NBC Launching 'Idol' Competitor Next Spring

Contestants performing on 'The Voice of Holland'

voiceofholland.com

NBC is taking on American Idol and Simon Cowell's upcoming X Factor with a new singing competition called The Voice of America, based on a Dutch TV show called The Voice of Holland. and its new show will be a collaboration with that show's creator, John de Mol, and reality-TV vet Mark Burnett, who has executive-produced MTV's Video Music Awards for the past four years.

NBC is fast-tracking the show and plans to launch it in the spring — before X Factor premieres in the fall, and possibly during the 10th season of Idol.

Photos: The American Idol Rollercoaster: Checking In On The Show's Biggest Winners And Losers

The Voice, which premiered earlier this year, has become the top-rated show in the Netherlands. The show's format is similar to Idol's with one significant twist: the four coaches have their backs to singers while they perform. The coaches claim a singer as their student and send them to the next round by pushing a button; the singer picks a coach if he or she is claimed by more than one.

"Somebody will show up with all the right moves and look like a star, but [if] their voice is only good, not great, they don't get chosen," Burnett said.

Once the teams are set, coaches will mentor contestants and pit their teams against each other, with viewers voting on the winner.

In the wake of sagging ratings, American Idol has been tweaking its format in recent weeks with new judges, new mentors and new competitive elements in the show.

NBC, Mark Burnett to Launch 'Idol' Rival [Hollywood Reporter]

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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