If you are one of the many who watch talent shows religiously, you no doubt have both the Voice Nigeria and the Nigerian Idols at the top of your watch list.

Both shows are Nigeria’s top singing talent shows, and both have garnered massive followership over the years to make them listed as highest rating in the country.

However, both shows love to dabble with plot twists, some of which make for good TV, and others which turn out mediocre. Somehow, it almost always feels like these twists are to the detriment of the contestants. Granted that only one among the contestants can emerge winner, it happens that every rule of the show always feels harmful for the contestants. And, for any show that judges contestants on the merit of their individual talent, merging the contestants into teams seems like a huge regulatory flaw.

For anyone who watched Saturday’s show, you may have an idea what this is about. Like its counterpart, Nigerian Idols had, TVN is now in the team phase, and the flaw of this segment is glaring. For Nigerian Idols, you can clearly sift those who are talented enough for the next stage from the least talented. An entire team could be selected or an entire team could be eliminated.

On the Voice Nigeria’s team stage, on each team of two, just one can make it to the next round and the other must be eliminated. It’s a MUST! This therefore raises the serious question; Should we have two singers of (near) equal talent on a team, what would be the deciding factor?

This was obvious with Naomi Mac and Tamara’s team. Both ladies simply ‘killed’ their team performance tonight, and it was near impossible to truly say one was better than the other, but Falz, their coach was forced to save one and send one packing.

On the flip side, we could also ask – “Assuming the two singers on one team are bad. what happens?”

Logically speaking, if the members of a different team are not better than anyone from another team. The end product would be that you would be eliminating someone less talented in a team but better than two members of a bad team. It’s logical gymnastics that the organisers probably did not think through, so here we are.

To put things in proper context, some may argue that Tamara who was eliminated from her own team, may be better than someone else who was saved in their respective team. But that is a discussion for those who run the show. One lesson from this Saturday’s episode is the flaw which most viewers paid more attention to.

I guess the way the organisers are compensating for this flaw is by taking everyone that was eliminated and giving the audience an opportunity to save one of them.

Chinedu Okafor

For Chinedu Okafor, its all about making an impact with words,  creating a profound impression on the audience with the intended narrative.