LeAnn Rimes on The Voice Australia has been labelled by TV pundits as a coach who “only does one thing”.
After Daily Mail Australia revealed that the 42-year-old ’90s country music star would be using her stint on The Voice Australia as “a dress rehearsal” for the more popular UK version of the show, those behind the scenes have suggested Rimes will be leaving sooner rather than later.
Rimes joined the televised singing competition this year, after local singer Jessica Mauboy, Britain’s Rita Ora and American hitmaker Jason Derulo left their big red chairs.
Despite this season of The Voice Australia cementing itself as a primetime ratings contender for The Block, industry insiders say it may not be enough to persuade new coach LeAnn to commit to regular appearances in Australia.
“She could very well be a one-time trainer,” a TV source told New Idea on Monday.
‘So far, she has struggled to find her voice on the show, while fellow coaches Guy Sebastian, Kate Miller-Heidke and Adam Lambert banter amongst themselves and take away the most talented contestants.’
Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian, who started on The Voice in 2019, is the last remaining judge on the 2023 line-up.
Production on this season began in March, when Jess was touring with her album Yours Forever, Rita was in the US filming the American version of The Masked Singer after joining the judging panel there, and Derulo was touring Europe.
TV insiders claim 90s country star LeAnn Rimes will be a “sole” coach on The Voice Australia as she “struggles to find her groove” on the Australian judging panel.
LeAnn made her debut on The Voice this year alongside Guy and the other two new coaches, fellow American Adam Lambert and Kate Miller-Heidke.
Kate, the respected classically trained Australian pop singer-songwriter, is thought to have replaced Jess as the archetypal “kind judge.”
Ghost Town singer Adam, who came to Sydney to perform at Mardi Gras in March, is the obvious replacement for Jason as a judge on the global hits contest.
A source close to the show claimed younger Australian contestants were reluctant to choose LeAnn, 42, as a coach because they did not know her, while another industry source said Australia was a “dress rehearsal” for judging on The Voice UK.
Adam “has proven popular,” the magazine’s source continued, because he’s an example of how to make a career last after winning the competition.
The 2009 American Idol runner-up toured the world with Queen’s Roger Taylor and Brian May.
LeAnn is then replacing 33-year-old British singer Rita, but there is an age difference issue.
“So far, she has struggled to find her voice on the show, while fellow coaches Guy Sebastian, Kate Miller-Heidke and Adam Lambert banter amongst themselves and take away the most talented contestants,” the TV source claimed.
The source claimed that some of the show’s younger contestants were initially “reluctant” to choose LeAnn as their new coach because they “didn’t know who she was.”
LeAnn’s hit song How Do I Live topped the charts worldwide in 1997, followed by Can’t Fight The Moonlight from the 2000 film Coyote Ugly, before some of this season’s youngest contestants were born.
The Voice Australia continues to be outperformed in the TV ratings by Nine’s home renovation show The Block, which attracted an average of 1.039 million viewers last week, compared to its 986,000.
Channel Seven has yet to comment on whether there will be any changes to the show’s judging panel in 2025.
The UK version kicked off its current season over the weekend with LeAnn, McFly’s Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones joining Tom Jones and Will.i.iam as coaches.