I Can See Your Voice, is a music gameshow that originated in South Korea, was imported into the US before being foisted upon the British public by the BBC
Basic format (very basic): two members of the public have to choose, by a process of elimination, which of the six singers, all supposedly random members of the public, can actually sing. The contestants are guided, or in some cases badly misguided, by a celebrity panel.
The singers are there to convince all concerned that they can sing without actually singing, hence the show’s title (gedit). In the first stage, for example, they just stand motionless with their hand held microphones and the celebrity judges expound on whether they are holding the mike in a professional way (so exciting); in the second stage they are lip syncing along to a recording whilst the panel and the two contestants try to guess from the visual clues which of the six singers can or cannot sing by their performance technique.
If after the tortuous process of elimination, the final singer has a good voice, the guessing contestants win £10,000. If the singer is bad then the singer gets the £10,000 and the contestants go home empty handed. So either the contestants or the singer wins £10,000 every show.
On last night’s show three of the six singers could actually sing, the other three were unashamedly tone deaf.
The panel of Amanda Holden, filling in time until BGT returns: Alison Hammond, The Liar Finder Pursuivant (she revealed that she once attended a course on liar spotting but then failed to spot which singer was lying) and Jimmy Carr, who has finally (hopefully) finished his metamorphosis are joined by Danny Jones of McFly who sings a duet with the final singer. We can only hope that Jimmy Carr has exhausted his fount of McBusted jokes by the next episode.
The two contestant ‘guessers’ were there to win the prize so that they could take their two young adopted children to Disneyland and tug at the heartstrings of the audience – not that there was a studio audience of course – and those of the viewers.
The show is hosted by a somewhat over exuberant Paddy McGuiness, of whom it must be said, does a pretty good job of generating what few laughs there are to be had.
(Spoiler Alert) The final two singers on the first show could both actually sing so the guessing couple were going home with the ten grand whichever they chose.
No doubt this show will generate mixed feelings and reviews. It is of the Masked Singer genre and will appeal to a similar audience (by the way be warned, the Masked Dancer is on its way).