The Voice Australia 2023 is being dubbed “trauma porn” by viewers who think the series is “milking” contestants’ hardships for dramatic effect.
After 12 seasons and a revolving door of epic coaches, there’s no doubt that the hit singing competition has churned out some big stars.
However, the latest season seems to have fans switching off from The Voice, with many disgruntled viewers calling out the show for “shamelessly” exploiting its competitors’ personal lives.
Taking to Reddit, one user said “It’s so blatantly obvious” what the show is doing in a thread titled: “The Voice on Channel 7 is just trauma porn.”
“Every singer that goes out to sing has some trauma story from their past forced into their intro piece before they go on stage and it’s so blatantly obvious that they are trying to milk the story,” the user wrote.
“Post-natal depression, father dying of cancer, parents separated when they were kids, overweight guy with body issues… Some of it [is] so jarring where you can tell the contestant doesn’t even feel that comfortable talking about it or they are forcing some scripted lines for the camera.”
They added: “The worst was tonight when Guy Sebastian surprised one of his singers during the rehearsal with a picture of him and his dead father.”
The Voice Australia fans share thoughts about TV ‘sob’ stories
In the Reddit thread, many The Voice fans shared varied opinions about the series using “sob” stories to hook viewers.
“You’re more likely to feel a stronger connection to that persona now that they’ve been vulnerable with you, albeit indirectly for the TV viewer,” one person said.
“People love an underdog. So they make everyone an underdog,” another said.
A third penned: “You’ve just noticed this now? This has been reality TV for at least 10 years. Everyone has a sob story.”
Meanwhile, other users said they’ve switched off from other reality shows for similarly becoming too emotional.
“Contestants crying over food on MasterChef was when I knew I was done with TV. God should give me a life where the most traumatic thing that ever happened was f*cking up the profiteroles, farken hell,” one person commented.
“My Kitchen Rules is the same,” another said.
“My dog’s groomer went on Ninja Warrior and didn’t get much air time because she didn’t give them enough of a story to run with for the show,” one shared. “She even said there was some sort of relationship between two contestants completely manufactured by production.”
We thought we’d learned by now that reality TV is as far from “reality” as it gets?!
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