The Voice premiere/ratings

AS THE CHAIRS TURN: The season seven premiere of NBC’s The Voice saw a spirited back-and-forth and undeniable chemistry between new judges Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani and vets Adam Levine and Blake Shelton. All four joined forces for opening number, No Doubt’s “Hella Good” (on which Gwen and Pharrell had first collaborated), and then got to business on a blind-auditions episode that was often funny and occasionally quite moving. Pharrell’s acumen and persuasiveness as a producer make him particularly formidable in winning contestants to his team, while Gwen’s star power was in full effect; she even stood up to demonstrate it to one hopeful, getting the crowd to chant, "I'm just a girl." Though it was down in ratings from its previous bow, the show earned a 3.9 rating and 12.7m viewers, and NBC (with The Blacklist following up) led the night with the 18-49 demo. So far we haven’t seen any of the evening’s aspiring singers move up the iTunes charts, but the season—like the day—is young. (9/23a)