Joe Jonas and Taylor, courtesy CBS Networks
THE NEXT
Friendly Rating: All ages
Safety Rating: Sexy as compliment, but plenty clean otherwise
Quality Rating: Nice. If only the whole reality talent contest thing weren’t so tired
New series premieres tonight on The CW at 9 p.m.
The Next is everything Oh Sit! is not. There’s no snark, no evil criticisms. No one gets injured. The worst that happens is that three people don’t move on. It was so nice listening the mentors say something kind about each of the four would-be stars singing to represent their city on the big finale on October 4. There was no trash talking, just four already-stars (Joe Jonas, Gloria Estefan, John Rich and Nelly) each taking a wanna-be with some experience and helping that person hone his or her performance, and then saying something nice about each person.
The twists in this latest talent competition show start with the fact that each contestant is pre-selected based on their popularity in their home city. The premiere features Orlando, but the contest has made stops in Chicago, Baltimore, New York and Los Angeles, as well. The winner in city, chosen by the studio audience there, will go on to face off against the others for the last three weeks of the show.
If only the whole reality talent show concept weren’t already more tired than the parents of colicky twins. Somebody needs to tell these programming execs that the reality well has run dry. So while I was pleasantly surprised that there was something new and reasonably nice about this show, it wasn’t enough to make me wanna come back each week.
