NBC’s ‘The Voice’ season 5: Christina Aguilera to official return; is Shakira out?
Well, you can officially count one member of “The Voice” family to be back following their season-long hiatus. According to The Wrap, Christina Aguilera has signed a contract to return to her role as coach for the upcoming fifth season of the NBC singing competition. Not only that, but she’ll be doing so with the enormous salary of $17 million, which makes her officially the highest-paid coach in the history of the show by a pretty wide margin. (It’s also only a million bucks lower than what Mariah Carey received for “American Idol” this past season.)
So is Christina really worth this kind of money? If the numbers are reported right, we still have a hard time believing that any reality TV judge is worth this kind of money. If you look back at Mariah, Britney Spears, and Jennifer Lopez (who were all paid somewhere over $10 million for their judging duties on various shows), can you really sit here with a straight face and say that they did a good job? Meanwhile, Demi Lovato received a small fraction of this for “The X Factor,” and actually was one of the stronger judges when it came to giving criticism and having sympathy for the artists on stage.
The real proof of Christina’s worth will be tested when the show returns to NBC this fall. If the ratings are enormous and the show makes money, the network justifies the salary. Otherwise, she becomes the scapegoat. Our opinion of her as a coach / judge / whatever you want to call it is higher than of any of the names we mentioned above, but there have also been times where she has feuded with the other coaches (namely Adam Levine), and it has served as a distraction.
There is no word on what this return means for Shakira. While it likely means that she will leave the show after filling in for the season, anything can happen.
What’s your take on this: Is Christina worth the money, or is this really way too much money to be giving to any one person for a show like this? You can also read some of the show’s recent voting results here.
Photo: NBC