‘The Voice’ Rules Explained

Think you're ready for the premiere of 'The Voice' tonight on NBC? You gotta be careful, televised singing competitions can be dangerous if you don't know what's going on. Luckily for you, we're going to explain all the rules of 'The Voice' as best as we understand them.

According to Billboard, singers Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera will serve as the four "coaches" -- not judges -- on the program. Carson Daly and Allison Haislip are your hosts. The coaches will be evaluating amateur singers with an eye to rounding up a strong eight-person team. The difference from 'American Idol' is that the coaches will be seated facing away from the performers, so they have to rely on, that's right, 'The Voice' alone.

If the stars like what they hear, they turn around and therefore make a claim on that singer. If more than one coach chooses a contestant, that person gets wooed by their much-more famous peers and gets to choose what team they join.

Look for each coach to get about half their team assembled this week. Presumably this process will be finished up next week. Then it's onto the second part, where each team competes against itself to create a smaller, stronger team.  Finally, the teams will compete against each other, with you, the highly-educated and invested TV audience, helping decide who gets the record contract and $100,000 grand prize.

'The Voice' already released a preview clip showing the four stars singing their version of Cee Lo's Gnarls Barkley hit 'Crazy,' which makes us think we'll be treated to some special musical guest performances in the coming weeks. You can look for the contestants to sing songs from Adele, Nirvana, Aretha Franklin and many others as well.

So, now that you understand the rules of 'the Voice,' watching it tonight doesn't seem so daunting, right? If you do get scared, just check back with PopCrush, because we're gonna stay glued to the couch to guide you through all the latest developments, live tonight, as they happen.

Watch the Coaches of 'The Voice' Perform 'Crazy'