The return of The Voice should become one of the TV moments of 2026, with Suzan & Freek as major crowd pullers, but RTL now decides to scrap the live shows. “Really less fun.”
There is a lot of RTL that the new season of The Voice of Holland will score, because the program is struggling with a bad image because of all dirt who came out about males who used the studio as their hunting ground. So you would think that a lot of money is being thrown at it, but nothing could be further from the truth.
No live shows
However, a lot of cuts are being cut behind the scenes. No more live shows, no winner in the iconic decor, but a pre -cooked final with a rash in a talk show. Everything on tape.
At a time when linear television has to fight for attention, live shows are worth gold. They bring urgency, buzz, live tweets, and viewers who don’t look away. If you delete that, you will have a neat assembly that can just as well be looked at on a Sunday afternoon on Videoland.
Bewilderment
They are also stunned at RTL itself. TV connoisseur Rob Goossens says in RTL Boulevard: “I think it’s a bit of a shame. Live is just exciting. Being there is to experience. There are some advantages, but they are especially for the makers.”
“It is a bit cheaper, the chance that there will be shouting with something that is not live is of course a bit smaller. If you have to live now and there are three cameras that do not work, then there is a bit greater that there will be screaming.”
In a talk show
Luuk Ikink, the great man of RTL Boulevard, thinks it’s Mal. “But the great thing about The Voice was always that you first had the auditions, then the intermediate piece, then those live shows came and they actually made the whole program, I thought. That is part of the program. How are you going to choose a winner at all?”
Then Rob says: “What I am based on is that it will go a bit like the Voice Senior has been done earlier. That there is a final in which it is called to vote, but you cannot announce that in the show. You have to do that in the talk show afterwards.”
Marieke Critical
Colleague Marieke Elsinga believes that RTL is failing. “Really less fun, isn’t it? You want to see that winner in that backdrop for The Voice of Holland, and not in the backdrop of RTL Tonight, which it is by that time.”
Rob: “The candle then goes out very slowly. I agree with you.”
Luuk: “Suppose it is chosen by the public … Those people only know that artist of one performance, while we as a viewer have known those candidates for weeks.”
Rob concludes: “It’s a bit of a shame.”