Platinum Hit: The Introduction

written by Lane Holland
DAM NATION, contributor

THE PREMISE:

BRAVO's brand new reality/competition show, Platinum Hit, is defiinitely one of the better Summer 2011 competition shows on television! It has got a combination of all the elements people love to watch when it comes to reality competition: strong competitors, blossoming romance/friendships, strict feedback, and drama!

Platinum Hit follows a group of twelve aspiring singer/songwriter's who are all fighting for a shot at the grand prize: a publishing deal with Sony Music's The Writing Camp, a record deal with RCA/Jive , and a 100,000 cash prize.  Not to mention all the spotlight they get being a part of the show with the camera's following their every move.

Week after week, the songwriter's are made to compete in a Hook Challenge where they all have to write a Chorus/Hook and perform it for the judges. The catch being that they only have 30 minutes to complete the hook (which I find extremely incredible). The contestants then perform their hook's for the show host and judge, Jewel and a guest judge (depending on their weekly challenge). The judge's usually select anywhere between three or four winners for the Hook Challenge and allow them to choose the losers of the challenge as their team members for the new challenge.

The next challenge consists of teams taking the winning hook and expanding it into a full length studio version. The contestants will then perform the song for the Judge's Jewel and ex-American Idol judge, Kara Dioguardi. Among the two head Judges Jewel and Kara are the guest judges (examples being Donna Summer and Natasha Beddingfield).

After their live performance of their group song, the Judge's deliberate on who they thought had a "hit" or a "miss". The judges then bring the teams back and the winning team is granted safety, while the others are in danger. The decided losing team is given a chance to point out the flaws of their song and explain where or why the song went wrong. The judge's then vote for who they think contributed less to the songwriting process and that contestant is eliminated from the competition.

COMPETITORS and JUDGES after the jump!

THE COMPETITORS:

They are all almost extremely talented (with a few lacking in the lyricism and creative thought department). One of them being our very own Season 8 Top 36 American Idol finalist, Jackie Tohn. Here's a brief run-down of the contestants:

Sonyae Elise (Newark, NJ) is a Hip-Hop/R&B singer/Songwriter who is extremely confident. I find that she lacks a little in the songwriting department. She'd be more likely to be a singer than a songwriter.

Scotty Granger (New Orleans, LA) Specializes in Hip-Hop/ Pop with Dance. He's a pretty strong competitior and is a likely Top 3 contender. He has worked with Jordin Sparks and has had a short-lived career writing Top 10 hits for artists in Europe. He's definitely one to watch.

Jes Hudak (Saratoga Springs, NY) specializes in R&B/Pop/Soul type music. You may know her as the Poneymane to Jackie Tohn's Powerfox from YouTube. She's a strong competitor, but she seems to hang a romance building with contestant Johnny and I personally think that could cause her to lose the competition. She's a GREAT singer.

Nevin James (Pittsburgh, PA) is a Folk and Rock songwriter who claims to be the voice of the "widows and Orphans". He also seems to be full of crap. He is lost and doesn't really seem to know what he's doing.

Brian Judah (Studio City, CA) writes Alternative, Pop, Rock, Dance, Hip-Hop, and Country music. He's an alternative guy and seems to really favor Elvis (in many ways). He's in the background a lot, but I think he's got what it takes.

Johnny Marnell (Kingston, NY) writes Pop, Singer-Songwriter, Rock, Soul, R&B, Alternative, Blues, Country, Dance, and Hip-Hop/Rap music. He has toured with Ingrid Michaelson and considers himself a "Professional Nerd" by day and a serious musician by night. He wants to have a career strictly based on making music and is not taken so seriously by the other songwriters. He's a Dark Horse for sure. Plus, he has a romance going with Jes - but that could stand in his way of winning due to the distractions they cause one another.

Nick Nittoli (Garfield, NJ) writes Pop, Rock, and Alternative music and is the most watchable contestant on the show. You love to hate him. He's overly confident to the verge of being a complete asshole and doesn't want to make friends. He claims to hate all of the songwriter's and makes various comments about them behind their back. He's definitely entertaining. I personally don't see him winning due to his attitude problem, but he will go very far in this competition. He can back up his attitude with his talent. That's for sure.

Blessing Offor (New Haven, CT) is a writer of Pop, R&B, and Soul music. He's also blind and gets around with the help of a seeing eye dog named Tommy. Blessing seems very talented, but he really brings nothing to the table. He's bland and can't seem to expand his creativity.

Amber Ojeda (San Diego, CA) writes New Soul and Jazz music. She's difficult to read. She stands in the background but has a lot of ideas and knows a lot about music. She's  pretty talented. I could see her placing in the Top 5 if she expands more.

Melissa Rapp (Honolulu, HI) writes Island and Soul Pop music. She's a character. She comes off as ditzy and acts as if she doesn't know what she's doing. She graduated Stanford University with a 4.0 GPA in business and worked for Google before becoming a songwriter. She's crazy, but has some hidden talent. She kind of gets lost in the mix and fades to the background at times.

Karen Waldrup writes Country, Pop, Folk, Blues, and Rock music. She's a southern belle who is a little too innocent for this kind of competition. Her lyrics tend to be very PG to G rated. At one point she attempts to write a dance song with the lyrics, "I'll cook you that because you like it." She's sweet and down to earth. Very likeable, but also very likely to get lost in her innocence.

Jackie Tohn (Oceanside, NY) writes many genres from Folk to Pseudo Hip-Hop, Pop, Reggae, and Blues. She's a strong competitor and is definitely one of the more talented competitors. She comes off as annoying at times, but she's very quirky. Kind of makes me wonder what she would have been like if she progressed further on American Idol Season 8. She's possibly a Top 3 competitor.

THE JUDGES:

The judges are  singer/songwriter Jewel and Award Winning Songwriter Kara DioGuardi (Yes, the ex-American Idol judge). Jewel sems a bit stuck up and acts as if she's too good to be coaching songwriter's. She also comes off as a know-it-all at times and seems to have a good deal of fun putting down some of the contestants ideas. But, she also has a lot of advice to give and could just be being hard on the contestants to prepare them for what's to come in the careers.

Kara seems excited to be able to help a new batch of talent grow. She has a ton of constructive criticism that never really comes off as mean, but as a path towards a growing experience.  Kara is less annoying than Jewel and seems to really strive for the best out of the contestants. The guest judges are really only there to encourage the contestants and to give little to no feedback. We'll see how that progresses as the show moves on.