‘The Voice’ Exec Credits Adam Levine, Blake Shelton For Show’s Success Amid Quitting Rumors

Adam Levine and Blake Shelton have been mainstays on The Voice ever since it first began in 2011, and now Warner Bros. TV executive Mike Darnell is praising the duo as being the primary reason the show’s success amid rumors they may be ready to leave.

Heaping praise on Adam and Blake amid rampant rumors the long time coaches could soon be gearing up to leave the show, Darnell recently told Variety that he believes Levine and Shelton serving as mainstay coaches for the past 12 seasons is what has allowed The Voice to become one of NBC’s most successful shows.

“Because The Voice is so judge-centered, the judges are really what drive the show: their banter, their competitiveness,” Darnell, who previously worked on Fox’s American Idol, said in the new interview about Blake and Adam. “All of that stuff that’s very different from Idol and what’s come before it.”

“The keeping of [Adam and Blake] as your core, but then changing up everything constantly has made it feel refreshed every spring and fall,” Darnell, who’s president of Warner Bros.’ unscripted and alternative television, continued of Shelton and Levine’s chemistry on the set, admitting that Blake and Adam hold the show together.

The Voice executive then went on to admit that NBC “took a risk” by airing two seasons of the show per year with Levine and Shelton joined by a revolving cast of coaches, but he told the outlet that the format is “still working” despite reports the network could be looking to bump The Voice down to one season a year to possibly be replaced by American Idol amid claims Levine may only want to appear on one season going forward.

The Voice’s airtime potentially being cut in half was reported by TMZ last week, who claimed that Adam had allegedly made it clear to producers that he only wants to do one season a year going forward, and one cycle a year could be replaced by a revamped version of American Idol.

“We’re told Adam only wants to do one cycle a year,” the site reported of the Maroon 5 singer potentially leaving The Voice last week, though Adam Levine has not yet commented, and it’s not clear if Blake Shelton has plans to do the same.

While it’s not clear if Levine and Shelton will be continuing with The Voice for the entirety of the show’s run on NBC whether or not it is cut down to just one season per year, rumors that Adam and Blake may not be sticking around as permanent coaches on The Voice much longer first hit the headlines last year.

The quitting rumors swirled around Adam and Blake after Radar Online claimed that Shelton and Levine supposedly “feel that they have run their course as judges,” although both have only continued to gush over the show in the months that have followed.

Levine most recently hinted that he’s on the series to stay, if only for one season a year, during an appearance on The Today Show, where Levine stated that he couldn’t imagine life without The Voice while calling his relationship with Blake and their fellow coaches “family.”

“It is a family,” Adam said of the cast and crew at The Voice after sitting by Blake’s side for six years and 12 seasons. “It feels like such a tight knit thing at this point,” Levine revealed.

“I don’t know what I’d do without [The Voice], it seems bizarre. It’s a permanent fixture in your life,” Levine continued of his six-year gig on the NBC show with Shelton. “I can’t see my life without The Voice,” Adam added.

Blake has also been quick to gush over The Voice in recent months, as Shelton admitted amid the quitting rumors that he “loves” his job coaching on the series.

“I genuinely love this job, I love this opportunity,” Blake said of appearing with Adam on The Voice earlier this year according to BuddyTV. “I only have one goal when it comes to this show, to win with an artist. It feels so good to say to this person, ‘I knew you could do this.'”

What do you think of The Voice’s Mike Darnell crediting Blake and Adam for the show’s success? Do you think Adam Levine and Blake Shelton are the main reason the NBC series continues to be so popular?

[Featured Image by Jason Kempin/Getty Images]