NBC is expanding The
Voice to a second night, adding one-hour live elimination rounds starting
Tuesday, April 3, the network announced Wednesday.
The live results shows will air from 9-10 p.m., with Tuesday
anchor The Biggest Loser shrinking to
one-hour to accommodate the change. NBC's newest reality series Fashion Star will still air from 10-11
p.m. as planned (it premieres March 13).
The Voice will
start its live episodes on Monday, April 2 and run in the two-night-per-week
format through its two-hour season finale on Tuesday, May 8. The series is
averaging a 7.5 rating with the 18-49 demo and 19.3 million total viewers in
its second season, and improved 15% in the ratings in its most recent episode
with the start of the battle rounds.
Summer reality staple America's
Got Talent will bow the following week with two-hour episodes on Monday,
May 14 and Tuesday, May 15 before shifting to one-hour episodes on Mondays and
Tuesdays in its second week. The show's seventh season marks the debut of new
judge Howard Stern, who replaces Piers Morgan on the judging panel.
The addition of The
Voice results show puts it into the same two-night format as other reality
competition series like American Idol
and Dancing With the Stars. The
Monday-Tuesday scheduling of both The
Voice and America's Got Talent
(the latter aired Tuesday-Wednesday last summer) also gives NBC a consistent
schedule of reality series on the nights, much as Fox has done with its
complementary scheduling of The X Factor,
American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance.
