'The Voice' Season 29 voting shake-up shuts out viewers from home — this is how winner will be decided
'The Voice' has changed its semi-final and final format. The tweaks will change how the show has crowned its winners to date. The season dubbed 'The Battle of Champions' will host a studio audience comprising superfans and past contestants. The group will vote to decide the finalists and the eventual winner of the singing reality show. The semifinals, which aired on Monday at 9 p.m. ET/PT, ended with the studio audience voting Liv Ciara (Team Kelly), Mikenley Brown (Team Kelly), Lucas West (Team Legend), and Alexia Jayy (Team Adam) to the finals. The same audience will now return on Tuesday to decide who will take the crown amongst these four contestants.
In the previous seasons, the audience at home voted for the contestants based on their performances in the semi-final and final, which aired live on NBC. The results came out the following evening. This time around, the voting was limited to the studio audience, and the episodes were pre-recorded. Even the coaches could not provide input. The three judges, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Levine, and John Legend, were intrigued by the changes. "It's different on TV than when you're in the room... the energy in the room is different, it sounds different, it's a different thing... So I'm excited about that, I'm also nervous about that," Clarkson explained. "We all know as artists and singers, it doesn't sound as quiet as good — it never has, it never will — when you're in a room. Nothing replaces that," Legend added. "It'll be like a little scientific experiment," he continued. Levine was elated that the decision was out of his hands, according to American Songwriter. “It’s really cool,” he said.
Clarkson told Parade that the new voting format forced her to change how she has been preparing her team. "I did think we were going to have a hard time with certain things because these are also people who have been through it. These are previous artists who have been on The Voice, and sometimes America does tend to vote a certain way. I did know it would be a little difficult, but also, I knew it would be cool because these artists know, as I do, how hard the process is. You have 2.5 to 3 minutes to show people what you’re capable of. When you have so much talent, it’s a hard thing to do. With the peers and the superfans, it was a different ballgame. I feel like it was a challenge that no other artist on this show has had," the 'Stronger' singer shared.
On the other hand, John Legend believed that the change would give him a better shot at winning, with the room being more aligned with his musical tastes than the massive American audience. "I think it’s a discerning musical audience, and it makes me actually a little more optimistic about how they’re going to vote," he shared. The studio audience voting is not the only twist that shook the show this season. The three coaches had to battle each other in the Triple Chair Challenge and In-Season All-Star Competition, both of which were won by Kelly Clarkson. The Voice Finale will stream the following day on Peacock.
