Game Show NewsNet - Block Party with Jason Block

That OTHER Talent Show - January 9

It’s January and you know what that means...the return of a very successful music based talent show where contestants from around the country audition, then perform in front of judges and then the viewing audience gets to vote on who advances and who goes home.

What? You thought this was going to be another “American Idol” column? Nope. This is about “Nashville Star”. The fifth season is about to start on the USA Network and this is the first year I am going to cover it for Game Show News Net.

This is going to be very interesting for me. My father, who usually can’t stand AI or most of what is on television, loves “Nashville Star”. His girlfriend performs at nursing homes as Patsy Cline and has one of the biggest collections of her memorabilia outside of Nashville. She even won a Patsy Cline look alike contest. So, during the first four seasons they would be on the phone, and basically doing what most AI fans do–complain, praise, yell, etc.--except it was for this countrified version of it. I also am a fan of country music. We all respect the songwriting and performing talents of the competitors.

Personally, I don’t like the comparison to AI as being the “countrified red-headed stepchild” of that show. It happens to have better performers overall, a lot of them play their own instruments, and I like the fact that we don’t know who is voted out until the last one and ALL of them perform before hand. The judges are more judicious in their criticism, and what they say makes more sense than “We have a hot one, dawg!” or “You move me.” (No offense, Randy or Paula.)

So for the 5th season, I am going to watching the tapes along with him, criticizing the bad singers and praising the good. And we will be watching this as a family. Which is pretty cool by me.

You can join the Block Party at jb.regis@verizon.net.