the voice uk starts big

A impressive peak of 9.82m viewers saw the debut of BBC One's new singing talent show, The Voice UK.  It averaged 8.42m viewers throughout its time slot from 7 to 8.20pm.  ITV's established hit Britain's Got Talent started at 8pm and predictably got a higher audience with an 11.5m peak and a 9.43m average (567k average on ITV+1).  Interestingly for the time that they clashed, the voice had 8.9m and BGT had 6.71,  So ITV would have been much wiser to have started later.

As for the show itself,  The Voice UK  was certainly the best looking new entertainment format on BBC One in some years.  A world away from the cheap looking So You Think You Can Dance, the production values  had more in common with the last couple of series of Strictly Come Dancing - which shouldn't come as a surprise, because they used the same producer.

The well publicised format twist is that the auditions are done blind, with the four coaches sitting in funky chairs, with their backs to the singer.  If they like what they hear, they push a button and spin round to see the performer.  If only one coach pushes their button, then the singer joins their team.  If more than one coach turns round, then the singer gets to choose which team to join.  This is the most interesting part of the format, kinda like Dragons Den, the coaches have to use their best skills of persuasion on the singers.

The coaches are a pretty impressive bunch. The stratagy of Tom Jones and will.i.am seemed to be to  drop as many famous names as the time would allow, hoping that they would mention someone the singer would like.  In contrast Jessie J and Danny O'Donoghue (the dude from the Script) attempted to show how similar the were to each singer. 

The talent on the show was pretty good.  There were deliberately no terrible acts. The nearest thing to a stunt was ex member of 5ive, Sean Conlon auditioning - he didn't get through.  Ones to watch are Max Milner and J Marie Cooper.

Though the show was a bit schmaltzy at times, overall it was a positive and enjoyable experience.  If it can maintain or grow its audience (and the good word of mouth suggests it might), then the BBC may finally have a big entertainment hit on its hands.