‘The Voice’ Season 12 Ratings Drop: Miley Cyrus And Gwen Stefani To Blame?

The Voice returned to NBC with much fanfare for Season 12 on February 27 but didn’t manage to pull in as many viewers in the 18 to 49 demographic as Season 11’s debut, and fans think Gwen Stefani replacing Miley Cyrus and her serious PDA with Blake Shelton may be to blame.

According to reports, The Voice struggled when it came to bringing in as many viewers as tuned in to see Miley and Alicia Keys join the panel alongside Blake and Adam Levine back in September, as Deadline reported that The Voice’s Season 12 premiere ratings were 9 percent lower than the Season 11 premiere.

Yahoo! also confirmed that the opener’s ratings slipped in the 18-49 demographic compared to last season’s premiere that saw Miley and Alicia make their debuts, noting that the first episode of Season 12 which saw Stefani return “marked the competition’s fourth straight demo decline for a premiere,” though the singing show was still the most watched on Monday night in terms of ratings.

As for why ratings took a bit of a dip for the February 27 premiere, The Voice fans took to social media to offer up their own explanations, suggesting that swapping out Miley for Gwen may have had something to do with the series opening to a smaller audience than the previous in the ratings game.

“The season premiere of The Voice had a 25 percent drop from the last season with Miley as a coach. Yikes,” Miley fan @CyrusIsMyVirus tweeted out alongside a GIF of Cyrus dancing on the Voice set, though the figure was actually closer to nine percent.

Other fans also claimed that they wouldn’t be tuning into the new round of shows with Gwen and without Cyrus, who joined the show for Season 11 and will be returning later this year for Season 12, being on the coaching panel.

“I wish Miley was still on The Voice,” Twitter user @celessteeeee tweeted of Cyrus being booted from the current coaching lineup to make way for Stefani, and the Voice fan @CLAAAWDETTE added of The Voice’s two-night premiere, “Can we get Miley back on The Voice please??????”

“I liked Miley Cyrus on The Voice better than Gwen Stefani,” @westernbabee wrote, and @davarobbins tweeted of The Voice’s coaching shakeup that saw Cyrus swapped for Stefani, “Watched The Voice miss Miley #gwenisboring #bringbackmiley don’t know if I’ll watch the whole season.”

But while some fans blamed The Voice’s 9 percent ratings drop on Miley’s absence after it was announced that Stefani would be taking over her chair last year, others speculated that it was more Gwen and boyfriend Blake Shelton’s gushes that had some viewers turning off.

The Voice fans have been pretty vocal about Gwen re-joining The Voice alongside boyfriend Blake Shelton, as some viewers claimed that Shelton and Stefani’s PDA on the Season 12 opener was too much for the NBC singing competition which could have played a part in the slight dip in ratings following Cyrus’s departure.

A number of social media users took to Twitter during The Voice’s February 27 premiere, claiming that they weren’t too impressed with Shelton and Stefani flirting and looking loved-up after Gwen slipped into Cyrus’s vacant chair, which caused some fans to even threatening to turn off the show to avoid the couple’s PDA.

“Blake and Gwen are sickening! Sorry turning this season off!!” Voice fan @kim_kimpiggott tweeted after seeing Stefani and Shelton looking loved up on the premiere episode, and @KMBelfay tweeted that they “won’t watch this year” claiming that they’re “not interested in the Gwen and Blake show!”

As reported by Yahoo!, Gwen sat on Blake’s lap numerous times during the Monday night premiere of The Voice as the couple flirted their way through the episode as they began building their teams, which left some fans of the NBC talent search seriously unimpressed.

Why do you think ratings for the Season 13 premiere of The Voice were 9 percent lower in the 18 to 49 demographic than the Season 11 premiere in 2016? Do you think the coaching shakeup and PDA drama surrounding Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, and Miley Cyrus may have played a part in the show’s ratings decline?

[Featured Image by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images and Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]