Getty Blake Shelton appears backstage during The Elvis '68 All-Star Tribute Special.
During an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Voice coach Blake Shelton explained how the live shows of the show will continue this season amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
When the coronavirus caused the shutdown of live shows in order to protect the health and safety of the cast, crew and contestants, The Voice producers had to scramble to decide how to move forward. Previously, John Legend weighed in, saying he was hoping at the time that they would be able to have live shows with no audience present.
“There were only three weeks of live shows planned and those were for May,” he told the Associated Press. “So who knows what we’ll do? I don’t know if we’ll be able to do them without an audience. I haven’t spoken to the producers about what the plans are.”
He continued, “And I think everybody’s playing things by ear because we don’t know where the world’s going to be in May.”
Now, coach Blake Shelton has shed light on how the show will go on.
The Episodes Will Be Filmed Remotely
For the live episodes for this season of NBC’s The Voice, the show will work remotely like American Idol is doing for their remaining shows and like the late-night shows have been doing for the past few weeks. He first remarked that they’d have to do The Voice in the same way to Fallon.
“Obviously the live shows are coming up in just a matter of weeks. Especially in L.A. we’re not going to be ready to, you know, have events again,” Shelton told Fallon. “It’s gonna be crazy. We’re gonna have to coach like this, it’s just gonna have to be worked out this way, it’s gonna be nuts.”
When asked if Shelton had a plan for the way The Voice will work, he replied “I think they do,” and remarked that he wasn’t tech-savvy and was going to have Stefani’s brother set up the computer for him.
Shelton conducted the interview from his home in Oklahoma from his porch. He was joined by his dogs and long-time girlfriend Gwen Stefani. He shared that he was quarantined with “a bunch of the Stefanis” and that Gwen has been baking bread while he’s been building a fence and gardening.
Stefani actually came out during the interview and gave Shelton a haircut while the interview was going on.
‘The Voice’ 2020 TV Schedule Remains Unchanged
Because they’ve now figured out how they’ll go forward with the live show portion of The Voice, the original schedule for the show is no longer in flux. Once Ellen’s Game of Games wraps up for the season, The Voice will air on Monday and Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. on NBC.
Right now, the show is in the midst of the Knockout rounds, which will air through the end of this month. At the beginning of next month, the show will begin airing the live shows that are being filmed remotely.
The live shows of The Voice are slated to begin airing on May 4. American Idol will air their remotely-taped shows starting on Sunday, April 26.
READ NEXT: Jimmy Fallon’s House: Where His Wife & Kids Call Home