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Say what you will about Christina Aguilera鈥檚 ward-robe choices; The Voice is going out on a high note.
With about 12 million U.S. viewers (and about 1.5 million Canadian viewers) tuning in to see Xtina and co. per week, the seemingly silly spinning-chair show no one thought would hold up next to American Idol is, well, holding up.
Season 3 of the NBC reality TV singoff will wrap with tonight鈥檚 final results episode, where either Nicholas David Mrozinski of St. Paul, Minn., Cassadee Pope of West Palm Beach, Fla., or Scotland-born Terry McDermott will receive the $100,000 payout, a record deal with Universal Republic Records and instant at least 15 minutes of fame.
What鈥檚 refreshing for a show of this sort is that none of the last three standing are glossy high-schoolers with crying stage moms. Rather, Team Cee Lo Green鈥檚 Mrozinski, 32, is a soulful family man who looks like a member of The Sheepdogs. Team Blake Shelton鈥檚 Pope, 23, is a pop-punk powerhouse who鈥檚 toured with Fall Out Boy. And Team Blake鈥檚 fellow husband and father McDermott, 35, has more in common with Rod Stewart (especially in the coif department) than, say, Phillip Phillips.
With all of their contestants out of the game, judges and mentors Aguilera and Adam Levine are left to watch Green and Shelton鈥檚 final entries duke it out. But given Levine鈥檚 brash 鈥檛ude and Xtina鈥檚 hot-pink highlights (and both of their tendencies to perform on every second episode), the panel鈥檚 noisier residents 鈥� and built-in ratings boosters 鈥� likely won鈥檛 go unnoticed in the final hours.
The Voice鈥檚 elimination process began Sept. 10, and the show has managed to get from the blind auditions (cue the spinning chairs) to the grand moment of victory in just three months 鈥� two months less than it takes us to find out who wins Fox鈥檚 American Idol. The time commitment per episode is also less; The Voice typically airs 60-minute episodes as opposed to Idol鈥檚 two-hour epics (Tuesday鈥檚 finale being an exception).
This sort of Idol Lite (despite that it airs twice a year) combined with ego-driven mentors and gimmicky rotating thrones, make The Voice more like Idol鈥檚 quirky cousin than its direct opponent. Idol is still the ratings monster, maintaining an average of 15 to 20 million viewers per episode (The X Factor, in case you鈥檙e wondering, draws about half that number). And a constantly revolving judging panel won鈥檛 drastically change that number any time soon.
Meantime, Quirky Cousin over there has signed on for a fourth season, set to air in late March 鈥� about the same time we usually start getting bored with Idol.
9 p.m., CTV, NBC
Three to see
n After discovering Jane is a Christmas baby, the gang sets out to throw her the anti-festive bash she鈥檚 always wanted on a Happy Endings episode called No-Ho-Ho. Nice try, but anyone who shares a birthday with Christmas knows there鈥檚 no getting around presents packaged in Santa wrap.
9 p.m., ABC
n They鈥檙e fresh, they鈥檙e cute and they have the tastiest muffin tops in Chicago. But only a handful of cupcakes 鈥� baked to perfection by four competitors 鈥� will be served to VIPs at the Windy city鈥檚 Magnificent Miles Lights Festival Parade after Tuesday鈥檚 Cupcake Wars episode, Cupcakes on Parade. Ready, set, whisk.
7 and 10 p.m., Food
n Yes, A Charlie Brown Christmas has had more replay than the average celebrity sex tape. Does that make the lighthearted Peanuts perennial any less essential this Christmas? Nope. Tune in tonight for the digitally remastered 1965 special, in all its shoddy-tree/awkward-dancing/sarcastic-dog glory. Good grief.
8 p.m., ABC
