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Seal’s latest UK singing show fails to fire

Do your Googles mate, and you will find that Pitch Battle, has failed in its first season.

Do your Googles mate, and you will find that Seal’s latest UK talent show Pitch Battle, has failed in its first season.

Inspired by the 2012 film, Pitch Perfect the BBC series pits choirs against one another, with The Voice coach as one of several guest judges. Others included Will Young, Chaka Khan and both Nick and Joe Jonas.

Amongst the show’s highlights, host Mel Giedroyc referred to a singer by the wrong name while Chaka Khan mistook a gift of shortbread for jewellery. Go figure.

According to Radio Times, “There was a time when this sort of stuff was popular. High School Musical had tweens learning the lyrics and moves to We’re All in This Together in 2006, Glee burst onto our TVs and sent Don’t Stop Believin’ to the top of the charts in 2009 while Pitch Perfect brought a capella to the masses in the 2012 movie.

“Was it that a senior commissioner at the Beeb only recently saw Pitch Perfect and thought it was ‘hip’, ‘trendy’ and what ‘the yoof’ were into? Well, they were… more than five years ago. The excitement surrounding this genre has undoubtedly waned; it feels strange that they unleashed a show like Pitch Battle on an unsuspecting public in 2017.”

“Fellow TV singing talent show The Voice UK always struggled to either win over viewers or find a genuine star on the BBC, and it hasn’t done much better since switching to ITV.

“In short, people have become fatigued with singing competitions. From the heady days of Pop Idol to Fame Academy, commissioners need to face facts: nowadays viewers just aren’t as invested in these formats.”

So does that mean Australia could be doomed to another year of preaching from the pulpit of Seal on The Voice? Nine execs are well aware of the reaction to the singer’s lengthy, sometimes arrogant, sermons this year, which contrasted to the warm reception for Boy George and Kelly Rowland.

Imposing him on us again would be cray, cray, Crazy.

4 Responses

  1. Actually the headline of this article is slightly misleading …. Seal was not one of the permanent judges of the show they were Kelis (who was really good and a surprise) and Gareth Malone. Seal was a guest judges on two episodes. The other guest judges were Will Young, Chaka Khan, Bebe Rekha, Joe and Nick Jonas and Jermaine Jackson…… well as the choirs on it they were amazing but if it does come back a few changes need to be made ….. there are actually other shows in the UK that rate worse such Big Brother, Love Island and it rated three times higher than Geordie Shore ….

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