panel of three judges. The ensuing controversy consisting of hundreds of Facebook and twitter posts showed that not only were people watching, they were thoroughly invested. Until then, it had seemed as if the show was being shown in a vacuum.

The problem was that fans were not allowed to vote for their own favorites early on, the way fans vote on shows such as FOX network's American Idol, thereby empowering them and giving them a voice, as well as an incentive to tune in over the long course of the season. Who wants to watch a show week after week, witnessing helplessly as your favorites are kicked out, group by group? American Idol producers understand this concept: let the people vote.

Another problem was the bracket system where competing groups were initially split into two brackets like an ACC basketball tournament, where nearly all of my personal favorite groups were stuck in the same bracket, forced to weed each other out seemingly unfairly.

Producer Deke Sharon, who does an excellent job with The Sing-Off for the most part, seems to have missed the boat on this one, saying in an interview in Pitchpipe in October 2011:

"I don't think it much matters. Yes, some groups would have perhaps lasted longer if they had different groups in their bracket, but I never view this as a competition."

Not a competition? Really?

I could also have done without the color-coordinated competitor attire – truly less than cool, with few exceptions, save perhaps The Dartmouth Aires' Where's-Waldo-ish striped sweaters and wacky neon colored socks – Now, that was cute!

One improvement in Season 3 was the addition of a season capper: a holiday special. It was a nice touch and would be a great way to extend the short season to 6 days, adding to the format followed in Season 2, which lasted 5 days and culminated in a winner finale show.


Hope for Season 4

It's still possible that The Sing-Off may run in Season 4 – it isn't technically cancelled by NBC and was simply missing from a list of cancelled, renewed, and new shows published.

Judge Ben Folds explains in a note he posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday night.

"The Sing-Off is obviously not in the fall lineup on NBC. That's all we really know."

Unlike American Idol, or The Voice, The Sing-Off is about teamwork. Contestants must perform as groups with a minimum of five members and many are choral groups hailing from universities and colleges. If your school is represented, you know that's a built in audience of a few thousand college-aged kids who are going to be tuned in, watching your sponsors' fabulous commercials.

The show, owned by Sony, still has the opportunity to shop around for another network, or even take their chances that they may be invited back to NBC after Thanksgiving once again. However, unlike other shows, The Sing-Off is schedule dependent and must be filmed in the summer when college students are on break. All three judges: Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman, and Sara Bareilles, are actively touring musicians and cleared their calendars for what they hoped would be another few weeks of filming.

Fans have suggested that the producers market The Sing-Off to Bravo or PBS. I disagree.

I believe FOX is the ideal network for The Sing-Off, specializing in wholesome family entertainment. FOX is also extremely savvy in marketing. They took a gamble with a little cartoon called The Simpsons pulled from the Tracey Ullman show, and we all know how that worked out. They also gambled with American Idol, which has netted the network the top spot of every single show on television for six years running. They are experts at scheduling, understanding that not every show is a hit, but jockeying the position of winner shows against little competition to allow them to grow and flourish, while placing less popular shows on the schedule where they have little hopes of drawing away viewers from the competition.

The week I was a "Nielsen family," what show did I record I watched the most on my viewer diary? None other than FOX's American Idol.

To everything, there is a Season: Tweet #savethesingoff

Fans are urged to tweet: #SaveTheSingOff today to attempt to trend it on twitter.

This week of Season finales has drawn an unclear line in the sand between cancellations and new opportunities, unexpectedly intertwining the fates of three of my favorite shows: Live! with Kelly, The Sing-Off, and Two and a Half Men.

LIVE! with Kelly

Ever since Regis Philbin left the cohost position of the LIVE! with Regis and Kelly show on November 18, 2011, TV viewers have enjoyed watching a parade of short-term fill-in guest hosts, everyone from Jerry Seinfeld to Kim Kardashian, and Apolo Anton Ohno to Jim Parsons. The suggestion is that at some point, a permanent host will be chosen from those who have appeared. Facebookers are urged to "like" their favorite hosts on the show's webpage.

I watched a similar parade of female guest hosts test the waters after Kathy Lee left the show in 2000 and a female cohost position was vacated, and I knew instantly that Kelly Ripa was the clearly perfect choice to fill her shoes the moment she appeared. Peppy, silly, comfortable, and wiling to put up with a curmudgeon like Regis, she was the perfect complement. I had watched her debut on "All My Children" and thought this was a much better fit for her. The show has since won a slew of Daytime Emmys and other awards.

Now Regis has left, and the search is on. I have my own personal favorites.

Alec Baldwin, who appeared on Leap Day, February 29, was one of my top picks. He handled the position with panache, taking the good with the bad, not squirming when a slimy giant bullfrog was brought out on stage to leap for Leap Day (he failed to leap and merely sat), interviewing with knowledge and confidence, and even acting out a steamy improv romantic scene with Kelly to illustrate the over-the-top acting required in soap operas. Baldwin is currently a primary player on 30 Rock, but I wonder if he could perhaps be enticed to join Live! instead.

Michael Bublé, who appeared before Christmas on December 15th and 16th also was a huge favorite of mine, though one would not think that a grammy-award winning crooner who's used to singing to entertain could do such a lovely job. He was open and revealing, talking naturally as if he were sitting around chatting with good friends. He made fun of himself, impersonated others while recounting stories, was a willing model during a high tech gift feature, and was truly entertaining during the full show. I apparently am not the only one who's a fan -- he has 1311 likes, more than any other guest host. Perhaps while starting a family, he would be willing to settle down in NYC for a few years and cohost the show.

Finding the next Regis has been a challenge. Kelly is the *nice* one, so adding another pleasantly upbeat host creates an imbalance at the helm. No, Regis's replacement will have to be a little bit mean, have a humongous ego so as to not cower when interviewing the really huge stars, a healthy dose of arrogance combined with an open revealing self-criticism, a ton of previous star knowledge, and a huge heaping helping of true snarkiness. 

For this reason, although I do love his fun attitude, Nick Lachey is not a good fit. He desperately wants the job, and has even gone so far as serenading Kelly proposing that she choose him to be the next co-host …

The Sing-Off

Nick Lachey currently hosts The Sing-Off, an a cappella singing group competition show, featuring groups performing in their pure form, without autotune, choral pedals, or musical instruments. Groups compete and are intelligently judged by Sara Bareilles, Shawn Stockman, and Ben Folds. Sadly, the show is in danger of being cancelled. 

It's not the show's fault that it did not do as well last year during Season 3 as it had in previous years. Last year, the show ran a full fall season, and although I did manage to watch every single episode without fail, I actually enjoyed the show much more in Seasons 1 and 2 when it ran as an off-season filler over the holidays. However, I loved the way it culminated with a Holiday Special in December during Season 3, where Christmasy songs were the ideal fit for pure choral arrangements.

The Sing-Off was also pitted head-to-head against Two and Half Men, debuting the exact same day that Ashton Kutcher was taking over the role of Charlie Sheen after his sensational interview where he claimed to have "tiger blood" and "Adonis DNA" and was fired from the show. I would imagine that even some of the upper management of NBC was tuned to CBS every Monday night at 9 PM out of mere curiosity, instead of watching their own broadcast of the Sing-Off. 

However, host Nick Lachey should relax, because Sing-Off fans, led by a campaign to trend #savethesingoff on twitter today are going to most likely bring the show back for another run. Started by a fan and retweeted by heavy-tweeters @BenFolds, @SaraBareilles, @ShawnStockman, and @NickSLachey, the show has launched a campaign today to bring the show back for Season 4. It's a bit ironic that the Sing-Off is using twitter to achieve this task, since Ashton Kutcher himself is known as the one who made twitter a popular social networking tool in April 2009, by inspiring others to sign up for the service and "follow him" so that he could become the first person to have more than a million followers.

Ben Folds himself has just successfully funded his own new album release for Ben Folds Five, solely utilizing the social media sites of Facebook and twitter to get out the word to pre-purchase Cds, vinyl, and tour t-shirts in the form of pledges. 

Two and a Half Men Spin-Off?

The season finale of Two and a Half Men marked the graduation of Alan's (Jon Cryer)  son, Jake (Angus T. Jones), who had been living rent-free along with his dad, first with Charlie (Charlie Sheen), then Walden (Ashton Kutcher) after Charlie's unexpected death when he fell in front of a subway train in Paris.

Jake and his good friend Eldridge (Graham Patrick Martin) are then required to either go to college or get a job. They choose the latter, and Alan gets them both a job at Walden's new business, Electric Suitcase, Inc., where they promptly burn the place down their first night at work by infecting the system with a virus they accidentally acquire while downloading porn. 

Faced with a 24-hour deadline, Warren and Eldridge look for another new job and end up enlisting in the army so they can "be all you can be." The show ends with the cast of family and friends crying as they leave for boot camp.

This opens up a whole new realm of opportunities for the network and actors, especially if the two friends are placed in a pilot of their own, a la Gomer Pyle, which itself was a spin-off of Mayberry RFD, a show based on the real life town of Mount Airy, NC, a hop-skip-and-a-jump from Winston-Salem, from whence Ben Folds was born and raised. 

If such a show is spun off, I would hope that CBS would film it on real North Carolina dirt, not astroturf. Perhaps their fictional lives would have them join an a cappella army choir  and appear on Live! with Kelly. Oh, the irony!

Taking on the Jazz challenge – Submit Jazz music TV performances you’ve seen here

Afro-Blue playfully attacks Sing-Off Judge Ben Folds

The Sing-Off a cappella singing competition TV show was unexpectedly amiss in controversy this year after Afro-Blue, the 9-member a cappella class-turned-performance-group from Howard University in Washington, D.C. was eliminated by the panel of expert judges on the brink of the semi-finals.

To say that viewers at home were disappointed is a bit of an understatement as social media was flooded with comments. Many of my personal friends told me that Afro-Blue was their favorite group, and although Pentatonix was my favorite by a long shot, I honestly could not understand why Afro-Blue was eliminated. America should have been given the opportunity to vote for them, perhaps allowing four groups to move forward as was done last year. They may have won, or at the very least, come in second place.

As it was, Pentatonix came in first, the Dartmouth Aires won second, and Urban Method won third after the public voted on these three choices. The public could not vote for Afro-Blue -- they were knocked out at the eleventh hour by the judges, Sara Bareilles and Ben Folds. Shawn Stockman was the only judge of the three who felt they should move forward instead.

Judge Ben Folds explained his reasoning for choosing the Dartmouth Aires over Afro-Blue in his Nov. 21, 2011 blog posted on NBC’s Sing-Off Website:

“Afro-Blue stands for excellence in music education and for the great underdog American art form of jazz. Neither of these concepts often leads to lucrative ventures and both are under-represented on TV and radio.”

Essentially, Folds was saying in so many words in his blog that he feels that Afro-Blue is not as marketable as the Dartmouth Aires. Folds confessed that Afro-Blue was his own favorite group as well and that “they were actually great TV, and they could make records. They have a charm and charisma that transcends drama and competition.” However, he felt that they simply wouldn’t make as much money as the Dartmouth Aires could with a Sony Recording contract, the grand prize in the Sing-Off a cappella competition.

I think most of us at home just figured that was a bunch of hooey.

It's not hard to tell that pop, rock, hip-hop, and country are the big money makers today. However, I feel that Folds is incorrect in claiming that jazz won't make money since he feels that by appealing to a small, elite group of intelligent listeners, it won’t sell in the big mainstream market. But, does it need to sell in the mainstream market to make money?

I’m a huge Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five fan, and I have to say, he isn’t all that mainstream himself. Survey a few friends and you’ll find maybe one in ten people, depending on their ages, who have even heard of him (you may have to sing a few bars of Brick or Rockin’ the Suburbs). However, Ben Folds made Sony Records a good deal of money. Why? Because Ben Folds fans tend to be super fans. They will buy all of his CDs and tickets to shows in their area, spend money on T-shirts and other miscellaneous swag, and invest in collectible vinyl record versions of his CDs.

I think the same could be said for jazz lovers. There’s a lot of money to be made in that market, but perhaps, as Folds expains, that market is a bit untapped at the moment. Such a shame!

Folds challenged TV viewers in his latest blog on November 28, 2011, to “Survey the year's prime time network programming and get back to me with a list of live jazz performances you saw - hell, make that ten years.”

• Live Performances – When Folds says “live,” I assume that he means actual bands playing the music, since nearly all primetime (save sports) is taped these days, and since I could probably meet this challenge in one or two weeks if I were allowed to simply list all of the jazz music tracks played in the background behind serious dramatic scenes on hit TV shows.
• Network – By network, I assume Folds means the big seven: ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC, PBS and TBS, as opposed to say, BET or the Jazz channel, which would also make this challenge far too easy.
• Primetime – Folds also asks that we find these performances in prime time, which is defined by Answers.com as “The evening hours, generally between 7 and 11 P.M., when the largest television audience is available,” as opposed to late night or daytime. That eliminates the obvious: Conan, Kimmel, Letterman, Leno, Fallon, and Ferguson. It also knocks out their counterparts greeting us each morning: the Today Show, Good Morning America, the Early Show, Good Day, and CBS Sunday morning, who coincidentally featured a segment on kids dancing to a jazz band playing in the subway this past Sunday. Unfortunately, it also counts out midday talk shows, such as (The show formerly known as) Live with Regis and Kelly (since Regis “moved on” this past month) and the Ellen DeGeneres show.

Since we are currently in the midst of the Christmas holiday season, I think we can probably find a few jazz performances during prime time on major networks in the next month.

Please keep your ears and eyes peeled and get back to me if you see something worth watching. If you can, please take the time to comment here or email me at TVgrrrrl@gmail.com.

I think one possible hit might be on tonight’s Sing-Off, which will feature a few holiday favorites. If I see a version of Eartha Kitt’s Santa Baby, I’m counting that as one. The show airs tonight between 8 pm and 10 pm on NBC (WESH 2 here in Orlando, on Channel 4 and 1020 on Brighthouse Cable).

So, X-Factor, the Voice, American Idol, I hope you’re listening. Serve me up some jazz, pretty please!

We’ll keep track here in this blog and post updates to Dr. Folds, who adds in his blog:

“When I say it's a miracle that we got vocal jazz on TV, I'm speaking reality. Further, I'm not commenting on the intelligence of the viewers but instead on the tolerance, systems, research, and paradigm of reality TV… You can hide under a rock and ignore it, or you can roll up your sleeves and get inside it and try to make a change. But expect to take some knocks because reality is more complicated than reality TV.”

Someone had to wear the Black Hat on the Sing-Off

The votes are in as of 9 a.m. this morning, the tally is being counted, and we will soon know who the Sing-Off a cappella winner is for Season III. That group, either Pentatonix, Urban Method, or the Dartmouth Aires, will walk home with a $200,000 cash prize and a coveted Sony Music Recording Contract, no small potatoes. The finale, hosted by Nick Lachey, will air on Monday night at 8 p.m. ET on NBC (WESH 2 here in Orlando, Channel 4 or 1020 on Brighthouse Cable) and will feature a guest star appearance performance by Smokey Robinson.

Last Monday’s show was a bit of a shock to many of us who not only assumed that Afro-Blue, a diverse 9-member jazzy-blues a cappella singing class from Howard University in Washington D.C., would be a finalist, we wondered if perhaps they might inevitably walk home with the grand prize. However, in an upset, the judges instead chose the Dartmouth Aires, an all male 15-member a cappella group from Dartmouth University in Hanover, New Hampshire, for the third and final spot.

I myself was amiss – I like the Dartmouth Aires and feel that they are by far the most entertaining group on stage. However, the judges repeatedly pointed out that they were picking a group for the purpose of making a hit record, not putting on a show. And to me, Afro-Blue was a shoo in.

The decision to axe Afro-Blue was placed upon Ben Folds shoulders, although technically, he was one of two judges, the other being Sara Bareilles, who chose the Dartmouth Aires a cappella group over Afro-Blue. Only one judge, Shawn Stockman, felt that Afro-Blue would be a better choice.

Soon after the show aired, the insults began to fly, and Folds’ twitter and facebook walls were bombarded with criticisms, some quite nasty, some attempting to be understanding, but nearly all in disagreement.

It was good that we, the TV viewing public, voiced our unhappiness.

However, as disappointed as I am with Fold’s decision, I would never want to devalue all of the wonderful good he has done for the Sing-Off and the a cappella music genre over the past three years, even longer if you count his work with college a cappella groups featured on his CD, University A Cappella. Folds has been a real asset to the show. In his reviews of each contestant’s performances, he has explained complex musical terms in easy to understand language, pointed out the tiniest of group achievements, and politely suggested improvements for future performances, all of which have earned him the honorary title of Professor Folds. Without Dr. Folds on board, I, quite frankly, simply would not watch the show.

The judges were intentionally chosen by the Sing-Off producers for their diverse backgrounds in the music industry in an effort to offer a balanced appraisal of how successful a group will fair in today’s music market. Shawn Stockman represents the rhythm and blues, and hip hop side of the coin; Ben Folds represents the alternative, anti-folk, pop-rock music industry; and Sara Bareilles, a former a cappella group member herself, represents the pop and country music markets. Each judge brings a different and equally valuable opinion to the table of what will sell and what will not.

Between the three judges, a consensus would be made, since there could be no ties with an odd number of votes.

With so many talented groups on the docket, it’s no wonder there were fewer unanimous decisions this year. For the first time ever, a sing-off was held, where the bottom two groups had to perform another song to make it easier to compare the two competitors side by side. In fact, the final decision between Afro-Blue and the Dartmouth Aires was also made after a sing-off.

The judges made their choices with a great deal of knowledge, careful thought, consideration, and heart, based on their own personal experiences. Their choices were not an issue of favoritism, “selling-out,” or prejudice. They each chose wisely based on what they know personally about making it in the music business.

It’s a shame that someone had to be the “bad guy,” and pick one group over another to proceed to the finals. However, that burden fell on the shoulders of Ben Folds in this final round. I have to admire him for sticking to his guns, not backing down, and believing in his own opinion.

That being said, I would not be at all surprised if all of this negative publicity boosts Afro-Blue cosmically into outer space with their first record deal, which will no doubt be on the horizon, if not announced on tomorrow’s finale show. Everyone loves an underdog, especially one who is believed to have been given an unfair shake. I am and will always be one of their biggest fans and look forward to purchasing their first CD, after it is released.

Sing-Off Makes an American Idol Mistake

Last night on NBC's The Sing-Off, Judges Sara Bareilles and Doctor Ben Folds chose to send home Afro-Blue, a jazzy-blues a cappella group from Howard University. I experienced a moment of deja vu, and remembered a similar mistake made in another talent competition show, American Idol.

American Idol Sends Home a Star

In 2004, during the third season of FOX television’s American Idol, an amazingly talented singer who I felt could win the grand prize that year was voted off the show in the sixth round, halfway through the final competition. The decision was so shocking, we TV viewers at home could hear an audible gasp from the live, onstage audience. I was watching that night, and I remember my jaw dropped.

“This can’t be happening. How did this happen?” I asked.

In the case of American Idol Season III, the burden of determining who stays and who goes was placed solely on the shoulders of the TV viewing audience who voted for the contestants by placing multiple phone calls or texts. The judges did not decide themselves – their only power was in giving critiques of each performance, in hopes to sway the voting public at home.

That performer who was sent home prematurely, was none other than Jennifer Hudson. Hudson is now a household name, currently with a big commercial deal promoting Weight Watchers. She starred in the 2006 hit movie, Dream Girls, where she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She recorded a top ten hit with "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," from the movie Dream Girls; won a Grammy for her first album, “Jennifer Hudson,” released in 2008; reached number 2 on Billboard’s top 200 with her second album, “I Remember Me,” released earlier this year in March; and had a top ten hit with “Where You At,” the single from that album.

She is one of the more highly successful former American Idol competitors, and to think she was sent home so early at week six! It boggles the mind, until you look at the demographics.

Judging Based on Looks, Not Sound

Unfortunately, through the luck of the draw, there were three African American female stars competing against each other during the third season of American Idol: La Toya London, Jennifer Hudson, and the eventual grand prize winner, Fantasia Barrino. All three ended up in the bottom three that day after the viewing public voted in their favorites, who had each performed a Barry Manilow hit. The assumption is that, being similar in style and sound, the three shared many of the same fans, creating an unfair advantage for their competitors. There was only one Asian American in the mix, Jasmine Trias, and despite negative criticism from the judges early on, she proceeded to the final three spot in the competition. The token red headed cutey crooner, John Stevens, made it even one show farther than Hudson, though I think most of us at home were scratching our heads over that one. It was clear that race was the deciding factor with many of the voting public.

It isn’t just race. It’s looks. In more recent years of American Idol, I’ve seen contestants chosen by the judges who I feel had less talent than my little finger, but my oh my, they were gorgeous! The Voice, another of NBC’s singer competition shows, attempted to eliminate “looks” from the judges decision by not allowing the judges to see the performers during the first round. However, they proved themselves fallible by letting the judges turn around afterwards. I’ll never forget when Judge Blake Shelton took one look at a rejected female competitor (the name of whom escapes me, now), commented on her looks, and said something to the effect of, “I wish I’d known, I would have picked you.”

Although I don’t believe Afro-Blue was eliminated by the Sing-Off judges because their group consists of nearly all African Americans, I do wonder if Vocal Point, an all white male group from the conservative Brigham Young University, was eliminated for being too racially homogeneous. Instead, the bells-and-whistles-performance-heavy Dartmouth Aires group, consisting of 15 men of various races and character types was given one of the treasured three spots to compete in the finals. That decision also left me scratching my head. While the Dartmouth Aires will no doubt do quite well on tour, entertaining and amazing audiences, most likely opening for Ben Folds himself, I wonder how many records they’ll sell. Kids don’t buy records. Adults do. Kids pirate records. I would imagine that the more mature-polished sounding Vocal Point will outsell them two to one, and Afro-Blue will do even better, possibly outselling them four to one, by dominating the jazz-blues contemporary music market.

Are the Music Buying Public Being Underestimated?

Sing-Off Judges Sara Bareilles and Ben Folds chose Dartmouth Aires over Afro-Blue on last nights show. Judge Shawn Stockman said he felt Afro-Blue has a better chance of making a hit record, and I agree.

After the show aired, while the “shit hit the fan,” metaphorically speaking, Judge Ben Folds confessed that Afro-Blue was his favorite group from day one, and commending them, said in his blog on NBC’s Sing-Off website, “Afro-Blue stands for excellence in music education and for the great underdog American art form of jazz. Neither of these concepts often leads to lucrative ventures and both are under-represented on TV and radio.”

With all due respect, Dr. Folds, I disagree with your decision to eliminate them on many levels. Music tastes change with the times. Who is to say that Afro-Blue’s particular flavor of bluesy jazz is not the next big thing? I find their sound to be quite refreshing and inventive, with a contemporary sounding solid bass and percussive rhythm supporting a more traditional jazzy interweaving of opposing harmonies, and thick rich bluesy vocals carrying the main bell-like melody. Recent movies, such as the aforementioned Dream Girls and Cadillac Records both generated multiple awards and big record sales from similar music.

Today’s buying public are not getting their music fix on radio, nor TV. Listeners now listen to Spotify and Pandora over radio; view videos on youtube and facebook – not on TV (does MTV even have any music at all anymore?); and buy more music on CD Baby, itunes, and Amazon, than in those wonderfully old-fashioned record stores we love so much.

I think perhaps you are limiting yourself and underestimating a growing jazz-blues-appreciative audience, dear sir.

They say living well is the best revenge. I hope Afro-Blue, the little music-class-from-Howard-University-that-could, gets signed to a killer record deal, makes a hit record, gets a soundtrack deal, and follows in the footsteps of the fabulous Jennifer Hudson, winning a Grammy. I will be one of the first in line to buy their record, when they do!

Time to Vote!

You can vote for your favorite of the three groups by going online to the NBC Sing-Off website, calling or texting:

Penatatonix:
Call: 1-877-674-6401
Text: 1 to 97979

Urban Method:
Call: 1-877-674-6402
Text: 2 to 97979

Dartmouth Aires:
Call: 1-877-674-6403
Text: 3 to 97979