In The Voice Season 27 season premiere on Monday, Adam Levine made his return to the big red chairs after taking a hiatus from the show following Season 16 in 2019. This season is Adam’s 17th as a coach and John Legend‘s 10th, back after one season away. In that season away, Michael Bublé won the show as a coach for the first time with Filipino powerhouse vocalist Sofronio Vasquez. Appearing on the show three times before as the “Comeback Stage” coach or an advisor, Kelsea Ballerini rounds out the new panel as the coach of her own team for the first time.

This season, each coach will select 12 artists to join their teams through the Blind Auditions, sight-unseen turning their chairs for any vocalist they believe can win. Coaches have one block available to stop an artist of their choice from choosing that coach as their mentor. They can also use the “Coach Replay” option once to reverse a decision and throw their hat in the ring for an artist they didn’t original turn for.

“Bryan made me cry last season; now I’m watching him cry and I’m crying again” — John Legend

Coaches Adam and John weren’t the only ones returning to the show after some time away. Season 25 finalist Bryan Olesen reappeared this season in support of his daughter Jadyn Cree‘s first time auditioning. Bryan finished in third place as the top-performing artist of Team Legend in 2024, but Jadyn would not follow in his footsteps. Instead, Jadyn only had Michael and Kelsea available to her as coach options. Based on her Blind Audition of “Still Into You,” John said that her voice “stands out and it pierces through” before realizing that he’d seen her before. When Bryan came out from backstage, John immediately recalled that Jadyn had taken the stage with her dad that year before he chose to join Team Legend.

In order to convince Jadyn to join her team, Kelsea mentioned Sixpence None the Richer and Christina Perri as artist that she’d like to hear Jadyn sing, proving that she is aware of more music than just country. With Bryan now on stage, Michael went a different direction by appealing to the sentimental side of what it means to be a father wanting their daughter to succeed. He told Jadyn that she has “so much light pouring out” of her and that he hopes he can introduce his own daughters to her music and say he was a part of her journey. Hearing the comments from Kelsea and Michael only made John and Adam more frustrated with themselves that they missed out on fighting for Jadyn.

When faced with her own decision to make, Jadyn went with the returning champ Michael as her coach. Reflecting on the audition, Michael said he believes that she has “the greatest potential of truly being a star.” The loss of Jadyn didn’t kill Kelsea’s spirit for the night. Later on she became the first coach to use the “Coach Replay” this season and the first coach since it was introduced last season to use it on an artist that other coaches had already turned for. The passion Kelsea showed in that action inspired Dan Kiernan to join her team instead of Michael and John who original turned for his audition to “High Hopes.”

“I whoopsied… hard” — Kelsea Ballerini

By the end of Episode 1, Jadyn, Dan and seven other artists earned their spots on teams. Adam won two four chair turns In Grace-Miller Moody with “Sunday Morning” and Ethan Eckenroad performing “Northern Attitude,” as well as three chair turn Darius J with “Caught Up.” John earned only one artist this time after successfully blocking Adam to get Renzo after he sang “Simple Man.” Kelsea picked up two other artists in addition to Dan: Iris Herrera based on “You Are My Sunshine” and an automatic berth with Angie Rey after she sang Kelsea’s own song “Penthouse (Healed Version).” Michael picked up Carlos Santiago with “Right Here Waiting” as his second artist.

The teams so far:

TEAM LEGEND  (1 of 12 full) — Renzo

TEAM BUBLÉ (2 of 12 full) — Carlos Santiago, Jadyn Cree

TEAM KELSEA (3 of 12 full) — Angie Rey, Dan Kiernan, Iris Herrera

TEAM ADAM (3 of 12 full) — Darius J, Ethan Eckenroad, Grace-Miller Moody

The four-time Emmy Award-winning musical competition series “The Voice” is in its 27th season featuring five stages of competition: Blind Auditions, Battle Rounds, Knockouts, Playoffs and Live Performance Shows. In the coaches’ chairs, Michael is the defending champion after winning Season 26. He is joined by John, in his 10th season, and Kelsea, competing for the first time. Adam rejoined the panel of coaches for his 17th season after taking a hiatus following Season 16.