The Voice Fans Had Strong Reactions to Reba McEntire Replacing Blake Shelton in Season 24
McEntire’s addition comes amid Shelton’s exit from the series after 12 years. Shelton—the only coach to appear on every season since the show premiered in 2011—announced season 23 would be his last in October.
Meet the Country Music Legend Replacing Blake Shelton on The Voice
Following Blake Shelton’s upcoming exit from The Voice after 23 seasons, NBC announced Reba McEntire will fill his seat as a coach on season 24, premiering later this year.
Watch : Reba McEntire Will Replace Blake Shelton on The Voice Season 24
The Voice has found Blake Shelton‘s replacement in another county music icon.
Reba McEntire will join the singing competition as a coach for its upcoming 24th season, premiering later this year, NBC announced May 15.
McEntire, who recently served as The Voice’s season 23 mega mentor, will claim her swiveling chair for the first time alongside returning coaches John Legend, Niall Horan and Gwen Stefani.
“There’s a new Coach in town!” the Grammy winner, who first appeared on the show as a mega mentor on season 11, wrote on Instagram May 15. “See you all this Fall! #TheVoice.”
McEntire’s addition comes amid Shelton’s exit from the series after 12 years. Shelton—the only coach to appear on every season since the show premiered in 2011—announced season 23 would be his last in October.
As for why he’s walking away, the 46-year-old has been thinking about slowing down for several years now.
“I think I was close to calling it a day right when COVID hit,” Shelton previously told the TODAY show. “And then, because of COVID, I didn’t want to walk away from the show and leave everybody in a bind. I mean, this show changed my life. I’ll stay here until the world kind of gets back to normal again.”
The Voice changed his life professionally—and personally. After all, he met Stefani, who he wed in 2021, while they both served as coaches.
“When I came on as a coach on this show, I mean, everything in my life was turned upside down,” he said. “And in a good way, you know? This has been incredible, but it’s time, you know. It’s time for what’s next. A little bit of nothing would be nice.”
The Voice‘s season 23 live shows kick off tonight, May 15, at 8 p.m. The top eight artists will perform live for the first time in front of coaches Shelton, Horan, Kelly Clarkson and Chance the Rapper.
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‘The Voice’ Fans Had Strong Reactions to Reba McEntire Replacing Blake Shelton in Season 24
The country superstar will sit in Blake’s chair alongside Niall Horan, John Legend and Gwen Stefani.
The Voice just announced who’s set to replace Blake Shelton as a coach after season 23, and country fans couldn’t be more ecstatic about it.
In October 2022, Blake announced his plans to step down as a coach after being on the show since day one. Recently, The Voice dropped a surprise by revealing that country superstar Reba McEntire will sit in his red chair for season 24. What’s more, the NBC series announced she’ll join current coach Niall Horan and season 22 mentors John Legend and Gwen Stefani to form the celebrity quartet competing to find the ultimate vocalist.
Shortly after the news broke, the “Fancy” singer shared her own excitement on Instagram. “There’s a new coach in town!” she captioned a video posted on May 15. “See you all this Fall!”
Given the fact Reba is a music legend, longtime viewers rejoiced when they learned she’d be the one taking over for Blake.
‘The Voice’
‘The Voice’
“You NEVER stop surprising us. 👑 Looking forward to seeing you on The Voice. ❤️,” one person declared in the Instagram post’s comments section. “Brb gotta audition for The Voice!” a different user exclaimed. “Reba is a great one to replace Blake. Going to miss Blake but love Reba. ❤️🔥,” another follower replied.
Folks know that Reba has a longstanding relationship with The Voice. The Big Sky alum first debuted as an advisor for Team Blake for the season 1 Battle rounds and later returned to mentor the top 12 in season 8. Fifteen seasons later, she came back as a Mega Mentor, giving competitors advice as they prepared for the Knockout rounds and a place on the live shows.
As for how Reba feels about her new role on The Voice, she spoke about it during the most recent episode. As she sat in her future chair, she told host Carson Daly how elated she is to take on such a big task.
“I’m looking forward to being here with all of y’all,” she said. “You treated me so nicely. I appreciate the hospitality so much that you showed me earlier. To be able to come and form my own team, I’m so looking forward to it.”
That said, Reba totally acknowledges that she has some tough coaching competition coming her way. “I do understand that I need to go razzle-dazzle with Gwen being on there,” she joked to People. “Gwen’s always got the nicest outfits, so I really need to step up my game on that.”
Regardless, we’re thrilled to see how Reba fares come season 24.
As the entertainment and news editorial assistant for Good Housekeeping, Adrianna (she/her) writes about everything TV, movies, music and pop culture. She graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in business management. She covers shows like The Rookie, 9-1-1 and Grey’s Anatomy, though when she’s not watching the latest show on Netflix, she’s taking martial arts or drinking way too much coffee.