RECAP: 'The Voice' Kicks Off Season 2 With A Bang

by UInterviewFebruary 7, 2012, 12:00 amNews >

The unlikely NBC hit, The Voice, launched its second season after Sunday night's Super Bowl, but the focus was less on the voices of the contestants and more on the bickering of the judges.

The four judges — Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton — started to build their teams based on the contestants' blind auditions on Monday night's show, which kicked off its regular 8 p.m. time slot and knocked the competition out of the water, according to The Huffington Post. The episode scored the highest non-sports television rating in six years with 37.6 million viewers, second to the post-Super Bowl episode of Grey's Anatomy in 2006.

After Levine and Aguilera had their chance to spar (or, as Green aptly put it, release "sexual tension"), arguing over which one of them was more self-centered, the competition was ready to get underway. Musical duo The Line — a male and female team who sang Tom Petty's "American Girl" but who ARE NOT romantically involved, as they insisted when Green mistook them as a couple — went to Aguilera, while Green put his faith in former crystal-meth addict Jamar, who wowed with a performance of "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes. Gwen Sebastian's country crooning inspired Shelton to hit his button and turn around in his oversized crimson chair.

Levine took on the 50-year-old Kim Yarborough after her rendition of Rufus and Chaka Khan's "Tell Me Something Good" earned her rave reviews from all judges, while violinist and songwriter Lindsay Paveo ended up on Aguilera's team. Jermaine Paul, who used to sing backup for Alicia Keys, put his soulful spin on Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" and ened up going with Shelton.

The voice everyone is talking about this week, however, is that of Angel Taylor, the youngest of the try-outs at 23. After talking about how she used music as an emotional escape from an absuive father, she launched into Adele's "Someone Like You," which got the attention of all the judges. She landed on Levine's team.

See what happens with the mentoring Monday nights at 8 p.m. on NBC.

Catch a clip here: