Another season of The Voice is upon us, with Dan + Shay joining the coaching panel alongside Reba McEntire, John Legend and Chance the Rapper. Season 25 marks not only the second season without Blake Shelton but the first without any member of the Shelton family, as his wife Gwen Stefani’s exit seemed all but inevitable after he left. And yet he still apparently has kept in touch with his former colleagues, as they revealed the gifts they’d received from Shelton and kept his trolling legacy alive by firing some good-natured shots at him.
Blake Shelton was known to be quite the troublemaker during his 23 seasons as a coach on The Voice, picking fights with Adam Levine in the early days before Kelly Clarkson became a more worthy opponent. But if one ever needed proof that there’s nothing but love between the “Ol’ Red” singer and the stars of the NBC singing competition, consider the thoughtful gifts he sent to the Season 25 coaches. John Legend told E! News:
He sent us corn on the cob and peaches from his farm.
I think it’s ridiculously sweet that Blake Shelton sent The Voice crew some produce fresh from his Oklahoma farm. For one thing, food is always a good gift option, and the fact that he produced it himself makes it even better. It also shows that he’s been putting all that free time to good use, after shooting two seasons of The Voice a year for over a decade.
Blake Shelton provided similar nourishment to the coaches last season as well, and while that was also super thoughtful, his wife was still a coach, so his continued contact with the show wasn’t altogether unexpected.
How much the current coaches are still in contact with the country singer is harder to pin down, as Reba McEntire took a jab at her longtime friend, saying:
I keep texting him and it’s just crickets. Nothing. I don’t know what the deal is.
Even Chance the Rapper, who worked with Blake Shelton on Season 23, got a shot in there, jesting:
He’s a phony. One of the fakest friends you could have.
Of course these claims can only mean one thing — that Blake Shelton remains a true friend to the show and is probably in regular contact with the country music queen who replaced him, as well as his other buddies.
Gwen Stefani may be gone now too, but she was hardly the only connection remaining between The Voice and its winningest coach. Reba McEntire served as Team Blake’s mentor on his first season way back in 2012, and the same can be said for Dan + Shay, who mentored Blake Shelton’s team in Season 20. Shelton also has another show, Barmageddon, that he created with The Voice host Carson Daly and former EP Lee Metzger that has seen other former coaches like Stefani and Kelly Clarkson competing in exaggerated bar games.
Although we’re well into the post-Blake Shelton era of The Voice, I’m not sure the mark he made on the show will ever fully be gone, and the fans and friends he made along the way are probably just fine with that. Tune in to see what is happening with Season 25, which premieres at 8 p.m. ET Monday and Tuesday, February 26 and 27, on NBC, with episodes available to stream the next day with a Peacock subscription. Be sure to also check out our 2024 TV schedule to see what other premieres are coming soon.
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