It’s been five seasons since Blake Shelton said goodbye to The Voice and, while I wouldn’t say Michael Bublé has taken his place, there are some striking similarities. There’s the way he stays in touch with his team members after the cameras start rolling, and you can’t deny Bublé’s winning ways. But the biggest way that the Canadian singer seems to be filling the cowboy’s shoes has to do with Niall Horan.
Blake Shelton and Niall Horan hit it off immediately on Shelton’s final season of The Voice, which just happened to be the former One Directioner’s first. The two took on more of a father-son relationship and, as Season 28 airs on the 2025 TV schedule, it seems now Michael Bublé is filling that role. On the first night of Blind Auditions, the coaches revealed just how close they were after 14-year-old Max Chambers auditioned:
- Bublé: You remind me of my son, Niall, when he was a young man.
- Horan: Oh yeah?
- Bublé: Yes. Just call me Daddy now. Call me Big Daddy.
- Horan: Hi Daddy!
The two continued the bit even after Max decided to join Big Daddy’s team (nope, I can’t do it), as they called each other “Dad” and “Son” and told each other, “I love you.”
Seriously, this is a page straight out of Blake Shelton’s Season 23 playbook, when the country music star said he knew Niall Horan was meant to be his son. The former boy-bander acknowledged as much on the current season, saying:
Bublé definitely has four kids at home. He’s starting to, like, take on this dad role. … Blake Shelton won’t be happy with this. I was his son for a season.
Snoop Dogg jumped in to defend his fellow coach on The Voice with his support of the new custody agreement, as he and Niall Horan joked:
- Snoop: We just gonna say you went through the adoption agency for a year.
- Horan: Yeah, I don’t want to live in Oklahoma anymore.
- Snoop: ‘I wanna go to Canada where I can go ice skating.’
There’s no way to know how Blake Shelton feels about the Michael Bublé takeover. However, it turns out the former coach — whose new singing competition show The Road debuts next Sunday, October 19 — may not have that much to worry about anyway. Niall Horan set the record straight by admitting:
I’m Blake’s son. I always will be.
Maybe it’s for the best if Niall Horan remains loyal to Blake Shelton. He and Michael Bublé are in a pretty tough battle this season, as the only two undefeated coaches to ever face off on The Voice, and I’d hate to see Season 28 end in a father/son estrangement.
Blind Auditions have wrapped on the current season so, when The Voice resumes, the teams will begin to narrow themselves down via head-to-head duets. Don’t miss the Battles, Night 1, coming at 8 p.m. ET Monday, October 13, on NBC and streaming the next day with a Peacock subscription.
