Tom Jones Uses Facebook to Outline his Issues with The Voice

The Metro

It seems like social media is becoming a prevalent tool for famous faces to air out their dirty laundry. Following the woeful performance of the new Fantastic Four film, both critically and commercially, director Josh Trank tweeted that the version of the film he'd originally tried to make was far superior, effectively blaming the studio for the film's failures. The tweet was swiftly deleted, but the point stood.

Publicly outlining disagreements between talent and studio in this way ensures that even if the original message ends up getting taken down, the momentum isn't mitigated. Tom Jones obviously thought the same thing. Since the X-Factor rival The Voice first aired in 2012, Jones has appeared as a coach in every series, with Will.i.am being the only other one to manage that. Now though, Jones appears to have been replaced by Boy George for the upcoming 5th series. Clearly it wasn't his idea, because he's not best pleased.

In a Facebook post, Jones explained that he wasn't informed that he wouldn't be appearing in the 5th series until the day before Boy George was announced as his successor. He expressed frustration that he had needlessly put time aside to work on the show next year, that he wasn't consulted on the change at all and just the general way he was blind-sided by the news. He goes on at the end to wish the show well, but the overall mood of the message is abundantly clear - Jones feels that the BBC screwed him over.

The BBC responded directly, stating that the announcement was made to the press directly after Jones and his team were informed because the decision had only just been made and they were trying to make sure it didn't get leaked. They also made it clear that a role in series 5 was never guaranteed to Jones. A statement during BBC Newsbeat spoke about the need for a diverse range of coaches on the show and that it would benefit from a new line-up. That would be fair enough, were it not for the fact that they've kept Will.i.am around.

The new coaches (the other being Paloma Faith) have both shown the utmost respect for Jones and the work he's done on the show, but on the show's official blog, many fans have shown nothing but disdain for the sudden decision to cut him loose. The Voice had seemingly originally been intended as a show with a consistent set of coaches, but when Jessie J and Danny O'Donoghue left after the 2013 series that ethos obviously went out the window. Tom Jones had a very large role to play in the overall popularity of the show, and it might not be able to pull in the same viewing figures with him gone.

Callum Davies

Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @CallumAtSMF

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