‘The Four’ Executive Producer David Friedman Teases What to Expect in the Season 2 Finale
Q&A
Fox’s singing competition The Four: Battle for Stardom will crown its second winner in Thursday’s Season 2 finale, and with such diverse talent, it’s hard to guess who will go home with the title.
Thankfully, executive producer David Friedman gave TV Insider a little sneak peek into what fans can expect from this final episode, as well as what surprises him on the show. He also weighed in on their decision to allow known artists to compete, and much more.
Read on for everything you need to know ahead of the finale.
With the finale coming up, what can fans expect? We hear Season 1 winner Evvie will return to perform her first single.
David Friedman: We had Evvie and Zhavia in our comeback episode before the finale and we hinted at the fact that Evvie would be back to do her new single. [It’s] something she’s been working on really hard for the last three or four months since winning the show six months ago. I know she’s excited and I know Puff’s [judge Sean Combs] excited about everyone hearing the first single. She’ll do her own performance and it’s a single that will be downloadable the night of the finale.
Rebecca Black famously made an appearance on the show this season. Are you open to welcoming other well-known singers like her on the show if there are to be future seasons?
We’re open to everybody and anybody. Obviously, we all hope that there’s another season. When you look at how Season 1 to Season 2 grew exponentially – just the talent level alone… I think that the singers and the artists and the songwriters and everybody in the industry, after watching Season 1, realized it was a credible show. And in Season 2, the talent just increased and it was just the level that we would love to continue to build on [in a third season].
We would invite anyone, whether they be a new artist that nobody’s heard of or whether it be an established artist, because [the show’s format is] very parallel to the music industry. There’s always somebody coming to try and knock you off your spot, and I think that’s why it opens stuff up to artists across the board. [That includes] people — whether it’s Rebecca Black or other people — that’ve already been in the industry for a while. But the bigger and better the talent, the better the show.
The format of this show differs from many other singing competition. What else do you think sets it apart from the rest?
No show is like this. Literally when you win this show, you win those three people [judges DJ Khaled, Sean Combs, and Meghan Trainor]. And I think they all three of them come from such unique lanes, whether it be as a producer, a mega mogul like Puff or Meghan who’s a Grammy winner and a songwriter. And to win those three just puts you in a different level as you come out and emerge in the industry.
The show has plenty of twists and turns. Will fans be surprised by the finale?
Going into the finale, I think we found four really, really exceptionally talented artists, and two of them were original members of The Four [this season] which again shows how this format’s different. In the beginning of the season, we’re saying, ‘Here are four people that we think are worthy of winning this show, but over the next X-amount of weeks — in this case eight weeks total — feel free to come and try and knock them out.’ And then, when you get to the finale. two of them are from the original four, which shows you the talent level that’s out there and the ability for our panel to have found two great singers and performers.
So surprise-wise, I think each one of them brings a different skill to the finale. I can’t tell you too much but I will tell you that it’s definitely not easy, like you cannot open that show and say, ‘I know who’s going win’ — you do not know who’s going to win this show.
As a producer, are you ever surprised by the outcome at the end of episodes?
This is a show that, as a producer, you’re trained to try to produce everything and try to make sure that you know where it’s going to go. I learned very early on with this show that you cannot control it. You can do your best, but ultimately between our talent, between the format which has twists and turns, and between our panel and people like DJ Khaled, you just cannot control the chaos. You literally just have to let it happen and I think that’s another thing that makes our show more unique. You can’t be surprised by it, you just have to embrace it.
Contestants James Graham, Leah Jenea, Whitney Reign, and Sharaya J. (Photo: Ray Mickshaw / FOX)
Sharaya J, Leah Jenae, Whitney Reign, and James Graham all bring their own flair to the competition; do you think a mixture of genres like theirs makes for a better show?
Yeah, I do. I think it’s actually really interesting to watch. They’re all in a very unique lane, all four of them — we say this a lot, and I’m sure it’s over said, but all four of them could get a record deal. The winner is one thing, you become the winner of Season 2. But there’s talent out there that people are going [notice] to if they haven’t already.
The Four: Battle for Stardom, Season 2 finale, Thursday, Aug. 2, 8/7c, Fox
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