The Voice Accused of Racism, Rigging Season 15 Winner
Mia Cox
Updated on March 15, 2026
As you may recall from our The Voice finale recap, the Season 15 winner was nothing if not a controversial choice.
(Just a head’s up: the tweets we’ve harvested from the internet definitely contain spoilers on that front)
The fact that the contestants who had been hitting it out of the park week after week were suddenly falling behind struck viewers as odd.
Some suspected a conspiracy — rigging — at the network.
Others suspected that racism was responsible.
Some thought that it was both.
It’s clear that Twitter would have chosen a very different winner than The Voice did.
And a lot of folks are so upset that they’ve vowed to never again allow the NBC competition series to darken their screens.
The Voice announced its Season 15 winner …
1Chevel Shepherd, a white teenage yodeler, won. Viewers could not believe their eyes or ears.
Even Sunny Hostin couldn’t contain her shock
2Some would say that this is the most in-touch with Americans that any The View host has been in a while.
The results were difficult to miss
3A lot of people felt that, consciously or unconsciously, The Voice’s winners won because of their race.
Others washed their hands of the show
4A lot of people vowed to stop watching The Voice. We’ll see how many stick to that promise.
Did the audience’s votes even count?
5A lot of reality competitions are “rigged” in that the show will maneuver some contestants to stay longer. It sounds like people think that The Voice is straight-up lying about caring about the audience’s votes, which is another matter entirely.
Conspiracy theory or hard truth?
6Racism is alive and well in America. Did it play a role in handing Chevel an undeserved victory?
People couldn’t believe their eyes
7Also, not to distract from the point, but everyone’s name starts with either a C or a K, which is definitely a coincidence but you really notice when you see the names all spelled out in the same tweet.
Is The Voice only for white people
8That’s what some people began to suspect. That would be very unfair.
Did NBC put their hand on the scale?
9Viewers would like an explanation for why the rankings suddenly changed like they did.
Here’s a dated reference
10The more-than-nine-year-old reference to Kanye West’s antics at the VMAs does seem to apply, even if Kanye is a sore subject for many.
Another fan writes off the show
11Any kind of television show can reach a breaking point with fans.
The final results were the opposite of what people expected
12Hey, maybe there was a glitch or a typo? A lot of people would love to hear that announced by NBC.
Britney memes for all occassions
13The results were just plain fishy. Remember, The Voice does not have an electoral college for its votes, folks.
Another one quits watching
14A lot of people may be realizing that they just don’t have enough time in their busy schedules to watch a girl yodel her way past more talented singers.
They don’t want to watch a show with such skewed results
15Maxine Waters is an untapped resource of memes
Twitter sure didn’t like the results
16Of course, maybe angry people are more likely to speak out on social media. Also, maybe the demographic that loves a yodeling white girl is less likely to Tweet and more likely to, if anything, post on Facebook. Just a thought.
People were pissed
17Hey, at least the reaction image they used was already censored. There are kids on Twitter, you know.
Frowny face emojis got a lot of use
18You know what? This is a very fair response.
The outrage continues
19Grey’s Anatomy generated a lot of usable gifs, in part because it’s been on for approximately 600 years.
Others were in disbelief
20Yodeling is … extremely niche
This wasn’t the first “hiccup” this season
21Adam Levine seemed to throw his own contestant under the bus. Not great from a coach.
People were serious about quitting
22Of course, you can always reinstall an app … but it’s a symbolic gesture, at least.
Maybe it was opposite day?
23People don’t know what to make of the results
It’s difficult to NOT see race as a factor
24Up until the finale, it seemed like everyone agreed on who was the most talented. And then suddenly the black contestants fell behind. Hmmm …
Peace out
25That said, maybe people will have more hope next season. Or maybe they’re really done with the show.
