Idol Chatter & Voice Views

I’ve been singing the praises of The Voice throughout Season 3, primarily because the show has been doing most everything right.

Unfortunately, on Monday, it got almost everything wrong.

Let’s count all the ways things went wrong.

1. We started the night with Michael Buble singing a Christmas song. Usually, guest stars on The Voice are accompanied by contestants from The Voice. This time, there wasn’t a contestant in sight. It all became clear when Michael stopped singing. This was simply an in-show commercial for his 10 p.m. Christmas special. Not a good way to start the night.

2. Later in the evening, Carson Daly took time out to interview Howie Mandel. Oh, yeah, Howie just happened to be in the audience on the very night some stupid new game show he hosts makes its premiere. Gee, imagine that. And, you say the show debuts right after The Voice? Make that two in-show commercials.

3. We’re treated to footage of the top four returning home. OK, this is a little more Idol imitation than I can take. Hey, Voice producers, let your show be different in some ways. Especially when most of us tune into this show for the performances because you’ve got contestants who really can sing.

4. Especially if the only thing those clips reveal is that you’ve been fibbing to us all season by leading us to believe Trevin Hunte was living on the rough streets of Queens, N.Y., cowering in the basement, listening to that salvaged radio his dad brought home from a garbage route before having his dreams dashed by a mean middle school teacher. Was anyone else out there surprised when Trevin returned home to a very nice looking Atlanta suburb where he’s been living since age 11? Explanation, please.

5. With all the in-show commercials, trip home footage serving as filler and a Christmas song by Blake and his team thrown in for good measure (gee, couldn’t that have waited for another night?), each of the Top 4 only took the stage once when there should have been plenty of time for each to sing twice.

6. And three of the final four gave us pretty much straight-up renditions of very tired old classics — “Wind Beneath My Wings,” “You Are So Beautiful,” “Let it Be.” Not exactly risky, cutting-edge song choices, folks. Let’s just say I missed Amanda Brown and Melanie Martinez.

That left Cassadee Pope to save the night, and she did her best with a wonderful rendition of “Stupid Boy,” a country song I’d honestly never heard before. But immediately loved because she did it so well.

But she only sang for 2 minutes, 30 seconds, and it’s a little much to ask for one singer to carry the entire show with one performance.

All in all, a very snail-paced performance night for a show that’s normally a breath of fresh air for its brisk pace.

Let’s hope it was just an off night, and not a sign of what’s in store for us during next week’s season finale.

Editor’s Note: For song by song grades from last week, head here. For where the contestants’ performances landed on iTunes, head here.