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Season three changes - interview with NBC's 'The Voice' cast

By April MacIntyre Aug 14, 2012, 18:33 GMT

Voice star Cee Lo Green © Kent Miller / PR Photos

This past Sunday, producer Mark Burnett held an intimate press conference at his home in Malibu where the cast of the Emmy nominated reality series, The Voice, were convened to share some season three changes.

At the conference were Burnett, host Carson Daly and mentors Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green and social media diva Christina Millian.

Burnett opened the conference with a personal note about how important the show and the cast mean to him. "You all should know Roma (Downey) and I do not do business at home.  Our home is called the sanctuary, and for us to choose to do a press thing here is huge for us personally as family.  But truly we've gotten so close with all these guys, and it really has become like a family on 'The Voice.'  Everyone gets along so well.  It's great fun.  That was what made us agree to open our home up."

Burnett elaborated on the season so far: "We're in the middle of shooting Season 3 of 'The Voice.'  And you may have heard rumors.  There are some changes in the format, which we'll deal with today completely.  We've had a great time.  We were there today shooting a whole 'nother element today.  The show is more fun than ever, I think better talent than ever.  And these guys are on their A game.  It's been really great fun, which is making these long shoot days much easier when the coaches are having a great time together, even though they're competitive." 

"Obviously, Season 3 has been an evolution.  So here's the official evolution of the format:  We know that we go from blind auditions, tons of fun, to the battles, which is where these coaches will narrow down their teams.  This year there's much more at stake.  When they have their battles and select one person to stay with them and one person to leave, the other coach can buzz in and steal that person that the coach has sent home," said Burnett. "Because the question was, from the press and the public, "Wow, this battle between these two great people.  Wow, someone went home who probably could have won another music show."  And in this case the other coaches can buzz in...and it's called The Steal."

Host Carson Daly also shared his thoughts on the season thus far. "We're in the middle of shooting Season 3.  Season 1, people thought we were crazy for going to NBC with an idea for another singing competition show.  And we had great success Season 1, even better success Season 2 coming off the Super Bowl.  And here we are in the middle of Season 3, and we shot 13 hours of TV in the last seven days, which is a lot, especially for our four coaches, four of the biggest names in music, who have very busy schedules."

"We feel blessed to have been the only singing competition this year nominated for an Emmy," said Daly.  

Daly noted that social networking "was a really important component" and said Christina (Millian) has "done a great job in offering our viewers a deeper experience into "The Voice," whether it's the artists or their families or our coaches."

Adam Levine concurred about the closeness of their team. "We're family here at 'The Voice.'"

Burnett added, "It's been a very kind experience.  We try to create a kind experience on this show where people who deserve to stay now get a chance to stay.  Eventually only one is going to win."

We were there that night and had a question regarding the new format.

Monsters and Critics: So the steal, the battle rounds.  What if someone is not picked?  Is there an emotional aspect to this where you have to console?  Maybe there's an expectation of these contestants that "Ooh, I'm probably going to get stolen by one of the judges"  and  "I'm not dead in the water yet"? and it does not happen? 

BLAKE SHELTON:  Oh, yeah.

CHRISTINA MILIAN:  I can say for me  

ADAM LEVINE:  Yeah.

CARSON DALY:  Yeah, it hangs in the balance.

ADAM LEVINE:  Double painful.

CHRISTINA MILIAN:  I end up actually interviewing them afterwards for our social media.  We actually interview    I'm the only one that gets the exclusive interviews with them.  And either you have people celebrating because one got stolen and the other one got chosen for a team, or we have moments where there's somebody that really emotional and upset and crying or maybe a little pissed off.

CHRISTINA AGUILERA:  Yeah.

CHRISTINA MILIAN:  They might not like each other.  There's a little bit drama that happens with them having to work together and put these songs together.  And of course, they're very competitive.  So it's really interesting what you see happen sometimes in those interviews for online and    but I mean, everybody is    they're troopers.

ADAM LEVINE:  We don't take that lightly either. 

CHRISTINA MILIAN:  Yeah.

ADAM LEVINE:  That's another thing too.  It's pretty debilitating when you think about getting let go, someone choosing someone else over you and then essentially three other people also kind of not necessarily wanting to take you.

That's just like getting kicked in the balls and punched in the face at the same time.  It's just like    it's a horrible feeling.

(Laughter.)

So I know from experience this happens all the time.

CARSON DALY:  Today.

ADAM LEVINE:  It can't feel good to be in that position, and I think that we're all pretty sensitive to that.  I mean, we don't make any jokes about it.

CHRISTINA AGUILERA:  No, it's the worst for us, but I think because we all come from the experience of being in this business    and me in particular, I mean, I tell them all the time I grew up in talent competitions myself.  I was on, you know   

CEE LO GREEN:  "The Mickey Mouse Club."

CARSON DALY:  Say it. 

CHRISTINA AGUILERA:     television...I grew up in this business.

(Laughter.)

It's the hardest thing to let someone go.  And it breaks our hearts.  And that's also, I think, why we all took a shot at this together, sort of taking a risk, is because we    I talked with Mark Burnett at length before I signed on.  I was like, "I'm not here to take cheap shots at people.  I really want to support the talent."

And it's just   

CARSON DALY:  That's the one thing that we all had in common.  Remember that first meeting we had   

CHRISTINA AGUILERA:  I'm not into that. 

CARSON DALY:     before Season 1?

CHRISTINA AGUILERA:  I'm not here to knock down talent, you know.

CHRISTINA MILIAN:  You guys are so informative.

CARSON DALY:  Our very first meeting, we all came in   

CHRISTINA AGUILERA:  And that's what I think, yeah.  We all  

CEE LO GREEN:  Christina was late.

CARSON DALY:  Christina was late?  Is that what you   

CEE LO GREEN:  We're affectionate toward the industry at large.  Like we really    I believe    I think I can speak on behalf of everyone in saying that we really think that the industry, you know, our world needs better music.  You know what I'm saying?  So we definitely want to curate that.

CHRISTINA MILIAN:  They walk away from meeting you guys with growth, I think, overall.  You always    I mean, sometimes it's    there's a lot of conversation.  You guys are talking to them.

CARSON DALY:  Well, they say timing is everything, and the first time we really all met was in that big crazy conference room at NBC.  And we all came in, and Christina wasn't feeling well.  And we were all there for a nucleus of a reason.  I don't even think we all knew why.  But after about 10 minutes    none of us knew Blake, of course. 

(Laughter.)

We all knew each other.

CARSON DALY:  Honestly.  We'd all been at VMAs sitting next to each other, and then "Who's this Blake Shelton guy?"

BLAKE SHELTON:  I had never even heard of me.

(Laughter.)

ADAM LEVINE:  I thought they were bringing Kenny Chesney.

BLAKE SHELTON:  Who the fuck am I?

CARSON DALY:  But we really came in   

CHRISTINA AGUILERA:  That's fucked up.

(Laughter.)

CARSON DALY:     and after we talked about what was happening in TV and we talked about music and we talked about the record companies and we talked about the business that all of us had been in for 10 plus years    you're talking about four of the biggest names in music, myself had been in music, great television producer    and we thought, "You know what?  We think we could really make a difference right now."  And it's fun to be here just a few years later and to    not to promote Season 3, but I feel like we are hitting our stride on our level for why we're here.  And you're right.  There's nothing funny about people's pursuit of trying to make it in this business.

And we don't think it's funny.  And we want to celebrate it.  So the steals is a small way of us trying to help you   

CEE LO GREEN:  Exactly.

CARSON DALY:     get to that end goal.

CEE LO GREEN:  But you do not transition without trial and error.  That's the law.