Gwen Stefani And Blake Shelton’s PDA Leads To A Decline In ‘The Voice’ Ratings?
Is Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton’s relationship bad for The Voice?
As the couple continues to flaunt their romance on the show, a report has hit the web, claiming that the relationship between Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton may have led to a dip in the ratings.
On March 6, a report by Yahoo! News revealed that the pair was being accused of “ruining” the NBC singing competition — and of acting unprofessionally during filming. According to the report, The Voice lost nearly 2.5 million viewers between the show’s February 27 premiere and its third episode last Thursday night. While it is hard to say for sure what led to the ratings decline, viewers have reportedly been weighing in on social media, claiming Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton’s non-stop flirting has them changing the channel.
As TV Line confirmed days ago, The Voice‘s Season 12 premiere received over 13 million viewers, which marked a decline from past seasons. However, as the outlet also noted, the series was the highest ranking show of the night. Days later, The Voice‘s Thursday night episode gained over 10 million viewers, which, despite the drop from Monday, landed the network in the top spot once again.
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton began dating while filming the ninth season of The Voice in late 2015, but when the show returned the following year for Season 10, Christina Aguilera took over as the female coach. One season later, both Stefani and Aguilera sat out while The Voice featured its first two-female, two-male panel with Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys.
As The Voice continued to film without her, Gwen Stefani continued with her romance with Blake Shelton and during the show’s 10th season, they debuted their duet, “Go Ahead and Break My Heart,” which they wrote together during the early moments of their relationship.
After Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys had taken over on the show, it was confirmed that during Season 12, Gwen Stefani would once again be seen alongside her boyfriend. At the same time, Cyrus was confirmed as a Season 13 coach.
“We can’t wait to experience the unique chemistry and energy Gwen, Alicia, Blake and Adam will bring to [The Voice] Season 12,” Paul Telegdy, president of Alternative and Reality Group at NBC Entertainment, said in a statement, via E! News. “With Miley returning for Season 13, we’re truly ecstatic about the unmatched musical know-how and talent coming together in our coming seasons.”
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton first starred alongside one another on The Voice Season 7, but at the time, Stefani was married to Gavin Rossdale, and he was married to Miranda Lambert. Then, as they embarked on Season 9, they realized they were going through very similar splits.
“I thought it was going to be another one of those things-are-going-to-be-OK talks,” he recalled to Billboard magazine. “[Gwen Stefani] didn’t tell me much, because we didn’t know each other at the time, but she said, ‘I’m going through something very similar to what you’re going through. I understand. And I hate it.’ That’s kind of how our friendship and bond started, that day. It went from that, to checking in on each other once a week through email — ‘This s**t happened to me, what happened to you?’ — to maybe three times a week, then every day, to ‘Hey, here’s my phone number if you ever want to text.’ Next thing I know, I wake up and she’s all I care about, and I’m wondering if she feels the same about me.”
To see more of Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton, and their co-stars, Alicia Keys and Adam Levine, don’t miss new episodes of The Voice Season 12 on Monday and Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. on NBC.
[Featured Image by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images]
