For those a cappella enthusiasts who have been living under a rock, breaking news—NBC will be airing The Sing-Off, a four night competitive a cappella show, starting in less than two weeks. There has been a lot of speculation about the show, and plenty of scattered pieces of news around the web. Like your favorite nerd in high school, here at The ACB we have done our homework, and are happy to share the answers with you.
The terms of competition have been, at best, vague up to this point. A number of sources have alluded to fan voting determining a winner, but from what we’ve seen, NBC has not confirmed this. By the same token there is going to be a panel of three celebrity judges in place.
What we do know is that The Sing-Off will start Monday, December 14, airing from 8-10 p.m. on NBC. From there, the show will continue the following two nights, same time, same station. A live finale will follow on Monday, December 21, during the same time slot. It’s during that finale that a winner will be crowned, and the group that comes out on top will earn a recording contract with Epic Records/Sony Music.
We also know that Nick Lachey, of 98 degrees and Jessica Simpson-wedded fame, will serve as the host for the show. We know that one of the judges will be singer-songwriter, piano rocker Ben Folds. Recognizing just how many collegiate groups across the country were covering his stuff, Folds shored up his place in the hearts of a cappella aficionados last fall when he announced an a cappella video contest, the rewards of which were the opportunity to record with Folds himself, creating the Ben Folds presents University A Cappella album, the profits off of which went to VH1’s Save the Music Campaign. We know that another celebrity judge will be Boyz II Men member and a co-author of seminal classic “Motownphilly” Shawn Stockman. We know that a third celebrity guest will be Nicole Scherzinger, a Popstars standout who cut her teeth with The Pussycat Dolls before going on to record alongside P. Diddy, Timbaland and others.
A Cappella News has reported that the groups will not be performing music from their own repertoires, due to licensing issues, but that they will instead be assigned songs with which to compete that they will only have a few days to learn.
And then we know about the eight competing groups. Some are all-male, some all-female, some mixed. They represent a variety of geographic areas and demographics. There are collegiate groups. There is a barbershop quartet. There are acts that no strangers to the national stage, and ones that, to this point, were far from household names. A cappella set to explode on the backs of these eight groups, and here’s what we know, and what we predict about each of them.
