Aca-Jersey! Lifetime's 'Pitch Slapped' about two N.J. high school a cappella groups

The reality show will follow The Voices from Allendale's Northern Highlands Regional and Stay Tuned from Cherry Hill High School East

Stay Tuned, from Cherry Hill High School East, will co-star in Lifetime's "Pitch Slapped." Lifetime 

Billed as a look inside the "crosstown" rivalry of two preeminent New Jersey high school a cappella groups, the reality show "Pitch Slapped" will debut on Lifetime on Jan. 5. 

Let's hope the production is more on key than Lifetime's geography proficiency. The team are the Voices from Allendale's Northern Highlands Regional High School (that's northern Bergen County, folks), which won the International Championship of High School A Cappella competition in 2014 and are frequent regional champs, and Stay Tuned in Cherry Hill High School East, which placed second to the Voices in the 2013 semifinals, and, last we checked, outside Philly. 

The Voices director Tom Paster tells NJ Advance Media that he and the Voices parents were concerned at first about what sort of tone the series would take, but they were assured that "it wasn't going to be a sensationalistic 'Dance Moms' type of show."

The Voices will be mentored by Diana Preisler, the leader and manager of the a cappella group Blue Jupiter, and Stay Tuned will be mentored by Deke Sharon, the vocal arranger of "Pitch Perfect" and its sequel. 

"Glee," of course, thrust a cappella into the spotlight, followed NBC's reality competition "The Sing-Off," which lasted four seasons plus a holiday special last year, and the art form gained even more momentum with 2012's fizzy hit "Pitch Perfect."

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"Glee" spawned the two-season Oxygen reality show "The Glee Project," in which the winner got an arc on the show, and the Pop network (formerly the TV Guide channel) aired another reality show "Sing It On," about five collegiate a cappella teams battling it out at the international finals. (No word on whether it will be renewed, although there has been a casting notice for season two.)  

Has a cappella peaked? "I don't really concerned myself with that," Paster says. "I love it and the kids love doing it and it's a great medium for us. The football coaches don't wonder if football has peaked. They just go out there and play football." 

The Voices: 

Stay Tuned:

Vicki Hyman may be reached at vhyman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @vickihy or like her on Facebook. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook, and check out TV Hangover, the podcast from Vicki and co-host Erin Medley on iTunes, Stitcher or listen here:

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