The Voice UK | |
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Genre | Reality competition |
Created by | John de Mol |
Presented by | |
Judges | |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of series | 6 |
No. of episodes | 81 |
Production | |
Location(s) |
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Running time | 30–130 minutes |
Production company(s) |
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Distributor | |
Release | |
Original network | |
Picture format | |
Audio format | Dolby Digital 5.1 |
Original release | 24 March 2012 | – present
Chronology | |
Related shows | The Voice (franchise) |
External links | |
Website | www |
Production website |
www |
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 six winners to date: Leanne Mitchell, Andrea Begley, Jermain Jackman, Stevie McCrorie, Kevin Simm and Mo Adeniran.
The show involves artists drawn from public auditions, and is part of The Voice franchise. It is produced by ITV Studios as well as Dutch production company Talpa Productions, and formerly Wall to Wall during its time on the BBC.
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. 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 would be their last. 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 starting in 2017.
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 BBC and ITV were in a "bidding war" for The Voice UK.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'" for The X Factor.