It was not the publicity the BBC would have been hoping to get for The Voice when one of the show’s stars, Sir Tom Jones, said the talent on its latest series was “shit”.
The Welsh singing legend and one of the show’s four coaches made the comment on Monday at the launch of the fourth series of the singing contest, which begins on BBC1 on Saturday.
“It just slipped out,” said Jones. “I hope it wasn’t a Freudian slip.”
The singer later clarified the comments in the hope of avoiding a PR disaster for the show, the closest the BBC has to a rival to Simon Cowell’s The X Factor.
“I have got to clear something up,” he said. “When I said what’s the talent like this year and I said ‘shit’, it was a joke – and I like to joke.
“And then I said ‘I hope it’s not a Freudian slip’, well that was a joke on top of a joke. So it was not a Freudian slip.”
Jones’ fellow judge Will.i.am joked: “I thought you said it was the shit.”
But Will.i.am had some serious thoughts on the show’s failure to generate stars on the scale of The X Factor, with most of its contestants failing to trouble the charts, despite hours of exposure on primetime BBC1.
Will.i.am said the show failed to put out songs by the winners fast enough and said it should have a tune ready for viewers to buy and download on the night of the final, in the style of ITV’s X Factor.
Last year’s winner, Jermain Jackman, put out a single which reached number 39 in the iTunes chart but will not release his debut album until March, a year after he appeared on the show.
The US producer, musician and music mogul said he had tried to speed up the process himself but had been unable to, blaming “politics”.
“I am going to get into trouble,” Will.i.am said at The Voice press launch on Monday.
“The format is a great format, the concept is the best and Universal [the music company which signs up The Voice winner] is an amazing label.
“But when the show goes off, there aren’t songs ready for people to sing; and the time it takes you to record those songs, people’s attention span has gone.
“The window to hit should be, ‘oh my gosh, the winner, and here’s the hit’.
“It’s not the show’s fault, it’s not the artists’ fault. There is no project manager who is making sure you have the songs. That is the truth. I am not going to bullshit you.”
Asked whether he had tried to solve the problem himself, he said: “Politics. I tried, it’s just political. For whatever reason, it is. I think in time it will be figured out.”
The new series will feature Hot Right Now singer Rita Ora on the panel of coaches, replacing Kylie Minogue who dropped out last year, with Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson the fourth member.
The gaffe came after Jones and his fellow coaches were asked about the talent on the new series. Will.i.am replied: “The talent is …” before a theatrical pause which was filled by Jones. “Shit,” he said.
Asked what he thought about the opening episode of the new series, Jones said: “I liked it, it’s bright. That’s what they want, I’m not criticising it, but it looked bright. Everything was lit. If they want that for Saturday night … they want it to be bright.”
The Voice, a bought-in Dutch format which started on BBC1 in 2012, was described by channel controller Charlotte Moore as “an incredibly important show” for the BBC.
The opening episode of the new series features contestants including Paul Cullinan, who played Bungle in children’s TV series Rainbow, and Emilie Cunliffe, the 16-year-old daughter of Kym Marsh, a member of Hear’Say who won ITV talent show Popstars in 2000.
The BBC talent contest has been a moderate sized hit, without ever breaking into the top tier of entertainment shows such as The X Factor or BBC1 stablemate Strictly Come Dancing.
Last year’s final of the third series had 6.6 million viewers, down 600,000 on the 2013 final, despite the added attraction of Minogue among the judges.
But new Saturday night entertainment hits have proved hard to come by. The BBC axed Tumble, its gymnastics-based spin on Strictly Come Dancing, after just one series, while ITV axed diving show Splash after two runs and dropped its acquired Israeli talent format Rising Star before it had even aired.
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