Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Kim Cherry (left) won Tuesday’s instant save over Mari Jones (right) and L.B. Crew. Oliv Blu, Jej Vinson and Celia Babini were also eliminated. (NBC Photo)

Team Adam Levine’s team is toast on The Voice.

And Team Blake Shelton got five of its six remaining singers into the Season 16 semifinals Tuesday night.

I have a feeling this format of The Voice is toast too.

I mean, the show starts off every season with a new batch of singers selecting which team they want to join.

Now which team would you join after watching Blake Shelton dominate the cross battles, the live playoffs and Top 8 night in Season 16?

I can hear Adam Levine’s pitch right now.

“Please, please, I need someone to sing for my team. We can’t have a show if everyone is on Team Blake.”

Team Adam had a chance to get someone to next week. It came down to the instant save at the end of the show, when Team Blake’s Kim Cherry squared off against L.B. Crew and Mari Jones of Team Adam.

Here’s how that went down.

* Kim Cherry (Team Blake): She took the stage with a healthy dose of sass appropriate for a member of a team that was kickin’ butt all over The Voice stage. Her cover of En Vogue’s “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” wasn’t her best vocally. And when it came time for “the breakdown,” the background singers did the heavy lifting. But it was a fun performance from Team Blake’s “wild card.” Grade: B–

* Mari Jones (Team Adam): Looking stylish and lovely as always, Mari took the stage for a version of Sam Smith’s “Latch.” And there was an immediate problem. As in you could barely hear the first two lines of her performance. But Mari recovered and went on to deliver a stirring vocal that did nothing to change my opinion that she’s going to be one of the more intriguing post-show artists from Season 16. Grade: B

L.B. Crews (Team Adam): The show gave L.B. the pimp spot, likely hoping he could salvage Team Adam. And he promptly served up his second cheesy performance in two nights with a vocal so all over the place that … well, I’m pretty sure any Top 24 contestant eliminated last week could have outdone what L.B. served up this week. There’s a very nice L.B. tone buried in that performance. But L.B. sure buried it. Grade: D+

And then Carson asked for Instant Save votes, the show put the results graphic on scene and it became clear pretty quickly that Kim would advance, with Mari as a pretty close second in that voting and L.B. a distant third.

Which left us with a semifinal lineup of …

Team Kelly Clarkson: Just Rod Stokes, formerly of … you guessed it, Team Blake.

Team John Legend: Maelyn Jarmon and Shawn Sounds, both with legit shots to make the finals.

Team Blake Shelton: Everyone he took into this week’s show except Oliv Blu. Which means Kim, Gyth Rigdon, Dexter Roberts, Andrew Sevener and Carter Lloyd Horne.

Team Adam Levine: Well, I guess Adam can spend the next two weeks polishing up for his new NBC show, which I have no intention of watching.