Below is a 12-minute preview of NBC’s new singing competition, The Voice. The preview gives us a very good look into how the audition rounds of the competition will go, and I have to say that I like what I see so far.

Watch the preview below. Then after the jump, read my breakdown of what we know about The Voice so far.

The first, and maybe biggest, thing The Voice has going for it that other competitions don’t is its all-star coaching lineup. No matter how you slice it up, NBC was able to land some of the biggest, most well-known names in the music industry: Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, and Adam Levine. In fact, the least known name on the show is the host, Carson Daly, though he’s not exactly an unknown himself. And while not everyone will like all four of the judges (I could easily do without Cee Lo Green’s arrogance and his tendency to look down his nose at everyone), they have the vocal talent to back up their spot on the panel, a fact that they all prove in the opening number they perform in the preview.

By the way, you may have noticed that I called the panel coaches, not judges. Like the upcoming X Factor, the Coaches will be actively involved in assisting, teaching, and, yes, coaching the acts under them in an effort to get them to the top. The coaches will be competing to see who has the winning act.

Another thing this new competition has going for it is how the judges end up with the contestants they will coach. Allowing the coaches to choose who they are interested in coaching, and having the contestants make a decision when more than one coach wants them, is a terrific concept. It could be a lot of fun seeing the coaches argue it out when more than one of them wants to represent someone. And like we saw with the country singer in the preview, allowing the contestant to choose gives them the opportunity to pick who they think will be the best choice to advance their career.

While the preview tells us that the coaches will each get eight acts to coach, we don’t know how exactly that will work. Do the coaches stop trying for acts once they hit eight? If all four coaches hit eight acts quickly, does that mean everyone else is out of luck? If by the end of the auditions a coach doesn’t have eight acts, does he or she go back to the previous acts and select someone? We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out to understand.

After the audition round, the Battle Phase will take place. Each coach will have to narrow their roster of eight acts to just four acts. In the original Dutch version, this was accomplished by having the coaches pair up their acts and sing the same song. The coach will then decide which act to continue on with and which act will go home.

Once the Battle Phase is done, the Live Performance rounds will begin. With each coach having four acts, it means there will be 16 acts vying for America’s votes. I don’t yet know how many acts will be voted off each week. However, I read somewhere that the Finale will occur when each coach has one act left, at which point the four remaining acts will have one last competition to decide the winner. This could mean that once we hit this phase, four acts could be going home each week. Therefore, each coach would be losing one act each week. If true, that would make for a very short audience participation phase, something the audience may not appreciate when all is said and done.

As you saw in the preview, as well as being drilled in our heads during the last several months of commercials, the coaches don’t get to see the auditioning acts until they either press their button saying they want to coach them or the audition is finished. The purpose of this, according to the producers, is that the contestants are being judged solely for their voice. Thus the name of the competition, The Voice.

But this is really very misleading. While the judges initially don’t know what someone looks like, they do get to see them afterwards. And apparently they aren’t above commenting about how someone looks, as evidenced when Christina talked about how good looking the country singer in the preview was. In addition, America will eventually be the ones deciding who goes on (though we don’t yet know how that will work), and unless they intend to keep America in blinders during the show, there is nothing to stop America from voting for a reason other than an act’s voice. So while The Voice attempts to differentiate themselves from American Idol and other singing competitions, in the end there really is no difference.

Still, there is enough going for The Voice to make it worth while to tune in when it debuts next Tuesday, April 26, at 9 PM ET / 8 PM CT on NBC. And considering all the ad time and money NBC has invested into this show, they clearly are hoping the show will be a hit. The network still hasn’t recovered from the Jay Leno in primetime fiasco last season and desperately needs a hit to rejuvenate their schedule. The Voice could very well be that hit, especially considering how much it seems to have going for it so far, though the initial slot opposite ABC’s Dancing with the Stars<./i> could be too much to overcome. And we don’t yet know if it will be a two-night a week show or not.

The Idol Radio Show will cover The Voice, though discussion about the show will be light until American Idol ends at the end of May (I’m expecting the show to air until at least the end of June). Once AI is over, we’ll spend more time talking about The Voice, possibly devoting entire shows to it if the competition, format, and interest is there. Until then, and even afterwards, we’ll cover any important show news, as well as recaps, here on the website. In addition, DJ Slim will be live blogging the show, at least initially, over on IdolBlogLive.com, so go over there next Tuesday night and join us in talking about this new show.

Leave a comment below with your thoughts about how you think The Voice will do and whether you will be watching it or not.