Chương 18: Second Episode Airs!

On TweetTalk, a current post was getting a whole lot of traction as people kept clicking on the link that led to an external website to read its long yet informative article.

{Rising Voices – A New Season Ramping Up to Be Another Big Success For IBC!}

[Following the airing of the first episode of IBC's most popular reality TV show on the Ink-Stone Channel, the internet gremlins have had no shortage of interesting things to say.

From the shameless simping of multitude of guys for the beautiful and extremely talented Lily Lockhart, Katie Chopra and Helena Cadieux, to the insatiable thirst of female admirers of Steven Andersson, Joe Michaels and Ryan Parker, there's been no shortage of fun tweets to read.

Putting thirst tweets aside though, the fourth season of the show is looking to be a memorable one because right from the get-go, it's clear that immensely talented contestants were selected this year.

Add that to Chris Palmer's signature smile and charisma as the host, the impartial judges of Jack O'Bryan, Blake Lively and Kiara Jones giving their unbiased verdicts, along with long-time Creative Producer Howard Benson helming the production affairs, you get a high-value reality TV show that has only gotten better each season.

Today's second episode of the fourth season however, has already far outstripped the previous season's ratings with some truly top-tier and unbelievable performances from many contestants, both expected and unexpected.

The episode had started right off with a surprising change to the usual Band/Team Battle formula of the previous season and had instead showcased how the next round would be a Three-way Knockout round.

Instantly, we here at Vogue Culture couldn't have been more excited to see how it all played out and in spades did it not disappoint!

Starting off the rounds was Ryan Parker, with an electrifying pop song performance of [Rock Your World], to Helena Cadieux's enchanting performance of the popular love song [Euphoric Dreams], all the way to Joe Michael's polished rap performance of [Mr. Hollywood] and Katie Chopra's sensational high notes which brought [Fallen Angels] to life in all its glory.

Already an adrenaline-infused episode, we had totally forgotten about the fact that there were absolute monsters this season. Monsters who had definitely reminded us why they were already fan-favorites as early as the first episode.

Lily Lockhart delivered unbelievably and exceptionally well with the 90's popular ballad about the stress of life titled [Desperate Thin], stunning not just the judges but even the audience who were wondering how she was able to blend and control her voice from the highest possible notes to the lowest possible ones in literal seconds.

Steven Andersson on the other hand, sang amazingly well while performing the immensely complex piano piece of [Weeping Nights], a popular ballad in the 2000's about the struggles of trying to get over depression.

At this point, we thought we had seen it all with the second episode's broadcast. We truly thought we had seen it all because how else could someone come close to those two and their monster-like performances.

And we were almost proven right because the rest of the contestants, although also performed really well, didn't really spark our interests like the previously listed contestants who had truly spoiled us with their exceptional singing talents.

However, as if saving one of the best for the very last, a dark-horse by the name of Kyle Kestis, performed a strongly resonating original and emotional song titled [Embers], causing a show-stopping performance where even the judges were visibly affected with no words to say for a while.

With his performance, the show's singing section ended on a pretty high note and then, it transitioned over to the interview sections.

Although we'd like to give you all more details on that, there was quite a lot to cover so we'll attach the ViewTube links for both the performances and the interviews below.

(…)

All that being said, we were truly enamored by how spectacular this episode was and truly, we are interested in seeing how the show proceeds from here on out.

Considering rumors have been circulating pertaining to how there's going to be a major overhaul to the themes of the other rounds that will take place in L.A, we can only hope it delivers another episode as amazing as this one.

But for now, Rising Voices genuinely struck a goldmine with their batch of contestants this season and we here at Vogue Culture will be coming along for the whole ride!]

This entire article, was currently the most read article regarding Rising Voices and it was posted by one of the biggest entertainment blogs at Vogue Culture.

As if opening the floodgates, many more other articles similar to its structure soon began to pop-up but none reached the levels of impact Vogue Culture's article had.

The PR Team of the singing show was literally having a field day as it was basically free promotion but asides from that, it was the ever-increasing ViewTube views of the videos of the contestants performing along with the interviews they had released that was really making them elated.

Already crossing over 1M views in the span of two hours since they had released the video, it seemed like the increasing views had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

The comments section of the video itself was also, obviously increasing by the second with over 350K comments, the top comments garnering the most attention.

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[ThatRandomGuy: Here First! Pin me!

Princess Peach: PETITION TO RELEASE AN AUDION VERSION FOR [EMBERS] AND [SPARKS]!!! #KK's No. 1 Fan

Ana_MZ_27: @Princess Peach; Calm your mushrooms down woman! He has all the rights to his song so they can get sued if they release it without his consent. Sucks but what can you do.

Coffee Addict 24/7: Lily for the win! There's nothing y'all can say! She's taking home the grand prize! Her vocal control is insane OMG!!! Go Queen!!!

Punk Daft: Hopefully Kyle releases his two originals on [GrooveBox] after the whole show's over. I'd love to listen to it. Speaking of originals, I really need to get back to tweaking mine.

Ban OF!!: What the?! Get off your high horse right now @Coffee Addict 24/7! Did you watch the video at all?! All of the contestants this season are insane! Anyone can win!

SunnyShadow: I bawled my eyes out when Kyle performed [Embers]. Lost my Dad recently and his song resonated so much with me. He had already been my favorite contestant since the first episode but this just makes me want to root for him even more.

Varth Dader: Steven is a solid choice for me going forward. I really believe he can win this. Being able to perfectly play such a complex piece without a single issue while also singing so well is really amazing.

One_Piece_Final_Arc_When: Everyone out here be forgetting about my girl Katie and Helena. Rooting hard for you girls!

Florida_Man: Joe's rapping skills are straight-up fire!!! And dare I say, his cover of [Mr. Hollywood] was even better than the original.

Rordon Gamsay: I'm sure this show will eventually end-up in a grand face-off between the highlighted contestants in this episode. Now I'm looking forward to the next episodes!

Vtuber 0919: Steven, Joe and Ryan would make for a great boy band! Hope the future rounds will do a band face-off.

Dad_Bod_Squad: Lily seems like that girl who would be the usual dumb-type stereotype that only has her looks and beautiful voice going for her, except, she's immensely smart. Shrewd too. Even in her interview, she's careful as to how she answers any sensitive questions.

Mamma Mia 0702: To God who made me, if Kyle doesn't win this show, I'mma get a gun! Composing and singing two good songs twice in a row is no easy feat and yet he's so humble about it in his interview!

Somehow_Palpatine_Escaped: He has this really mysterious vibe about him @Mamma Mia. I wonder if that's case or it's just the production team at work again. It does seem like he's unwilling to share about his personal experiences though. Very unexpected on a show like this.

LadiesJustWannaHaveFun: @Somehow_Palpatine_Escaped; @Mamma Mia 0702; If you look hard enough, you'll notice that he's also really good-looking underneath all that messy hair and his glasses. Just needs a bit of a make-over to properly shine.

BikiniBottom: I really can't wait for the next episode to air! Wonder how they'd top this though…]

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More comments just kept on piling by the second and the PR Team was sure that by the time the video reached its peak, it would've reached about 10M views, if not surpassing it even.

* * *

Haley and her friends had just finished watching the second episode of the singing reality TV show.

Although they had been visibly surprised and disappointed that Mike had been eliminated and wasn't even given enough screen time, they all couldn't help but inwardly admit that Kyle did perform far better than him.

Everyone except Haley who was in a really sour mood as she strongly cursed at Kyle.

"That fucking, little, nobody!"

Although she felt like karma had definitely ran its course in its usual bitchy ways, she was still very annoyed nevertheless.

Her friends who watched her terrible display of anger though, couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Although they had been the one to propose the stupid game to her, believing she'd reject it regardless, they had never expected her to still be so affected by the events that had transpired between them.

Him completely rejecting her without even the slightest hint of interest had been a powerful blow to Haley's ego and they knew it.

Occasionally glancing over to her as she kept gritting her teeth while still letting out foul curses, they had only hoped that she would be able to come to terms with her fragile ego been broken and also get over her 'supposed' deep dislike for Kyle eventually.

* * *

"What, are you?" Ryan asked Kyle who was tweaking the lyrics of his song the moment he barged into his room, a bit of amazement on his face and in his tone.

"Uh… human, I guess?" Kyle replied, glancing up to stare at him while properly greeting.

"Hi Ryan. What's up?"

"You know, for someone who's currently getting just as much attention on the internet as the top contestants are getting, you sure are relaxed" Ryan replied with a sigh instead.

"I'm guessing the second episode just finished airing?" Kyle questioned casually while Ryan replied with a wide gesture of his arms.

"Yes! And honestly, when Katie had told both me and Lily about your performance, I'd just thought that it was good. Just that, good!"

"I didn't expect it to be so good! Completely surpassed all of my expectations! You need to give me some of your inspiration man!" the expressive dude finally concluded while folding his arms across in chest in demand, a light smile on his face.

Chuckling a bit at his mannerisms, Kyle lightly shook his head in response and then continued working on the lyrics of his song while humming its tune.

Ryan on the other hand, walked over to the free side of his bed and plopped onto it, scrolling through the never ending comments section of the ViewTube video that just seemed to be increasing by the second.

"First off you become almost unrecognizable with that new hairstyle and make-over of yours and now, I genuinely fear that you might actually become a major threat to me!" Steven barged in next after a few more seconds while speaking to Kyle in a sportive tone.

"So you never really considered any of us as a major threat before?" Joe who casually strolled in after the Swedish-looking guy said, a playful amusement in his tone.

"Isn't that obvious?" Steven casually shrugged and said in a borderline overconfident manner, although it was clearly obvious he was also playing along.

To this, the guys in the room just shook their head in resignation.

"Yeah. We need to take him down a notch, don't we?" Kyle then playfully offered to the other two, to which they both affirmatively answered.

"Agreed!"

"You can try people. You can try…" Steven shamelessly spread out his arms with a confident smile and the others just gave up on his case while rolling their eyes.