When Adam Levine left The Voice, he also left a LOT of money
In new story via The Hollywood Reporter, we learn that not only did Levine walk away from an already signed deal for season 17, but that he had also signed on to do it season 18 of the NBC singing competition. What that means is that he potentially decided not to earn close to $30 million in order to continue serving as a coach. That is a lot of money, and it is certainly something that would be really hard to walk away from.
Of course, when you are Adam Levine, you do have your fair share of options so you can go and do other things if you choose. For example, his band Maroon 5 makes plenty of money out on tour, and he has also gotten more into producing. After all, Levine and NBC do have a productive relationship, and he is one of the people behind the newly released Songland — which featured fellow The Voice coach John Legend earlier this week. (Read more about that here.)
Want more discussion on Adams exit in video form? Then just check out what we’ve got at the bottom of this article. After you do just that, we highly recommend that you subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and also take a look at our The Voice playlist. That’s the best way to stay up-to-date with all things related to the NBC show.
Of course, given that $30 million is such an astronomical sum, it’s pretty fair to still wonder why he would wave goodbye after already signing a deal. Reports that came out recently suggested that his exit had a good bit to do with recent rule changes at The Voice, including the cross battle twist that made it so much harder for people in his team to make it far within the live shows. That is probably a part of it, but there are other issues that may be at play as well. For us, we just still wonder whether or not it was worth it for him anymore when his acts weren’t making it all together far in the show. Twists aside, we still don’t think Adam ever really recovered from the Reagan Strange incident on the show back in season 15. Maybe over time, things could have gotten better if he landed a great artist who was an instant favorite, but after the past two seasons, if you have a lot of options as a competing artist, why would you go with Adam as a coach? The track record, at least in recent Seasons, just really isn’t there.
In the end, we just think that doing this show for Adam wasn’t worth the time, especially when you consider the recent results.
While there has been so much drama and discussion surrounding Adam’s Voice exit, it really feels silly to sit here and say that for sure he will never come back. You don’t know what the future holds, as The Voice and Adam Levine are such a recognizable duo at this point that we feel a reunion could happen at any time.
For now, the show must go on, and it certainly will with Gwen Stefani joining the coaching panel for season 17. NBC hasn’t confirmed anything when it comes to a season 18 panel, but as we’ve talked about recently, wouldn’t it be nice to get someone new? Also, wouldn’t it be nice to get someone so famous that they can actually bring new viewers to the show? (Gwen’s certainly famous, but we’ve seen her before.) It’s kind of an underreported story, but The Voice isn’t quite the same sort of ratings titan that it once was. It may not be near cancellation, but we don’t exactly think that NBC is leaning on it to support the rest of its programming anymore.
Are you surprised that Adam Levine walked away from so much money? Let us know in the comments. (Photo: NBC.)