Reba McEntire gives a thumbs up during Monday’s The Voice even though the show’s Season 28 format deserves a huge, enormous, spectacular thumbs down. (NBC Photo)
You have to credit the folks at NBC and The Voice for their can-do spirit.
For their perseverance. For their commitment to exceed expectations.
Every time you think The Voice format can’t get any worse, that execs can’t do anything to make the show more meaningless, the outcomes more irrelevant, the folks at NBC and The Voice producers must gather together for a group chant of “Yes we can. Yes we can.”
And then they do.
And, guess what, Voice fans?
They’ve done it again.
I had high hopes for Season 28. The show was back to its Monday and Tuesday schedule. The season was moving along at a brisk pace.
Contestants weren’t disappearing for weeks upon weeks at a time like they did during Season 27, which I consider the worst season in Voice history.
Heck, in the blinds, The Voice only montaged two singers who turns chairs. And while the show that loves gimmicks introduced a new one — the Carson Callback — it also took away one — the coaches’ replay button.
Since there’s only one Carson and there are four coaches, I considered that a minor victory.
But any hopes for an improved Season 28 ended when The Voice announced the schedule from this point on.
Not only will The Voice air only on Mondays, but the Monday shows — remember, they were taped months ago — will last only one hour.
That means the knockouts, which started last week, will run all the way through November. It will take The Voice five weeks to air 16 knockout round matches. Fans will be watching the knockouts for the ENTIRE month of November.
And it gets worse. The playoffs, also taped months ago, will air Monday, Dec. 1, and Monday, Dec. 8.
That will be followed by a two-night live finale, on Dec. 15 and Dec. 16.
That means …
1. Fans will have a maximum of one chance to vote for their favorites this season. Recent seasons have included at least two weeks of live performance / fan voting / result shows.
2. That means for the first time ever, the show via its coaches will select the finalists. Or at least most of them.
3. That means fewer performances from your favorites and fewer rounds a singer will need to navigate to win the show.
Remember, at one point, not to long ago, fans helped decide which singers advanced from the playoffs.
Up until Season 26, fans always voted on who made it into the semifinals.
And as recently as Season 22, there were five shows with fan voting.
Now NBC and The Voice are serving up hand-picked finalists?
Finalists who make it that far based on just three solo performances and one duet?
Why the hell even bother?
But give NBC and Voice producers credit for this: They’ve exceeded expectations. Yet again.
In the worst possible ways.
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4 Comments
“The Voice” is now handpicking their finalists.
That’s terrible.
But where was the rage when “American Idol” did that in Season 8?
Only one blogger dealt with that back then.
We have watched The Voice from the very first show. At that time you got involved with each contestant. There was much more music, the contestants sang with their coaches, we felt very involved and invested in the show. In the last 6 seasons or so we have lost that connection, we see so little of the process now that we are not invested in the contestants or coaches, it is just a ‘variety show’. Now they are taking away more of the process, more of the shows. Pretty soon it will not be worth tuning in faithfully every week to see how ‘my’ coach or ‘my’ contestant is doing….there is no sense of belonging in this show anymore. Such a shame, it has been a favorite of ours…..
For the final time ever, I decided to DVR the show. A – I had something else I wanted to watch.
B – I wanted go to bed earlier.
Nobody cares anymore–not the producers, not that host, not the coaches, not the network.
It’s all about money. It’s all about making the coaches more prolific.
“The Voice” was supposed to show “Idol” how a singing competition was supposed to be like.
No contestants eliminated because they aren’t conventionally telegenic. No gimmicks, like “Idol” has. No “chosen ones.” A fair voting system. No Wild Cards used for who the producers/judges want/not who is the most deserving. No distorted backstories some contestants receive to sway votes. No stacked semifinal groups. No judges bantering,
What a waste. What a blown opportunity.