Reba McEntire Joins ‘The Voice,’ Niall Horan Sets Return for Second Season

The Voice‘s Season 24 coaches lineup is full of familiar faces. After serving as a Mega Mentor on the latest season, Reba McEntire will officially join the singing competition series as a coach for the upcoming season. For the show’s first season without Blake Shelton, the country icon will coach alongside show veterans John Legend and Gwen Stefani as well as Niall Horan, who returns for his second season.

“There’s a new Coach in town,” Reba wrote on Twitter. “See you all this Fall!” With Shelton’s departure, the singer joining the series marks a full circle moment. In 2011, ahead of the show’s first season, Reba turned down an offer to coach. Shelton later filled that slot and stayed there for 23 seasons.

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“To fill Blake’s chair? Wow. That’s gonna be tough,” McEntire recently told Entertainment Tonight. “He did a great job and kudos to him.” The singer’s mentoring gig marked her first appearance on the show since 2015 when she served as a key advisor. Prior to that, Reba was key advisor to Shelton during the show’s first season.

“It’s always a lot of fun to give advice because I study people when they perform, and I wanna be touched when they’re singing to me,” Reba said earlier this year of returning to The Voice. Advising one contestant, she shared: “That’s the biggest thing — to capture someone in the audience to where they’re sobbing or laughing. Get some emotion out of them, and you did it for me.”

That same joy from helping a singer really cut through also inspired Horan to take on a second season. “I loved it so much, I’m doing it again,” he wrote on Twitter.

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