America needs another TV music singing competition show like the Minnesota Vikings need another aging quarterback. Some powers that be think it necessary, hence NBC's "The Voice," a new kind of vocal contest that premiered Tuesday.

This competition works differently from "American Idol" or any other TV talent show. It's a bit complicated. "The Voice" begins with blind auditions, where singers perform for the four coaches (not judges) -- music stars Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton -- who can't see them. If a coach wants to put the singer on his or her team, press a button. If more than one coach bids, then the singer gets to choose his/her coach. Got it. After each coach assembles a team of eight, the coach will make cuts by having singers perform the same songs. Eventually, "The Voice" trims down to live shows, and America gets to vote. The winner snares $100,000 and a recording contract.

But, first, the blind auditions. There was a 27-year-old woman living in her 1992 Toyota wagon going from gig to gig, a 56-year-old New Jersey mother, a young married duo living in her parents' basement, a Los Angeles singer who got disqualified from "American Idol" and a 41-year-old woman with a shaved head, among others, but no Tim Mahoney, the Twin Cities barroom favorite who is supposed to be on "The Voice" (next Tuesday, we suspect). During the two-hour premiere, there were no vocal train wrecks, but plenty of faux drama and feigned competition between the coaches. (Aguilera about Levine: "He's a wheeler, dealer, shmealer. He'll sell a used car to your grandma.") Still, this was a bit like watching the NFL draft with the players doing a brief live workout for the scouts.

During "The Voice's" two weeks of blind auditions, the competition is between the coaches, not the singers. Each coach needs to add four more singers next week (Will Mahoney make the cut?). Then, "The Voice" will turn into training camp to begin the road to the vocal Super Bowl.

  • JON BREAM

Singer Phoebe Snow dies at 60 Phoebe Snow, a singer and songwriter who gained fame with her 1974 self-titled album that featured the hit single "Poetry Man," died Tuesday. She was 60.

Snow died in Edison, N.J. She had suffered a brain hemorrhage in January 2010.

The album "Phoebe Snow" turned the singer, blessed with multi-octave range, into a star. She made the cover of Rolling Stone, appeared on "Saturday Night Live" and was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Snow was hard to categorize musically. Dennis Hunt, writing in the Los Angeles Times in 1976, said her voice had "a marvelous 'cracked' quality" and she "glides through and glances off notes in an appealing offbeat manner."

Snow was never able to duplicate her early commercial success, and her career took a back seat to caring for her daughter, Valerie Rose Laub, who was born in 1975 with severe brain damage. Her daughter died in 2007. A few months later, Snow started performing again.

COURIC MOVING ON

As widely expected, Katie Couric has announced -- via a People magazine exclusive -- that she's leaving "CBS Evening News." "I am looking at a format that will allow me to engage in more multidimensional storytelling," she said. Her five-year contract ends in June. Expectations are that Couric will get a talk show. TV Guide reported Tuesday that CBS expects that show to be produced by ABC. After Couric's announcement, CBS News said in a statement: "There's a lot to be proud of during Katie Couric's time at 'Evening News.' CBS News, like Katie herself, is looking forward to the next chapter."