‘The Voice’: Did you watch?

“The Voice” coaches Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton. (MARIO ANZUONI - REUTERS) “The Voice,” NBC’s “American Idol”-style competition, premiered last night with a lot of scream-singing, audience cheering and slightly dull celebrity coaching.

On the first episode, the celebrity coaches — Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton — picked singers from a field of belting divas, cowboy hat wearing crooners and tattooed rockers to be on their team of eight. They cannot see the singers until they press a button that turns their chair around and commits them to coaching the contestant. If two judges swivel, then the singer gets to pick who they want to work with.

The show has been drawing some pretty obvious comparisons to “American Idol,” but the two shows really collided when former “AI” contestant Frenchie Davis, who was kicked off the second season for old topless photos, tried out. It seems “The Voice” can forgive Frenchie’s youthful indiscretion. Aguilera will coach the singer.

While similar to “American Idol,” I think there’s a place for “The Voice.” I could be cynical about the blind audition, but it made the show a little more exciting. I also enjoyed seeing two celebrities pinned against each other for the affections of some regular Joe. Did you watch “The Voice”? Will you? Let us know in the comments.

Read Lisa de Moraes’s review at The TV Column.

Watch Frenchie perform and the rest of the episode below:

Full episode: