Carson Daly Tells All About ‘The Voice,’ Its Social Media Clout and ‘TRL’

Hours before watching The Voice‘s season three premiere, host Carson Daly calls himself a “tech geek.”

Social media and gadgets like the Apple TV surround him during much of his waking moments â€" and there’s plenty of that no-shut-eye time now after he welcomed a daughter, Etta Jones, to the world last week. Like a newborn’s tears on a cheek, parenting apps trickled onto his iPhone to aid in any fatherly woes.

His digital-first mentality to solving problems has seeped into the production of The Voice since the televised singing competition first debuted in 2011. In a way, social media helped raise the show into a powerhouse on TV and online, just as the apps likely will help Daly raise his infant.

“We’re not worried about what other shows (like American Idol or The X Factor) are doing.”

“We are such a social show and we took a lot of online comments that were made and used those to decide what to put into the show this season,” Daly, also a producer on the show, tells Mashable.

But just how social is The Voice? Last season, producers employed an impressive social media blitz, using more than 160 social profiles for judges, contestants and show personalities, including one for judge Cee Lo Green’s cat, Purrfect. The Voice also introduced celebrity social media correspondent Christina Milian and voting via a slick Facebook Timeline app.

The result for The Voice season two: 145 worldwide Twitter trending topics, 13% rise for online’s vote share and 38% jump in votes per unique user, NBC told Mashable.

The Voice also earned an Emmy nod in 2012 for best reality-competition series, in a year where rival show and perennially nominated American Idol was somewhat not surprising left off the ballot.

“The social media response is one of the biggest reasons we were nominated for the Emmy,” Daly asserts. “We’re not worried about what other shows are doing.”

What’s New in Season Three? ‘I don’t want to give anything away but … ‘

To incite even more social buzz, producers made a few tweaks, including bigger teams, steals and the knockout rounds. Coaches Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton will build teams of 16 artists. And during the battle rounds, coaches get two steals each, which will let them snag losing contestants. The new knockout rounds add drama as each contestant will find out which other artist he or she will compete against just minutes before performing. Losers are immediately eliminated.

Daly teases that Purrfect, who now has an agent and is being recruited for sitcoms, may even get a partner.

“The cat is very cool and in season three there’s a relationship,” he hints. “I don’t want to give anything away but the cat isn’t alone.” Of course, the cat â€" or in this case, the bird â€" is already out of the bag.

NO, @ceeloslady is not my dinner TYVM. #TheVoice

â€" Purrfect The Cat (@PurrfectTheCat) September 11, 2012

Ah man I can’t stop rockin’ back n’ forth. (*v*)/#TheVoice

â€" Lady (@CeeLosLady) September 10, 2012

Green Day rocker Billie Joe Armstrong, Michael Buble, Mary J. Blige and Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas will join the cast as mentors.

With Social Media, There’s a Voting Method for Everyone

The Voice is rebranding its “5th Coach” Facebook app into the “The Voice Live” experience, a more interactive second-screen app that aggregates digital content for fan engagement.

In season two, The Voice introduced Facebook voting, giving fans another way to vote online in addition to voting at NBC.com, the NBC Live app and the NBC app. That built on season one when The Voice became the first televised singing competition in the U.S. to allow iTunes sales to count as votes.

“We want to make the voting methods easy,” Daly says. “There’s a method for everyone.”

The Voice Live app, which comes out during the live voting rounds, for Facebook, NBC.com and tablet allows viewers to chat online, participate in question-and-answer sessions, watch video highlights organized by what’s popular on Twitter and play a fantasy football-like game based on a points system, NBC says.

Milian, whom Daly gives high praise for stepping in as social media correspondent, will tout the app on air.

“She’s doing really, really great,” Daly says. “She has a dual citizenship of being an artist and a TV host.”

How ‘TRL’ and ‘The Voice’ are Connected

Long before The Voice, Daly brought his social media mantra to the set of MTV’s Total Request Live, the 1990s hit countdown show where viewers chose the top 10 videos every day.

“I’ve been a big proponent of it for a long time, and that was social media at its infancy â€" a digital democracy” he says because viewers interacted with TRL via email to be heard during the broadcast.

His love for interactivity and the social aspect of the Dutch’s version of The Voice is what peaked Daly’s interest in doing the U.S. version. But can The Voice inspire MTV or Daly to bring TRL back today? Fans surely want it.

“It’s been really cool that there’s resurgence,” he says. “I’m not sure it’d work in today’s world of scripted reality shows, but it’s an exciting time in television.”

Photo Courtesy of Matthew Rolston/NBC