Ratings for 'The Voice' Drop in First Battle Round: is it Still a Show Without the Chairs?

Last night's episode of "The Voice" saw it move to a different time slot as the blind auditions wrapped up and the Battle Round started. It's only been three episodes, but already it felt like something was missing. My attention was waning, and I could just imagine people changing the channel.

Sure enough, the ratings from last night report that while "The Voice" drew in 10.5 million viewers and a 4.7 rating in the demo, that's almost a 20% decrease from last week. So it beat "Glee" and placed first in the demo, but with a fairly sharp drop.

That could be attributed to the change from 9pm to 10pm (after all, if someone tuned in at 9:00 and didn't see it, they must have just given up), but perhaps there's something to be said for the change in format.

The blind auditions, in which contestants would sing with the coaches' backs turned to them and try to lure the coaches into choosing them and turning their chairs, are now over. The "Battle Round" has begun, in which contestants must sing the same song on the same stage at the same time, after which one will be sent home.

The "drama" and "tension" (I put them in quotes because the editors of the show tried to force them on us) were almost nonexistant. The emotional highs and lows of the blind auditions when we saw contestants and their parents jumping for joy or crying in defeat were gone. Could it be that "The Voice" just isn't a show without those gimmicky turning chairs?

For now, I say no. While some of the battles last night weren't very exciting (and some, like Blake Shelton's round, had ridiculous results), the final battle of the night with Cee Lo's girls singing at each other was quite a show. You can tell that many of the contestants on "The Voice" have a know-how that the "American Idol" singers might lack, as their duets are much cleaner and more refined.

We'll keep an eye on these numbers...after all, once people adjust to the time change they might pick back up.