Kelly Clarkson might be happy, but will fans be cheering the new Cross Battles? (NBC Photo)
The Season 16 schedule posted on The Voice Instagram page.
I wonder if that included The Voice producers.
Let’s remember, knockout round tapings were scheduled for Season 16. In fact, according to some spoiler sites, knockout round filming had started.
Then the knockouts were nixed and The Voice came up with the new twist it officially unveiled today: The Cross Battles.
Now, these Cross Battles sound interesting. But they come with a major, major, major, major drawback that’s probably going to make me hate them no matter how entertaining they are.
Answer this: What’s your favorite part of any Voice season?
My answer is easy: The live playoffs forward. Once we get past all the steals and most of the saves and all the silly gimmicks the show has introduced over the years. Once it’s just one performance followed by another, followed by fan voting that supposedly determines the outcome and selects the new Voice champ.
Thanks to the glacial pace of Season 16 to date — the blind auditions and the battle rounds each last a week longer than normal — and the addition of two weeks of cross battles, that portion of the show is going to be severely condensed.
Bottom line: The Voice took six weeks to show us the blind auditions and the battles. It’s going to go from the live playoffs to a Season 16 champ in four weeks. That includes just 3 weeks of finals.
And that’s flat-out laughable.
I mean, isn’t that sorta supposed to be the most important part of any Voice season? Isn’t it?
As for how the cross battles work, here’s the scoop:
* Each of the next two Mondays, eight pairs of singers will perform. Two coaches will be matched up against one another and chose a singer to perform so that no singer will know who they’re going up against ahead of time.
* Each singer will perform a solo song, and overnight voting by fans will decide the winner. The East Coast voting window is 9:55 p.m. Monday to 7 a.m. Tuesday.
* On Tuesday’s results show, Carson will announce the eight cross battle winners. Then the coaches will have 10 seconds to decide whether to save or steal the singer who doesn’t advance.
* Each coach will get one save and one steal during the cross battles. The 16 cross battle winners, the four stolen contestants and the four saved contestants will advance to the live playoffs.
* Since one coach could have more cross battle winners than another, the coaches will likely enter the live playoffs with uneven teams for the first time ever.
* And at the end of the two weeks, The Voice will have eliminated a whopping total of 8 contestants.
All in all, an interesting concept. But one that would have been much more palatable had it started two weeks ago and meant more weeks of fan voting.
But at the cost of shortening the finals from five weeks to just three.
No thanks.
See also
Which coach has the best team entering the Cross Battles
How The Voice should have handled Season 16 (and suggestions for Season 17)
Is The Voice reducing the number of songs on iTunes again?
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6 Comments
I agree that The voice is losing its way completely. I’m officially no longer watching it.
If anyone truly believes your vote matters, think again! The fix has been in for a long time on this show! I watched this season to see John Legend!
The fix has also been in on “Idol,” too.
For an even longer time.
SICK OF THE STUPID THINGS HAPPENING ON THE. VOICE. KEEP CHANGING FOR COACHES NOT FOR BENEFIT OF SINGERS MARK BURNETT IS IN A HURRY TO DO NEW SHOW
I hate these cross battles. They don’t always seem evenly matched & sometimes I think neither one is the winner. It’s disappointing & I’m not enjoying it. I miss the Knockouts!!
The Voice is losing it’s voice. The Cross Battles was just a way to get ratings. It backfired. It will be interesting to see what happens next season. I think Adam and Blake are about done with the show. Adam better quit before his fan base moves on.