The Voice season 26 rounds explained from the Blinds to the Lives

A new season of The Voice has begun as another group of talented singers hope to show off their vocal abilities not only to secure a place on one of the coaches’ teams but to go all the way and win the show! 

The journey for an artist on The Voice is a long one as the contestants must navigate several rounds of competition in which they have to prove themselves to the season’s coaches right out of the gate. Getting on the show is just the beginning, as contestants have to deliver the moment they first take to the stage during the Blind Auditions as their journey comes to an end immediately if they’re unable to win over at least one coach and secure a place on a team. 

Landing a place on the team of one of the season’s coaches is just the start of their journey as they must then fight for their place in the competition over the course of several rounds before they finally make it to the Live Shows when their fate then is in America’s hands. 

So how exactly does The Voice work? Let’s take a quick look at the various rounds of the competition and what goes down in each round along the way! 

Round 1 - Blind Auditions

Each season of The Voice begins the same with the Blind Auditions in which the season’s coaches get the chance to put their teams together by recruiting artists based on their talents alone. During the Blind Auditions, artists perform for the coaches but the coaches are only able to hear the performance, and can only see it once they push their button to turn their chair for an artist. 

Turning their chair doesn’t guarantee the coach will automatically add the artist to their team because if more than one coach turns their chair, the power shifts to the artists who have the chance to choose which coach’s team they’d like to join. 

If no coach turns their chair, the artist is eliminated from the competition – though season 26 has introduced a new Coach Replay button which gives coaches a second chance to try to recruit an artist even if they did not turn their chair during the performance. This can give an artist a second chance to secure a place on a team after their performance has ended, but if no coach uses their single Coach Replay button the artist will still be eliminated. 

Round 2 - The Battle Rounds

Once the Blind Auditions have come to an end and the coaches have each assembled their team of artists, we move on the Battles which is when the coaches begin to narrow down their teams by putting two artists from their team against one another for a vocal battle.

During The Battles, the coaches get the chance to work with their artists and provide them with guidance to help them grow as artists with some help from their special advisers. After some coaching, the two artists will perform the same song duet style in hopes of wowwing their coach in order to win the Battle and move on to the next round. I

In early seasons, artists were eliminated after losing their battle, but recent seasons have introduced steals which allow the coaches to steal artists from other teams, thus helping to keep eliminated artists in the competition by allowing them to switch to a new team. 

Round 3 - The Knockouts

After the Battle Rounds, the artists move along to The Knockouts where they must again face off against their teammates in hopes of moving on to the next round. During The Knockouts, three artists from a team will face off with each artist performing a song of their choice individually, and it's during this round that the artists get some help not only from their coach but also from the season’s Mega Mentor. 

Following the performances, the coaches must choose a winner between the three artists. The winning artist automatically moves on to the next round of the competition, while the losing artists are eliminated unless their coach chooses to use their one available save to save an eliminated artist from elimination. 

Round 4 - The Playoffs

The five artists from each coach’s team lucky enough to survive The Knockouts will advance to The Playoffs where they must leave it all on the stage in hopes of impressing their coach in order to advance to the live shows. Only two artists are taken to the Live Shows, making the stakes of The Playoffs incredibly high. 

During this round, the coaches once again get the chance to work with their artists in order to help provide them with guidance to assist in their performances, and the coaches each bring in a guest mentor to assist them in coaching their artists. 

Round 5 - The Lives

After four rounds of the competition, the top artists from each coach’s team get to compete for America’s vote during the Live Shows. In this stage of the competition, the artists perform live in hopes of impressing the viewers and earning their votes.

The artists with the lowest viewer votes will compete for the Instant Save in which they’ll perform a new song during the elimination shows in hopes of winning over the fans watching at home. The artist who earns the Instant Save is saved from elimination and moves forward to the next week. 

This continues until we reach the finale in which one artist is named “The Voice” and wins the season with help from America’s vote!

Don't miss new episodes of The Voice Monday and Tuesday nights at 8/7c on NBC, and streaming on Peacock.