Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Intense, perhaps.

Also downright stupid.

It’s live playoff time on Season 11 of The Voice. Usually, that means three nights of The Voice. Two teams sing Monday night. Two teams sing Tuesday night. A Top 12 is revealed during a one-hour Wednesday results show.

But in 2016, a nasty little thing called the Presidential Election falls in the middle of that cycle. So The Voice has decided to cram everything into one night.

In two hours on Monday, 20 singers will perform, eight — two per team — will advance to the finals via live voting and four will be saved by their coaches.

Why is this nonsense?

Let us count the reasons.

1. Once again, The Voice is basically telling viewers in the West Coast and Mountain time zones that they don’t matter. Oh, they can take part in the live voting, but the show won’t be airing when the voting is taking place in those portions of the country. So they’ll have to follow along on Twitter or The Voice app, without seeing any of the performances. West Coast viewers might find that a bit difficult at 5 p.m.

2. Of course, that could be a big disadvantage for contestants from those areas, but The Voice apparently doesn’t care. Too bad, Belle Jewel (Utah), Kylie Rothfield (California) and Darby Walker (California). Let’s see if any of the three advance based on fan voting.

3. The show is called The Voice, but the very format for this silliness ensures that the importance of Monday’s vocal performances will be minimal. Voting for each team will begin when that team begins singing. Hey, why wait to see how they do? Just hop online and start voting for your favorite, regardless of how well they perform.

4. With Monday’s time constraints, the comeback artist experiment has been shelved after two seasons. You know what I’m talking about — the wrinkle where each coach got to invite back an already eliminated artist for a second chance. There were some singers truly deserving of a second chance in Season 11. Lauren Diaz and Blaine Long pop instantly to mind. And the addition of four new artists could have diversified a way too R&B heavy Top 20.

5. It seems to me this whole fiasco could have been avoided with better use of airtime. Twice already in Season 11, The Voice has aired highlight shows with no new performances. Eliminate those, and couldn’t the knockout round have been completed in time to hold the live playoffs last week when they wouldn’t coincide with Election Night. Then air the clip show on the Monday before the election to get fans geared up for next week finals.

Hmm, guess not.

Monday’s folly begins at 8 p.m on NBC.