Let’s me first say that I was hoping for a little more with this show. Production wise it is lacking and the host Ryan Devlin is forgettable. He is virtually a Ryan Seacrest clone, but without the charisma or hosting abilities. The Judges for the competition are from all over the place. They are music insiders but I’m not sure what business most of them have judging a singing contest. The first judge is Belinda Carlisle from the Go go’s. Being a singer, I had faith that she would get it right but she was very inconsistent with her critiques and scoring. That’s right the judges score the contestants and the person with the highest score is automatically safe from elimination. This is a really dumb concept. Why not just leave it up to the audience to vote for the best. The other three judges are choreographer, Jamie King, celebrity agent, Larry Rudolph and celebrity stylist June Ambrose.

The first thing to note are the back stories. Some are really tough: Paparazzi, Bankruptcy, loneliness, being judged by their parents flaws, fighting for your own identity; you know all the things you’d expect from kids raised in the shadow or spotlight of a famous parent. Did I mention that most of the parents are in the audience and Ryan Devlin asks their opinion after each of their kids performs? Can you say awkward concept.

Jesse Money- (Hold me-3 Doors Down) I felt a little sorry for Jesse because her dad Eddie Money is really hard on her, he is a perfectionist and admitted to being a stage parent. Jesse’s got the pipes but she seemed a little intimated and stage presence was lacking; I’m not sure if it was the stage or Eddie Money that made her seem apprehensive. To borrow an overused phrase she was pitchy and didn’t end her sustained notes well. It also seemed that the band was overpowering her.

Landon Brown- (Crazy-Seal)Wow, Landon’s back story was very touching, we all know about Bobby Brown’s exploits but Landon seems like a good kid despite what had to be a tough upbringing. Right off I noticed how low the microphone seemed to be, that has to be worked out because I could barely hear Landon over the music. He hit some nice notes on his vocal runs but he needs polish. He seemed very comfortable on stage and he is a good looking guy, which never hurts. Landon might sound better on record but his vocals didn’t shine. I do hope he comes back for another week.

Chloe Lattanzi- (INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart”) Another sad back story that included loneliness and a battle with anorexia. Chloe has an interesting tone to her voice but I could not wrap my brain around her phrasing. She has this vibrato thing she does which could be intriguing but it just seemed out of place, where she chose to use it. Also, I think she said that she has never performed on stage before and the nerves really showed. Apparently her in ear monitors were out, which may have affected her performance but as you know the show must go on..

Again…Devlin is LAME

Lucy Walsh- (Heart of the Matter- Don Henley) Joe Walsh hates reality TV and didn’t even show up. I think that’s funny, maybe that’s why Lucy was so good, she had something to prove. She showed stage presence and strong vocals, and looked the part. But, I did notice that she had a stripped down band only acoustic accompaniment and that made a big difference. I’m beginning to think the band sucks and that might be why so many of them were drowned out. That’s not to take anything away from Lucy she had a good performance.

Jesse Blaze Snider- (Rock and Roll-Led Zeppelin) Taking on this classic song takes guts. Jesse commanded the stage from start to finish. His vocals of course paled in comparison to Robert Plants’ but he definitely acted the part of rock star, bare-chested with a backflip finish to boot.

Lil B. Sure (A Song for You- Donnie Hathaway (version)) This kid is very confident and stage presence was not an issue. I think he has a really nice tone to his voice and did a commendable version of this song. He was brave to even do this song because it is known a singers song, so you have to really blaze it and he didn’t quite reach that mark. He missed the ending note by not being able to sustain the falsetto he also had breath control issues. He could be a great singer with more training.

Lara Johnston (I’m with you-Avril Lavigne) Well if Miley Cyrus can do this maybe Lara Johnston can too. She has a really nice voice with a warm and wonderful tone and she is also camera friendly. She had some trouble with pitch on the soaring vocal parts but she could be really good with practice.

A’Keiba Burrell-Hammer (I Love you I do- Jennifer Hudson) A’Keiba is blessed with a great natural tone she has a nice easy vocal style, and is very soulful and confident on stage and definitely worked the mic better than anyone else. I think she might be the best natural vocalist, she was on pitch on all of her runs. I did think she missed the high note that she was worried about but everything else was perfect. I hope she gets the votes to stick around because I’d like to hear more.

Crosby Loggins (What’s so Funny about Peace Love and Understanding-Elvis Costello) He was the only contestant that played an instrument. I think he was good but he sang very low and was hard to hear, again the band kind of overpowered him. I think out of everyone he has identified himself as a performer and knows how he wants to come across. I just think he might be too mellow for the MTV crowd. He would be very interesting in a small club setting.

If I understand the scoring, the highest scored contestant which was Lucy Walsh is safe from elimination but the other eight are voted on by the public. I think that’s weird. I also think that it’s weird that they wait until the end to give the voting information but I guess they have to because they have to wait to see who is safe from elimination. I think the show has some major problems for one I hope the rest of the episodes are less talk and more singing. I also don’t like the voting system; the scores were all over the place. I guess I’ll give it another chance maybe it will grow on me.