Featuring a fresh-ish coaches line-up of former Nine stars Keith Urban and Guy Sebastian, alongside new faces Jessica Mauboy and British pop star Rita Ora, The Voice claimed the top entertainment spot with more than 1.1 million viewers in the capital cities on Monday night.While that was a slight slip from the 1.3 million viewers who tuned in for the Sunday night premiere ahead of the Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony, The Voice soundly beat its rivals The Block and Survivor.Seven’s success with a leaner, shorter version of The Voice comes after Nine dropped the reality talent show because of its $40 million budget.Seven have halved their production costs by cutting the flab of Battle Rounds and other confusing additions to the format made by Nine which resulted in fans leaving the show in droves. Last year’s grand final didn’t even crack the million viewers mark.A sledge from former Nine CEO Hugh Marks when Seven picked up the show last August hasn’t aged well.“Unfortunately due to the age of the show and declining demographic profile, The Voice had become by far the poorest financial performer on our slate. We wish 7 well in their quest to revive yet another Nine show,” Marks said last year.Now Seven is on top again, enjoying a post Olympics glow while the tired Block franchise only managed 747,000 viewers for the premiere on Sunday, slipping to 627,000 on Monday.While still over-egging the backstories and overplaying the new Blocked feature preventing rival coaches from securing an artist for their team, Seven’s new-look The Voice is offering a faster-paced show which is light on singing misses and focusing on more contestants who make it.“We couldn’t be more thrilled with Australia’s response,” host Sonia Kruger said.“The Voice is the show we all need right now, more than ever before. It brings so much joy to everyone and that in itself makes it all worthwhile.” Although Seven may have stretched the talent pool a step too young with the supremely gifted Janaki Easwar who is only 12, with most of the coaches clearly puzzled as to why a junior singer was allowed to audition.Other break out artists include teen brother and sister vocalists Jordan and Sian Fuller and gospel singer Bella Taylor Smith.
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