Last night the new show Duets premiered, where four “superstars” each choose two unknowns to duet with on stage. After performances, the stars who did not perform rate the contestants anonymously and all the audience and the contestants are shown is where they rank against the others. Doesn’t this pose a conflict of interest? All of the “superstars”: Jennifer Nettles, John Legend, Robin Thicke, and Kelly Clarkson have been very clear that they want their proteges to win. How fair is it that the judges of the competition are also those who hand-picked and performed with the contestants? Couldn’t the stars rate their competition low, so that their duet partners score higher on the chart?
The star’s picks for their duet partners are:
Jennifer Nettles: J Rome and John Glosson
John Legend: Johnny Gray and Bridget Carrington
Robin Thicke: Olivia Chisholm and Alexis Foster
Kelly Clarkson: Jason Farol and Jordan Meredith
Also concerning is the fact that Jennifer Nettles is performing hits originally written and sang by her duo, Sugarland, meaning that she has a leg up on her competition already, since her songs will mostly be arranged and ready for a duet. Kelly Clarkson, although having done her song “Because of You” as a memorable duet with Reba McEntire, has a catalog of songs that are not meant to be duets. The same goes for Robin Thicke and John Legend.
It is obvious from the first episode of the show that the first performance of the night will become a coveted spot, seeing as J Rome whose performance of “Tonight” with Jennifer Nettles was just average held on to the number one spot for the rest of the night. As Kelly Clarkson observed last night, it is a bit suspect that her two contestants are at the bottom of the heap, having both performed last in each round. Will it come down to the order in which the contestants perform?
I remained less than entertained, and a bit bored, until the last half hour of the show, with who I think are the two best choices of the stars, Robin Thicke performed Magic with Alexis Foster, and Kelly Clarkson performed Stronger with Jordan Meredith. After an hour and a half of non-stop ballads and all too often commercial breaks, these two performances made the show worth watching.
At the end of the episode, the leaderboard is as follows: J Rome, Johnny Gray, Alexis Foster, John Glosson, Olivia Chisholm, Bridget Carrington, Jordan Meredith and Jason Farol.
Who was your favorite? Will you continue watching?
