The "Block" Button on 'The Voice' Is Already John Legend's Worst Enemy

By this point, we're all pretty familiar with how The Voice works. Contestants perform a blind audition and (if they're lucky!) get a coach to turn their chair around and add them to their team for the season.

The real fun comes when multiple coaches are interested in the same singer. At that point, the show isn't just a singing competition; it's a competition between the coaches themselves as they each try to convince the singer that they'll be the best mentor.

In Season 14, the Block button made the fan-favorite blind auditions even more compelling to watch — though slightly more confusing, as well. Here's what you need to know about how Blocks work on The Voice.

The block allows one coach to prevent another coach from adding a contestant to their team. However, a coach only discovers they’ve been blocked if they decide to turn around for that artist. If the coach who’s been blocked doesn’t hit their button, the block doesn't count.

When the block feature was first introduced in 2018, executive producer Audrey Morrissey explained, "We haven’t ever really had a defensive move or an offensive-defensive move, so we came up with the block. It really sort of speaks to the real competition."

She added, "You have to do it based on voice alone, so [we] really kept the sanctity of the blind audition with that."

The coaches only get one block during the blind auditions, so they have to be very particular about how and when to use it. Especially considering the fact that the auditions are filmed over the course of several days (despite what the coaches' outfits might lead you to think). If they use their block too early, they might lose out on their dream contestant later. But if they wait too long, they might not get to use the Block button at all!

You might also notice the coaches use the "Save" button this season. Coaches can use this feature once during the knockout round to save an artist they just eliminated. However, if another coach decides to use their "Steal" on that same artist, the contestant has the power to either join a new team or stick with their original coach.

Here’s hoping The Voice producers don’t keep adding more buttons for us to keep track of!

Watch The Voice Mondays at 8 p.m. and Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on NBC.