“The Voice” coaches will get a little help from their musical friends on season two as the talent search series.
Kelly Clarkson, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Jewel, Miranda Lambert (also known as Mrs. Blake Shelton), Lionel Richie, Alanis Morisette, Ne-Yo and Robin Thicke will join Shelton, Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine as “advisors.”
Similarly to “American Idol,” which brings in big names to mentor acts (who then usually have to sing songs from that act”s catalog), the musicians will lend their considerable knowledge to contestants during the “battle rounds” of competition.
Here”s a rundown on the advisors and their teams:
Team Adam: Morissette and Thicke
Team Blake: Clarkson and Lambert (wouldn’t it have been more fun to put Lambert on someone else’s team?)
Team Cee Lo: Edmonds and Ne-Yo
Team Christina: Jewel and Richie
“The Voice” premieres Feb. 5 following Super Bowl XLVI on NBC. It then settles into its regular weekly 8 p.m. Monday time slot at 8 p.m.
In other Clarkson news, Billboard took great pains to “debunk” the belief that Clarkson’s endorsement of presidential candidate Ron Paul caused a sales surge. In fact,sales of “Stronger” dropped 40% from the previous week and “Stronger’s” climb up the Billboard 200 was because it declined less than other titles. “Stronger” sold 25,000 copies last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, versus 41,000 the week before. The title did see an increase in digital sales, although Billboard spoils the Paul party there too, attributing the increase to iTunes’ discount on the title rather than her endorsement. Even the movement up Amazon.com’s chart (which registers physical orders) were down overall for the week.