The Voice: Back In The Fall?

Charlie Toft April 23, 2012

It’s almost that time again: the announcements of who has made the cut for the various fall lineups. As usual, NBC will have plenty of trouble spots to deal with, but the peacock is also thinking about a major change regarding its leading winter-spring series, The Voice.

According to a report in Variety, auditions for the third season of The Voice are already taking place, adding real evidence to the widespread speculation that NBC intends to move the show to the fall. The audition news comes on top of the report that mentor Adam Levine and his band Maroon 5 had agreed to adjust their promotional efforts for their new CD, in order to give Levine the time he needs to work on The Voice in the latter weeks of 2012.

NBC has yet to say anything official about a move, though Carson Daly went on record last week as saying that “we on the production side are all ready to go and excited by it.” There are pros and cons to the contemplated move. The big risk is that running The Voice twice in one year, even if only this one time, might accelerate the burnout process. The only other reality show NBC has ever had that was a massive immediate hit, The Apprentice, suffered a similar fate.

The other factors arguing against moving The Voice are first, that competition tends to be stiffer in the fall (the other networks offer fewer reruns early in the season); and second, NBC already has one tentpole in its fall lineup, the Sunday NFL game, so moving The Voice would leave its winter slate potentially barren yet again.

But a point in favor of the move to the fall would be getting The Voice away from the shadow of American Idol. The two don’t air opposite each other, but the ratings seem to prove that most of those who want to make time for just one singing show in their week are preferring to go with Idol. The Voice would still have to contend with The X Factor airing on Fox if it moved to fall, but that show doesn’t have nearly the same fear factor associated with it.