Idol Chatter & Voice Views

THE VOICE — “Press Junket” — Pictured: (l-r) Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, Adam Levine — (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC)

The show made it official with a video sneak peek of Season 14 posted on Friday.

Coming to the blind auditions that begin airing Feb. 26: The block.

Apparently, a coach can use the block during the blind auditions to keep a contestant from choosing a particular coach.

For instance, suppose all four coaches turn for an impressive country singer. One of the coaches can use a block to prevent that contestant from joining Team Blake.

I’ve heard each coach will get just one block during the blind auditions, but specifics aren’t covered in the video, which you can check out below.

And I’m hoping the block only remains in effect for the blind auditions, meaning the blocked coach could still steal the artist later on.

Of course, The Voice is always looking for new twists to keep the show fresh.

And instead of eliminating an old twist that doesn’t work — say, for instance, the twitter save that a West Coast contestant has never won — the show decides to add a new twist that strikes me as unfair to contestants.

Let’s see, the point of the blind auditions would be to perform well enough that every coach wants you on his or her team. To earn the chance to pick whichever Voice coach you want.

Correct?

So the show develops a gimmick to prevent you from doing that.

Seems pretty damn silly.

And potentially harmful to the contestant’s chances after watching Adam Levine’s incredibly stupid decision to have country soul artist Adam Cunningham perform Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds” in the first round of Season 13 Voice finals.

Maybe the block should be accompanied by a another new twist to level the fairness for artists: Give them the right to reject the first 10 song choices from their coach during each round.

Oh, well, Voice fans, it could be much worse.

At least there will be no chants of “eat, eat, eat” on The Voice.

Here’s that video. Discussion of the block begins at about the 1:35 mark.