NBC's 'The Voice' adds Facebook app for voting

[March 31, 2012]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- NBC's talent show "The Voice" is jumping on Facebook's "timeline" app bandwagon to give fans another way to vote for their favorite contestants.

The new application allows viewers to cast votes for "Voice" singers and connect with friends and others watching the show, NBC and Facebook said Friday. Voting on live performances begins Monday.

The Facebook app for "The Voice" is intended to create "a fully social online voting experience," said Vivi Zigler, president of NBC Universal Digital Entertainment.

"We have been working very closely with Facebook to really build a social voting app that takes advantage of every whiz-bang, bell and whistle that Facebook has built for timeline," Zigler said.

Besides serving as a ballot box and a bridge between viewers, the "Voice" app will lead users to new content, including performance videos and blogs, NBC said.

In January, when Facebook unveiled about 60 new apps that let people share the smallest details of their lives on their profile, now known as their timeline, the company said it expected developers to create thousands more.

Dubbed "frictionless sharing" by Facebook, the apps allow a user's activity to be automatically shared through Facebook -- although people can limit who's able to see this activity when they sign up for the apps.

Nearly 3,000 apps have been launched in two months for websites ranging from The Onion to Nike to foodie site Foodily, Facebook said.

Making use of a timeline app for voting is innovative, said Justin Osofksy, director of platform partnerships at Facebook.

"The Voice," which features Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton as coaches, has seen a sharp increase in viewership in its second season and is drawing the young adult viewers prized by advertisers.

It's also gaining ground on TV's top competition shows, Fox's "American Idol" and ABC's "Dancing With the Stars." Those programs have seen their total viewership drop by double-digit percentages compared with last season, while "The Voice" is up by double digits.

In a measurement of viewers ages 18 to 49, "The Voice" was second only to Wednesday's edition of "American Idol."

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NBC is owned by Comcast Corp.

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Online:

http://www.nbc.com/

http://www.facebook.com/NBCTheVoice

[Associated Press; By LYNN ELBER]

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.