Country music legend Reba McEntire shocked many of her fans this week when she revealed that she turned down Blake Shelton’s coaching role on “The Voice.”
While appearing on “Watch What Happens Live” on Tuesday night, McEntire was asked about rumors that she had been the original choice to fill the role of a country music coach on the first season of “The Voice,” which ended up being a smash hit.
“It is very true,” the 65 year-old icon confirmed. “It was a very popular show in Holland, I’m pretty sure, and I watched the tape, and I said, ‘No, I’m going to pass on that,’ because I don’t think I could ever be able to tell somebody that they’re terrible or ‘go find another job’ or ‘hope you like your nighttime job.’ I couldn’t do that day in and day out. I just couldn’t do it. So I did pass on it.”
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McEntire added that it all worked out because Shelton is the better fit for the show anyway.
“Blake is the perfect choice,” she continued. “He’s done a wonderful job.”
McEntire still appeared on the first season of “The Voice” back in 2011. She admitted that after watching the show, she may have initially overestimated how much negativity she’d need to spew out, given how positive Shelton and his fellow coaches are.
“Now that you’ve seen the show, do you think, ‘Oh, maybe I’ve overestimated the criticism that I would have to give?'” host Andy Cohen asked her.
“Oh sure! I mean, after you see a very successful show that’s been running, what, 15 years? Uh, yeah!” McEntire said. “I’m like shoot, I should have done that.”
Shelton had admitted last year that McEntire was the original choice for his spot on “The Voice.”
“If I’m not mistaken, they wanted Reba to be a coach on ‘The Voice’ first. They knew they wanted a country artist to be a coach on ‘The Voice’ to fill that lane,” he said according to Taste Of Country. “For whatever reason, she couldn’t do it, or they just decided it wasn’t the thing for her at the time.”
This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.
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