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'The Voice' starts strong; what does NBC do if it stays that way?
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Pretty much any way you cut it, "The Voice" got off to a good start for NBC on Tuesday (April 26). With those solid ratings, though, comes a somewhat rare high-class problem for the network: If the show continues its strong performance, what does NBC do with it in the future?First, the numbers: The music competition's two-hour premiere averaged 11.8 million viewers and a 5.1 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic. The 18-49 figure is the best for any series debut in more than a year, going back to the post-Super Bowl premiere of "Undercover Boss" in February 2010.
"The Voice" also grew in each of its first three half-hours -- a good sign that viewers were sticking around -- before leveling off in its last 30 minutes, where it lost a handful of viewers (12.27 million at 10 to 12.06 million at 10:30) but maintained its 18-49 rating (5.4 in both half-hours). It posted big improvements over NBC's season averages in both the 9 and 10 o'clock hours.
The network also made what looks like a wise scheduling decision by debuting the series well after the early hype of "American Idol's" season died down -- and on a night when CBS aired a slate of reruns. There may not be a huge crossover audience between "NCIS: Los Angeles" and "The Voice," but starting against somewhat softer competition doesn't hurt.
Now, that high-class problem: Let's make the (still rather large) assumption that "The Voice" holds most of its premiere audience for the next several weeks and into the summer portion of its run. That would in turn probably mean that the show gets another season.
So if you're NBC, badly in need of hit shows, where do you put it? A late spring/summer run for Season 2 seems almost like a waste: Summer, with "America's Got Talent" as its anchor, is arguably one of the healthier parts of NBC's schedule and doesn't really need the help.
It also seems unlikely that the network would hurry another season of the show onto the air in the fall, partly for logistical reasons -- Season 2 would have to start shooting almost before the live-broadcast portion of its first season wrapped -- but also because it's usually good to give the audience a little time to miss a show.
That would leave midseason, and to us, that feels like the right time to slot "The Voice." It probably wouldn't be wise to put it in direct competition with "American Idol," but in success it could serve as a launchpad for other new series. A Tuesday berth leading into some new drama or another comedy block could work well, allowing "The Biggest Loser" -- which has held up reasonably well against "Idol" in the past -- perhaps to migrate to Wednesdays and give NBC a bump over what "Minute to Win It" delivers now.
This could all be rendered moot in the next couple weeks if "The Voice" takes a dive. But if it holds up, we're really curious to see how NBC handles the show going into next season.
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not showing the same episode 2 days in a row will help. Keeping it away from hit shows will also help. Yes it did good in the ratings but a lot of shows we repeats this week so that might play a factor. Just have to wait and see and hope they don't try to tinker with it.
NBC does this all the time, claim to have a huge hit on their hand, advertise it as the next best thing to sliced bread, then watch the ratings dwindle down to nothing. Can anyone say "The Event"??? How did that work out for NBC?
With a couple of hits like this, perhaps they'll give The Event a chance to continue gaining viewers. The show itself is getting better, and the ratings are slowly coming up. Fingers crossed!
It's on again tonight? Awesome. So next week NBC will air promos telling me that 20 million people watched because they'll add the totals from both nights together, right?
I'll be shocked if NBC can do anything with it.
I really enjoyed this show so I hope it sticks around. It was nice to see a Fun, Playful Vibe to a Competition and some real talent. for me, this year, it was a real step up from idol which is starting to get boring and predictable. this show brings a whole new game show style to a competition and is original, so if it's still on, I'll watch.
THEY SHOULD RUN IT EVERY NIGHT. RUN IT INTO THE GROUND!
This show is fresh and fun to watch since it doesn't have judges but COACHES, and the contestants get to pick one. Idol is totally and completely rigged, everyone with a half a brain knows that (if you doubt this use your DVR and freeze frame a still at the end where it says the producers and "independent voting company" -which is basically a subcontracted division of the network- have the right to discount and remove votes: it's right there in the legalese, folks) and year after year we see the MOST talented people leave, i.e. Adam Lambert, Pia Toscano, etc, and the ones that do get votes are just a result of the only group voting, total teenage girls doing a high school popularity contest (Kris Allen? Cute. Won. He's done a Ford commercial, that's it) David Archuleta was obviously more gifted than David Cook, and as was seen by last week's guest performance on the elim. show he still sucks. And WTF is with Casey Abrams this year?? Once in a blue moon he sounds OK... but he looks- and usually sounds- like the Muppet "Animal" and does freaky weird non-relateable crap (and I am sorry, but IDOL is all about a complete "pop package" singer, that's the sad truth about what sells records, I mean if Britney Spears weighed 400 pounds but still sounded good, NO ONE would have ever heard of her, that's just the America we live in, sadly) so Casey has stuck around and was "saved" I think because he has so many supposed health problems (for the pity vote). Plus I guess it doesn't hurt in Hollywood to have a Jewish father or the same last name as a famous J.J. (lol) I think Casey's a funny, sometimes talented guy, but against powerhouse Pia? Come ON! They took her out of the competition simply because they felt it was unfair to the other contestants to compete with someone that spectacular, and if you followed the news she had an entire team of award-winning producers and songwriters all ready with a pre-packaged album for her THE DAY AFTER SHE WAS ELIMINATED. Idol has really devolved into a ratings ***** with the staged shenanigans, pity-party-stories and it's clear that it can't keep judges after Simon left, because once they get on board they get disgusted at how much it is completely rigged. SO- Having ranted about that I think that "THE VOICE" has come at the most perfect time; the poor network really does need something besides "The Biggest Loser" to have any kind of an audience, and I really think this show is their golden egg. Let's just hope they have sense enough not to cook their own goose... like they always usually seem to do. I wish The Voice the same success of Idol- and THEN SOME. It's the anti-Idol and I hope it brings an end to the Idol era, they've been around plenty long and aside from a handful of select few, hardly anyone that wins is ever heard from again. It's time for some new blood.
Every show is going to have some controversy and with every show based on voting, you will have people voted off to soon or people that stay too long. Sometimes your favorites do not win, and on The Voice it will be the same. You will have people on The Voice that you love/hate, just like on American Idol. I for one, love American Idol, in addition I think The Voice has an interesting concept!