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The Voice Australia to air on August 8th

Seven’s first season of The Voice Australia will premiere after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, arriving on 8 August at 7.00pm on Channel 7 and 7Plus.

The format ran for nine seasons on the Nine Network, but Seven announced in August last year that it had picked up the format, in a move that CEO James Warburton called a ‘coup’.

Seven has brought in three new coaches for its first crack at the format, with only Guy Sebastian remaining on the show from the previous line-up which also included Delta Goodrem, Boy George and Kelly Rowland.

Instead, Seven brought in UK hitmaker Rita Ora, who travelled to Australia and completed the mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine to participate. Also joining are country music legend Keith Urban and singer/actor Jessica Mauboy. The show will be hosted by Sonia Kruger.

Urban said: “I love the spirit of The Voice – the fact that we’re coaches more than judges – and that we get to do hands on mentoring. That’s what sets the show apart.”  Ora added: “Helping people find their voice is truly inspiring.”

Mauboy said: “It’s not always about hitting the perfect note, it’s about making sure you feel the song because that’s going to help you connect to the audience and the people watching at home.”

The returning Sebastian said: “What I am looking for is somebody who you can imagine on radio, who is immediately identifiable by their voice, their tone, and the way they tell a story through song.”

The 2020 season of The Voice was plagued by COVID-19 production issues, but drew 911,000 metro viewers for its final episode, a slight drop from just over 1 million metro viewers the year before.

Upon Seven revealing it would be picking up the format, a spokesperson from Nine said: “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 Seven well in their quest to revive yet another Nine show.”

At the time, Seven’s director of programming, Angus Ross, said the network had plans to “supercharge” the format.

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