NBC announced that Reba McEntire is replacing Blake Shelton, and revealed the rest of the coaching lineup, for The Voice season 24. Reba has a history with The Voice, having been an advisor for Team Blake during the Battles way back during the singing competition show's inaugural season. As a full-circle moment, she came back for Blake's final run as a coach to be the mega mentor during The Voice season 23 Knockouts.
During the 2023 Upfronts presentation, in which the broadcast networks reveal their new fall schedules, NBC made the major announcement of who will be taking Blake's seat when The Voice returns in fall 2023. It'll be none other than country music superstar Reba McEntire.
Sitting alongside Reba for The Voice season 24 will be returning coaches John Legend, Gwen Stefani and Niall Horan. The latter got to work with Reba during this year's Knockouts. The Voice's Instagram page said, "Welcome your new fall Coach line-up!"
Kelly Clarkson's Future On The Voice Is Unknown
Reba took to Instagram to share the big news. "There’s a new Coach in town!" she exclaimed. Meanwhile, some of her soon-to-be fellow coaches for The Voice season 24 also revealed their respective returns on social media. Niall said, "I loved it so much, I’m doing it again!" Gwen posted, "Surprise :) I’m back in the big red chair!!" As of this writing, John hasn't posted about his return just yet, though it could be because he announced around the same time that he'll be performing a few shows in New York in November. It's possible he just wanted to space out the announcements on his Instagram page.
Niall is the only returning Voice coach from the current season, which also features Blake, Kelly Clarkson and Chance The Rapper. Niall and Chance joined the show this year. Since The Voice has a revolving panel of coaches (with Blake being the only one to appear in every single season), Chance could be back someday. John has been a coach for seven seasons, while Gwen has been on six times. The Voice is where she met her current husband, Blake, who said late last year that he would consider coming back to the show if he could be the mentor for Team Gwen.
Kelly has been a coach for nine seasons. Aside from The Voice season 22, when she took a break to spend the entire summer with her kids post-divorce, Kelly has become a regular. Now that her talk show is moving from Los Angeles to New York City, her future with the singing competition show is up in the air. Considering how much of The Voice is pre-recorded, NBC could potentially film around her schedule in order to keep her around every other season, though it's unlikely she'll be back full-time. What's certain, though, is that country music will be represented on the coaching panel with none other than Reba.
The Voice airs Mondays at 8 p.m. EDT on NBC.
Sources: The Voice/Instagram, Reba McEntire/Instagram, Niall Horan/Instagram, Gwen Stefani/Instagram