NBC's decision to turn singing competition The Sing-Off into a weekly series might be the biggest surprise of the new fall season. But it was a move that came only after intense debate inside the Peacock network over how and when to air a second season of new hit The Voice.
According to insiders, a faction inside NBC was extremely keen to find a way to keep The Voice on the fall schedule, and the choice was heavily examined.
"It was obviously much debated," confirms NBC Entertainment alternative programming executive vice president Paul Telegdy.
Such a move would make sense: The Voice talent competition has given NBC some of its best ratings in years, and has quickly turned into a critical building block for NBC's primetime recovery. That's why many rivals and TV analysts expected NBC to rush the talent competition back on the fall schedule. "Getting The Voice on there is important," one exec said prior to NBC's announcement. "People are responding to it."
And it could conceivably be done: "If they tell me, within reason, that they need The Voice, I'll deliver it," executive producer Mark Burnett told TV Guide Magazine earlier this month. The back-and-forth over The Voice raged on until last Thursday, when the network decided that it just couldn't do a credible job in bringing back The Voice too soon. (The show will instead launch in January, supported by a heavy marketing push during the Super Bowl.)
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