The Voice has been one of NBC’s most successful reality show franchises for 21 seasons. The premise of the series is simple: four celebrity coaches listen to a contestant’s voice without seeing him or her, with each of the judges’ respective red chairs turned to the audience. When a judge becomes interested in a contestant, they press a button and have their chairs turn around to see the person. The contestants go on to join the judges on their teams, being coached by them throughout the competition. The original lineup of judges and coaches was composed of Maroon 5’s lead vocalist Adam Levine, country star Blake Shelton, pop star Christina Aguilera, and soul singer CeeLo Green, who was then best known for his work in Gnarles Barkley. Throughout the seasons, the judging panel has rotated, bringing in other established musicians to coach The Voice contestants, with only Shelton remaining from the original lineup.
Contestants Have To Sign Crazy Intense Contracts
Generally, competition reality shows are known for protecting themselves from any liability when it comes to the contestants competing for the prize. Though that is true, it certainly looked really bad when a particular contract between The Voice and one of its contestants leaked on the Internet in 2014 and revealed some terrible The Voice secrets.
The leaked contract stated that “The show ‘may be disparaging, defamatory, embarrassing and may expose them to public ridicule, humiliation or condemnation.’” It also said NBC could force contestants to “undergo medical and psychological evaluations” and NBC could “publicize the results.” For a family-friendly show such as The Voice, the leaked document seemed to go a tad too far and was unpopular for Voice fans.
Why They Replace The Judges So Much
Blake Shelton has been a coach on The Voice for 21 consecutive seasons and reportedly makes more than $21 million per season. One of The Voice secrets for the rotating chairs is that NBC is constantly trying to cut costs when it comes to the judges. It is cheaper to bring new talent to the judging panel with each coming season in order to keep the show’s budget low.
Producers had to pay Christina Aguilera – who was a judge for seven seasons — more than they had to pay Gwen Stefani or Miley Cyrus at the time they replaced her. In the 21st season, NBC paid more for Ariana Grande, hoping she would bring in more viewers, but then cut her after the ratings didn’t go up.
Christina Aguilera Feuds
Alisan Porter, who was on Christina Aguilera’s team, was the winner of season 10 of The Voice, which aired in 2016. After so many seasons on the show, Christina Aguilera was celebrated. Then something weird happened: Aguilera never returned to the show.
Rumor has it that it is because of her alleged feud with Blake Shelton. According to reports, Shelton wanted his new girlfriend Gwen Stefani to stay on the series, which rubbed Christina Aguilera the wrong way. Adam Levine, who is close friends with Shelton, also took Stefani’s side in this controversial The Voice secret.
Season 1 Winner Gave Up His Prize
Since its inception, the big prize of winning The Voice is leaving the show with a record label contract. Winners are signed to Universal Republic Records, deemed as a huge deal for contestants who couldn’t previously make a living off of their music careers. However, a record label is not a guarantee of success.
Javier Colon won The Voice season 1 and is often remembered for being the franchise’s first-ever winner. He signed to Universal Republic Records in June 2011, as soon as his season ended. However, one year after signing to the label, Javier announced that he would no longer be attached to it, citing “the unforeseen bad marriage between the label and I.”
The Season 6 Voting Glitch
The Voice’s season 6 finale faced a major voting controversy due to a problem that had little to do with the show: a glitch on iTunes. In The Voice’s early years, buying the show’s singles on iTunes counted as votes for the contestant. During the season 6 finale, three contestants battled for the top prize: Christina Grimmie, Jake Worthington, and Josh Kaufman.
However, while Christina and Jake were battling it out on the iTunes charts, Josh was mysteriously not even on the Top 10, which was – according to Apple – a glitch on the iTunes platform. Due to the iTunes glitch, all of those purchases had to be discounted from The Voice’s final calculation to choose a winner. In the end, the winner was Josh Kaufman, the biggest victim of the voting glitch.
Gwen Stefani’s Marital Drama
Gwen Stefani joined The Voice as a coach during season 7, which aired in 2014. During that season, she brought on her then-husband Gavin Rossdale to serve as a secondary advisor to the contestants on her team. Gwen later admitted to The Voice secrets that she and Gavin “got in a little fight” about the whole situation, justifying that they had “only collaborated on babies before.”
Less than a year later, it was announced that they were separating. Despite the fact that their divorce was only fully concluded in 2016, Gwen Stefani was quickly public about her newfound boyfriend: Blake Shelton, her fellow The Voice coach, who was also in the middle of divorcing Miranda Lambert.
The Voice Live Tour Failed
From its very first season, The Voice was a massive television hit. So NBC had an idea that originally sounded brilliant. They would take the show on the road, featuring season 1’s contestants. The Voice Live on Tour was born. During the season 1 finale, host Carson Daly announced a series of summer concerts, which later were named The Voice Live on Tour, featuring the top two finalists from each team.
Though the New York stop sold out eventually, sales for the other five cities were lackluster, prompting the tour to end up canceled. An attempt to revive the idea was made in 2014, featuring contestants of seasons 5 and 6, but it was once again not received well by the public. While shows like The Masked Singer and Dancing with the Stars have great tours, it never worked for The Voice.
The CeeLo Controversy
During season 4 in 2013, Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green decided to take a break, which created the tradition of rotating coaches sitting on The Voice’s red chairs. Producers of the show said the two coaches would always have their spots whenever they felt like doing the show, regardless of what other artists came into the franchise to fill in for them.
But that promise quickly changed. In 2014, Green found himself in the middle of assault accusations and was caught tweeting out inflammatory comments. Green’s last time as a coach on The Voice was season 5, which aired in 2013 before this controversy. However, he did return later as an advisor for Adam Levine’s team.
Eliminated Contestants Don’t Even Get To Say Goodbye
According to former contestant Kat Perkins, it feels very “abrupt” when you’re eliminated from The Voice because producers make you leave their set. As for where The Voice contestants stay on the show, it is a hotel paid for by NBC and they have to leave the hotel almost immediately after their elimination. It is true that The Voice has professional psychologists on set to deal with the aftermath of one’s elimination.
However, according to those The Voice secrets, when those psychologists deem a contestant feels okay about being eliminated, that person is sent home immediately. They can’t even say goodbye to fellow contestants, coaches, and production team members. The show probably wants its ongoing contestants to remain focused on the competition, which means that interactions with eliminated singers are probably unwelcome distractions.
Judges Pick Songs For Contestants
During the season 1 “Battle Rounds” phase of The Voice, contestants Tarralyn Ramsey and Frenchie Davis battled it out to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies,” a popular song choice coach Christina Aguilera and the show’s producers chose.
According to Frenchie, she didn’t really understand that choice of a song, adding that it is “hysterical when the judges say, ‘I don’t think that was a good song choice for you,’ and I’m thinking, ‘You picked that song.’” Despite her concerns, Frenchie won that “Battle Round” and advanced to the semi-finals, finishing that season in fifth place.
The “Whoosh” Is Fake
One of the most recognizable and iconic elements of The Voice is the turning of the coaches’ red chairs, which is accompanied by a now-famous “whoosh” sound effect. Despite what many thought, the “whoosh” does not happen as the chairs turn during the taping of each episode. It is a sound only added later, during the editing and post-production of The Voice, to create more of a dramatic effect during the turning of the chairs.
Though that Voice secret is disappointing to know, it probably makes sense that the sound is only added later. The sound effect would probably be distracting to contestants performing songs - if facing a celebrity judge isn’t already disconcerting enough.
Months Of Training For The Show?
Also according to season 6 contestant Kat Perkins, months can go by between the time a The Voice contestant receives an audition call and the time the person actually makes it to the Blind Auditions. Kat stated that contestants are trained to face all sorts of different situations: feeling sick on stage, fainting, reacting to failure or success, social media training, and even interview prep.
It is definitely not common for reality shows to help their contestants in such a comprehensive way. However, The Voice is known for being a reality series that aims to help talent fully realize their potential, so it makes sense that such training happens even before a singer actually makes it into the show.
Kelly Clarkson Likes The Voice Better
Season 14 of The Voice premiered in 2018 and introduced a new coach to its lineup — singer Kelly Clarkson. She came to prominence for being the very first winner of American Idol in 2002. She then joined The Voice just as Idol rebooted and moved to ABC. Many speculated Kelly would be the perfect judge to join the Idol revival but instead joined The Voice as a coach.
Speaking about the matter with E!, Clarkson said “a lot of people reach out to me to be a part of singing things,” but regarding The Voice, she stated that “I love this show, and I’ve been trying to be a part of it.” It was a perfect choice. She left after season 21 with a series-high 50% winning percentage, one of the best coaches in The Voice history.
First Female Coach To Win?
When Alisan Porter won The Voice in season 10, a huge fuss was made about this being a groundbreaking moment. Alisan was on Christina Aguilera’s team, and that was the first time a female coach had won the U.S. version of the show. However, this was not the first time a female coach had ever won a series of The Voice.
The Voice of Holland, for instance, coach Trijntje Oosterhuis won season 3 (2012). On The Voice Brasil, coach Claudia Leitte won season 2 (2013). A female coach won the first two seasons of the Canadian La Voix: Ariane Moffatt won season 1, and Isabelle Boulay won season 2.
The Show’s Biggest Succes Didn’t Even Win
By far, the biggest criticism in regards to The Voice is that, unlike American Idol and The X Factor, this show has produced almost no mainstream superstars, despite airing for 21 seasons. What makes matters even worse for The Voice is that the closest thing the series has to a superstar is singer Melanie Martinez, who was a contestant in season 3 and was eliminated on Week 5.
Koryn Hawthorne became a successful gospel singer, Nicolle Galyon has two Grammy nominations for songs she wrote for others, and Cassadee Pope has definitely made some waves on her own. However, success stories are rare and Melanie Martinez seemed to be the highlight, with a double-platinum debut album and several gold-certified singles to her name.
