‘The Voice’ – Season 4, Monday Night

We're less than a week away from the end of any productivity for two hours of my life on Monday and Tuesday. ‘The Voice’ – Season 4 premiers Monday night!! It feels like it’s been a year since Cassadee Pope won Season 3.

My wife and I played along to ‘American Idol’ during the Bo Bice/Carrie Underwood run and of course voted when Birmingham’s Taylor Hicks was appearing but since then, not one episode of ‘Idol’ has graced my TV screen. Nothing against the show, I just fell out of love with it.

Then, in walks ‘The Voice’. I appreciate the freshness of this show. People aren’t judged on appearance but rather, their voice. Plus when going through the early elimination period I don’t have to endure the screeches of the awkward as they get thrown into the talent pool to help the show’s ratings. Now, every Monday and Tuesday night my responsibilities go to the wayside and my attention goes to watching folks sing their way to the top.

In its first three seasons, the show produced winners Javier Colon, Jermaine Dupree and Pope. The first win coming from Adam Levine’s team and the last two coming from Team Blake Shelton. Javier Colon and Jermaine Dupree have gone on to achieve moderate success while Cassadee Pope recently signed a label deal with Republic Nashville and is currently in studio recording her next release.

This year will see a change in judges for the first time since the inception of ‘The Voice’ as Ceelo Green and Christina Aguilera both opted to not return and in walk their well awarded replacements, Shakira and Usher. One good thing about the change is that the diversity of the panel will not change much. You’ve still got a country star (Blake), Pop diva (Shakira), R&B singer (Usher) and a pop rocker (Adam).

The blind auditions have already been taped so for the next few weeks we’ll watch as the judges, old and new sort through the talent and pick their teams in hopes of coaching the world’s next “Voice’’

Let the excitement begin and the free time on Monday and Tuesday nights cease. It’s time for another round of ‘The Voice’!