Carson Daly, host and producer of The Vocie, with Alicia Keys. (NBC Photo)
For those who missed the news, here’s a quick summary of how it will work.
On Monday night, every member of the Top 24 — six contestants per team — will perform between 8 and 10 p.m. After live voting, the top finisher on each team advances to the Top 12.
On Tuesday night, the remaining five members of Team Blake Shelton and Team Alicia Keys will perform between 8 and 9 p.m.. Voting will again be live but, if I’m reading the NBC press release correctly, no results will be announced.
On Wednesday night, the remaining five members of Team Adam Levine and Team Kelly Clarkson will perform between 8 and 9 p.m. One more artist from each team will advance via fan votes. Then each coach gets to save one artist to complete the Top 12.
Now, let’s evaluate the pros and cons as The Voice continues to try to re-invent a proverbial wheel that was rolling along just fine a few seasons ago.
The Pros
1. More music. This cannot be overstated for fans who just endured battle and knockout round episodes chock full of filler. During the battles, we get six performances — just six — in a two-hour time slot. Monday night, we’ll get 24.
2. More chances to watch your favorites perform. For the first time ever, 20 of the Top 24 will perform twice in the live playoffs. That’s never happened before. I’d prefer all 24 perform a second time. This format leaves those who advance Monday night with an already-rehearsed song in their hip pocket, which seems like an unfair advantage. But that’s a minor complaint compared to the cons that are coming.
3. The power is back in the fans’ hands. Let’s not forget that in Season 13, the coaches handpicked every member of the Top 12. Any format that involves fan voting is preferable to that.
The Cons
1. Live voting is a slap in the face to West Coast fans. In Season 12, lots of unsuspecting West Coast fans were outraged to tune in to the live playoffs and be greeted by a banner that read: Voting has already concluded. The same will happen in Season 14.
Oh, the show is telling fans in the western and mountain time zones to follow along on Twitter for a signal on when to vote. But that means voting between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on their time. It also means watching the show Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is pretty much pointless.
2. Live voting is a slap in the face to West Coast contestants: It shouldn’t shock anyone to learn that a contestant’s most ardent supporters are in their hometowns. With live voting, West Coast contestants have to hope those fans are dedicated enough to follow along and vote when they might reasonably be busy with other things. Such as an evening commute. Or dinner.
Among those most likely to be affected? California-based singers Drew Cole of Team Adam, Pryor Baird of Team Blake and Alexa Cappelli of Team Kelly. Among those who could be affected? Jackie Foster who grew up in Cali and now attends college in Boston. And Terrence Cunningham, who spent most of his career on the East Coast but is now L.A.-based.
Think live voting doesn’t affect West Coast contestants? Well, The instant saves on The Voice are also determined by live voting on East Coast time. Nine West Coast contestants have been up for instant saves in the show’s history. A West Coast contestant has never won an instant save. Repeat: NEVER. Not that producers give a damn. They continue to use the instant save.
Live voting flies in the face of what The Voice is supposed to be about: Look, American Idol makes no pretext about its mission. The voice needs to be good, but it’s part of a larger marketable package that is going to include appearance, personality and star power. The judges have flat-out told contestants as much on the most current season.
When The Voice debuted, it was supposed to be different. The Voice promised to put the focus on the voice. Hence, the blind auditions. Hence, the spinning red chairs. I mean, it’s the show’s entire concept.
Live voting makes The Voice just another popularity contest. Monday, voting for Team Adam will begin when Team Adam starts performing. Carson Daly will encourage fans to start voting before they’ve heard a single performance. For crying out loud, half of the country will be encouraged to vote before they’ll be able to watch a single performance.
Does that sound like the voice matters that much? Or any of the Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday performances?
The bottom line: Because of the live voting component, the live playoff format changes represent another major fail on the part of The Voice producers. And, with three nights of telecasts, that could have easily been avoided.
The live playoffs worked best when two teams performed Monday and two performed Tuesday. The standard overnight voting windows were still in place, from the end of the show until noon eastern time the next day. The results were announced Wednesday.
Seems so simple, right?
Instead, we get three notes of live voting that puts more emphasis on drama than fairness.
I wouldn’t blame West Coast fans if they tuned out this time. And didn’t tune back in for the remainder of Season 14.
Alexa Cappelli Carson Daly Drew Cole Jackie Foster Pryor Baird Season 14 live playoffs Terrence Cuningham The Voice The Voice Season 14
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5 Comments
Wow.
So at the crucial point of the season for the contestants, once again the West coast viewers have no value, even though the show is taped here.
The producers have to take the fall. In more ways than just discontented viewers. How about ratings. I just tuned out, as should the rest of the West and central viewers.
Signing off….. of the voice. Ta.
Your comments are spot on. Those of us on the West Coast also know the results before the show airs, at least we just did for the first live show where all 24 sang. You could just look at the retweet numbers to see who had the highest. And then, they announced on Twitter, 2 hours before we could view the show. That really sucks.
And you’re right, why not have voting that continues until the next day at noon, which they apparently did before.
It’s just silly. The show’s called The Voice, but you’re supposed to vote on the West Coast without hearing any voices. Worse, it’s not fair to West Coast contestants. Tuesday and Wednesday night, their fans are supposed to vote between 5 and 6 p.m. For a large part of my work career, I’ve been commuting during that time span. Not voting for singing show contestants. Whew.
This new format is all about popularity gained from previous episodes. It did not value the evolution of the singer in voice skills and stage presence. I live in mid-Tennessee and would have voted AFTER all had been given an equal chance of presenting their song choice for the night’s competition. It was all about who was first on the docket.
Do away with the live voting, I’m in the eastern time zone. In my opinion it’s just as bad for us. Adam had a great team this year he had contestants much better then some of the others contestants from a different coach…
I record the whole show, I want to see my favorite contestants again, regardless which coach they have. (Don’t copy America idol) I liked the block, that was a fun change.
I miss our bromance between Adam and Blake.
I can see your fans diminishing if you don’t go back to previous voting method.