‘The Voice’ UK final ratings up; will.i.am unsure of return after Leah McFall loss

Let’s start up this article on “The Voice” UK with the good news: The ratings are up for the series with its final episode, which is good news going into what will be a third season next year. Overall, the show, which featured the win of Andrea Begley, brought in 7.24 million viewers, and a peak of just over 8 million viewers.

Will this be enough to shut up some critics? That is still to be seen, but what this does very much tell us is that maybe we are in some ways at fault for ratcheting expectations that this could be “The X Factor” 2.0 when it comes to the numbers. If the show continues to fare around this level, you have to believe that BBC One would be at least reasonably satisfied with that. You can be a hit without being at “The X Factor’s” level.

Meanwhile, will.i.am and Jessie J both seem to be somewhat unsure as to their future on the show, with the Black Eyed Peas member telling the Mirror that he is still undecided as to whether or not he will be back if some of the other coaches leave:

“I’ve been asked to do series three. But it would depend on who else was there and it would be a hard decision. I feel like I’m married to Jessie so it would be weird if she wasn’t there. It’s like cheating … I know that when I’m having a bad day I can look to my left and she will be pulling some weird face that will cheer me up. Tom will be chilled and Danny is an inspiration – he can make a song out of anything.”

The third season of “The Voice” UK will premiere next year, so hopefully Will can have time to recover after being “so sad” that his artist Leah McFall, long projected to be the favorite, ended up losing to Northern Ireland’s Andrea Begley.

Photo: BBC One