'The Voice' live show changes voting rules - and some viewers aren't happy

Election week isn't always easy for the broadcast networks - just look at Monday night's episode of "The Voice."

Usually, when the show gets down to the Top 20 singers - the "playoff" round - three dedicated episodes feature all 20 performances, as well as the results. This season, because the presidential election took over the TV schedule this week, NBC decided to cut the live playoffs to a single, two-hour episode on Monday night - complete with real-time voting, whittling 20 singers to 12.

Those familiar with reality TV singing competitions might be thinking, "Wow, 20 performances in two hours sounds like a lot." Indeed it was! The show felt incredibly rushed, which didn't sit well with some viewers. But the bigger problem - according to a flood of social media comments - was that the West Coast didn't get to vote for the Top 12 singers. The "instant results" were revealed after the real-time voting during the East Coast telecast, and those watching the Pacific time zone broadcast couldn't participate.

A scroll through Twitter and "The Voice" Facebook page shows that certain West Coast viewers weren't happy about this development, though others were confused by the voting process in general. Host Carson Daly explained that to vote you could either download the official "Voice" app or retweet "The Voice" Twitter account, which would send out one tweet per artist. So theoretically, the West Coast could vote if they were following along online earlier ... they just couldn't actually see any of the performances.

In the end, the show combined the number of retweets and the votes from the app to declare the Top 8 singers chosen by America, two from each celebrity coach's team - the coaches (Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keys) also each got to choose one additional team member, rounding out the Top 12.

This voting method was a bit convoluted, and viewers only had a certain amount of time to vote. Given how quickly the episode moved, it was no surprise that some missed the voting window completely. Even the coaches seemed rattled by the speed of the show - Levine scrambled to choose his final contestant in the last seconds before the show ended.

Anyway, live reality competition shows have grappled with the time zone issues for years, especially as they incorporated things like "instant saves" via social media. And this is a rare problem for "The Voice" - one of NBC's highest-rated series - and one that shouldn't come up again anytime soon. If it does, judging by the reaction after Monday, NBC may want to figure out a better option that doesn't enrage a segment of viewers.