The Voice is a singing contest in its first season on NBC, though the basis of the show, "The Voice of Holland," originated in the Netherlands. The singing contest has four judges: Christina Aguilera, whose nickname is coincidentally "the voice", Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, who is the lead vocalist for Maroon 5, and Blake Shelton. The host of the show is Carson Daly, who is best known as the host of MTV's long running show, Total Request Live.

Though there have been other singing contests on television, the most popular being American Idol, The Voice is set up in a different manner. When the contestants audition for the show, the judge panel has their back to the performance. This ensures that the contestants will not be judged based on their looks, but on "the voice" alone. During this audition, the four judges must decide whether they want the person who is auditioning on their team. In the case that more than one judge picks a singer, the singer has the opportunity to choose which team he or she would like to be a part of. The judge then coaches their team to prepare them to battle one another. The judge decides who on their team advances to the final round, where the final contestants for each team go head to head.

In this singing competition, the contestants are battling for $100,000 and a record contract with Universal Republic, a record label that tends to concentrate on pop rock music.