Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Voice producer Carson Daley with coaches John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine. (NBC Photo)

Voice producers seem hellbent on serving up the worst season in the show’s 16-season history this spring.

Don’t blame the singers. They’re a talented and faultless Top 32, forced into whatever format producers decide to foist upon them.

And this season’s format included a glacial pace for six weeks, followed by a maddening sprint to the finish that defies logic if the goal is to crown a worthy Voice champ.

Check out these bizarre facts.

At the end of Tuesday night, seven weeks into The Voice season, half of the singers remaining will still only have performed twice. And one of those performances was a battle round duet, which is of little value in evaluating or showcasing a singer’s singular skills.

On American Idol — which is doing nearly everything better than The Voice this spring — fans had already seen the top contestants perform seven times heading into the weekend with another round set for Sunday night and yet another Monday night. That’s nine performances.

In contrast, the eventual Voice champ will perform just 10 times total in Season 16.

As I’ve written before, I’m not sure Voice producers planned Season 16 this way. Knockouts were scheduled, then canceled. And it’s hard to imagine someone planning a schedule that makes so little sense. Especially the part where the show plans to go from a Top 13 to a winner in just three weeks.

Carson Daly with his Today Bracket Battle Winner trophy. Shame he and his fellow Voice producers couldn’t come up with a winning format for Season 16. (NBC Photo)

1. Forget cross battles. It’s two weeks of gimmicks to cut just eight singers. And with just six weeks left in Season 16, there isn’t time for gimmicks.

2. This week would have typically been Top 24 night, the live playoffs. Make it Top 32 night live playoffs instead. Expand the show to three hours for one Monday if necessary. Have fans vote as normal to create a Top 12.

3. That would have left five weeks for the finals, retained the most exciting part of the season in its entirety and maintained some integrity for the Season 16 process.

Even if the show was determined to hold cross battles, other tweaks could have been made to make Season 16 more meaningful. For instance …

* On Top 8 night, every contestant is scheduled to perform one solo and one duet. The show should have nixed the duets — again, the show is supposed to be about finding “the voice,” not the best duet partner — and planned two solos per singer instead.

* In the finals, the coach-contestant duets should have been cut. Or moved to results night. They’re pretty much throw-away performances; they’re not even included in the iTunes voting. Add another solo instead, giving each of the Top 4 an extra chance to sway voters, take a risk, perhaps deliver a game-changing performance.

According to the official rules, none of those changes are planned. The Voice plans to proceed as if there’s nothing wrong with finals that last just three weeks.

And how about Season 17? Does The Voice plan to repeat this format.

Instead, I’d suggest the show reboot in the following fashion.

* Two weeks of blind auditions in which we’re introduced to every member of the Top 48 and no singers are montaged.

* Ditch the Comeback Stage. It’s pointless. Singers who don’t make the show have always been welcome to return the next season.

* Dump the battles. The performances are mildly entertaining. But the show spends 20 minutes of airtime per battle, and the coaches’ comments run as long as the performances. All for a duet that isn’t a very good tool for discovering “the voice.”

* Replace the battles with two weeks of the old knockouts. Allow only the singers’ coach to comment, explaining who he or she is selecting as the winner and why he/she thinks the other singer is deserving of a steal.

* Hold all steals until the end of the knockouts. Then have the 24 contestants on verge of elimination take the stage and coaches pick the singers they want to steal, one by one, with other coaches having the ability to challenge if they want the same singer.

* This would restore the drama sapped by the current format, where you just know every battle round and knockout round episode will end with a steal It would also eliminate the chance of a deserving singer missing out on a steal because they’ve all been used before they take the stage.

* Then insert two weeks of the cross battles. They sound interesting. They’ve got to be an improvement over the battle round. Retain fan voting if at all possible, getting fans involved in the process two weeks sooner than ever before.

* Then proceed with the live playoffs and five weeks of finals, with strictly solo performances and all results based on fans’ overnight voting. In other words, get rid of the live playoff coaches’ saves. Get rid of the Twitter saves, which have been proven blatantly unfair to West Coast contestants because they occur on East Coast time. Besides, fans have spoken through their overnight votes. Their decisions shouldn’t be undone by a five-minute, end-of-show do-over.

* Dump all guest mentors and all result night performances featuring already established stars. The Voice is supposed to be about discovering new talent, not heaping praise on artists who have already “made it.”

* Instead of guest stars, invite past contestants — and not just past finalists — back to perform their new music on results shows chock full of such performances. Those past contestants — not the likes of Beba Rexha or Kelsea Ballerini or Charlie Puth — helped make The Voice a ratings success. They deserve post-show support, and it’s been in pitifully short supply where The Voice is concerned.

* For the season finale, return to the habit of inviting back the entire Top 20 or Top 24. Recent finales have featured plenty of singers who have absolutely no connection to The Voice. And fewer and fewer representatives of the season that’s supposed to be celebrated that night.

Make all those changes, and Season 17 could be much, much better than Season 16 is shaping up to be.

See also
Which coach has the best team entering the Cross Battles
The Cross Battles: How they work and the major drawback
Is The Voice reducing the number of songs on iTunes again?