Why Does The Voice Only Have 3 Coaches This Season? Apparently, There Is A Reason

The Voice’s revamped 29th season is finally upon us, and some big changes are coming with the return of NBC’s singing competition to the 2026 TV schedule. One of the biggest twists of the new season will be obvious from the start — for the first time in The Voice’s history, there are only three coaches instead of four. This major switchup confused me at first, but there’s a good reason for it, according to the showrunner.

Kelly Clarkson, Adam Levine and John Legend will be Season 29’s coaching trio, making up The Voice’s first-ever all-champion panel. However, it’s not like those are the only three coaches to ever win the show (nobody’s forgetting Blake Shelton’s nine victories), so why the reduction? According to EP Audrey Morrissey, it has to do with NBC adding NBA games to its primetime lineup, which resulted in fewer episodes and therefore smaller teams.

In fact, the teams are so small, there aren’t really enough contestants to justify a fourth coach, the EP told Gold Derby:

That's not even to mention how this all affects Brilliant Minds.

The Voice Season 29 will feature 30 singers vying for The Voice glory, with John Legend, Kelly Clarkson and Adam Levine each leading a team of 10. Assuming that was the largest number of contestants the show could accommodate with its reduced episode count, that means adding a fourth coach would have led to teams of around 7, which I agree would be “ridiculous.”

As it is, 30 is already such a lower number than we’re used to. In Season 28, which saw Niall Horan’s team member Aiden Ross crowned the champion (leaving the One Directioner’s record on the show unblemished), there were 48 contestants chosen in Blind Auditions — 12 per team.

Season 27 also had 48, while Season 26 had a whopping 56-artist cast in 2024 — nearly double what we’re about to see this season.

There could be other factors at play in this “Battle of Champions,” as Ceelo Green will judge an "In-Season All-Star Competition," with each coach bringing back two fan-favorite team members. They will compete in head-to-head battles themselves, in hopes of earning their coach an extra artist in the finale. Those artists are:

Team Kelly

• Jake Hoot
• Girl Named Tom

Team Adam

• Javier Colon
• Jordan Smith

Team Legend

• Maelyn Jarmon
• Renzo

I’m not sure how many times the veteran artists will perform, but clearly this side contest also takes away time that would have otherwise been used by the singers in the main competition.

These aren’t the only big twists in store for The Voice Season 29. One change I’m super pumped for is no Blocks in the Blind Auditions, but I’m actually really disappointed that they’re also doing away with live episodes. Finale voting instead will fall to an in-studio audience of past contestants and superfans.

I'm interested in seeing how going from four coaches to three affects their strategies and, thankfully, we don’t have to wait any longer. The Voice Season 29 kicks off at 9 p.m. ET Monday, February 23, on NBC and streaming the next day with a Peacock subscription.