The Voice Season 26 Tune-Up: 8 Quick Fixes to Help NBC’s Long-Running Sing-Off Hit a New High Note
In the wake of The Voice’s Season 25 finale Tuesday night, the cheers have died down, the auditorium has emptied and the confetti has been swept up. Heck, newly minted winner Asher HaVon has even done the obligatory Q&A session with TVLine. (You can read it here.) So now it’s time for us to look back — and, while we’re at it, ahead.
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Aside from the usual grumbling about the questionable choices the coaches made and the undeserved grades that I assigned, what did we like and dislike about this cycle of NBC’s Energizer Bunny of a sing-off? What did we say to ourselves over the course of the last three months — and probably not for the first time, either — “Man, if only the show would change this, it would be great!”?
The Voice: Every Winner of Every Season — and What They’ve Done Since
The comments section at the bottom of this article is already open and ready to act as your personal suggestion box. (Based on your remarks that followed each week’s recaps, I know you’ve got ideas aplenty.) But before you dive in with your fixes to help the show hit a new high note, why don’t you scroll through the below tweaks that you might also agree need to be implemented.
8. Be Critical
Instances in which the coaches admit that a performance could have gone better are few and far between — to the point that every time a panelist does point out a flaw or misstep, we sit up and take notice. Why not encourage them to be not meaner, certainly, but more constructively critical? It would be more helpful to the contestants and more rewarding for the audience. (How many times have we been left asking, “Are they hearing what we are?!?”)
7. Chuck the Block
We get that the gimmick, introduced back in Season 14, is designed to get the coaches squabbling and guessing who used their Block to keep an opponent from recruiting a singer with extra promise. And that’s fun and all, we’ll grant you. But it’s never sat well with us that the Block also has the potential to keep a contender from joining their first-choice team. If The Voice wants to mess with the coaches, fine. But the eager wannabes? Not so cool.
6. No More Playoff Passes
Since Season 23, this device has allowed the coaches to keep not one but both of their contestants during a Battle by advancing one of them to the Knockouts and the other directly to the Playoffs. It’s a lovely show of support and no doubt quite the high to its recipients. But is the Playoff Pass really a reward? The more airtime a singer gets, the more attached to them the audience is likely to get. So being benched for the Knockouts could actually worsen, not improve, their chances.
5. Ask Better Questions
Look, we know that not a season will come when host Carson Daly doesn’t interrogate contestants waiting to learn their fate in the results shows. But does it have to be the same questions every… single… time? Come on. Since no one in the history of The Voice has ever replied, “Yeah, [bleep] off!” to Daly’s “If this is the end, is there anything you’d like to say to your coach?” could we maybe retire that one (and its ilk) permanently?
4. Bring Back Original Finale Songs
Remember when The Voice had its finalists perform songs that were not covers? The practice was abandoned after Season 20 and needs to be re-implemented. It gave a hint of what the artists might really be like once they were left to their own devices and, on top of that, served as a break from the nonstop barrage of familiar numbers. Plus, let’s be real: It’s hard to come off “karaoke-esque” on a bop that none of us have heard before.
3. Invest in the Winners
There is no reason in the world why Season 12 victor Chris Blue isn’t a household name… why Season 14 champ Brynn Cartelli hasn’t already been hailed as the next Taylor Swift… why Season 16’s Maelyn Jarmon doesn’t even have an album out — except that The Voice doesn’t seem to actively work to keep a spotlight on the artists it introduces. Stick with them the way that their fans would like to, and we can stop grousing that the show has never produced a Kelly Clarkson or a Jennifer Hudson like American Idol has.
2. Curate a More Diverse Panel
As spirited as Season 25’s coaches were, the panel suffered from a surplus of sameness. How often did we hear a coach say that they hadn’t turned their chair for a contestant that they wanted because they didn’t want to compete with a rival in the same lane? Season 26’s lineup is a step in the right direction. But down the line, how about branching out even further and offering a seat to a Broadway legend (like, say, Kristin Chenoweth, who was a wonderful, witty Season 21 Battles adviser to Ariana Grande)?
1. Have Blake Shelton Pay a Visit
We know, we know — when the GOAT said that he was leaving behind his red swivel chair after 23 seasons, he meant it. But the coaching panel just hasn’t been the same since he exited stage left. Maybe if the OG isn’t willing to take a seat for an entire cycle, he could at least be enticed to serve as wife Gwen Stefani’s Season 26 Battles advisor?
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