Is The Voice Doing It Better Than American Idol

It sort of pains me to even question this, but is it possible that The Voice has actually outdone American Idol?
American Idol was really the beginning of our countries obsession with talent shows.  But while there have been some very small changes a long the way, overall they haven't changed much about how they do things has really changed.  And I think The Voice, had really stepped up and grabbed hold of some opportunities that I think Idol should have taken seasons ago.

What is The Voice doing right?
(In my opinion, of course)
The Voice is taking real advantage of social media, especially Twitter.  During the show they have check in with their "V Room" where contestants are tweeting and the share actual tweets that use their hashtag #TheVoice.  I LOVE this as I am a big one to tweet my way through a show.  They even mentioned when Adam Levine was trending which will only drive more watchers to twitter and increase the tweets about the show.  They are seriously taking FULL advantage of this great tool to make fans/viewers feel invested in this show!  Visit the website to easily find each of the coaches and contestants on twitter.


Voting for The Voice is easier.  I never miss an episode of American Idol but many times it's watched from the DVR and it's already too late to vote.  Clearly there are still a LOT of people voting each week on American Idol, but I think people are more invested when they can vote.  I LOVE that they are counting iTunes downloads as votes.  But more importantly, to me at least, they are giving a TON of time to vote...a FULL week! I think a week is probably more than anyone needs but I like having more than 2 hours and I don't have a magical number as to what they should for days or hours so who am I to say a full week is too much.   However, there is a limit to 10 votes per artist per method.  I am not totally sure how I feel about this part.  When we vote for contestants on Idol, we've been known to drop 100s of votes for a contestants.  I kind of like limiting it because it will give you a truer impression of how many actual people prefer which contestant vs which contestant has over the top supporters who will vote thousands of times.  But I think this will make for very close results.  It will be interesting to watch results play out through the season.

The Voice has a great website.  I don't think American Idol's website is bad, but it has occasionally taken me a few more clicks than I'd like to find what I'm looking for.  I LOVE The Voice's website.  It is laid out so well.  It gives you so much too.  You can watch full episodes, in case you forgot to set your DVR!  But Twitter feeds, iTunes downloads, and photos are all so easy to find. 

Are you watching The Voice?  What do you think they are doing right??