Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Normani and Kelly Clarkson will combine skills for The Voice Season 17 battle round. (NBC Photo)

Don’t look now, but the Season 17 debut of The Voice is about two weeks away.

And though the blind auditions haven’t even aired yet, the show has already announced the advisers for the battle round.

* Former coach Usher is returning to assist Team John Legend.

* Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish and country music fame will help Team Blake Shelton.

* Will.I.Am, who’s appeared on American Idol in a similar role in the past, will co-mentor Team Gwen Stefani.

* And Normani, who got her start on The X Factor as a member of Fifth Harmony, will assist Team Kelly Clarkson.

Personally, I had hoped The Voice would ditch the concept of battle round advisers.

This is a show badly in need of a reboot. Badly in need of a change in focus.

What The Voice doesn’t need is more celebrities to promote and more footage of contestants oohing and aahing over getting to work with this star or that.

Heck, the battles — which, by the way, were filmed in August — mark the singers first chance to work with their Voice coach. Isn’t that enough?

And any stipend advisers get would be better invested in releasing iTunes/Apple music versions of all Voice performances, like the show used to.

The Voice returns Monday, Sept. 23.

Will.I.Am and Gwen Stefani will team up for The Voice Season 17 battle round. (NBC Photo)

Usher returns to The Voice Season 17 at battle round helper for Team John Legend. (NBC Photo)

Darius Rucker and Blake Shelton will pair up for The Voice Season 17 battle round. (NBC Photo)