Jermaine Paul, Josh Kaufman, Tessanne Chin, Alisan Porter, Chris Blue, Chloe Kohanski— what do all these names have in common? They’re all people that you have probably never heard of. Oh, they also all won The Voice at some point. NBC’s The Voice is a singing competition show that has been around since 2011, and is still going strong today, releasing a fourteenth season later this month.  The show is entertaining to watch, no doubt, but after all these seasons,  and failures to produce real stars, the makers of the show have made some changes that are perhaps meant to reignite its former novelty and excitement. But, even with these changes, the show is still tired and practically useless at this point.

It is truly a mystery as to why the show continues to fail in producing successful singers; every artist that sings on that stage has a voice that is radio-ready and far too one-of-a-kind to not amount to anything. I’d say the most successful singer The Voice has made is Melanie Martinez, and she didn’t even win. But that’s only a minor flaw in the show— after all, it’s the experience of the watching the individual seasons that actually matters.

Unfortunately, The Voice isn’t flawless in that either. Thirteen seasons it’s been, and still all we get is that constant scripted banter between Adam Levine and Blake Shelton and the same feedback given to the aspiring artists over and over and over again. The only thing that the show has going for it is the cycle of unique, talented artists that partake in the competition every season. However, it is somewhat tiring when, after watching the show for years, you begin to notice that the same sort of Nashville rocker wins practically every other season.

To bring The Voice back to its former glory, show creators started making changes to the show starting with Season 11, in which they recruited Alicia Keys and Miley Cyrus to complete the first-ever half-female judging panel. That little trick won Season 11 an Emmy for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program. For the upcoming season, aspects of the judges’ power will be dramatically altered. Now, instead of just turning for the artist that the judge wants to mentor, he/she will have the power to block another judge from getting that artist with the push of a button. This lazy change is probably meant to increase the competitiveness within the judging panel. Ironically, it is probably more interesting and beneficial to the artist to have the judges fight over the singer they want and then have the singer choose who he/she believes will be the best mentor for him/her. I hate to break it to The Voice producers, but changing the format of the show (which is the one thing that makes the show unique) isn’t going to help ratings. In fact, it may hurt them:

Season 14 is also introducing a new panel of judges, of course including Adam Levine and Blake Shelton as always, but also including Alicia Keys and for the first time ever, Kelly Clarkson. This seems like a solid panel, and honestly, this will most likely be a solid season. But can The Voice really just keep banging out solid seasons? No matter how many changes are made, or how many girls are added to the judging panel, The Voice is growing old and deteriorating. It’s lost all its saving graces, so let’s hope they make a superstar soon, because if not, The Voice is eventually going to drown in a pool of disinterest.