will.i.am and Boy George face axe as The Voice moves channels

will.i.am, Boy George, Paloma Faith and Ricky Wilson face the axe from the U.K. version of The Voice after plans were announced to move it to a rival channel.
The BBC currently owns the rights to the show, but in a statement released on Saturday (06Nov15) on Twitter.com, it was revealed the fifth series, due to air in January, 2016, will be the last on the network.
Mark Linsey, acting director of BBC Television, said bosses refused to get into a bidding war for the show, and it was eventually “poached by another broadcaster”.
He added, “The BBC is incredibly proud of The Voice, but the fifth series which starts in January will be our last. We always said we wouldn’t get into a bidding war or pay inflated prices to keep the show, and it’s testament to how the BBC has built the programme up – and established it into a mainstay of the Saturday night schedule – that another broadcaster has poached it.”
The Voice, which started in 2012, has suffered with low ratings and little success for the show’s past winners. The judging line-up has also been hit with several changes over the years, with Kylie Minogue, Sir Tom Jones, Jessie J, The Script’s Danny O’Donoghue and Rita Ora all serving on the panel.
Editors at The Sun newspaper in the U.K. have speculated that bosses at the ITV network have bought the rights to The Voice and plan to air it in place of Simon Cowell’s ailing The X Factor, which has suffered a slump in ratings for its 2015 season.