Fans of The Voice sure do miss Blake Shelton this season, with the cowboy bowing out earlier this year after an impressive 12-year stint as a coach on the show. For those viewers who are craving some of that “Hillbilly Bone” snark in their lives, I’ve got good news for you — Shelton is returning to TV this week, and he’ll even be reuniting with some of his buddies from The Voice, when Barmageddon Season 2 premieres on USA Network.
Barmageddon, which features celebrities facing off in over-the-top bar games, was created by Blake Shelton and Carson Daly after the two became BFFs on The Voice. But the longtime host isn’t the only familiar face the cowboy will see on the November 13 premiere. Kelly Clarkson will be one of the featured celebrities, and I absolutely can’t wait to see her and Shelton trading playful jabs on my screen again.
Fans loved the feud between Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton on The Voice, and the trolling between the two real-life friends was constant. NBC pulled out all the stops for Blake Shelton’s final episode — and deservedly so — but the Season 23 finale was also the last appearance of the American Idol champion, as she has since relocated to the East Coast. So while it sounds like a return to The Voice is not in the cards for her anytime soon, she apparently had no qualms about making the trip to Nashville, Tennessee, to reunite with her former colleague at his bar Ole Red.
Unfortunately Kelly Clarkson won’t be competing against her ex-rival on the Barmageddon Season 2 premiere. She’ll instead face off against The Fast and the Furious franchise actress Michelle Rodriguez in bar games that in Season 1 included punny and suggestive names like Drunken Axehole (axe-throwing), Just the Tip (pool meets Pictionary), Four Play (large Connect 4) and Split Happens (bowling).
I really do miss both Blake Shelton and Kelly Clarkson on The Voice. That’s no shade to the cowboy’s replacement Reba McEntire or the rest of the current coaches of The Voice — John Legend, Gwen Stefani and Niall Horan. But Shelton injected a certain energy to the show, and his chemistry with Clarkson is something NBC hasn’t been able to recreate. It’s not for lack of effort, as they seemed to test the waters of a rivalry between Legend and Horan, but it didn’t stick.
It was also fun to see Blake Shelton’s relationship with Gwen Stefani develop on The Voice, and that’s one pairing Barmageddon fans will also get to see early in Season 2. In fact, in Episode 2, the husband and wife will go head-to-head in competition, as Carson Daly takes his regular spot behind the bar. As much as fans miss Shelton on the singing competition, it’s probably not as much as his wife, who returned to The Voice just as her husband made his exit.
The “No Body” singer will also face off against Ice T and Lauren Alaina this season on Barmageddon, and other celebrity contestants will include Jelly Roll, Boyz II Men, Rob Riggle and Nikki Glaser. First, though, it’s Kelly Clarkson vs. Michelle Rodriguez, so be sure to tune in at 11 p.m. ET Monday, November 13, on USA Network, and check out our 2023 TV schedule to see what other premieres are coming soon.
