The seventh season of the American reality talent show The Voice premiered on September 22, 2014, on NBC.
Veteran coaches Adam Levine and Blake Shelton were joined by Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani, who replaced Usher and Shakira.
The Instant Save returned once again this season, with the bottom three artists performing for a spot in the next round via the viewers' votes from Twitter, which is applicable until the quarterfinals.
In a new twist, a Wild Card finalist round was announced during the results show where previously eliminated contestants from the season's top twelve will return to compete in a sing-off for a fourth spot in the finals.
ET due to the grand jury decision resulting from the shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri (and the unrest that followed).
Viewers in the Mountain time zone saw the live coverage at 7 p.m., when the episode was supposed to start, then the performance show was shown on a delay; however, the part announcing the start of the NBC News special report was edited out as the show aired in real time.
[6] With the eliminations of Luke Wade and DaNica Shirey, Williams no longer has any contestants remaining on his team; for the first time in the show's history, the top 5 were all male artists.
The Wildcard Round was held on Tuesday, and nine previously eliminated singers from the season's top 12 were given the opportunity to perform once again, with one contestant awarded a fourth spot in the finale.
[8] Craig Wayne Boyd, Matt McAndrew, Chris Jamison and Taylor John Williams received the iTunes bonus multiplier with their studio recordings of "The Old Rugged Cross", "Make It Rain", "When I Was Your Man" and "Sugar" charting at #2, #5, #6 and #10 on the iTunes Top 200 singles chart at the close of the voting window, respectively.
The show faced controversy when Rebekah Samarin, a contestant on Team Adam, was the first contestant in the history of the show to make it to the third round of the competition and have all of her performances, including her Blind Audition, Battle, and Knockout round, montaged (not shown in full).
[51] Samarin took to Twitter to comment about this, saying "While I am appreciative of the experience, I am baffled by The Voice's blatant disregard and disrespect of my time and efforts.