LISTEN TO THE MUSIC

I am a closet channel surfer.

I freely admit to duplicity here - I openly complain when someone else is holding the remote and looking around at the satellite memo, but WHEN I AM ALONE, I jump from "Whose Line Is It Anyway" to the National Geographic special "Who Was Jesus and Was He Gay?" and to Sirius Radio baby-boomer rock and roll.

Tonight, I was drawn, mistakenly, it turns out, to the show title of "Sing Off." It features only a capella groups, with no back-up instruments.

And while I do not claim to have anything even resembling perfect pitch, the two acts I caught were, to put it politely, AGONIZING with their varying pitches, desperate attempts to follow each other while doing choreography and smiling brilliantly at the camera.

Okay, so I can't do, but I know too many people who can sing a capella well that it seems a shame to be spending an hour of prime-time television on people who can't.