NBC’s ‘The Voice’: Season 3 finale to set up ‘1600 Penn’

NBC is not done just yet when it comes to milking its ratings juggernaut “The Voice” for just about everything that they can. After all, they have just made the decision to end season 3 with a whopping two-hour episode designed just to share a few results. Granted, how much of a surprise is this given that “American Idol” does the same exact thing?

The massively-rated singing competition will be coming to a close starting on Monday, December 17, where the final four singers are going to square off in a vocal clash of the titans. This episode will be 90 minutes long, and is set up this way specifically in order to promote new comedy “1600 Penn,” which will be technically premiering on the network come Thursday, January 10 at 9:30 p.m. Eastern. This strategy is something NBC did effectively with “The Voice” in “Revolution,” or the Olympics and “Go On.” Then again, this will not save a bad show, as evidenced by what happened earlier this year when “Animal Practice” still tanked despite getting one of the largest launching pads ever following the closing ceremonies of the Summer Games.

The two-hour finale will air the following day, and hopefully will include some sort of holiday component given that the artists are only at this point eight days away from arriving at Christmas Day. (“The Sing-Off” paid tribute to the holidays last year in this spot.) We are sure that there will be a huge lineup of performances for this show, even though none of them have been announced at this very moment.

Do you think ending “The Voice” season 3 with so much content is a good move, or is this NBC further shooting themselves in the foot?