Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Tuesday’s Season 15 Voice finale happily included a return to the stage for Patrique Fortson, MaKenzie Thomas, Kymberli Joye and DeAndre Nico. (NBC Photo)

As it turned out, about half of the performances in Tuesday’s Season 15 finale of The Voice had something to do with Season 15.

By Voice standards these days, I guess that’s about as good as we can expect.

It was nice to see everyone in the Top 8 get to return to the stage for the finale.

Plus DeAndre Nico. Plus Abby Cates. Plus Patrique Fortson.

Though that also struck me as sort of odd. DeAndre gets a turn on stage, but not Dave Fenley, the other Top 10 finisher?

And Patrique and Abby were Top 20. What about the other singers who made it to the live shows — Tyke James, Sandy Redd and Lynnea Moorer?

As for the finalists, they each got to take the stage once with Kirk Jay performing with Rascal Flatts, Chris Kroeze joining The Doobie Brothers, Kennedy Holmes joining Kelly Rowland and winner Chevel Shepherd singing with Dan + Shay.

Then there were all of those performances I muted. You know, the ones featuring coaches, future coaches, advisers and guest stars who had no business on The Voice stage.

Here’s the finale recipe The Voice should follow in Season 16 and beyond …

1. Each finalist gets to perform a duet with a big-name artist, preferably a big-name artist they admire or would aspire to perform with.

Or, if The Voice wanted to get really bold, those coach-contestant duets could be moved to results night so each member of the Top 4 could sing three solos on Monday.

2. The Top 20 or Top 24 return and are featured in a group number or split up to perform two group numbers. Not too long ago, this was a yearly tradition, folks.

3. Each member of the previous season’s Top 4 gets to return to perform a piece of new music. Or, if that’s not ready yet, reprise a favorite cover from the show. With The Voice airing twice a year, the show should go out of its way to make sure the previous season’s finalists aren’t forgotten.

4. Each finalist selects a group of friends from the show’s Top 20-24 for a group number. This too used to be a traditional part of the finale.

Presto, just like that we’d have a grand celebration of the current and immediate past season with no need for Halsey, Panic at the Disco or a Marshmellow.

And what a wonderful world, and big happy family, The Voice would be.

Anyway, if you missed any of the performances that truly deserved to be part of this year’s finale, I’ve embedded them below.

The rest — with the exception of Brynn Cartelli — shouldn’t have been part of the show anyway.