The Voice of Ireland is the Irish edition of the international TV franchise The Voice, a reality singing competition created by media tycoon John de Mol. The first series began airing from 8 January 2012 on RTÉ One. The coaches originally were Bressie, Sharon Corr, Kian Egan and Brian Kennedy. Kennedy left after the first series and was replaced by Jamelia. After the second series Sharon Corr quit the show owing to other commitments. The show is hosted by Kathryn Thomas and co-hosted by Eoghan McDermott. The series is part of the The Voice franchise and is based on a similar competition format in the Netherlands entitled The Voice of Holland. One of the important premises of the show is the quality of the singing talent. Four coaches, themselves popular performing artists, train the talents in their group and occasionally perform with them. Talents are selected in blind auditions, where the coaches cannot see, but only hear the auditioner. The TV show “blind” auditions were held at the The Helix, and broadcast for the first five weeks of the series. The Battle Phase was broadcast over three weeks from 12 February to 26 February. The winner of the show will be offered a recording contract with Universal Music Ireland worth €100,000.