The Voice Australia coach Guy Sebastian has backtracked on his recent admission that producers tell the coaches when to turn their chairs during the blind auditions.
The singer, 39, made headlines over the weekend when he told Yahoo he and his fellow judges Rita Ora, Jessica Mauboy and Keith Urban are encouraged to turn their chairs for certain contestants to create more on-screen drama.
Daily Mail Australia understands Channel Seven and Sebastian’s record label Sony Music went into damage control after he spilled the industry secret.
‘I have to clear this up’: The Voice star Guy Sebastian (pictured) has backtracked after admitting that producers tell the coaches when to turn their chairs during the blind auditions
Sebastian backpedalled on his statements on Tuesday, insisting he has ‘never once been told who to turn his chair for’.
He posted a lengthy Facebook comment underneath a story by Tone Deaf with the headline ‘The Voice judge Guy Sebastian reveals producers tell them when to turn’.
‘Only problem is this headline is completely false,’ the musician began.
Backpedalling: He posted this lengthy Facebook comment underneath a story by Tone Deaf with the headline ‘The Voice judge Guy Sebastian reveals producers tell them when to turn’
Sebastian clarified that producers merely ‘remind’ the coaches they can turn their chairs whenever they want, in order to encourage them to turn more often.
This strategy, he claims, helps to promote on-screen showdowns between coaches battling for the same contestants.
‘We are only given reminders of the different format changes. For example, this year there are unlimited chair turns instead of 12 spots, which means if we are on the fence we don’t need to be selective,’ he wrote.
‘We are only given reminders’: Sebastian clarified that producers merely ‘remind’ the coaches they can turn their chairs whenever they want, in order to encourage them to turn more often. Pictured: The Voice 2021 coaches Keith Urban, Rita Ora, Jessica Mauboy and Guy Sebastian
‘Obviously it’s way better to give the artist a choice and to battle it out with another coach than to default to only one coach who turns.’
Labelling the headline ‘click bait’, Sebastian said: ‘I’m a fan of your page but I have to clear this up because we make a big effort to make the artists feel valued and to add to their artistry in a safe environment.’
‘Even when artists don’t get a chair turn we make sure it’s a positive experience by giving feedback, or joining them onstage with a duet etc to make sure they don’t go home feeling like it was a failure.
Fired up: Labelling the headline ‘click bait’, Sebastian said: ‘I’m a fan of your page but I have to clear this up because we make a big effort to make the artists feel valued and to add to their artistry in a safe environment’
‘Click bait false headlines undermines that. I have never once been told who to turn my chair for,’ he declared.
On Friday, Sebastian raised eyebrows when he told Yahoo that he and his fellow coaches on The Voice received a ‘little red book’ with instructions from producers.
‘[Producers] don’t want the show to be all one-chair turns for some of the artists. You want the artist to feel like there are two coaches fighting over them, otherwise, how do you make a good segment out of that?’ he told the publication.
Drama: On Friday, Sebastian raised eyebrows when he told Yahoo that he and his fellow coaches on The Voice received a ‘little red book’ with instructions from producers
‘It’s just literally, ‘Oh Keith is the only one that turned, so you’re stuck with Keith’.
‘So there are little things the producer will write in, stuff like, ‘If this is just a one-chair turn, maybe jump in’.’
Sebastian added however that the judges are not told anything about the contestants before they hear them sing, other than what state they are from.
They are however told if the song they are hearing is an original or not – but they pretend they don’t know ahead of time regardless.
‘We might still have to turn around and go, ‘Oh that was an original?’ because we don’t want everyone to know that we knew, but it saves time,’ Sebastian said.
Damage control: Daily Mail Australia understands producers and Sebastian’s record label Sony Music Australia went into damage control after Sebastian spilled the industry secret