The Voice's Seasons Are Shrinking: Is This the Sign the Show's Dying?

For the first 20 seasons of its run, The Voice was a universally acclaimed reality singing competition, boasting great judges and talented contestants and earning much acclaim from critics and viewers.

In recent years, however, the show has gone off the rails a bit, with fans complaining that it spends too much time showing how wonderful the judges are instead of focusing on the singers.

And it looks like even the fresh blood of Chance the Rapper and Niall Horan can't fix all of The Voice's problems, as fans have found yet another thing to worry about — the show's seasons are getting shorter and shorter.

Season 21 featured six weeks of live performances, with a gradual elimination of contestants in each episode, making the flow of the action feel natural and compelling. Season 22 had only five weeks of live performances, but the progression from the Top 16 to the finale was well thought-out too.

Sadly, the current Season 23 takes that gradual progression approach and throws it out the window, featuring only three weeks of performances and eliminating 12 (!) contestants in just one episode!

People have been rightfully shocked by this, saying that NBC is simply robbing them of the chance to root for their favorite performers, as most of them would be eliminated in one episode. This makes the whole journey to the finale seem like a total disappointment, fans claim.

But does this short season prove that The Voice's time on the air is coming to an end?

Actually, no. NBC had planned to move away from making two seasons of The Voice a year, and 2023 was supposed to be the first year with just a fall season.

However, the show created to fill NBC's spring time slots, American Song Contest, flopped so badly last year that execs were forced to quickly assemble a short season of The Voice to fill the void. That's why Season 23 is so much shorter than its predecessors — but it doesn't mean the show itself is dying!