Reba McEntire may have saved ‘The Voice’ from a downward spiral following Blake Shelton’s departure, host Carson Daly says.

Blake Shelton left NBC’s The Voice after 23 seasons in May 2023 and hasn’t looked back. While fans miss Shelton as a judge on the show, they adore Reba McEntire, his official country music star replacement. Host Carson Daly said bringing McEntire in as a judge helped save the show after Shelton’s departure.

Carson Daly says that Reba McEntire saved ‘The Voice’ after Blake Shelton’s departure

Reba McEntire is a country queen, and fans embraced her as a judge on The Voice after Blake Shelton left the show before season 24. Daly spoke to GoldDerby about the fallout of Shelton’s decision to go and how McEntire helped save the singing competition series.

“The biggest hurdle that this show has ever had to endure is try and succeed in a post-Blake Shelton world,” Daly said. “He was the least-known star when we started, yet, ironically, got the biggest bounce of the success of the show and left the biggest star of anybody on the panel. Arguably, [he’ll] go down as one of the biggest stars in the history of NBC as a network, as a TV star.”

Daly added that Shelton’s banter brought a lot to the show, giving the reality series a “sitcom” energy that differentiated it from other shows. After Shelton, the network needed another credible star to help fill his shoes.

“That’s where Reba comes in,” Daly continued. “We obviously lost a big country coach, and so, Reba had been on the show before. We’re such a family-oriented show … it’s a small world. Reba’s in that world, too, so we all got to know Reba before she was a coach personally from being around The Voice.”

Daly added that McEntire’s “credibility” and eagerness to mentor artists as the “queen of country” brought magic to the show. “Immediately, not just in the ratings, but in the way that we felt watching the show with Reba post-Blake, we were like, wow,” Daly said. “What a perfect chess play for us just on the heels of not having Blake on the show.”

“Nobody can fill his shoes, obviously,” the host continued. “But, it was just such a perfect get for us. Now she feels like a staple already.”

Reba McEntire talked about the ‘pressure’ she felt to replace the country king

Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire on ‘The Voice’ | Tyler Golden/NBC via Getty Images

Reba McEntire joined The Voice for seasons 24 and 25, and fans can anticipate seeing her again for season 26. While she felt excited to join the show as a full-time coach, she felt the “pressure” after Blake Shelton’s departure.

“It’s a lot of pressure because nobody can replace Blake Shelton,” she told Newsweek. “He’s a huge personality and a wonderful person. So, I’m just getting in there trying to have fun and represent country music as best I can.”

Gwen Stefani, a fellow coach set to rejoin The Voice Season 26, felt scared when she learned that McEntire was set to replace her husband. “That was like scary for me, ’cause like, Queen of Country,” Stefani told Entertainment Tonight. “She deserves all the respect …. Like, how do you, like, fight against her?”

Will Blake Shelton rejoin ‘The Voice’?

Returning coaches Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani will join new coaches Michael Bublé and Snoop Dogg for The Voice Season 26. What does this mean for Blake Shelton?

Unfortunately, fans shouldn’t expect Shelton to rejoin the show anytime soon. Shelton said he’d consider returning for a one-off season if the original four coaches — Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, and Christina Aguilera — joined. Otherwise, fans shouldn’t expect him to return.

“If they were ever able to put together the original four coaches again, maybe [I’d return] for one season, a one-off,” Shelton told Entertainment Tonight. “That would be fun for me …. That would be something I would be interested in doing.”

The Voice Season 26 premieres in the fall of 2024 on NBC.