The Voice returns to Mondays on Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. for season 18, adding pop star and Jonas Brother, Nick Jonas to the coaching lineup along with veterans Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Blake Shelton.
The bad news is, according to an NBC presser released last November, The Voice season 18 will only air on Mondays for most of the season, in order to make way for Ellen’s Game of Games.
The scenario is similar to the 2019 midseason schedule, except that NBC only sacrificed four Tuesday shows for Ellen last year. However, according to the press release, The Voice will not move back to twice weekly until the Live Shows, which will air over the final three weeks in May. In short, it’s the same schedule as spring 2019, but with even fewer Tuesday episodes.
How will NBC organize the casting around fewer shows? Last season, producers nixed the Knockout Rounds for Live Cross Battles, which resulted in Team Blake Shelton dominating the season. Fans were not happy with the outcome! Only Team Legend’s Maelyn Jarmon beating out three Team Blake singers for the win saved the season from ruin.
The fall 2019 cycle saw the return of the Knockout Rounds, and a Team Kelly Clarkson triumph for country singer Jake Hoot. According to the taping schedule posted at the audience casting outfit 1Iota.com, the Knockouts are back for season 18 as well!
As far as how the show is dealing with a shorter season, so to speak, nobody really knows. Maybe producers will air fewer full auditions, adding more montages and fewer no-turn auditions. Or they could actually cut down the teams from 12 members to 10 or 8. The latter makes some sense. I’d rather spend time with fewer contestants, than have 48 singers go by in a blur during a truncated round of Blind Auditions.
There are no spoilers from October’s Blind Auditions taping. The Battle Rounds begin filming TODAY (Jan 15 & 17), so maybe we’ll finally get a leak! Stay tuned.
