Photo by: Paul Drinkwater/NBC
The Voice Season 12 Live Shows start tonight – and with comeback artists no less! It’s always exciting when The Voice Lives begin because the audience finally gets a chance to weigh in! However, why are they using this real-time format again?
https://youtu.be/HkPxi60tor0
Ugh! This format for the live shows is awful! The Voice started doing the real time voting for the Live Shows in season 11. At the time it seemed like a one-off because of the 2016 presidential debates, but nope, it’s back.
The Voice Season 12 Live Shows Format
Let’s be really clear about how The Voice Season 12 Live Shows are going to go. This is from the official NBC press release.
On Monday, April 17 and Tuesday, April 18 at 8 p.m., the remaining artists will compete for a spot in the Top 12 during “The Voice” live playoffs. The stakes are high as the artists from two teams perform in front of coaches Alicia Keys, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani on each night for their chance at a coveted spot in the live shows. Through innovative real-time voting on “The Voice” Official App and Twitter, fans will be able to advance two artists per team into the Top 12, and results will be revealed on the same night. During this exciting and music-filled night, two coaches will then immediately choose the final artist from their teams to save, sending the other artists home.
The only difference in this from last season is that it all happened in one night. Having it occur over two however doesn’t make it any better.
The Voice Season 12 Live Shows Format Issues
There are two big problems with this format. First of all, it means the west coast and mountain time viewers don’t really get to vote! Sure, they can get the app and vote when a name comes up and tweet that on twitter if they aren’t, like at work. God forbid someone is trying to vote while they’re driving home! Furthermore, if they vote like this it’s not based on the performances.
Here’s the other problem. In the original format all of the team artists performed and viewers got to vote overnight. Doing it that way allowed people to judge all of the performances and then pick their favorites. Assuming this is setup exactly as it was last season you’ll have to deal with voting windows. You only can vote for an artist within a short period of time.
This is very similar to the instant save – another awful invention that screws over the half the country. Two singers will perform and then you’ll have to pick one. If tonight is set up this way, you may end up having to send a favorite of yours home because of the way the artists are paired. Meanwhile, two other performers that you would have rather gone home could be paired, meaning one of them could very well end up staying.
There is a hope that because The Voice Season 12 Live Shows are over two nights The Voice will let all the artists from a team perform and then let viewers vote. At least then you can judge the singers from a team as one batch. Unfortunately, I doubt this happens.
The point of this format – and that of the instant save – is ratings. Doing it this way keeps viewers glued to the TV in real time. (Apparently it doing so for only two time zones is fine.) It also drives the show’s trending on twitter. Both of these things affect ratings. Unless they are found to be ineffective we can expect these formats to be sticking around.
Another Format Change Wish
Wouldn’t it be great if The Voice went back to cutting down to 16 and then 12? It’s been a few seasons since they’ve done it that way, but i still miss it. It just seems so fast for some of these people to go home! With the comebacks we’re going to be losing three singers in one night. Losing two is bad enough!
If The Voice Live Shows started by going down to 16 it would give us another week of live shows and we’d get to experience more music from more performers. Instead The Voice does a filler clip show after the blinds, battles, and knockouts. Wouldn’t you rather have them go straight through and have an extra week of live shows instead? Do you even watch the clip shows?
The Wrap Up
Well, for better or worse, The Voice Season 12 Live Shows start tonight. If you’re in eastern or central time make sure you tune in from the beginning so that you don’t miss voting for your favorites! As for those other time zones…just remember, it’s not safe to text and drive.
