The Voice producer finally shares the secret behind Adam Levine’s return after all these years

The Voice Season 27 is about to premiere on NBC, featuring the return of coach Adam Levine. In a new interview, an executive producer revealed how she finally convinced Levine to return to the show after so many years.

How The Voice Got Adam Levine Back on the Show

Adam Levine was one of the original coaches on Season 1 of The Voice when it premiered back in 2011. He ended up leaving the show in 2019, after 16 seasons. Executive producer Audrey Morrissey told TV Line that the process of getting Levine back on the show was a “good game of cat and mouse.”

Morrissey had apparently encouraged Levine to return ever since he left, but he never committed to coming back. It wasn’t until Levine attended longtime coach Blake Shelton’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2023 that he seemed to seriously consider a comeback.

“I saw [Levine] there and I cornered him and asked, ‘When are you gonna come back?’” Morrissey recalled. “I think that was the one that really started him thinking, ‘Maybe I will.’ It still took two years!”

Levine Says No One Can Replace Shelton

This will be Levine’s first season of the show without Shelton, who left in 2023 after 23 seasons as a coach. He’ll be joined by returning coaches John Legend and Michael Bublé, as well as new coach Kelsea Ballerini.

Levine told People that there’s “no replacing” Shelton, with whom he exchanged plenty of fun banter over 16 seasons of the show. He added, “The thing that happened with Blake and I, it was so organic, and it was based on our friendship.”

“And all of a sudden we realized people loved watching us talk s— to each other,” Levine said. “So, we thought to ourselves, ‘Let’s just do it. And hey, is there such thing as too far?’ And he’s like, ‘No.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, probably not. Let’s just go at it.’ And we just had fun with it.”

Watch Levine in his comeback season of The Voice when it premieres on Monday, February 3, on NBC.