Holly Brand with Carson Daly during Monday’s Top 8 show on The Voice. Holly was a likely victim of a first-ever voting rule restricting fans from voting for more than one contestant in the Season 23 semifinals. (NBC Photo)
First, let’s get the important information out of the way.
The Voice is returning to an overnight voting window for the finals. It will run from the end of the show until 7 a.m. Eastern time (4 a.m. Pacific time) on Tuesday.
Again, fans can vote via the Voice app or the Voice website. The limit is one vote per email address per method.
Now, in spite of the uproar over Monday’s voting fiasco, there’s some logic behind the changes on a show where voting has typically started as soon as the opening credits roll and where voters have been able to cast ballots for as many singers as they wanted.
Limiting voters to one vote per email address makes it harder for one coach (read Blake Shelton) or one genre (read country music) to dominate the show.
You might say that change is long overdue.
And I’ve always sort of grimaced when Carson Daly encouraged fans to vote as soon as the show opened, especially in seasons where we’ve seen the contestants perform so seldom.
How about making viewers hear everyone perform before encouraging them to vote? Makes sense, right?
Finally, the Voice seems to agree.
BUT, the latter logic flies right out the window with live voting because you’re asking viewers in the Mountain and Pacific time zones to vote before they’ve seen anyone perform.
AND, have no doubt, Monday’s vote — the first all season on The Voice — was an absolute fiasco.
I went back and read the NBC Insider info on voting, posted sometime Friday, May 12.
This line, directly from the post, made me chuckle: “But how, exactly, do you vote on The Voice? We break down the process for new viewers (or ride-or-dies who just need a refresher).”
It then goes on to explain the drastic changes mentioned above.
Gee, you think someone in Voice p.r. needs a refresher on the meaning of “refresher.”
If The Voice was going to make changes this drastic on the first night of voting on Season 23, they should have been announced during both playoff episodes.
The show should have sent out an official press release — well before May 12 — announcing the changes.
And the red banner across the top of the Voice website should have been used to announce the changes for an entire week ahead of Monday’s show.
Instead, it screamed ““The Voice Vote is Open. Vote Now!” as soon as Monday’s show started, even though no one could vote yet
What’s more, if voting was going to take place between 9:35 and 9:40 p.m., that should have been announced as well. Well in advance of Monday’s show. So that fans all over the country would have known when to expect voting to open.
Especially since the only live voting the show has ever held was for the instant save, near the very end of the show.
Here’s the remarkable part of this voting snafu. Monday’s show wasn’t only the first chance for fans to vote in Season 23, it was also the first live show of Season 23.
The Voice taped the playoffs way back in February — Feb. 21 and Feb. 22 to be precise.
In other words, the show had three months to prepare for Monday’s first live show and STILL managed to screw it up.
Because, hey, as Carson would say, “this is The Voice.”
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