After last night’s quarterfinal results on “The Voice” pushed the limits of live TV (cut it awfully close there Blake, didn’t you?), coaches Blake Shelton and Cee-Lo Green and producers Mark Burnett and Carson Daly met the press this morning to assess the season so far and what’s next.
Will the rumors about a fall season of “The Voice” come true? “We’d certainly be excited by the opportunity to put this show so many people are passionate about on again,” Daly said. “On the production side we’re ready to go. The truth is, it’s really a call from the network that we haven’t gotten yet.”
With ratings solid but continuing to slide week-to-week NBC may not want to press their luck with the lone hit on the schedule. But we’ll see.
As for last night’s decision, Shelton said it really came down to the sing off. “I went into the show thinking I would probably pick RaeLynn if they did an equal job,” Shelton said. “As a country artist, I felt I probably could help her a little more. Listening to the sing off, Erin had a better performance. It wouldn’t have been fair to Erin for me to pick RaeLynn just because she’s a country artist and she’s cute and all those things we know about her. She just got outsang.”
Everyone was still talking about Christina’s shocking Instant Elimination of Jesse Campbell on Monday. “You could hear a pin drop,” Daly said. “It was a wow moment on the show. Christina has a philosophy and a strategy to move forward. She wants people she can continue to work with, she let Jesse go into the world as an incredible artist.”
Cee-Lo was surprised too, and didn’t understand the call. “We definitely don’t share the same strategies as coaches,” Cee-Lo said about Christina. “It was very unbelievable, I was speechless. This was the guy everyone thought was safe.”
Mark Burnett claimed he had no idea it was coming. “I personally was shocked,” Burnett said. “We make it a point to keep away from these guys when it comes down to their deciding. Christina has her strategy of what’s gonna be the best for the artist and to win the competition. She’s the coach.”
On the subject of live TV, Daly said “The Voice” is everything he’s always wanted to do: “It’s like golf, I want it to look easy but there’s a lot more going on. My background is radio, it’s live. I’m very aware of the format, the timing of the show, the needs of the artists and the coaches. Trying to traffic cop that world is not an easy thing to do. Last night felt a lot like ‘TRL’ [the MTV live video countdown show Daly hosted for years] with The Wanted and Justin Bieber. All of the screams took me back to a dark place.”
With all the talk of tough elimination decisions and the coaches’ relentless positivity, what happens to the contestants who don’t make it to the end? Daly pointed to Shelton as the prime example of a coach keeping his professional relationship with his team going beyond the show.
“I’ve got a house full of them,” Shelton said about former contestants. “Last year my finalist was Dia Frampton. I recorded a song with her, wrote a song with her, brought her out on tour for three months. Also, a girl who was on this season earlier, Gwen Sebastian is now touring with me as a back-up singer.”
And Cee-Lo recently recorded a song with his finalist from last year, Vicci Martinez, called “Come Along.” He promises to “shape and help produce her album.”
Mark Burnett also offered some admittedly unsolicited advice for last year’s winner Javier Colon, suggesting he could do well in the Christian music market. Not exactly competition for Kelly Clarkson, but it’ll do.