The Voice coaches for Season 29, John Legend, Kelly Clarkson and Adam Levine (NBC Photo)
So here comes The Voice Battle of the Champions.
NBC and The Voice producers are promising a brand new format and tons of excitement.
Oh, boy. Can’t wait. And if you can’t sense the sarcasm, trust me, it’s there.
Before I get to that, I will say this. The Voice casting department has once again unearthed some very talented contestant.
And I’d like to thank The Voice right now for leading me to some excellent original music I probably never would have found if I hadn’t researched those contestants.
At the bottom of this blog, I’ve posted links to 22 of the 30 singers on Season 29. Most have original music out.
Do yourself a favor and check out these talented folks and their music. Guaranteed, you won’t hear any of their originals on the show.
Now, about this new format.
After watching Voice producers do their best to rob a once-fine singing show of every last shred of its credibility and legitimacy season after season, the show surely needed a format change.
Let me remind you that Season 28 featured hand-picked finalists for the first time ever. Season 28 featured just one live show with fan voting, that being the finale.
And singers made that finals based on just three solo performances. Another reminder: Cassadee Pope performed 13 times to win Season 3 and also appeared on stage for several non-competitive performances.
So, for Season 29, I would have suggested The Voice trim the number of contestants, do away with duets, do away with saves and steals. Allow singers to chose all the songs they perform, including originals if they wanted.
And then the show should have use the saved airtime provided by a smaller cast and quicker eliminations to add more live shows. Bottom line: Get the best talent on stage as often as possible. Avoid month-long gaps between performances.
Other than a smaller cast, that ain’t at all what The Voice is doing. Instead, it’s revealed a gimmick-laden new format that I, quite honestly, have trouble following.
There’s going to be a new round in which old cast members come back. There’s going to be a triple-turn competition. There’s going to be a super save. There’s going to be a new voting block of super fans and past contestants.
It sounds like a convoluted mess. There won’t be a single live show. And it sounds like fans at home won’t have a single chance to vote.
You can read about it here. And here.
And then there’s the original gimmick. The name they’ve picked for the season. The Battle of Champions.
Hmm, last I checked, Blake Shelton isn’t coaching Season 29. You might remember that he coached singers to victory nine times on The Voice, more than twice as often as any other coach.
John Legend is coaching Season 29. He’s scored a grand total of one victory in 11 seasons. So is Adam Levine, who has as many wins in 17 seasons as Niall Horan has in three. The same Adam Levine who left the show after Season 16 as the least popular coach in the show’s history.
Prediction number one: The Voice’s talented cast will deliver some jaw-dropping performances during Season 29.
Prediction number two: Season 29 will be a mess not worth following.
Prediction number three: Going head to head with American Idol on Monday nights, The Voice will get clobbered in the ratings.
Prediction number four: The Voice is nearing its end.
Contestant Profiles
Aaron Lavigne
Abigayle Oakley
Alexia Jayy
Ashley Marina
Bay Simpson
Blaire Elbert
Grace Humphries
Houston Kelly
Hunter Jordan
Jaali Boyd
Jared Shoemaker
Jeremy Keith
Jonah Mayor
Julia Golden
JW Griffin
Kendra Remedios
Liv Ciara
Lucas West
Mike Steele
Mikenley Brown
Natasha Blaine
Sydney Millevoi
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4 Comments
It’s also only going to be on Mondays again.
What will the legacy of “The Voice” be?
It brought Blake and Gwen together.
It made stars of the coaches.
Nobody has had any long-term success from being on “The Voice.”
Morgan Wallen has stated he wanted to sing country, but they made him sing pop.
He is never mentioned as a “Voice” alum.
“The Voice” was supposed remedy the faults of “American Idol”
No sob stories, no gimmicks, no rigged voting.
Equal airtime for each contestant.
Singers who weren’t conventionally attractive would thrive.
No antics from the judges. No “chosen one.”
No misleading backstories. No manipulations.
No stacked groups of semifinalists.
No wildcards given to whom the producers liked, not to whom was the most deserving.
It could have beaten “Idol” or at least weakened it.
What a blown opportunity.
Well, let’s remember as far back as Season 1, The Voice was selling us Dia Frampton, children’s book author, not Dia Frampton, half of the fairly successful duo Meg & Dia. She’s written about how she felt misrepresented in her blog. And in terms of chosen ones, Season 9 of The Voice stunk to high heaven. Producers clearly decided before the season premiere aired that Jordan Smith was going to win. I clearly remember Adam Levine eliminating the sister duo Andi and Alex in the knockouts, probably because they outperformed Jordan on the iTunes charts through the 1st two rounds and posed a threat to The Voice’s Chosen One.
There was Alisan Porter, too.
She starred in “Curly Sue” and had released two albums
She won Season 10.
That’s unfair and it was cheating.