The Voice is been a huge rating success for NBC, but is the network looking to bring in some new — and younger — coaches to draw in a younger audience? Sources say The Voice wants to add popstar and tabloid bad boy Justin Bieber to their lineup of coaches, but if Bieber and The Voice can come to an agreement, which coach would be sent packing?
Hollywood Life is reporting that exclusive sources have divulged to them that although last season’s ratings were good, they didn’t quite live up to some previous seasons, and The Voice team feels they need to move toward drawing in younger viewers. Perhaps NBC noted that last season’s winner, Sawyer Fredericks , brought in a very young audience for the 16-year-old Americana sensation, drawing in some of the tween and teen crowd as well as their parents. The coaches from all previous seasons range in age from Christina Aguilera, 34, to Cee-Lo Green, 40, but Justin Bieber would be the youngest sitting in the red chairs, at the ripe old age of 21.
The Voice insider told Hollywood Life that producers are ready to shake things up to inject some life back into the show.
“This last season of The Voice had its finale be the least rated ever and Mark Burnett has taken notice. He wants to mix it up to get ratings up and get younger viewers to watch the show. The first thing the producers plan to do is change up the judging line-up, and the source says that “one of the seats the show wants to fill is [with] Justin Bieber.”
That sounds like a great plan to boost ratings of The Voice , but there’s just one problem: there are only four red chairs for coaches, so that means someone would have to go to make room for Justin Bieber. According to Radar Online , Christina Aguilera seems like an obvious choice if you believe their report that the staff of The Voice are tired of her diva-like behavior, lateness and reported rumors she’s still fighting with other coaches, particularly Adam Levine , despite playing nice in front of the cameras.
However, The Voice source told Hollywood Life the show wants to keep a female coach in the mix, although that wouldn’t rule out a return of Gwen Stefani or Shakira instead of Aguilera. So what are the chances of splitting up the bromance between the only two coaches who have been on every season of The Voice ?
“Blake and Adam are mainstays and they will not be removed. They have talked about pairing [the group] with Usher but they also would like to see the three guys [Blake, Adam & Justin] interact with a girl.”
Even though coach Pharrell Williams was was behind last season’s winner and the only coach to have two finalists, it sounds like he might be on the chopping block to pave the way for Justin Bieber. If Pharrell leaves to make room for Bieber, The Voice will be trading the maturity of a coach who brings contestants an enthusiasm and wisdom about about not only the music industry, but life in general, and that would be sorely missed. It’s hard to imagine that level of coaching coming from Bieber, whose career these days seems to be focused more on tabloid headlines and gratuitous shirtlessness.
Do you think Justin Bieber would make a good coach on The Voice ? He would bring in a younger audience, but would it be at the price of more mature fans turned off by the tabloid reports of his bad behavior? Who do you think would make the best new coach on The Voice if they bring in a replacement?
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