The Voice went for way too long last night. There, we said it.

By DIMITY KIRKWOOD

I’m about to reveal the most unbelievable thing…. after the break.

Stay with me.

You cannot afford to miss it. You do not want to miss this.

Are you ready?

The big reveal is coming.

Here’s the big reveal.

REALITY TV SHOWS GO ON FOR TOO LONG AND I’VE HAD ENOUGH.

Disappointed with my huge reveal? You should be. It’s a tired and frustrating tactic and I for one have had enough of it.

Last night The Voice Finale went for 2.5 hours. TWO AND A HALF HOURS. The only thing that show had to achieve last night was picking a winner out of five potential acts, a feat that could be done in 5 seconds (trust me, I timed it).

Instead, what we watched was the host, Darren McMullen, spend about 2 hours cutting to commercial breaks and re-hashing what we already knew: there were five contestants, one had to win, they would reveal that at some point in the episode.

The most frustrating thing is that the producers of the show knew they had us. We had already invested hours and hours of precious time in this show and we were pretty sure “The Voice” would be Johnny but we couldn’t know for sure and goddamn it we were going to find out the winner.

But by 10pm my interest, and patience, was waning dramatically.

In desperation I turned to social media to air my grievances at being kept waiting, but I found hundreds had beaten me to it.

This tired and boring tactic is so transparent and obvious, it hurts. Last night, 2.7 million people tuned into watch The Voice. While those 2.7 million people waited, and waited, and waited some more, the producers of the show were seeing dollar signs flash before their eyes. Because, of course, the longer the audience is kept waiting, the more commercials they can squeeze into every last minute, and the more money will be thrown at everyone involved.

Everyone, except the viewer, of course.

I’m not asking for a boycott of these shows. I’m not even asking for many angry letters to be penned to the producers.

What I am asking for, is a little respect. To us, the viewer. We get what you’re doing, but you’re sucking the enjoyment out of the show for us. Please hurry up and get on it with it so we can get our fix and be done with it.

We’re tired and grumpy and we’ve had enough. We didn’t get to bed until 10:45pm last night.

There are a few shows that may be a little more ridiculous than this, we know. Here are just a few of them: