Sad reason behind The Voice Australia's ratings flop: 'Huge red flag'

A former executive producer of The Voice Australia has slammed the show, saying the producers need to reformat the second half of the season, as ratings generally peak during the Blind Auditions.

"Why are the viewers walking away mid season? That is what needs to be addressed," the former executive producer tells Yahoo Lifestyle. "The Voice Australia has a major issue in the way the show rates on Australian television. The show always launches strongly and people love the 'blinds' but the fact the national audience drops away while the show whittles the contestants down - is a clear indicator that the show has a flaw in the format."

"Kate Miller-Heidke really wants to develop a successful artist and mark my words she will be pointing this out to producers and it won't be the first time," they added. "We don't have anyone in the last three seasons that has made an impact on the charts. That is a huge red flag and a reason to assess the format."

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"A reality show should hold onto its audience. The numbers should continue to grow as you follow a winners journey but until Channel Seven works out a way on how to get investment from their audience to follow their favourite artist? The Voice Australia will continue to be just a show about TV moments and not about creating a recording artist."

The insider added that Channel Seven knows this happens every year, and viewers will turn off after the blind auditions because they don't care about following an artist's journey, but the network hasn't made any changes to fix this.

"The issue had been discussed with many former coaches," the insider says. "Keith Urban, Seal and Ricky Martin were all for the changes and they have been gone for a while now."

"Maybe that is the reason why the coaches have had such a high turnover. The format needs to show these participants in a way that makes you want to go on a more exciting journey. It has frustrated coaches for years."

The former executive producer said Australian Idol was able to create stars when it first aired, explaining, "Australian Idol back in the day did this really well, you really got to know their personalities. You wanted to be them. You wanted to wear their clothes and get their haircuts. That is the kind of passion that leads to an artist having a career after the show."

They added, "The 'battles,' and the 'knockouts' don't cut it. Something needs to change. There needs to be backstories and more songs sung by the artists. A reason for viewers to buy in."

The Voice fans slam the show's format: 'What a joke'

The Voice Australia fans have slammed the show's format, with one Facebook user writing, "Can't believe how short this series of The Voice is. Only on Sunday night. What a joke. I've always loved the show."

"Because the show is only popular during the BLINDS. People just want to see who gets the judges to turn their chairs. After that the viewership really drops off, so the producers decided to make the actual competition very short," another suggested.

"I cannot understand why Channel 7 does this to The Voice series," a third said. "This show should be about the contestants, watching them, seeing them grow. We should get to know them week after week. What ever happened to a good old fashion talent show."

They added, "The poor contestants hardly get anytime on TV. Shame on 7 for not putting it on more than one day a week. Some of us people would still love it to be on 3 days. Disappointed."

Many others have been left disappointed that some contestants' performances aren't shown at all, with one user saying, "Seems it's all about the Blinds... then it's over in a blink."

"This is the part where they rush through all the acts like last year," another said.

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"I wish they would go back to the old format like Channel Nine had with the live shows it just sucks really..." a third wrote.

"Here we go again like last year, not letting the artist sing for more than two seconds. It’s crap," another agreed.

Many others said they wished the show would go back to being live, as the public could vote for their favourite performers.

"This show wrapped up in April...I've said this before I just wish they would go back to the live shows so the public can vote properly," one angry viewer said. "I don't like the way it's done now all pre-recorded because the way we vote now it's not fair it really isn't... I've watched the American version of The Voice – so much better, so so much better than ours... Please Channel 7 read all the social media comments about the show and for God's sake wake up and smell the roses...Change the damn format....geez."

The way that the show is currently shot is that Channel Seven has pre-recorded the show and multiple endings so that once the public has a chance to vote, the winner will only find out if they won at the same time as the viewers.

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