After last week’s first round of Battles on The Voice aired on Monday night, previews for Tuesday’s previews featured clips of Gwen dishing out flirtatious comments to two of Alicia’s young male contestants about their bodies. Once Tuesday night’s episode aired, gossip sites were chomping at the bit to cover the scene, emphasizing Gwen’s wrongdoing and Blake’s jealousy, which was in fact playful and nonexistent.
Although the clickbait headlines and inaccurate retellings were inconsequential, there’s a more glaring issue with the current season of The Voice. Is the dynamic between the two lovebird coaches a draw for fans, or has it become a distraction from the singers’ performances?
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The ins and outs of Blake and Gwen’s relationship and its display on the screen have been an undeniable draw for viewership during this season of The Voice, but is there such a thing as too much within the context of a singing competition? Fans of the show have always loved the setup of this reality contest in part because of the chemistry among the coaches and the time they spend interacting with one another. Let’s face it, when celebrities know how to joke and have fun, it makes them seem a little bit less like untouchable famous faces and a tiny bit more like regular human beings.
But in the case of on-screen romance, it’s possible that the laser focus on Blake and Gwen’s love at times clouds over the importance of the show’s contestants. During that little faux squabble between the two lovebirds, singers Chris Blue and R.J. Collins barely managed to squeeze any feedback out of the coaches between Adam’s pointed prods and Blake’s pretend outbursts.
Blake and Gwen established their on-screen dominance from the get-go, when Gwen perched herself on her beau’s lap during the first night of the Blind Auditions. Although Alicia jumped on board to create a cute, cuddly moment that sparked pretend jealousy from Blake’s bromance partner Adam, she is the only one who focuses more on the contestants than The Voice‘s cupid success story.
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The powerhouse duo also unfairly work together to persuade the singers that they can, in fact, have the best of both worlds no matter which coach they choose, as long as it’s one of the two of them. Rumors swirled during the Blind Auditions that Blake and Gwen were getting paid big bonus bucks by the show’s producers to ramp up their affection in order to boost ratings, but this rumor was never confirmed. Fans flocked to Twitter to beg the show to move on from Blake and Gwen canoodling to featuring the hardworking singers who are trying to catch a break.
Fans and online outlets have expressed their hopes that the buzz-worthy coverage of the couple will fizzle out once the competition moves on from the Blinds to the Battle Rounds, but things seem to be heating up to a boiling point instead. Headlines with exaggerated speculations on everything from a Blake cheating scandal to Gwen’s faux flirtations have far outweighed any that feature outstanding contestant performances, and I feel bad for the singers competing this season. Who cares about whether or not Blake might have to sleep on the couch when a young performer’s future is on the line?
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After all, The Voice did make the decision to lower the qualifying age for this season, resulting in even younger, more impressionable contestants who need nurturing more than the celebrity egos. As the season continues and the competition becomes more cutthroat, here’s hoping the duo (along with Adam) dials it down and shifts the attention to the reason the series was created in the first place.
What do you think? Is The Voice focusing too much on the coaches and not enough on the singers? Or do you like getting to see the coaches’ personal lives? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
The Voice airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8/7c on NBC. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.
(Image and videos courtesy of NBC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
