It’s FOX day at the Television Critics Association tour taking place in Beverly Hills. The network, which declined to reboot American Idol earlier this year will be offering a brand new singing show instead. Titled The Four, the show is based on an Israeli format Final Four. It appears to be sort of like X Factor’s Six Chair Challenge, but even more of a free for all. At the Executive panel today, reality chief Rob Wade teased the intense, “truncated” competition as “Game of Thrones with better singing and less nudity.” Hm.
From the FOX official press release:
FOX has ordered the new singing competition series The Four, it was announced today by Dana Walden and Gary Newman, Chairmen and CEOs, Fox Television Group.
The Four begins where most competitions end: with the four finalists. Four super-talented and fiercely competitive singers, chosen from their auditions by the show’s panel of music industry experts, will try to defend their coveted spots on the stage, as they are challenged individually by new singers determined to replace them. Each week, if any of the four are outperformed, they’ll go home and their challengers will take their place.
And those challengers could be fans who had been sitting on a couch one week, and singing onstage the next. Viewers who think they’ve got the talent to compete and unseat the four singers onstage will have the opportunity to submit an audition video. America will have the chance to decide who is brought onto the show by voting on the available streamed auditions and influencing which challengers will take on The Four and shake up the competition.
If the existing four singers outperform their challengers, then they survive to sing another week, until the end of the season, when the singers have safely secured their spots on stage and face off against each other, resulting in one being named the winner. At stake is the ultimate prize: the panel of industry experts becomes key players on the winner’s team. This elite group of star-makers will help shepherd the winner’s career and be fully invested in making him or her a breakout star.
Expert panelists and additional information regarding The Four will be announced soon.
The Four was created by Armoza Formats and is produced by ITV Entertainment in association with Armoza Formats. David George, Adam Sher, David Eilenberg, Jessica Sebastian-Dayeh, Simon Thomas, Becca Walker, David Friedman, Avi Armoza and Nehama Cohen will serve as executive producers.
I like the idea that music industry folks will be involved in the mentoring and judging. But this: “And those challengers could be fans who had been sitting on a couch one week, and singing onstage the next.” Hm. Could some rando actually win the competition, or would they just be entertaining cannon fodder until a handpicked winner takes the prize? I guess we’ll find out. The Four is tentatively set for at 2018 premiere. Along with The Voice and American Idol, we could be covering three singing shows at once. Oh boy.
Press Release Via FutonCritic
