The Voice UK's 2018 series to have lowest ever number of live shows and finalists
ITV have given the format a shake-up
This year The Voice UK will have the lowest ever number of live shows and finalists.
There will be two live broadcasts and a total of eight singers who will make it to this stage of the competition, with just the semi-final and final airing outside of the format's pre-recorded section.
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Last year, when the show broadcast on ITV for the first time, there were eight live episodes comprised of the Knockout stages as well as three weeks of live finals.
When the show first began in the UK back in 2012, the BBC had six live episodes with 20 finalists making it to that stage of the competition.
This was then trimmed to three episodes from series two onwards, with a total of 12 singers making it through to the live shows.
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The pattern of three live shows and 12 finalists remained until ITV bought the rights to the programme and began broadcasting it in 2017.
For their first year, ITV decided to tweak the schedule so that the Knockout stages were also broadcast live. This meant that the total number of live shows increased to eight, with 12 acts again making it through to those finals stage of the competition.
This year, the Knockouts have reverted to pre-records and the number of live shows has been reduced.
So, in 2018, only eight acts will make it to the live stage, as opposed to the 20 or 12 that have previously had to perform on-air on Saturday night.
With the Battles over, the next stage of this year's competition is the Knockouts which will air for two weeks starting on March 17th, while The Voice UK's live final has already been confirmed for Saturday 7th April.
The Voice UK continues Saturdays on ITV
