There’s a lot to love about reality singing competition series The Voice, which will debut its 18th season on February 24, 2020. The show has a unique concept in that the coaches (not judges) chairs are turned around so they can’t see the person singing, pressing a button if they like what they hear. If more than one coach presses their button, they must compete for the singer to join their team. Singers are then coached and compete in one-on-one singing battles until just one winner remains. And while the series has remained popular, airing since 2011, there are also some things we don’t like about it.
Here are 5 things we love about the show and 5 we don’t.
Contestants Are Judged On Their Voices Alone: Love
The show eliminates any bias about a person based on how they look, whether it’s race, age, style, weight, gender, sexuality, or any other aspect of them that they could be judged on. Instead, coaches have to choose based on the voice along, hence the name of the series.
It’s great to see the coaches turn their chairs and be completely surprised with what they see, whether it’s a male singer they swore was female, a bearded redneck they would have put money on was black, or a heavyset woman with the voice of an angel. Pre-judgement goes totally out the window on this show, and it’s refreshing.
There Hasn’t Been a Mega Successful Winner: Don’t Love
While the idea is for the series to find the next big singing superstar, there really hasn’t been any major worldwide successes from the show. While rival series like American Idol have introduced the world to superstars like Kelly Clarkson (who, funny enough, is a coach on The Voice), Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert, Chris Daughtry – the list goes on – The Voice hasn’t proven useful in that respect.
So far the most successful winners have been Cassadee Pope, Danielle Bradbury, Jordan Smith, Josh Kaufman, and Sawyer Fredericks, all of whom have gone on to enjoy mild success, but nothing near the magnitude of stars that other shows have produced.
Always Fun Judges: Love
The coaches have changed every season with some seriously top talent across every major music genre and age demographic, including Christina Aguilera, CeeLo Green, Shakira, Pharrell Williams, Usher, John Legend, Gwen Stefani – the list goes on. The two constants have been Blake Shelton and Adam Levine (the latter up until the last season), with Nick Jonas added to the list this year.
There’s always playful and witty banter among them, and a nice mix of talented singer/songwriters that are fun to watch. And they genuinely seem to care about the people who join their teams.
Show Can Get Boring and Formulaic: Don’t Love
After 18 seasons, it’s no surprise that the show can get a bit boring and formulaic. Host Carson Daly says the same lines, asks the contestants the same questions (how many times can someone answer what winning would “mean to them?”) and the coaches have the same sometimes seemingly contrived and insincere “fights” over singers.
After a while, the format seems tired. And while new coaches each season add some color, the show needs something more to shake things up.
Diverse Selection of Voices and Artist Genres: Love
Unlike other shows that have an age limit, The Voice accepts contestants of all kinds. So we’ve seen grandfathers and 13-year-olds. And there are artists singing in every genre, from country to rap, soul, pop, and even duets – yes, two people can audition together.
It’s nice to see some underrepresented music genres get exposure on the show, and for coaches to take on artists who might not be in their typical genre and help get them out of their comfort zones to explore their voices further.
Team Choices Are Sometimes Predictable: Don’t Love
After a while, you learn that if there’s a multiple chair turn, the R&B soul singer is probably going to go with John Legend if he turned his chair, the aspiring female pop singer with Adam or Kelly, the country artist with Blake, and so on.
Sometimes there are surprises. But not often enough to really shake things up. It’s great that the power shifts to the contestants who, if chosen by more than one coach, get to go with who they want. But it would be nice to switch things up even more.
Blake and Adam’s Friendship and Rivalry: Love
While this has come to an end now that Adam has left the show, the friendship he developed with Blake over the course of the series made the show interesting. The two would banter back and forth, insulting one another as they fought for different artists.
It almost became a battle between them to see who could win and get certain contestants. Adam, for example, would sometimes purposely go after country singers just to prevent Blake from getting them. It was really funny to see the two singers from very different lives and music genres actually forge a real bond.
Not Much Criticism: Don’t Love
We get that the idea is for the celebrities to act as coaches and mentors, not judges. And they do offer lots of advice and tips when rehearsing. But after performances, there really isn’t any constructive criticism given.
It’s almost always positive feedback, which is great. But if the idea is to help these people improve, sometimes they need to hear it in front of the audience and not just behind the scenes. Saying someone who clearly didn’t do a great job “killed it” is just going to give them a false sense of confidence.
Guest Coach Advisors: Love
In addition to the coaches who sit in the swiveling chairs, each season also features celebrity guest coach advisors who surprise the contestants backstage during rehearsals. Each coach has his own, and they have ranged from Sia to Bebe Rexha, Stevie Nicks, Charlie Puth, Darius Rucker, and even Taylor Swift.
It’s wonderful to see the contestants walk into a room and be greeted by a megastar who is there to listen to them sing and offer their two cents.
It’s More About The Coaches: Don’t Love
It almost seems sometimes like the focus of the show is the coaches and not the actual competitors. So much time is spent on their banter during the auditioning episodes and then there’s attention on the high-profile coach advisors. There’s not a big enough spotlight on the actual competitors.
This is sort of unavoidable given that the show has such massive stars as both coaches and advisors every season. Nonetheless, the competition among the coaches almost seems more hyped than the competition among the actual singers.
