GLAAD Media Award nominee “The Voice” already far ahead of “American Idol” with openly gay contestants

I talked to Mark Burnett, executive producer of The Voice, and celebrity judge Adam Levine last week about the show’s immediate inclusion of openly gay contestants when it premiered last year.

It’s a stark contrast to American Idol where gay contestants like Adam Lambert did not come out until after the competition was over.

‘It just seems crazy not to,’ Burnett told me during the TV Critics Association Winter Press Tour last week.

Levine also weighed in for me: ‘I think we always supported and nurtured all the amazingly talented people who have been in the show regardless of what they do in their private time.’

The show earned a GLAAD Media Award this morning. To read more, see my story posted over at Gay Star News.