So back to your statement, "...other than Pentatonix, not one of this year's groups would have placed higher than the top 4 from last season (unless Afro Blue had been handled a little more gracefully by the judges)" Since you gave AB credit...I don't disagree with you, I think AB would've been right in the thick with those 4 in reality, but the judges would've given them the same "dumb it down to pop music" trouble. UM and Aires did not belong in the Top 4, let alone the finals. "I thought it would be a very close vote last year between Committed and Street Corner."- I didn't even vote last year, because I, like many reading this, was always behind on Hulu. I don't even know if it was all phone-voting ($$ for the phone company lol), or if they had the online voting, or if the results were even close. But I would've voted for SCS, even though Committed was very close IMO.AFA Nota not being far out in front in S1, they were, IMO, Beelzebubs did enough to keep it interesting though. I definitely agree the S3 competition being over by the 3rd performance, although they kept it as the 400 lb. elephant in the room. Not like when Nicole Scherzinger told the eventual winner halfway through in one of the 1st 2 seasons that they were the best group on the show, ever, lol. PTX's Video Killed did kill...in my mind they were already the champions because they had already been consistently awesome up to that point (ET, their opener was as terrific, just not as fun choreography). The only thing they could've done wrong from that point is to get cocky like Pitch-Slapped or Whiffenpoofs, but they kept it humble. And the fact is, they had some diversity/various interesting personal (as well as musical) tidbits in the group that kept coming out along the way for the "Aww, cute!" factor to keep getting support.   See 3 other replies

I don't know if Stock's actually being disingenous here, it's just that his perspective is in the "now". Although the more I can think about it you could be right. But maybe he *did* talk himself into thinking UM was just that talented, and that Michael is just such a talented frontman that it doesn't matter if 14 guys are singing too loud almost all the time... *However* it IS quite telling that he implies that he already made up his mind early that Committed should be champion in S2. IMO Season2- the "champion picture" coalesced more slowly for the viewers. Backbeats were very strong from the beginning, and STS and Committed were solid but not immediately proclaimed contenders. So I think Stock's wrong there. I thought there were 5 championship talent-level groups (Committed, Street Corner, Backbeats, On The Rocks, and Groove For Thought), with one (Groove For Thought) not having the right image for the network. But due to the show pushing Jerry Lawson/TT, it still evened out at 5. For Season3, I thought there were only 4 championship talent-level groups (PTX, AB, Delilah, VP), but after that was a huge glut of still very-talented groups at the top of the middle. That's where I think the talent level pulled Season 3 beyond anything we had seen so far, although admittedly the pool of 16 of obviously the main factor. So I agree w/ you & Stock there on the "overall" for sure.   See 3 other replies

Good 3yr recap comments Shawn. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing-OffI think Stock was definitely feeling the "new toy" feeling- they had just come off crowning Pentatonix champions. It doesn't necessarily make me disagree with him, even though we're talking about totally different sets of groups because judges/producers screw up, have their own pet groups, etc. I thought the IRL (in real life, according to my own opinion) Top 4 from both seasons (SCS, Committed, Backbeats, OTR vs. PTX, AB, Delilah, VP) were pretty evenly matched. However, with the 2 stratically/demographically judge-picked groups in S3 finals (UM, Aires)...yeah, you're right, S2 Top 4 was better- even w/ JT&T dogging it.
(Committed, SCS, Backbeats, JT&T* > PTX, Aires*, UM*, AB) (* = shouldn't have been in Finals IMO)If anything I think the eventual champions in Seasons 1 & 3 (Nota, then PTX) were similar in how they came about, and Season 2 was the anomaly (champion-wise). Both (Nota/PTX) were already in their "signature sound" in their 1st performance, and both got solid audience reaction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu-6JLy3Cks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkdlny_qkzIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing-Off   See 3 other replies