The Voice (Russian TV series)


The Voice is a Russian singing competition television series broadcast on Channel One. Based on the original The Voice of Holland, it has aired eight seasons and aims to find currently unsigned singing talent contested by aspiring singers, age 17 or over, drawn from public auditions. The winner is determined by television viewers voting by telephone, SMS text, and The Voice App. The winners of the eight seasons have been: Dina Garipova, Sergey Volchkov, Alexandra Vorobyova, Hieromonk Fotiy, Darya Antonyuk, Selim Alakhyarov, Petr Zakharov, and Asker Berbekov.
The series employs a panel of four coaches who critique the artists' performances and guide their teams of selected artists through the remainder of the season. They also compete to ensure that their act wins the competition, thus making them the winning coach. The original panel featured Dima Bilan, Pelageya, Alexander Gradsky, and Leonid Agutin. Other coaches from previous seasons include Basta, Polina Gagarina, Grigory Leps, Ani Lorak, Sergey Shnurov, Konstantin Meladze, and Valery Syutkin.
The Voice began airing on October 5, 2012, as an autumn-winter TV season programme. The show proved to be a hit for Channel One. In April 2020, Channel One renewed the series through its ninth season that will premiere in October 2020.

Conception

An adaptation of the Dutch show The Voice of Holland, Channel One announced the show under the name Голос.
In each season, the winner receives ₽1,000,000 and a record deal with Universal Music Group.

Selection process and format

;Blind auditions
Each season begins with the "Blind Auditions," where coaches form their team of artists whom they mentor through the remainder of the season.. The coaches' chairs are faced towards the audience during artists' performances; those interested in an artist press their button, which turns their chair towards the artist and illuminates the bottom of the chair to read "Я выбираю тебя". At the conclusion of the performance, an artist either defaults to the only coach who turned around or selects his or her coach if more than one coach expresses interest.
;Battles
In the "Battle Rounds," each coach pairs two of his or her team members to perform together, then chooses one to advance in the competition. In season 1, coaches were assisted by celebrity mentors. In the first season, coaches sit alongside their respective advisors in the battle stage. A new element was added in season two; coaches were given two "steals", allowing each coach to select two individuals who were eliminated during a battle round by another coach. However, since the seventh season each coach can't steal artists.
;Knockouts
In the Knockout Rounds, a pair of artists within a team are selected to sing individual performances in succession. They are not told until a few minutes prior to their performances who their partner is. At the conclusion of the performances, coaches would decide which one of each pair gets to advance to the next round. Starting with season two each coach pairs three artists into one knockout with two contestants from the trio advance to the next round. However, since season 7 only one contestant from the trio advances to the Top 12. But the coaches were given one "steal".
;Live shows
In the final live performance phase of the competition, artists perform in weekly shows, where public voting and coaches' decision s narrow to a final group of artists and eventually declares a winner. In season one the coaches have the power to save one artist that had not received the public's vote in the Quarterfinal. In later seasons artists were saved by Votes' summa. In deciding who moves on to the final four phase, the television audience and the coaches have equal say. With one team member remaining for each coach, the contestants compete against each other in the finale, where the outcome is decided solely by public vote. One contestant from each team would advance to the final four.
;Addition
Since season 7, alongside the determining of the winner, television viewers vote for the best season coach using The Voice App and HbbTV option in their TV sets.

Coaches and presenter

Coaches timeline

Presenter

Series overview

Best season coach

Reception

Seasons average: Ratings

The first season premiered on October 5, 2012 with a 5.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic. For its average season rating, the show was in the Top 5 at a 7.73 ranking.
The second season premiered on September 6, 2013 with a 9.5 in the 18–49 demographic. It was up from last season's premiere by 4.0 rating scores.
The third season premiered on September 5, 2014 with a 7.9 in the 18-49 demographic. It was down from last season's premiere by 1.6 rating scores.
The fourth season premiered on September 4, 2015 with an 8.4 in the 18-49 demographic. It was up from last season's premiere by.5 rating scores.
The fifth season premiered on September 2, 2016 with a 6.8 in the 18-49 demographic. It was down from last season's premiere by 1.6 rating scores.
The sixth season premiered on September 1, 2017 with a 6.5 in the 18-49 demographic. It was down from last season's premiere by.3 rating scores.
The seventh season premiered on October 12, 2018 with a 5.2 in the 18-49 demographic. It was down from last season's premiere by 1.3 rating scores. This is the lowest rated season premiere to date.
The eighth season premiered on October 11, 2019 with a 5.9 in the 18-49 demographic. It was up from last season's premiere by.7 rating scores.