Ben Folds returns to NBC tonight as a judge on Season 2 of The Sing-Off. He joins fellow judges from last season, Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men and the Pussycat Dolls' Nicole Scherzinger, and host Nick Lachey, in the search for America's best a cappella group. The second season kicks off tonight at 8 PM ET / 7 PM CT and airs Mondays and Wednesdays through December 20. The winning group receives a professional recording contract and $100,000. For more information, including Folds's regular blog updates on the show, visit nbc.com.

The show was featured in the New York Times' Sunday Arts section this weekend. The article, by Neil Genzlinger, begins: "Last year, in the debut season of The Sing-Off on NBC, Ben Folds proved himself to be one of the better reality-competition judges television has seen: knowledgeable, engaging, constructive rather than cruel." Read the piece at nytimes.com.

The Washington Post sees the show as a refreshing stand-out among more cynical such televised contests. "For once, stardom doesn't appear to be the goal in The Sing-Off," says Post staff writer Hank Stuever, "so much as the fleeting, ephemeral beauty of a song well sung." Read the review at washingtonpost.com.

Folds spoke with AOL Spinner about the show, as well as his previous forays into the world of a cappella music and support for the medium.

"People singing together is very underrated and very necessary," he tells Spinner's Steve McLean. "I'm sure there must be some sort of anthropological reason why people have to sing together. The movement of a cappella is just an extension of what people do naturally."

Read the complete article at spinner.com.

Ben Folds's latest album, Lonely Avenue, the collaborative album with Nick Hornby released on Nonesuch earlier this year, is now just $9.99 in the Nonesuch Store, and the deluxe and vinyl editions of the album are 33% off standard retail price as part of the Nonesuch Store 3rd anniversary sale. To pick up a copy of any of these, head to the Nonesuch Store now.