If you're a reality TV snob, maybe you think one hyped-up singing competition is just like any other.
But from the start, NBC's The Voice seems built as an answer to complaints about American Idol. And now they have emerged as mirror images of each other.
One of the biggest knocks on Idol is that great singers lose if they don't have an Idol-extruded generic popularity. Even the show's judges lamented the early departure of one of Idol's best singers this year, the charisma-challenged Pia Toscano.