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Usually when a season of a singing competition series ends, some of the more popular contestants go on tour. On The Road, though, the singing competition takes place on the tour itself, with the country artists going from club to club and being voted on by the audiences watching them play live as they open for country superstar Keith Urban.
THE ROAD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A producer asks Blake Shelton and Keith Urban about an example of the challenges of being on the road, and Urban replies, “Where do we start?”
The Gist: On The Road, twelve country artists go on tour at clubs around the country, each performing one original song before Keith Urban takes the stage. They are coached by country legend Gretchen Wilson, and during their performances, Urban and Shelton (both executive producers, along with Taylor Sheridan) sit in the back of the club and not only take in the performances, but check out how engaged the crowd is with each song.
The audience scores each artist on a phone app during the performance; the top three scorers are cited, and the bottom three are up for elimination. Before everyone gets on the tour bus for the next location, one artist is eliminated. The grand prize is a record contract, a slot at the Stagecoach Music Festival and $250,000.
We get a biographical sketch for each of the 12 hopefuls, whose ages range from 23 to 49. Many of them have written for established country artists, and have been playing the clubs for years. They are all songwriters, though, and they discuss why they chose the song they were singing for the first show. We see clips of them during the final auditions in front of Shelton, Urban and the rest of the show’s producers, as well as during the soundcheck.
Photo: Evan Mulling/CBSWhat Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Voice, if it eliminated the blind auditions and concentrated on country music. Our Take:
The second way it’s different is that, while we see clips of their final auditions, we’re not subjected to any audition rounds, or battle rounds, or anything but pure performance, in real clubs instead of a TV studio. That’s the third distinguishing factor; the artists have to go to different cities, play in different environments and connect with different types of crowds, some of whom are rowdier than others.
We think the relatively straightforward format is a sturdy one. The deeper the contestants get into the contest, the more the grind of the road is going to affect them. And it will be tougher for them to come up with original songs that will connect with the audience. We suspect that as the group is whittled down, the episodes will go from 90 minutes (including ads) to 60, but there may be duets or cover songs thrown in the mix. There may just be a demand to roll out more than one original song at a particular venue.
Just about all of the contestants look like they’re up for the challenge, which we like seeing better than rookies that are in over their heads. You can see that experience in the way singers like Adam Sanders, Channing Wilson, Cody Hibbard, Briana Adams and Cassidy Daniels engage the crowd. Billie Jo Jones was not feeling her best, but turned it on and wowed the crowd when she hit the stage. Even the people at the bottom of the audience ratings in this round are all immensely talented. And all the songs are excellent, even if some of the song choices might not have fit with the crowd at the first venue in Fort Worth, Texas.
Photo: Lauren "Lo" Smith/CBSSex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: The remaining 11 artists get on the tour bus and don’t have to go far for their next show, which is in Dallas.
Sleeper Star: Gretchen Wilson has to play tour mom as well as vocal coach, giving all of the artists pointers on their performances during soundcheck. But she also has to let them know when they’re pushing too hard, like when she tells the sick Billie Jo to rest and save her voice for the performance later that night.
Most Pilot-y Line: We didn’t love how the producers introduced Hibbard’s biographical segment by not showing us his face for a few seconds, so we’re “surprised” when we see he’s Korean. We thought producers were past all that.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The Road takes the singing competition concept and literally takes it on the road, adding the grind of touring to the pressure of coming up with songs and performances that will keep contestants in the game. It helps that the contestants are pretty much all experienced and talented, making for an entertaining competition.
How To Watch The Road
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Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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