With American Idol now officially residing within the annals of history, it leaves a vast number of grief struck fans in its wake who, in as much of a healthy attempt to accept, recover and somehow move on as possible, need something to fill the gap. Among the choices are certainly to watch the old shows being rerun–probably to continue for a long time to come–but for others who feel the time has come to begin a push to move on to the here-and-now, replacement options are a little sparse, but thankfully a few exist.

America’s Got Talent
There’s an old saying: “You even miss trouble,” and with the no-holes-barred bravado of American Idol judge Simon Cowell now absent from primetime, there’s a lot of “trouble” to miss, in the silence left by the show’s end. Cowell was actually a co-creator of the show “America’s Got Talent,” but the show had not included the same American Idol stylings of brash British brutality that Simon had used to significantly flavor the show. That’s at least, until now. Cowell joins the panel of judges including Heidi Klum, Mel B and Howie Mandel.

The Voice
With its panel of megastar regulars, “The Voice” gives home viewers an opportunity to experience an unprecedented magnitude of stellar vocal talent from some of the most powerful voices in the country.  Hosted by Carson Daly, the show’s coaching panel consists of Grammy Award winner Christina Aguilera, returning and joining beloved Pharrell Williams, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton. Viewers enjoy a unique format distinguishing The Voice from other similar productions. Five stages offer five different challenges where the performers compete:

  • Blind Auditions: Where coaches are seated in rotating chairs, and make their decisions based solely on the voice of each singer alone. When a singer’s performance impresses a coach enough to join that coach’s team, the coach selects the singer by pressing a button. When two coaches want the same singer, the decision is then left to the singer to choose which team they want to join. Singers whose buttons are never pushed are eliminated. Once the teams have been selected, viewers get an inside look at the celeb-coach’s secrets, who work with celeb advisers to prepare the team to compete.
  • Battle Rounds: This is when the singers compete to remain on the team. Losers can be picked up by other coaches, who have two steals per battle round.
  • Knockouts: Team members compete against each other performing their own selections, with half eliminated.
  • Live Playoffs: In live performances, the artists compete, and America votes for two from each team, at which point each coach selects one of the two, who will move on to the live performances.
  • Live Performances: In weekly competitions among the top twelve, with America selecting. Each week the lowest-scoring two are sent home. The last singer remaining on the last week’s program is named “The Voice,” and is awarded a recording contract.

Rising Star
Set to reinvent the format of singing competitions as we know them. In this international TV show, home viewers are able to cast their votes by using a special app in real time, with the resulting winner being totally within the hands of the home-voting audience. Voting results are immediately made available to performers in real-time, which is a good way to ramp up the drama and the pressure. Each episode is more tension-packed with the most immediate scoring action of any televised competition to date. This show uniquely features solo acts, duos and trios who are skilled at performing all music genres.