[There was a video here]

Hey, did you know that NBC premiered a convoluted, Christina Aguilera-headlined singing competition called The Voice tonight? Because, you know, it's not like the network promoted the hell out of it for two months straight or anything. Anyway, as we predicted, the show kind of sucks, and here are two clips—from before the "blind auditions" even started—to illustrate the point.

The show's opening, which you'll find in the video above, featured a performance of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" by the four judges—Aguilera, Cee-Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton—that served no point except to remind us dumb viewers that, whoa, the panel has actual recording artists! And as if that wasn't bad enough, the spectacle was marred by Aguilera's trademark oversinging.

[There was a video here]

Then, immediately following the gimmicky performance came this even cheesier, B-roll heavy explanation that showcased little except for how unnecessarily convoluted the entire premise for the show is in the first place.

Did you know that the judges are considering the auditioning singers based solely on their voice? How about the fact that each of them is looking to be blown away by a performance unlike any they'd ever heard before? And can you believe that each aspiring artist has never wished for anything except for the opportunity to showcase their gift in front of a random quartet of B-list music stars whose backs are turned to them?

When tallying the number of times Aguilera makes a weird facial expression is the most entertaining thing about a heavily hyped new reality show, then that's a problem. Unfortunately, The Voice is chock-full of them.