The New Show "Performing As" Ain't All That Bad... I Enjoyed It

[arwalden]

Unfortunately I missed the opening show... but I did catch last night's episode.

I was always a fan of the short-lived "Your Big Break" and was disappointed to see that it was canceled last year. The new "Performing As" is very similar to "Your Big Break" where contestants dress up as, and impersonate their favorite singers.

It's a HIGH-TECH Karaoke complete with make-overs, costumes, choreographers, lights, a chorus of (Solid-Gold) dancers... the works!

The best improvement when comparing "Performing As" with "Your Big Break" is the fact that they have actual JUDGES!! The old audience-choice method of Your Big Break always bothered me because a contestant could stuff the audience with their friends. Also, the audiences were relatively young and it was clear that performers who sang contemporary pop songs always scored higher than the ones who sang standards or oldies. Even when the oldies performer was more talented, they would usually lose out to the no-talent hacks who sang yet another version of "Oops I Did It Again".

[Liberal Veteran]

1. The Babs cover wasn't bad at all....

Both she and the Elton John one deserved to win. I would have been happy with either of them winning.

[arwalden]

2. Agreed! I Was Surprised At The Order Of The Eliminations...

I would have eliminated the Jon Bonjovi impersonator FIRST... then Brittany Spears, then Cyndi Lauper.

And what was up with that Brittany Spears arrangement? Why did she pick the "dub version" with nothing but the heavy chords and rhythm tracks. Uh... hello? She might have fared better if she had been guided (disguised) by the actual TUNE of the song playing as well.

Oh well.

I was delighted to see Barbra win. (She reminded me a lot of my old friend Steve who use to do a FLAWLESS Barbra show as well. Not only could he lip-sync perfectly to her singing, Steve could lip-sync perfectly to her between-song patter on Barbra's 1994 concert CD's.)

-- Allen

[Liberal Veteran]

4. That's just scary....

Me and mine were watching it last night and that's EXACTLY the order we wanted it to go too.

The Bon Jovi one was terrible, the Brittany was laughable, the Cyndi was passable, the Elton was pretty good, and the Barbra was really good.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

3. You're kidding me? Yet another US cover of a successful Brit show...

In this case the show I am refering to is "Stars in their eyes" which has been going for a few years now. The premise is exactly the same - people impersonate famous singers by dressing up as them and singing one of their songs.

I see nothing has changed in the US TV industry...