This season marks the first time in the show's history to feature a fifth coach, Typhoon and season 6 winnerMaan de Steenwinkel, who selected participants to participate in the Comeback stage. Also, this season marks the introduction of the block button, as first introduced in the fourteenth season of the American version. In addition to the familiar button for his chair, each coach gets three smaller buttons with the names of the other coaches on it. If someone presses the block button, the coach who has been pressed can no longer claim the talent. However, the blocked coach only sees this when he tries to turn around himself. To ensure that the coaches cannot block each other indefinitely, they can only use their block button once in the entire blind audition.[3]
On 15 January 2022, after two episodes aired, the season was suspended indefinitely due to power abuse and sexual misconduct allegations against crew members of the show. Jeroen Rietbergen, band leader of The Voice, made a statement acknowledging sexual misconduct, apologised and resigned.[4] The following day, one of the four coaches, Anouk, announced that after reading Rietbergen's statement, as well as several telephone calls,[5] she had made up her mind and would not return to the show. Days later, coach Ali B was suspended from RTL due to the investigations.[6] As of 2 October 2024, it became known that season 12 will return in 2026.[5]
Teams
Color key
– Winner
– Runner-up
– Third place
– Fourth place
– Eliminated in the Live Shows
– Eliminated in the Knockout Rounds
– Artist was stolen by another coach (name is struckthrough)
– Artist was stolen but was later switched with another artist and got eliminated
Note: Italicized names are stolen contestants (names struck through within former teams).
Blind Auditions
The blind auditions premiered on 7 January 2022. A new feature within the Blind Auditions this season is the Block, which each coach can use once to prevent one of the other coaches from getting a contestant.
Color key
✔
Coach pressed "I WANT YOU" button
Artist defaulted to a coach's team
Artist elected a coach's team
Artist was eliminated, but got a second chance to compete in "Comeback Stage"
Artist was eliminated and was not invited back for "Comeback Stage"
✘
Coach pressed "I WANT YOU" button, but was blocked by another coach from getting the artist