NBC’s ‘The Sing-Off’: Sara Bareilles not returning for season 4

Even though she may be coming on board NBC’s “Community” for an upcoming guest spot, there is some sad news coming out today: it doesn’t look like we will be seeing Sara Bareilles lending her talents on “The Sing-Off” again for the acapella competition’s upcoming fourth season.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the “Love Song” singer has opted not to return to the show, citing a desire to remain focused on her music first and foremost. Sara was the second female judge to ever appear on the show after Nicole Scherzinger (who left for her ill-fated turn on “The X Factor”), and the sad part about this news is that she was actually pretty fantastic. Many music fans appreciated the fact that she, Ben Folds, and Shawn Stockman really focused on the music more so than any inspirational story or useless pandering, and they typically had some genuinely great advice when it comes to helping vocal groups hoping to improve their performance.

Ultimately, there are some changes behind the scenes with this show courtesy of Mark Burnett taking over as executive producer, so it’s possible that there could be some more changes coming. We’d prefer another music expert like Bareilles to a big name there to just talk about themselves, but considering the misconception these days that celebrity judges equal ratings, who knows just what NBC will do here? (They should take a cue from “The Voice”: while they do have stars, they realize that the chemistry between the panel is more important than just resting on laurels of what the artists have done in the past. Plus, we weren’t even that familiar with Blake Shelton when the show premiered.)

What do you think about this news? If you want to read some more news when it comes to the future of “The Sing-Off,” you can do so by heading on over to the link here.

Photo: NBC