Vocal warm-up

What would represent success for BBC1's new Saturday night talent show, The Voice ?  BBC spinners are trying to damp down expectations. Dan Wootton in The Mail today quotes "a source" at the BBC as saying ‘If it doesn’t get more than ten million viewers, as Call The Midwife did, then it’s nothing short of an expensive disaster.’  A BBC spokesman says that's "crazy - XFactor, Britain's Got Talent, and Strictly all launched with half that".

Last Saturday, in about the same slot as The Voice, the final of Let's Dance For Sport Relief notched up an average of 5.7m. The BBC will surely want to do better than that.  The machine is hard at work this morning, with Tom Jones on the R2's Chris Evans' Show, Holly Willoughby on R1's Chris Moyles' Show, Voice contestants on BBC Breakfast - even Capital Radio have featured judge Danny from The Script.  The only Voices off message have been R2's Paul Gambaccini, in the Radio Times ("The Voice is a karaoke competition, full stop") - and, as you would expect, Simon Cowell, concerned, I think, less about Britain's Got Talent and more about The XFactor.

Voice launches around the world have done well. France - 9.1m, 38% share, Denmark 1.1m, 60% share; Ireland 708,000. But in the States, American Idol, which plays on Wednesday, has just edged back in front of The Voice, which is broadcast on Mondays.

The BBC is sensitive about the cost of the exercise - but Controller BBC1 Danny Cohen says the audience expects the best, and "the tone is more fitting to BBC values".  Will the tone of the press coverage follow suit ?