Sing - extended comment piece

This Friday sees the launch of Sky’s new amateur talent show Sing: Ultimate A Cappella.

Like many in the TV industry and the wider world, I might be forgiven for thinking that UK audiences were possibly already well-catered for in terms of onscreen musical talent competitions.

Despite this, the show’s single-minded concentration purely on vocal performance and the eschewing of contestant backstories and other fripperies may help Sing stand out in a crowded marketplace.

A marketplace which by current signs, is in the midst of a cyclical decline, with both ITV’s The X-Factor and The Voice looking decidedly tired, and 2017 debuts such as the BBC’s Pitch Battle, Let It Shine and Even Better Than The Real Thing all failing or looking to fail sophomore status.

Further back, C4’s The Singer Takes It All (2014) demonstrated that it was difficult for a channel (even one of the big 5) to muscle into territory occupied by ITV and BBC1.

On the horizon the genre still remains in favour, as evidenced recently announced Change Your Tune for ITV, where latter-day Florence Foster Jenkins soundalikes learn to sing. And in the US, American Idol is back next year on a new channel (ABC) a mere two years after its final 15th season on Fox.

Perhaps an element of caution on Sky1’s part can be detected in the choice of Cat Deeley as Sing’s host.

Deeley, well known to UK audiences in the 90s and 2000s from shows such as Fame Academy (BBC1) and Stars In Their Eyes (ITV), but maybe less so over recent years due to her absence Stateside presenting So You Think You Can Dance (Fox).

Sky1 may be hoping that if Sing performs well, Deeley could have the potential to become a regular face for their new LE programming.

Lacking the cross-promotional opportunities enjoyed by the BBC and ITV, Sing will have to hit the ground running, as typically TV talent shows don’t tend to have the kind of long tail common to genres such as drama and comedy - viral clips excepted.

Although Sky have stated that overnights are no longer going to be a key benchmark for programme performance, unfortunately for them Sing fits the traditional TV linear template of a show that is chiefly watched as it’s transmitted, rather than on catch-up.

I suspect that if more viewers watch the show when first broadcast on Friday evenings, the better for Sky, as consolidated figures may not add that much to final tally - although of course I could be wrong.

Anything over a relatively modest 350k on Saturday morning would give Sky1 a degree of optimism about the prospects of Sing, after taking into account whether audience levels hold (or even increase) as the show progresses.

If not exactly facing a clear run in its slot, Sing has a fighting chance in terms of opposition from the former terrestrial channels, with only C4’s Gogglebox having much likely crossover with the target audience to the show, as opposed to HIGNFY/Porridge on BBC1, Cold Feet on ITV and A Celebrity Taste of Italy on C5.

Whilst A League of Their Own continues to perform stalwart service for the channel as its stand-out LE show, attempts by Sky1 to break into the talent show subgenre have tended to fizzle out.

Although the hoofing competition Got To Dance did last 5 seasons (2009-2014), others such as the singing shows Must be the Music (2010) and Don’t Stop Me Now! (2012) failed to connect with audiences.

The Sky1 team must be hoping that the show’s marketing campaign has enabled sufficiently large numbers of potential viewers to check out Sing and that having done so, they want to carry on watching.