Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Thunderstorm Artis and his wife Faith react to the news that he advanced on The Voice Season 18. (NBC Photo)

The top vote-getter for each team will advance to next week’s five-singer finale.

That’s a dramatic change from past seasons when the Top 3 vote-getters advanced, regardless of team.

And, yep, if singers from the same team finished top two in the overnight voting, it might mean the contestant who got the second most votes doesn’t automatically make the finals.

Hey, this is The Voice.

After the top vote-getters from each team are revealed, the remaining five singers will perform for an instant save. The winner becomes the fifth singer to advance to next week’s show.

Here are the advancing artists …

Team Kelly: Micah Iverson is voted through. Megan will have to perform for the save.

Team Nick: Thunderstorm Artis is voted through. Allegra will have to perform for the save.

Team Legend: CammWess is voted through. Zan will have to perform for the save and, being in the Pacific Time zone, faces a huge disadvantage.

Team Blake: Todd Tilghman is voted through. Toneisha Harris and Joanna Serenko will have to perform for the save.

You’ll note that the artists voted through were the same ones that topped their team in voting last week.

Where they the Top 4 overall vote getters? We’ll never know.

Disclaimer:
Producers, coaches, judges and hosts on American Idol and The Voice will pretend they are hosting a legitimate singing competition this week and next. Having blogged about singing shows for more than a decade, I can assure you they are not.

You cannot go from a Top 20 to a winner in four weeks (American Idol) or a Top 17 to a winner in three weeks (The Voice) and call it a fair and legitimate singing competition.

So have fun watching. Vote if you want. Put very little stock in the results because they will mean virtually nothing.

Most of all, support the singers when their time on the show ends. They deserved a better showcase for their talent.