Producers May Be Manipulating Who Wins on The Voice
LatestNBC’s singing competition show The Voice distinguishes itself from American Idol by holding “blind” auditions, but like Idol, there’s an audience participation element in the selection of a winner: Viewers can call, text or vote online. But according to a new report, it’s hard to say how much that matters, since the producers can manipulate the outcome.
The New York Daily News obtained the 32-page document contestants are required to sign. According to the report, NBC has the right to:
Change the rules at any time.
Eliminate contestants at any time, even if they are “winning” with the public.
Ignore the show’s voting system, which includes sales figures for contestants’ songs on iTunes, in the event of problems.
Force contestants to undergo medical or psychological testing and, under certain circumstances, release the results on TV.
Most of us have come to accept that “reality” TV does not, in fact, reflect a true reality. But viewers of the show were shocked last season to learn that fan favorite Judith Hill had been eliminated, when, as the News puts it, “producers admitted they had discarded thousands of votes cast via the Internet and social media.”
NBC denies manipulating the outcome of the show, but a legal expert who examined the contract told the News:
“The second clause of this document says to contestants, ‘F—k you. And if you missed it, the clauses that follow say, ‘F—k you.'”
Image via Twitter.