Photo: NBC
Reba McEntire and two of her fellow coaches on The Voice reacted to a Wicked star’s blind audition in a new Oz-themed promo for the competition show.
McEntire, Niall Horan and Michael Bublé aimed to make their way to The Voice stage as they emerged on a yellow brick road in the promo on Monday (November 3). That’s where they encountered Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang, who plays Pfannee in the two-part film adaptation of beloved Broadway musical and novel Wicked. Yang is part of the star-studded cast alongside former Voice coach Ariana Grande (Glinda), Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba), Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero), Ethan Slater (Boq), Jeff Goldblum (the Wizard of Oz), Michelle Yeoh (Madame Morrible) and more. Yang and other casemates are also set to appear in Wicked: One Wonderful Night, a concert special airing on NBC at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on Thursday (November 6), and streaming the following day on Peacock.
Yang welcomed McEntire, Horan and Bublé to Oz, and hoped to “realize my lifelong dream” of auditioning for the hit competition show. The coaches turned around, as they would for a blind audition, as the Las Culturistas host began to sing “For Good,” from the upcoming Wicked installment. His performance, however, resulted in “no chair turns.”
“Hey, I liked the song,” McEntire said. She turned to Horan and added, ‘Fancy’ would’ve been a better choice.”
McEntire, Horan and Bublé continued to the knockout rounds. Yang called after them, “I am available to mega mentor. Just putting that out there.”
“I love to encourage,” McEntire said of The Voice in an interview with iHeartCountry earlier this year. “I can’t tell anybody, ‘Don’t do this. Go get a job. You’re not suited for this.’ But the way that we get to do the – I don’t say critique – advice, it’s helpful advice. It’s not tear-down. We want to lift up. We want to inspire. We want to encourage, not tear down. They get enough of that out there in the world.”
Wicked: For Good will premiere on November 21. The Voice airs at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on Mondays on NBC. The show is available to stream the following day on Peacock. Watch the new Oz-inspired promo here: