Tanner Fussell of The Voice Season 22 listening to feedback following his battle round match. (NBC Photo)
Wow, it didn’t take long for the unfair nature of The Voice battles to become glaringly apparent in Season 22.
The Voice decided to kick off the battles with a Team Blake match between Austin Montgomery and Tanner Fussell.
Then the show decided to leak the battle between Team Gwen teens Jillian Jordyn and Rowan Grace to YouTube before Tuesday’s show.
Hey, why not? Both were quite impressive.
Ah, but both also pointed out how unfair The Voice battles are.
Jillian and Tanner were eliminated in the battle round. An important note: Not a save or steal remained when they performed.
And that’s what makes the battles so unfair.
Instead of forcing the coaches to wait until they’ve heard everyone perform in the battles to make their save or steal decisions, The Voice allows them to be used as soon as the battles begin.
Most seasons, that means the coaches run out of saves and steals before the battles end.
That happened again in Season 22, and was even more problematic from my point of view, because the cast expanded from 48 to 56 singers this fall.
First, remember, just eight saves and steals were available in Season 22.
Also, remember, all of these battles were pre-taped. And The Voice is not showing them in the order they were taped.
According to the spoiler site idolforums,com, which typically gets everything right, all four steals and two saves were used in the first eight battles the coaches heard. That meant 40 singers had yet to perform.
In other words, 28 percent of the Season 22 cast had performed; 75 percent of the saves and steals were gone.
The final two saves were used on the second day of battle round taping, when the coaches witnessed eight more matches.
That left not a single save or steal on day three of taping, when 24 singers performed, including Tanner Fussell and Jillian Jordyn.
In other words, in The Voice battles, when an artist sang was nearly as important as how well he or she sang in determining whether they advanced or not.
How can the show even pretend that’s fair?
Season after season, I’ve argued the coaches should be forced to hold off on making save and steal decisions until they’ve seen and heard everyone perform.
Think of the drama that could add to the otherwise bland battle format, where every episode predictably ends with a save or steal.
Instead, at the end of the battles, 28 at-risk singers would take the stage. And the coaches would have to duke it out with one another over who got saved and who got stolen.
One day, perhaps, The Voice will wise up and inject a bit more fairness into the singing competition.
But I’m certainly not counting on that happening.
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