Billboard (Sept. 15th 2012)

The Oppositional Voice

NBC readies 'The Voice' for year-round action to compete with 'X Factor.' 'Idol' and save the network

Ratings for "The Voice" dwarf every other show on the NBC schedule with the exception of "Sunday Night Football." The two programs lifted NBC out the cellar to put the network in a third-place tie with ABC.

Obviously, NBC can't extend the National Football League season, but it can install "The Voice" as the first singing competition with fall and spring editions. NBC won't officially say "The Voice" is going to a full year, but several individuals connected to show say the plan for a spring edition is a go. Executive producer Mark Burnett says he's prepared to expand the show's run, even if it means losing some of the judges/coaches associated with the program. One insider expects two of the four current coaches to take a break after this fall's edition.

"Here's the fact we decided: When you've been on this show, that's your chair for life," Burnett says. "So if they have to tour and someone comes in for a season and then goes out for a season, comes back for a season, there will never be anyone getting replaced, ever.

"It's going to be moving pieces all the time. And luckily maybe a couple of them go on tour, a couple of them don't go on tour," Burnett adds, saying it's his nightmare. "They have an obligation to their fans. And so that's how we're going to do it."

Blake Shelton doesn't quite agree.

"Obviously that's a hard pill for me to swallow," Shelton says. "I feel like I was part of the building of this process -- we all worked our asses off on it. It would be hard for me to get up out of that chair and let someone else be there. It's also hard for me to be in that chair and know that I could be out there touring too. I need to be able to do both and maybe with back-to-back seasons I can. But something's got to give.

"As much as it's about music, we're doing television. We all have to search within ourselves [and ask], 'How long can we do this before we become a TV person instead of a music person? And are you OK with that?' Right now this is still what I want to do because I see myself touring and getting back out there."

For Cee Lo Green, the show's shooting schedule meant he had to delay the opening of his Las Vegas residency to 2013. Christina Aguilera will have a single and album to promote this season, and Shelton has a Christmas album due Oct. 2 that's likely to be heavy in NBC tie-ins. Singer Adam Levine and his band Maroon 5 are in the middle of a tour of South America, Asia and Australia, with dates sandwiched between the tapings and the live shows.

To promote the third season of "The Voice," Burnett opened the grounds of his expansive Malibu, Calif., home for NBC to throw a Sunday evening meet-and-greet party attended by host/producer Carson Daly, the four coaches and an army of NBC publicity executives. A DJ segued from pop hits to the songs of Aguilera, Green, Shelton and Maroon 5 prior to the team taking their spots on a makeshift stage to answer questions and spell out changes for the coming season. A video of the four coaches performing the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" was screened on a pair of high-definition monitors.

Once the group session was complete and a few interviews were finished, Aguilera ate in private with her son and boyfriend, Levine strolled the grounds with his girlfriend, Green camped out at a picnic table, and Shelton was an outgoing conversationalist ready to speak with anyone.

NBC's goal at the event was to unveil the new elements in the first fall season of "The Voice," when its concurrent rival at Fox will be "The X Factor." The premiere will be spread over three consecutive nights, Sept. 10-12 -- a move that reinforces its importance to NBC's overall ratings. Undoubtedly, "The Voice" will be stuffed with promotional ads for the network's new fall series. The show will air on Mondays and go through October when live rounds begin. It will also add a Tuesday elimination episode that will be a prime opportunity for the coaches and visiting guest performers to appear.

New this season is a "knockout round" that will follow blind auditions and the battle rounds. During the knockout rounds, the contestants will be allowed to pick their own songs to give an indication of the type of artist they see themselves as. Furthermore, when a singer is eliminated during the battle rounds, before he or she is sent packing the coaches will be allowed to steal that artist for their team. Each team will have 10 singers at the end of the battle rounds, which will be whittled to five after the knockouts and the live shows begin.

In addition, Mary J. Blige, Billie Joe Armstrong, Michael Bublé and Rob Thomas are onboard as mentors this season.

At the media event, Levine was particularly effusive about the effect of the new elements: "It's a brilliant piece of TV." There lies the rub: "The Voice" has built its average per-show audience of 15.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen, by delivering compelling stories and performances. It hasn't resulted in the creation of a star, which one upcoming change may affect: All of the singers will appear weekly during the live rounds, easily doubling the amount of airtime they receive. Previous winners Jermaine Paul and Javier Colon had only five performances each in the competition, the same number as the three runners-up.

"We can provide a certain amount of insurance that this person will get some kind of shot at success," Levine said. "There's no way to guarantee or to ensure that that will happen … We're not their manager, we're not their record label. We can't micromanage everything that happens after their run on the show. We would love to see a star born out of this show. We're positive that it will happen, but we're not hinging the validity or the relevance of the show on that because that's just ridiculous. That's just not a reasonable expectation."

Republic, the Universal Music Group label that hands the winner a contract and an advance of $100,000, is eyeing a November/December release from Paul, who was crowned the winner in early May. Runner-up Juliet Simms and teenage country singer RaeLynn, who got the boot in the quarterfinals, will have singles on Republic labels at about the same time.

Last season's fourth-place finisher, the classically trained pop specialist Chris Mann, will be the first out of the gate with a release on Oct. 30 on Fairlight/Republic. The collection is seven covers and four originals.

"We didn't waste any time," Mann said about his move to the studio after the show. "My goal was not to get as much publishing as I could, but to sing the 11 best songs I could find -- songs I love and songs that I wrote."

All eight of the show's finalists in the first two seasons fit a particular profile: recording artists who have been signed to label deals, toured and recorded but never quite clicked with a national audience. Mann sees that as a strength for "The Voice." "For 12 years I've been trying to make a record, and this is the result of being ready."