...the producers had exercised a little more control over the judges and a little more self-control over the desire to "tug at the heartstrings."
The third season of this just wrapped in the US and I'm not sorry that there won't be more. It had its share of people with decent voices and inferior ones and some early contestants not being optimally matched with celebrity partners, but the real problems of this program were about other things.
The worst problems of this program were the excessive verbosity of some of the judges' comments, the incredible nastiness of Susana Zabaleta (which drew such negative reactions from the initial viewers who saw the show live that the host felt the need to say so in the third program), and the excessive melodrama in the later episodes during the parade of the unfortunates who were to potentially benefit from the winner's wish being granted. Zabaleta seemed to have it in for any attractive female contestant; I was hoping she would be removed from the judging panel. Her clothes were something else, too, as she seemed to be screaming for attention in clothes too young or avant-garde for someone her age. As for Ricardo Montaner, someone should have imposed a time limit on his comments. The tacky and melodramatic display of the people who needed operations or other things reminded me about why I stopped watching the Jerry Lewis telethon years ago.
I scored the program with a 5, however, because some of the celebrities' singing voices were a pleasant surprise. In the later incarnations of the show the contestants and celebrities were better-matched and there were a few excellent performances. I like that the contestants were expected to perform different styles of music although I might have saved Mexican Regional for a later show, as it is the most challenging. The CD from the show should have a good collection of songs.
