Does It Matter That The Voice Hasn't Produced A Star?

Fans may have enjoyed watching The Voice shake things up a bit last season by bringing in guest judges Shakira and Usher to replace Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera, but when the upcoming block of episodes begins in the fall, all four of the original stars will be back to man their big red buzzers. No doubt many fans will be happy to see the foursome back together, but fortunately or unfortunately, their mere presence won’t be able to answer the one critique consistently thrown at the show: it’s never produced a star.

According to E! Online, earlier this evening, Aguilera, Green, longtime judge Adam Levine and host Carson Daly all took part in the Summer TCA press tour in order to generate a little hype for the upcoming Voice season, and, of course, like at almost any other event, someone asked the judges how the reality program holds up to the American Idol, considering the latter has produced a slew of stars including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson while the former hasn’t produced anyone. Sure, the reality competition program’s winners have put out some good music and done all they can, but none of them have even come close to surpassing the lofty heights set by the stars.

Here’s what Levine had to say…

We totally understand because of the comparisons that might exist out there, why it might seem to be a failure on the show's part. The immediacy of winning and becoming a huge star is a fairytale that we would love to see take place, but it's still a fairytale."

Let me go ahead and translate that answer for you. Hitmakers don’t just grow on trees. There might be scores of people out there with great voices, exceptional control and interesting haircuts, but an overwhelming majority of them still don’t have what it takes to be a star. There’s something about them that just doesn’t scream commercially viable.

On the one hand, it’s ridiculous to ask a program to produce an A-list talent by the end of the season. Even at the height of American Idol’s power, that reality competition program still missed quite a few times when it came to picking the right person. As such, it seems like we should all leave The Voice alone. On the other hand, if the program is going to sit there to claim it’s out to find the next big thing in music, they kind of need to do just that at some point. The program arguably has the best judges on television, but if they’re not finding real talent, what’s the point?

What do you think? Does The Voice need to produce a star this year for the show’s future? Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below…

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Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.