Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The ratings are in from this week’s singing show season finales, and they aren’t good, folks.

The Season 6 finale of The Voice drew 11.7 million viewers, according to The Associated Press.

That’s down 25 percent from the 15.6 million who watched Danielle Bradbery snag the Season 4 crown. But do keep in mind that the Season 4 finale was in June, when the competition on TV wasn’t quite as stiff.

American Idol? The show drew 10.1 million viewers for its Wednesday night finale. That’s down nearly 30 percent from Season 12’s 14.3 million. As recently at 2011, the finale drew nearly three times as many viewers — 29.3 million.

So The Voice has passed American Idol in popularity, something I didn’t think would happen when those big red chairs and that pretend boxing ring showed up in the spring of 2011.

But in terms of this week’s finales, from where I sat, American Idol’s broadcast came off like it was put together by seasoned pros while The Voice was still finding its way, sorta like amateurs. Which, of course, they no longer are.

Here’s how I would stack up the two finales.

The opening:

Idol opened by placing its Top 2 back in that nerve-wracking holding chamber they had to stand in before auditioning. Except this time when the doors opened, they stepped out to perform in front of thousands. And Jena Irene and Caleb Johnson made it work with an entertaining three-song medley.

The Voice opened by announcing that it had screwed up the iTunes votes and was tossing them all out on this all-important night. When the music started, One Republic took the stage to perform “Love Runs Out.” The only connection to Season 6: Josh Kaufman had performed the song a couple of weeks earlier.

Edge: Idol.

Past contestants:

Idol’s first guest performer was Phillip Phillips, singing “Raging Fire,” the lead single from his just released album. He performed it as a duet with Sam Woolf.

The Voice: Past contestants? What past contestants? None were featured in the finale.

Edge: Idol. One is better than none, and we caught glimpses of several other past Idol standouts — Blake Lewis, Casey Abrams, Haley Reinhart — in the audience.

Judges performing:

Idol: Jennifer Lopez took the stage in a barely-there blue outfit designed to disguise the fact that: 1) she was lip-synching; 2) her new song isn’t very good. Fortunately, J-Lo redeemed herself by channeling Stevie Nicks in a way I never thought she could when the judges and mentor Randy Jackson provided the final song of the night, a rousing cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way,” complete with a great Keith Urban guitar solo.

The Voice: Holy, Toledo, The Voice judges stayed parked in their big red chairs. Of course, they had taken center stage for duets with their singers during the performance finale. And since they don’t judge, they were probably tuckered by thinking of new ways to dole out the same compliment for the 200th time.

Edge: Even.

Train wrecks

Idol: Aloe Blacc took the stage to sing his Elton John rip-off, “The Man.” He sounded like crap. He was joined by the guys who made the Idol finals. Most of them sounded even worse, including Alex Preston and Caleb.

The Voice: “Umbrella” was a tad messy, because it was horribly ill-suited for a couple of The Voice ladies. But the NBC show had the benefit of much, much more depth in its cast of singers.

Edge: The Voice, for avoiding one.

Guest stars:

In addition to Aloe and Phillip, Idol served up Jennifer Nettles, Kiss, Demi Lovato, Paramore, John Legend, Jason Mraz, Darius Rucker, Richard Marx and Lady Antebellum. With the exception of Lady Antebellum, all the guests performed with Season 13 contestants.

In addition to One Republic, we were treated to Ed Sheeran (twice), Justin Moore, Robin Thicke, Alabama, Tim McGraw and Coldplay.

Edge: Idol, mostly because several of The Voice performances came off as random guy with new music to pimp in a performance that had absolutely nothing to do with celebrating Season 6 of The Voice.

Touching moments:

Idol: The final two are going to prom together. Really. It wasn’t just an on-air joke to segue into a comic routine. Nor was it something cooked up by Idol, according to Jena Irene, who says it all started as a joke between the two of them, then turned serious as the date approached and she didn’t have a date. On Wednesday, Season 13 Idol champ Caleb Johnson will take her to her prom at Farmington Hills High School in Michigan.

The Voice: The show presented the Top 3 with a brand new Kia of their choice. Jake Worthington’s immediate reaction: He’s giving his to his grandmother because she bought Jake his first car.

Edge: The Voice. Anyone who doesn’t understand Jake’s appeal should now.

Touches of comedy

Idol: At long last, the show enticed Ryan Seacrest to sing. He provided the intro to “Right Here Waiting for You,” then Richard Marx took over. Let’s just say Ryan would have had trouble making Idol’s Top 13. In other words, he should stick to hosting.

The Voice: The show provided us comedy segments on each of the four coaches. The Adam Levine segment, recounting all the songs he refers to as his favorites, came off best. I think the count ended up in the 700s. Or maybe the thousands. Without a Blake Shelton tune among them.

Edge: The Voice, though neither show was at it best. I mean, remember Season 11, when the top Idols literally sang the phone book to mock one of Randy Jackson’s favorite cliches?

Fun factor:

Idol: The overall tone of the night was upbeat and celebratory. Particularly smile-worthy: Caleb Johnson’s over-the-top performance with Kiss. Jena Irene getting to take the stage with one of her idols, Hayley Williams of Paramore, on a performance of “Ain’t It Fun.” Answer: Yes, it was. And that final performance by the judges on “Going Your Own Way.”

The Voice: Alabama, with Jake Worthington sorta helping out, turned in a spirited performance of “Mountain Music.” Christina Grimmie and friends — Tess, Boyer, Bria Kelly and Jake Barker — teamed up for a great performance of Lorde’s “Team.”

Edge: Idol. I found myself smiling a whole lot more during its finale, partly because it came off much more as a celebration of the season that was about to end.

Closing the show:

Idol: Caleb Johnson was crowned the champ. He said he’d been determined not to lose his composure on his hometown visit to North Carolina. This time, he lost his composure, covering his face as the band launched into what was supposed to be his victory song. The stage was swarmed by the other finalists. Caleb hugged them in turn. Only after that did he begin singing his new single.

The Voice: Josh Kaufman was named the champ. Confetti fell. And that was it. No time for a victory song. No time for Josh’s fans to savor the victory. Someone at NBC or The Voice is getting paid a lot of money to make that very idiotic decision. Unless they were fearing an uprising over the embarrassingly stupid iTunes snafu and wanted to get off the air as soon as possible.

Edge: Idol, by an enormous margin.

Those are my thoughts. How about yours?