Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Jazz McKenzie and Carson Daly during The Voice Season 28 playoffs. (NBC Photo)

The playoffs begin Monday night on The Voice.

And to say the Season 28 playoffs will be a bit different would be a bit of an understatement.

For starters, the playoff episodes have been reduced from two hours to one, with the Monday, Dec. 1 and Monday, Dec. 8 episodes starting at 9 p.m. on NBC.

According to the episode guide, Team Reba and Team Michael will perform this week. Team Niall and Team Snoop will perform Dec. 8.

How will this season’s playoffs work? Well, this is how The Voice public relations describes it:

“Coaches will evaluate their teams holistically and choose one (yes, just one) Artist to advance to the Live Shows.

“But six Artists total will be sent to Lives, so how are the other two determined?

“From the Artists not advanced by the Coaches, fans will vote two into the Live Shows. This is an unprecedented first for The Voice Playoffs. Then from these six Artists, the ultimate Voice champion will be chosen, as always, by the fans.”

That, folks, while true, is a quite deceptive spin on what’s happening.

Here’s the what’s really happening.

1. The coaches will each hand pick one artist to advance to the finals. It will mark the first time in Voice history that coaches hand pick finalists.

2. Fans will apparently vote in two other finalists, though the show hasn’t explained how that will happen.

3. So what that “unprecedented first” means, is that instead of fans picking all the finalists, this season they get to pick two of the six finalists.

4. And that “unprecedented first” needs some more perspective. As recently as Season 22 (fall 2022), 13 singers advanced from the playoffs and EIGHT were chosen via fan voting.

5. Here’s another “unprecedented first:” This will mark the first time in Voice history that there hasn’t been at least two weeks of live shows following the playoffs.

In other words, every single one of the changes The Voice is making to the Season 28 playoff is a major step backwards from a fan involvement standpoint.

The performance finale is Monday, Dec. 15. Results will be announced in a Tuesday, Dec. 16 season finale.

Both of those two hours shows will begin at 9 p.m., though it sounds like the first hour of Tuesday’s season finale will be little more than a clip show recapping performances from the night before.

Oh, and the winner of The Voice mic drop competition — and a chance to perform in the Jan. 1 Rose Bowl parade — will be announced during next week’s show.