NBC pits ‘The Voice’ season 4 against ‘American Idol,’ prepare to be annoyed again

It’s already been more or less proven by ratings over the course of the past year that the bevy of singing competitions on TV are all starting to slowly eat away at each other; so with that in mind, why in the world would “The Voice” be interested in pitting themselves against “American Idol”? After doing the same thing against “The X Factor” last year, which dinged Simon Cowell and company dramatically straight from the get-go, NBC’s singing competition is doing the same exact thing now.

Basically, it goes like this: for the weeks of the knockout rounds and the live playoffs, both of the Tuesday episodes on April 30 and May 7 will be two hours each rather than a single hour. Then, the May 8 installment, which will feature the reveal of the top 12, will be a special Wednesday edition directly against “American Idol.”

So what’s the good news here? It is really that the Wednesday show is more or less just a bona fide results show, so devoted fans of the original singing show don’t really have to worry about missing anything substantial over on “The Voice.” Nonetheless, it is certainly annoying given that the more all of these networks beat these singing shows into the ground, the quicker they will all be off the air entirely. “American Idol” is already at new lows, and this is even with paying Mariah Carey $18 million to be a judge.

What do you think about “The Voice” doing this, and do you find it to be a little cruel to the people who watch both shows and don’t own DVRs? If you want to check out the new extender trailer for the new season, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: NBC