Alison Hammond on the I Can See Your Voice judging panel: “Even I was like, how is this going to work?”
The I Can See Your Voice judge has revealed that she wasn't initially sure about the show's format.
BBC One's I Can See Your Voice – the channel's brand new game show hosted by Paddy McGuinness – makes its debut on Saturday night, with contestants and a line-up of celebs trying to guess which of the strangers on stage can and can't sing.
However, This Morning's Alison Hammond – who is a judge on the show alongside Amanda Holden and Jimmy Carr – has revealed that she initially had doubts about the famous panel.
Speaking at a virtual Q&A event, the TV presenter said that the celebrity panellists didn't know each other particularly well before filming: "We've crossed paths a couple of times, I've crossed paths with Jimmy. Amanda, I don't think we've ever met each other before but we've spoken before online.
"We fan-girl over each other but we've never actually met each other. So you know, there's that respect and Paddy, I don't think I've ever met Paddy before. So on paper, you look at it and even I was like, how is this going to work? And then for some reason, it just worked like a jigsaw."
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Fellow judge Carr added: "It does feel like the BBC are doing some things that are kind of quite surprising in commissioning. It really feels like this is a weird choice of people and it really works and it feels quite fresh and different because you're not expecting to see these faces together and part of it is the mix. It's really like, 'Ah Ok, that's a bit different.' It's nice."
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The hour-long show sees pairs of contestants try to work out the bad singers from the good, with help from the celebrity panel, through a series of rounds.
On which round is the hardest in the competition, Hammond said: "As a professional singer myself, it will probably be the lip-synching that is the one you want to really master, you've got to get that perfectly right.
"But not only that, it's the way you carry yourself, your dance moves, the way you hold the mic. I'll be honest with you, at the beginning, everybody used to touch their ear, we thought, 'ooh they can sing.' But after a while, I think they ALL started touching their ear and that wasn't really a clue anymore."
Amanda Holden added that the lip-sync round was "100 per cent" her favourite, saying: "It's the moment where we can sit back and be entertained but we've got to keep an eye on it as well. I know Jimmy might disagree but I thought every single person that lip-synced was pretty much spot on."
Jimmy chipped in, comparing the round to reality competition RuPaul's Drag Race. "The work, the work that they put in. It's not dissimilar to RuPaul's brilliant Drag Race, the idea that when they're lip-syncing, they've clearly practiced in front of a mirror for 12 hours.
"And they've got every detail of it perfect so even that thing of like, you know, Amanda is a singer and Allison can sing so they're watching for the breathing, or was their tongue in the right place, and they've rehearsed it so perfectly, you can't tell. It's a great performance in and of itself so even if they're terrible singers, it's a great performance."
I Can See Your Voice airs on Saturday 10th April at 7:20pm on BBC One. While you’re waiting, visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight or visit our Entertainment hub for all the latest news.
