Tom Jones won’t be returning to his big red chair for the next season of ‘The Voice UK’.
It was confirmed that the Welsh music legend would be leaving the show earlier this week, with an ITV spokesperson saying: “We have loved working with Sir Tom Jones over the past nine years on The Voice UK.
“While he will no longer be a full-time coach on series 15, we continue to talk to Sir Tom and his team about his involvement in the next series.”
Jones – who appeared on the first-ever edition of the show back in 2012 and has gone on to feature as a coach on all but one season of the singing competition – later took to social media to address the news, revealing the broadcaster made the decision a while ago and that he was “only told recently”.
“The reason given is because of a financial difficulty with insurance,” he explained.
“They now say in the press they wanted to ‘refresh’ the show, and with a new coaching line-up there wouldn’t be a chair for me.
“They are offering a much-reduced role where I would make an appearance but without being actually involved from the start, and I’m not thrilled about that.
“So the only thing I know right now is that there’s never a good time to fire an 86-year-old who’s still pretty good at his job.”
His final season is currently airing on ITV, with Jones reducing his fellow coaches – McFly stars Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones, Kelly Rowland and will.i.am – to tears with a performance of Leonard Cohen‘s ‘Tower of Song’ during one recent instalment.
