Braiden Sunshine performs “Radioactive” Monday night on The Voice. (NBC Photo)
For those who don’t recall, Shelby Brown finished far behind the pack on iTunes, yet made the Top 10 on fan voting, leaving Evan McKeel and Korin Bukowski in the bottom two.
But tonight … well, it’s difficult to envision any scenario that doesn’t involve a member of Team Gwen leaving the competition.
Consider that seven of the Top 10 earned bonus points by landing in the Top 10 on iTunes. They’re pretty much sure bets to advance.
Consider that Zach Seabaugh is one of the three who didn’t crack the Top 10, despite his crowd-pleasing performance of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” My guess: He’s doing much better in the voting than he is on iTunes.
That leaves Korin Bukowski, who already has been instantly saved twice, and Braiden Sunshine, who landed a whopping 86 spots behind her on iTunes.
If they are indeed the bottom two, the instant save voting might be very close.
No singer has ever earned three straight instant saves on the show, like Korin will be trying to do. Then again, The Voice has never used this single-elimination format before.
And in the process of earning two instant saves, Korin has picked up 14,000 Twitter followers in just the past two weeks. You’d better believe her Twitter army will be ready to work magic a third time.
Braiden, meanwhile, has avoided the bottom two in spite of a string of mediocre performances and a string of hairstyle changes. That indicates he has a pretty sizable fan base of his own.
Of course, I’m left to wonder how much stronger Team Gwen might have been. Remember, at some point in Season 9, Victor Kiraly, Ellie Lawrence and Lyndsey Elm were all members of Team Gwen.
And Blake announces that Dolly Parton will be the special guest mentor and performance next week. For those wondering, Dolly is 69.
Advancing tonight on The Voice:
* Emily Ann Roberts: I’ve said it before. Emily Ann impresses me more than Danielle Bradbery did a couple of years back.
* Jordan Smith: Of course. He’s still the clear front-runner.
* Jeffery Austin: Team Gwen’s only real threat advances. I was thrilled to see him hit the Top 10 on iTunes despite before forced to sing first last night.
* Barrett Baber: Last night’s show-closer was his most well-received performance yet, hitting number one on the country charts.
* Madi Davis: Well done, voters. She’s been consistently impressive.
* Amy Vachal: Gotta tell you, a look at iTunes would indicate that Amy and Emily Ann are the biggest threats to Jordan in his quest for the Season 9 title.
* Zach Seabaugh: Not at all surprised. He might not have hit the Top 10 on iTunes, but he’s one of the crowd-pleasers among the Season 9 cast.
* Shelby Brown: Yep, she hit the Top 10 for the first time last night.
As predicted, that leaves Braiden and Korin to sing for the instant save. I can already tell you I’ll be rooting for Korin. Braiden should have been eliminated at least three times already.
Save performances:
Korin Bukowski: She’ll tackle “Try.” Yikes, she flubbed the lyrics in the second line. And again around the fourth line. But she bounces back momentarily. I think we’re watching Korin unravel under the pressure of the situation. To her credit, she finishes the song pretty well. But she’s clearly distraught by the problems she had during the performance. Still she gets a rousing response from the audience. And solid words of support from all the coaches. Grade: D.
Braiden Sunshine: He’ll sing “Hard to Breathe” by Maroon 5. He’s attacking this performance with lots of attitude. Doesn’t change the fact that I’m having trouble buying Braiden as the rocker he keeps trying to be. He’s having no trouble with the lyrics, but he was drowned out by the background music for part of that performance. He’s doing a nice job of working the stage. Grade: C
And I’ve cast lots of votes for Korin based on her performances throughout the show. The instant save goes to Braiden Sunshine.
He makes the Top 9. Korin heads home on The Voice.
See also …
iTunes results for the Top 10
Song by song grades from Top 10 night on The Voice
Photo gallery of Barrett Baber, Emily Ann Roberts, Zach Seabaugh
Photo gallery of Amy Vachal, Jordan Smith, Shelby Brown
Photo gallery of Jeffery Austin, Braiden Sunshine, Korin Bukowski
Photo gallery of Madi Davis
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