Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Korin Bukowski reacts to being saved Tuesday night on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

So was I, so I went searching for an answer.

And, apparently, the show has tinkered with its finals format again.

We’ll start off American Idol style, with one contestant heading home each of the next two weeks, just like what happened last night.

Then we’ll get to a Dec. 7 episode in which the Top 9 will perform. The next night, five singers will be eliminated. That’s right — five in one show to get us down to the final four who will compete for the Season 9 crown.

According to the official voting rules on The Voice website, the instant save will still be in effect for the Dec. 8 episode.

So that means the top three contestants in terms of fan voting will advance, along with one contestant “saved” by viewers.

In past seasons, The Voice has eliminated two singers per show once the finals started. But the show has consistently tinkered with its format.

The first two seasons, for instance, the finals consisted for four singers. Then The Voice went to a three-singer finale for four seasons before returning to a quartet of finalists for Season 7 and Season 8.

And there was that bizarre twist in Season 7 when all the finalists were brought back for a wild card performance show to determine who would get the fourth spot in the finals.

One advantage to the previous dual-elimination format: By Top 6 week, every remaining contestant was singing twice, giving us more opportunities to hear the top artists in the competition.

Under the new format, it appears the season finale will be the only time we get to hear more than one performance per artist.

One disadvantage to the new format: The suspense won’t be nearly as great for viewers as if the show was eliminating two singers per week.