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The Voice UK is a British television talent show created by John de Mol and based on the concept The Voice of Holland. It began airing on BBC One on 24 March 2012. There are five different stages to the show: producers' auditions, blind auditions, battle phase, knockouts, and live shows. The winner receives £100,000 and a record deal with Universal Republic. There have been five winners to date: Leanne Mitchell, Andrea Begley, Jermain Jackman, Stevie McCrorie and Kevin Simm.
The show involves artists drawn from public auditions, and is part of The Voice franchise. It is produced by Wall to Wall as well as Dutch production company Talpa Productions.
The BBC won a "bidding war" with ITV, paying £22 million for the rights to broadcast the show in the UK for two years. ITV's Britain's Got Talent launched its sixth series on the same date of 24 March 2012.[1] Many media outlets saw this move as a deliberate attempt by ITV to create a "TV ratings war" with the BBC.
In November 2015, the BBC announced that the fifth series of The Voice UK will be their last.[3] That same month, ITV announced they had acquired the rights to air The Voice UK for three additional series, as well as plans for two series' of The Voice Kids and a spin-off series to air on ITV2, to begin airing in 2017.
Production
The Voice first came to the public eye when the BBC revealed that it was exploring the possibility of acquiring the rights. However,ITV was also interested as it was concerned that The X Factor could lose ratings after Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue left the panel. ITV were said to be afraid that the show with would "upstage" theirs. It was reported by The Sun that BBCand ITV were in a "bidding war" for The Voice UK.[5] The Sun's Colin Robertson and Leigh Holmwood stated that ITV were "nervous", "fearing" that The Voice UK could "undermine" the X Factor.The Sun had previously reported that the BBC were "close" to getting The Voice, as well as saying that "ITV executives had originally told X Factor top brass they weren't interested in picking up the rights." However, "now they have told owners of The Voice format they ARE interested." A source said, "The X Factor has had a bit of a rollercoaster ride already this year and ITV fear any rival new show could blow it out of the water. The hype around The Voice is now so great that ITV feels it has no choice but to be in the running for it. If the BBC got it—and managed to sign Cheryl—then it could snare loads of viewers away from The X Factor." ITV were planning to have The Voice UK as "'companion show'" forThe X Factor.
On 18 June 2011, it was reported that the BBC had won the rights to The Voice UK. In mid-2011 it was revealed that BBC would be broadcasting The Voice after paying £22 million.[6] Danny Cohen, the controller of BBC One, said he wants the programme to emulate the success of The Apprentice and defended his decision to invest in it. Cohen said, "I thought it was really good. Every so often the BBC occasionally buys something from abroad that is peerlessly good, like The Apprentice. We adapted that for Britain withAlan Sugar and made the British version the best in the world. We hope The Voice will do similarly. We shouldn't shut the door on anything."
It was later revealed that The Voice would not be going head-to-head with The X Factor as Strictly Come Dancing is broadcast at the end of the year. Channel 4 had entered the bidding war with the BBC and ITV, but later pulled out after the channel's director called the show "derivative" and "a rip-off" It was said that the BBC was keen to sign up a new singing-talent show after it dropped Fame Academy in 2004 and had not revisited the genre. It was also eager to schedule a replacement for So You Think You Can Dance, which was dropped in 2011. Presenter Holly Willoughby also stated that The Voice UK is a "feel good show" saying, "The difference [with The Voice] is it's a blind audition, the coaches can't see the contestants when they come on stage so they judge them purely on their voice and their voice alone. It's really feel-good and the coaches are incredible."
Devised by John de Mol, the creator of Big Brother, The Voice is based on the Dutch TV programme The Voice of Holland and is part of The Voice franchise, being based on the similar U.S. format. The BBC were "desperate" to get The Voice UK after they axed So You Think You Can Dance.
According to Anita Singh from The Daily Telegraph, the BBC have spent £22 million on buying the rights to the show, which will last two years. Of the amount of money spent on it, a BBC spokesperson said, "There is an awful lot of pressure, given the money spent on the format, for the ratings to be good. But at the moment all signs are that it will be cash well spent." Singh stated however, that this contradicted a "pledge" made by Mark Thompson, the director-general. He said, "The BBC needs to make a further significant shift towards distinctiveness, spending more of the licence fee on output which, without the BBC, wouldn't get made at all." The ITV reportedly "offered more for the format but were turned down". After comparisons to the X Factor were made, Cohen defended the decision to gain the rights to the show saying, "We feel that there's enough difference in this format that it will stand out. The fact that ITV tried very hard to get it—even though they've got The X Factor—suggests that they feel this show is different enough [from that one]."
