Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Carson Daly is host and a producer on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Trust me, it had nothing to do with spinning red chairs or a facsimile boxing ring that struck me as incredibly hokey the moment I saw it.

And it had very little to do with the coaches, though they did strike me as entertaining.

The Voice won me over because Charlotte Sometimes mesmerized me with her version of “Misery Business.” Because Juliet Simms amazed me with the ache in her voice as she sang “Cryin'” big black wings be damned.

Because “Melanie Martinez” made me smile with her delightfully different take on “Toxic,” all while playing two instruments at once.

And because Cassadee Pope literally brought tears to my eyes with her plaintive version of “Stupid Boy.”

Sure, The Voice was cheating a bit by casting the show so heavily, by stocking it with singers it knew could sing.

But here was a show that was introducing me to amazing artists I might otherwise never have discovered. Many of whom had already released music.

Better yet, if I loved what those singers did on the show, I could instantly go to iTunes and add the song to my music collection.

By the end of Season 3, I was convinced. The Voice had replaced American Idol as the best singing show on television.

And then someone got greedy.

Instead of one season per year, The Voice would air spring and fall. And that meant it would need to stay fresh by other means. Bottom line: Here came the gimmicks.

And so we got steals in the knockouts. More steals in the battle rounds. Saves in the battle rounds too.

We got an instant save on results night. An instant save on East Coast time that anyone with brain engaged for 30 seconds knew would be unfair to contestants with West Coast fan bases.

But the show kept right on using it, season after season, even as one West Coast contestant after another fell to the wayside.

Each change sapped drama from the do-or-die nature of singing shows. Each steal and save redirected focus away from the artist who had done so well that they won a battle or knockout and toward a saved or stolen artist and the coach who rescued that artist.

Then came the realization that the show’s producers just didn’t care about playing fair. One of the most blatant of many, many examples was Season 9.

Remember Season 9? That’s the season show producers decided Jordan Smith should win before we ever saw the first episode. And if that meant shortchanging Andi & Alex, the show’s iTunes champs through two rounds, so be it.

By the end of Season 9, I found myself rooting against the show’s best singer. Because instead of letting Jordan’s support grow naturally, the show pimped him relentlessly, episode after episode after episode.

Well, Jordan won. And quickly released an album, partly under a new label called Lightworks Media, created by Voice producer Mark Burnett and his wife. No conflict of interest there, right?

Meanwhile, the gimmicks kept coming. Comeback artists. Blocks. Saves in the knockouts. A Comeback Stage, for crying out loud.

What went away? Most of the iTunes/Apple Music versions of Voice performances that fans loved so much.

And your favorite Voice contestants, the vast majority of whom would never again step foot on The Voice stage.

After all, guest spots are typically reserved for already established stars, even if they have no connection to the show.

The Voice can’t be bothered promoting the great new music being produced by its own past contestants.

Flash forward to this spring, and I was surprised to find myself looking forward to Sunday nights and the next episode of American Idol.

Monday nights and The Voice? Meh.

And I know exactly why that happened too.

American Idol rounded up a talented cast for Season 17. And after the auditions ended, the show made sure viewers heard from the most talented singers week after week after week.

I quickly developed a couple of favorites. I was intrigued by other contestants and eager to hear what they’d do next.

On The Voice?

Singers showed up for the blinds, then disappeared for a month. They showed up for the battle round, then disappeared for another month.

Then came cross battles that seemed as well thought out as a high school term paper written in a half hour the night before it was due. And finals — supposedly the most important part of the season — shortened to just three weeks. Three weeks!

The result? Heading into the season finales, the Top 3 on American Idol had performed 18 times. The Top 4 on The Voice? Just seven. And two of those were duets.

The Voice had forgotten the golden rule of singing shows: Find a talented cast and put them on stage often enough that viewers become invested in their fate.

The talent was there. But the format was a tangled, tattered, gimmick-filled travesty.

There have been bad singing shows before. Simon Cowell’s The X Factor USA was an overblown, over-hyped mess from Day 1. Diddy’s Fergie-twirling Four on FOX disaster has hopefully disappeared for good.

But The Voice is in a category all its own.

Because it’s the once-fine singing show that producers ruined.