Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani prepare to vie for a singer on The Voice Season 19, with a virtual audience looking on. (NBC Photo)

The pandemic-delayed Season 19 of The Voice opens Monday night.

Here’s what to expect.

The coaches: Gwen Stefani returns, taking the spot occupied by Nick Jonas in Season 18. It’ll mark Gwen’s fifth season on the show. She’s yet to coach a singer into the winner’s circle, doing best with Rose Short (fourth, Season 17) and Jeffery Austin (fourth, Season 9).

Blake Shelton, John Legend and Kelly Clarkson round out the coaching lineup, of course. Blake, the show’s winningest coach, is coming off his seventh winning season. Prior to Season 18, Kelly had coached the winner three of the previous four seasons.

The pandemic: It didn’t only delay that season, it will affect the show’s atmosphere. The days of coaches rushing the stage to embrace the artists who just joined their team have ended, judging from promo videos the show has released. Though John tries a long-distance handshake at one point.

More noticeable will be the lack of an audience. At least, a live audience. Apparently, fans who participated virtually will have their faces shown on the chairs where they’d otherwise be seated.

The singers: The casting department has done another bang-up job of assembling a talented group of singers, the bulk of whom are in their marketable prime, unlike some past seasons of The Voice.

My guess is the pandemic made that easier. With live shows hardly an option for several months, what did an artist have to lose by going on The Voice to raise their public profile and gain new fans?

And more than half of Season 19’s artists have already released music you can stream, a wide variety of impressive music I’d encourage you to check out by following the links to individual artist profiles below.

The format: Like Season 18, each coach will have 10 artists, down from 12 most previous seasons. The Voice appears to have shelved the ridiculous Cross Battles and the gimmicky Comeback Stage for good. The less objectionable four-way knockout will be back.

Still, with the pandemic robbing The Voice of a month of shows, I fear we’re in for another season of The Voice Lite, where the show goes from the live playoffs to a winner in three or four weeks. If so, it’ll be a continuation of The Voice’s sad decline as a competition show to be taken at all seriously.

Remember when Cassadee Pope, Danielle Bradbery, Tessanne Chin, Josh Kaufman and the like had to sing 10 times just to make the finals? It was a brilliant showcase for those artists and a format that offered an underdog a chance to flourish and challenge for The Voice title.

In contact, Todd Tilghman had to perform just five times — half as often — to earn a spot in the Season 18 finale.

Oh, well, we still get to meet talented new artists. And look forward to the music they’ll release once the show ends.

Here are the links to profiles on those artists. There are just four that I couldn’t find enough information on to complete a reasonable profile.

Aaron Scott
Bailey Rae
Ben Allen
Cami Clune
Carter Rubin
Casme
Chloe Hogan
DeSz
Eli Zamora
Emmalee
Ian Flanagan
James Pyle
Jim Ranger
John Holiday
John Sullivan
Joseph Soul
Julie Cooper
JusJon
Kelsie Watts
Lain Roy 
Larriah Jackson
Lauren Frihauf
Liam St. John
Madeline Consoer
Marisa Corvo
Olivia Reyes 
Payge Turner
Payton Lamar
Rio Souma
Ryan Berg
Ryan Gallagher
Sam Stacy
Sid Kingsley
Skylar Mayton
Tamara Jade
Tanner Gomes
Taryn Papa
Tori Miller
Van Andrew
Worth the Wait