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Brief spoilers for last night’s The Sing-Off coming up:
It was the last performance before the live finale of The Sing-Off next Monday, and that meant it was time for some tough choices. The judges, having eliminated one group to take the field down to four, needed to do one more round of culling to leave three finalists for America to vote on. They conferred, deliberated and reached the tough decision…
…not to make a decision. The Sing-Off judging panel instead passed the buck to you, America, after seeming as though Jerry Lawson and the Guys Who Back Up the Legendary Jerry Lawson were about to go home.
There are a couple ways to explain this nondecision. First, it may be that—if in fact it was Lawson and company who would have gone home—the judges and/or their producers did not want to be the ones to end the heartwarming comeback story. (You can do the dirty work, America.) Second—and I don’t know the precise production schedule of the pretaped episode—NBC, seeing The Sing-Off’s strong December ratings, has announced that it will finish with a two-and-a-half-hour[!] finale on Monday, and use the popular show to sneak-preview the new sitcom Perfect Couples.
It may be, then, that it’s simply easier to pad out 150 minutes of a cappella TV programming with a fourth act in the mix. Regardless, though my affection for The Most Important Television Event of Our Time is unabated, the show may pull off the seemingly impossible feat of airing a finale more bloated than American Idol’s.
I’m guessing that America will be less sentimental about Lawson and Talk of the Town, whose music goes down smooth but never really seemed to challenge themselves, and I see nothing that would get me to bet against Committed.
As for the one elimination of the night, I’ve had my issues with On the Rocks, who are definitely talented but I felt lean too heavily on the manic, comic-relief-heavy style of a cappella I’ve seen plenty of on YouTube and in college vocal groups. That said, ironically I thought they were fairly strong on their Elton John medley, particularly “The Bitch Is Back,” and I have to give them credit for going out with some ingeniously chosen last words, working in references to each of the judges/host’s musical careers. (I.e., they had grown from “boys to men,” they weren’t “pussycats,” they were proud they hadn’t “Ben Folding under pressure” but wished they had gotten “Just One Night [Una Noche].”)
Voting is open; how do you rule, Tuned Inland?