Last October, country superstar Blake Shelton announced he'd be leaving NBC's The Voice after this season. This lead many East Texans to actively campaign online for a beloved Longview, TX, resident, and country star to replace him.

Well, guys, despite our grass roots campaign, and an endorsement from Blake himself, our dark horse replacement didn't land the red chair.

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Neal McCoy is one of country music's all-time great entertainers, but our hopes of the popular singer actually landing the show were doused today.

None other than Reba McEntire will be taking over as a judge on the popular talent search. You may recall there were talks of her joining when the show before Blake. Over the past 23 seasons she's made many appearances on the show and I think we can all honestly agree that she's a perfect replacement.

Neal McCoy broke through in country radio with his '94 smash "No Doubt About It." The title track off his album became the first of back-to-back number one singles "No Doubt About It" and "Wink" from his platinum-certified album No Doubt About It.

Although that was his last trip to the very top of the country charts, he had a slew of radio hits and built a massive fanbase. He had two more platinum albums and a gold album, and several more top 10 hits. And who could forget "The Shake," the song that put Gary, Indiana on the map.

His ninth top 10 hit, "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On", came out in 2005 off his self-released That's Life. Remember the video starred comedian Rob Schneider? Classic.

And further driving home how much fans love the East Texan he took home the 1998 and 1999 Entertainer of the Year awards from the TNN / Music City Awards. An awards  show that is completely fan-voted.

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