Fans of "The Voice" were voting away this week, but when the first live results show of the season kicked off on Wednesday night, viewers learned their votes may not have been counted.
Before the Top 12 on "The Voice" Season 4 were revealed, host Carson Daly and Jason George, the CEO of Telescope (the company that tallies the show’s votes as well as the votes of other reality competition programs), made an announcement.
“We value our relationship with our viewers and tonight, we’d like to be completely upfront with you, the fans, that along with Telescope, we noticed some inconsistencies on this week’s texting and online voting," Daly revealed. "But, thanks to Telescope, the monitoring system we have in place worked."
George explained that Telescope "quickly identified the problem and [they] were able to kind of take steps moving forward to make sure it doesn't reoccur."
“For complete fairness, votes cast via text and online were not counted in the voting results," Daly continued. "Here’s the good news: Telescope certifies that removing those votes did not affect the outcome for any team. Is that correct?”
“That’s 100 percent correct," George replied.
"The Voice" Season 4 coaches -- Adam Levine, Shakira, Usher and Blake Shelton -- nodded in agreement and then it was on to the show!
Not quite. "The Voice" fans were upset by the voting snafu, sounding off on Twitter.
When "The Voice" results were revealed, America saved Holly Tucker and Danielle Bradbery on Team Blake, Sasha Allen and Kris Thomas on Team Shakira, Michelle Chamuel and Vedo on Team Usher and Judith Hill and Amber Carrington on Team Adam.
Blake had to therefore choose between the Swon Brothers and Justin Rivers, Shakira was torn between Garrett Gardner and Karina Iglesias, Usher was stuck between Cathia and Josiah Hawley and Adam had to make a last minute decision between Caroline Glaser and Sarah Simmons. In the end, Justin, Karina, Cathia and Caroline were sent packing.
Though nothing like this has happened previously on "The Voice," it's hardly the first time a voting scandal has plagued a reality TV series -- it's happened on numerous occasions on "American Idol." The first season dealt with phone-phreak hackers using power-dialing hardware to up the volume of votes; Season 2 suffered from dropped call issues; and there were various number mix-ups during Seasons 4, 5 and 9.
Do you think something fishy was going on with "The Voice" voting? Do you trust that the results were accurate? Sound off in the comments!
"The Voice" airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
