Check out THE VOICE!

So my family's a Dancing With the Stars kinda bunch, so every Monday and Tuesday night we'll sit down in the family room and catch our favorite stars and pros twirl around the ballroom as Bruno, Carrie Ann and Len give scores and make weird comments.

That said, I was intrigued when NBC started promoting this show called The Voice on Tuesday nights.  Despite it being on at the same time as the DWTS results show I decided I had to check it out so I channel flipped during the first episode.  Great talent + good banter + great concept = I'm hooked.

For those who aren't familiar with the show, the basic premise, at least in the initial stage is that the reality singing competition is looking for the next great Voice, irregardless of looks and performance ability (read: sucking up to the judges).  It starts with blind auditions where the four celebrity coaches (not judges mind you): Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, pop powerhouse Christina Aguilera, creative genius Cee-Lo and country star Blake Shelton all have their backs turned to the stage as the singing hopefuls perform.  The coaches each must pick 8 singers for their own team to move on in the competition by hitting a "I want you" button when they're convinced by the singer's voice alone.  They have until the end of the song to do so, otherwise the singer is out of the competition.

This round has been the most compelling conceptually and it has delivered with some unexpected performances, coaches exchanging charming banter as they campaign for why a singer should join their team and some surprisingly warm hosting from former MTV TRL VJ Carson Daly.  Great moments have included when all four coaches have hit their buttons, giving the singer the difficult but enviable choice of whom to go with, as well as Adam Levine mistakenly thinking one male singer, "was a chick".  It truly was about the voice.

The next round is the battle round where coaches must pair up their singers to pit them head to head in duets after which that coach must decide which one stays in the competition and which goes home.  It really is gut-wrenching because everyone's so good.  If you only watch one bit of The Voice (all episodes are on http://www.hulu.com/the-voice) I hope it's the last battle of episode 3, where Cee-Lo's first pairing, Vicci Martinez and Niki Dawson belt out Pink's "F**kin' Perfect" which everyone hailed as the best duet of the night.  I loved it so much that I downloaded the 2 minute song on iTunes right after seeing it.  Watch it, you won't be disappointed.

Hope you get a chance to check out this great show, like I said I'm hooked and I think you will be too.