Chris Jamison has truly found his “Voice.” It happens to be a falsetto.
Mr. Jamison — a Ross native who is taking a semester off as a student at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio — last week had to to be saved by his coach, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine.
There was no such drama on Tuesday’s live program.
Once again labeled “the soulful college mailman,” Mr. Jamison gave what judge Pharrell Williams called “100 percent your best performance” the previous night with Nick Jonas’ “Jealous.”
“That is the way you’re supposed to gracefully float across the stage,” Pharrell said.
Styled in a suit-and-tie tux by one-time People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive (that would be Mr. Levine), Mr. Jamison mastered an impressive range of high notes and ended strong on the falsetto. This time, he advanced to the next round on the strength of audience voting.
“The Voice” airs Mondays and Tuesdays.
Elsewhere in reality TV ...
• Tears are a given with wedding shows, be it “Say Yes to the Dress” or “Bridezillas.” There’s an added layer of emotion to TLC’s “Something Borrowed, Something New,” as Fox Chapel native Paloma DeNardis discovered Friday night.
The former Paloma Baffoni wed Mark DeNardis in May, and a bit of it was broadcast on “Something Borrowed.” Five weeks before their nuptials, she flew to California to tape an episode, bringing along her mother’s 1980s-inspired wedding gown.
On “Something Borrowed,” brides-to-be give designer Kelly Nishimoto their vintage dresses, and she works with the materials at hand to create something new. But there’s an added component: Stylist Sam Sapoura takes the bride shopping to find a gown off the rack.
The big, emotional reveal features the bride choosing between them. In Mrs. DeNardis’ case, her delight with a sample sale $2,190 mermaid-style dress won out over the cap-sleeved redesign featuring silk taffeta and lace from mom’s dress.
“It was much more difficult than I thought it would be,” she said. “I thought I wanted to wear my mother’s gown more than she wanted me to wear her gown.
“I think she just wanted me to feel happy and be beautiful on my wedding day. I don’t think she would have cared if I’d picked a brown paper bag.”
• Working as network head of alternative programming seems a bit like being the drummer for “Spinal Tap.” Let’s just say, there is a ton of turnover. The latest is Lisa Berger, who arrived at ABC little more than a year ago. At E!, she helped develop “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and “Fashion Police.”
Her efforts at ABC fell mostly flat. “Rising Star” was among the network’s recent duds, and according to Variety, Ms. Berger experienced the always-fatal “creative differences” with other network brass. A tipoff to how tough the ABC gig can be: Her predecessor, John Saade, also had been fired. He was there for the debut of programs that were actually successful, including “Dancing With the Stars” and “The Bachelor.”
• The good news: Fox’s excellent “So You Think You Can Dance” has been renewed. Maybe not so good: The format is changing.
The show always has had great street dancers, including Stephen “tWitch” Boss and Du-Shaunt “Fik-Shun” Stegall. For season 12, there will be two streams of competition leading to a finale showdown. One stream features stage or traditional dancers, the other, street dancers. Weekly eliminations will come from both sides.
One of the joys of “SYTYCD” is watching those untrained animation or hip-hop dancers adapt to more traditional routines and vice versa. It’s unclear from the Fox press release whether either side will be pressed to move outside its comfort zone.
“Dancers from different genres have always been competitive with each other, and we’ve found a great way to harness that to bring out the absolute best performances in the best dancers across the country,” said Nigel Lythgoe, co-creator, executive producer and judge.
Maria Sciullo: msciullo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1478 or @MariaSciulloPG.
First Published: November 22, 2014, 5:00 a.m.
