Kara DioGuardi

When Does It Start: Monday 30th May at 10pm EST on Bravo

In A Nutshell: Bravo enters the music competition world courtesy of singer Jewel and songwriter – and former American Idol Judge – Kara DioGuardi.

What’s It About: Platinum Hit is the music competition show that’s all about songwriting. 12 competitors will face off against one another and must each week write and perform a different song in a different genre e.g. country, love songs, rock. At stake is a $100,000 cash prize and a publishing and recording deal.

Hosting (and judging) the show is 90’s star Jewel, while ex-Idol judge Kara DioGuardi heads up the judges table, alongside an RCA exec and a rotating celebrity. Sound familiar? It’s the standard reality competition template perfected by the network back in their Project Runway days. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!

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Plus Points: I’m a Kara DioGuardi fan and thought she was a good addition to the American Idol judging panel who was unfairly targeted by fans and the show’s producers (still they ended up with Steven Tyler. Karma!) If Kara can draw even a fraction of the Idol audience over to Bravo she’ll be well worth her salary. Plus Jewel provides a star name and crucial credibility to the show – and following that great Funny Or Die video from last year, could demonstrate a whole different side to herself just as Heidi Klum did.

Plus let’s be honest – it’s been a good year for music competition shows. Despite a creatively rocky year American Idol has remained a ratings champ and new upstart The Voice has become NBC’s biggest new hit of the year (though it took another big ratings hit this week). With the Sing Off also successful for NBC and The X Factor waiting in the wings it certainly makes sense for Bravo to also try and get into the music space.

American Idol has finished and the show’s fan-base needs their summer music fix, so the timing is perfect. Will Platinum Hit fit the bill?

On The Downside: I’ve got one major problem with Platinum Hit and this is it: Seeing people write songs is pretty dull!

Back when I created and Executive Produced the music competition Redemption Song for Fuse in 2008 we had one key note from the network and that was – NO SONGWRITING!

The network felt that songwriting didn’t translate to TV and to be honest they have a point. It’ll be interesting to see how Bravo gets around this tricky hurdle!

Platinum Hit is also looking a bit low on the star-power front. While Idol has guest mentors like Lady Gaga and Gwen Stefani, Hit features Natasha Bedingfield, Leona Lewis and Donna Summer (to be fair Taio Cruz and Ryan Tedder are also in the mix). Does Lewis even write her own songs?

Then there’s the fact that Bravo seems to struggle when it plays copycat. The network was an innovator in the Project Runway days but came unstuck when they tried to get into the dance genre (Step It Up And Dance – which I loved) and interior design (Top Design). With so many big budget music competition shows out there will there be much of an audience left over to make Hit a hit? Don’t forget before The Voice hit the genre was littered with flops like Rock Star and The One (which also featured Kara!)

Plus is it just me – or does the show’s Supertease look a bit flat? Not much drama there compared to your average Runway season. Take a look…

Prediction: Idol is over and The Voice seems to have peaked. I think there’s enough curiosity in Platinum to give Bravo a sizeable summer hit.