Snoop Dogg will make his grand return to The Voice in season 28, airing in the fall.
The rapper and mogul made his debut on the NBC singing competition, which features a rotating panel of coaches, in last year’s season 26. He occupied one of the show’s signature red chairs alongside Michael Bublé, Reba McEntire, and Gwen Stefani. But he sat out the season currently airing, and rookie coach Kelsea Ballerini, as well as veterans Bublé, John Legend, and Adam Levine, are making the calls.
There’s no word yet on who will take the other coaching spots. Previous casts have included Alicia Keys, Blake Shelton, Usher, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, and more.
The Voice audience had the chance to see a more emotional Snoop than we’d seen in his decades in the spotlight. He cried twice during the season premiere, once just because he was happy that McEntire chose someone for her team after none of the coaches had turned a chair for the contestant.
By the finale, he had forged a bond with his team member Jeremy Beloate. Tears rolled down his face as his contestant sang “What the World Needs Now” by Jackie DeShannon.
Beloate had joked to the camera that he was like Snoop’s “new Martha Stewart if she sang,” because they were an “odd” combo.
Snoop complimented him by saying, “Music is not always about how it sounds. It’s about how it makes you feel.”
Snoop’s return to the primetime reality competition is part of a larger, multi-year collaboration between NBCUniversal and him and his Death Row Pictures production company. The deal also includes a biopic to be produced by the star and Oscar winner Brian Grazer, as announced by Donna Langley, NBCUniversal’s head of entertainment and studios.
The Grammy-nominated star, born Calvin Broadus, said in a statement: “Not everyone has the courage and vision to see what Death Row Pictures can bring to the table, but Donna and the NBCUniversal team have always understood, which is why I am proud to call NBCUniversal my new home. The Dogg has officially moved into the neighborhood, ya dig?”
The current season of The Voice wraps up in May.