Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Voice coaches Blake Shelton, John Legend, Kelly Clarkson and Nick Jonas during The Voice’s lowest rated finale ever. (NBC Photo)

Something very deserving happened Tuesday night on The Voice.

And I’m not necessarily talking about Todd Tilghman’s victory.

Tuesday’s episode of The Voice scored the lowest rating of any finale in the show’s 18 seasons.

It’s 0.9 rating among 19 to 49 year olds didn’t even win the night for NBC, finishing tied with a clip show from The Masked Singer on FOX.

The previous low rating for a Voice finale came was a 1.1 last spring. Like Season 18, producers also ruined that season with format changes and a shortened schedule.

In between, the Season 17 finale scored a 1.3 rating. That’s the only other finale below 1.5. As recently as Season 15, The Voice finale scored a 1.7 rating and drew nearly 10 million fans, compared to the estimated 7.4 million who tuned in Tuesday.

The Voice did shock me by featuring seven alumni — Kevin Farris, Lauren Duski, Jacob Maxwell, Alexa Cappelli, Jake Hoot, Ricky Duran and Britton Buchann — in a performances of “What the World Needs Now.”

Of course, it wasn’t pre-publicized. And The Voice would still rather promote new music from Bon Jovi, Kane Brown, Doja Cat or any of its coaches, past or present, than new music from former contestants.

But just the sighting of alumni on the finale seemed like a minor miracle, especially after an earlier performance showcased a winning song from this season of NBC’s “Songland,” but not the winning song penned by a former Voice contestant.

Of course, Season 18 couldn’t end on a high note. In another bit of poetic justice, Blake Shelton’s microphone cut out during his final address to his contestants so we couldn’t hear anything he was saying.

Then, with time running out, Carson Daly announced Todd as the show’s winner without ever revealing who finished second or third.

Eighteen seasons in, The Voice still can’t pull off a finale.

Fans noticed too. Here’s a sampling of what they had to say about Tuesday’s three-hour Voice marathon, which kicked off with a one-hour recap of everything that happened Monday night.

I cannot deal with how much the last 3 minutes of #TheVoiceFinale is like tuning into a Zoom meeting on dial up internet.

— Marie Roberts (@marie_roberts2) May 20, 2020

Who’s. 2nd and 3rd place?! You ran out of time because you wasted them on the useless buildup! #TheVoiceFinale #TheVoice pic.twitter.com/D0ysBjUyDT

— sweetnsalty (@carmela84422390) May 20, 2020

#TheVoiceFinale i just realized this crap is on for 3 hours……I’m going to bed!

— Adam (@AdamsRibBBQ1) May 20, 2020

So glad I sat through 2 hours of commercials just to see the 2 best contestants lose to the least talented one just because he’s religious #TheVoiceFinale

— Danielle (@Dani_White17) May 20, 2020

Come on with this 3 hour finales. Killing me. This season has been hard enough to get though because of having to be a at home. I know it's not #TheVoiceFinale fault. But for god sakes put this season out of it misery. Just tell us the winner!!! Ugggggg!

— Missy Westbrook (@wstbrkm1313) May 20, 2020

Titanic was shorter than this. But same result in the end #TheVoiceFinale

— CookieMan (@pcook102) May 20, 2020

WHAT?!! THEY MAKE US WATCH THREE HOURS OF THIS CRAP AND THUNDERSTORM DOESN’T WIN?!! And then it just ENDS?!! I need more shoes to throw. #TheVoiceFinale

— Piccola Principessa (@snark_princess) May 20, 2020

#TheVoiceFinale congrats this is absolutely the worst finale of all time. More like a Microsoft Teams infomercial!

— davegrz (@original6NHLfan) May 20, 2020

And the award for most drawn out tv show of quarantine is #TheVoiceFinale @NBCTheVoice

— emily (@emily_shoebert) May 20, 2020

NBC still hasn’t announced whether The Voice fall season is a go.

But I’ll repeat what I’ve written before: If Season 16 and Season 18 are examples of the path Voice producers plan to go down, there should never be a Season 19.