Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Marybeth Byrd and Jake Hoot perform during Monday’s Top 8 show on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

The Top 8 on The Voice performed last night in hopes of landing one of four spots in the Season 17 finale.

Here’s how tonight will work.

The top three vote-getters will automatically advance to next week.

The bottom two in the voting will automatically be eliminated.

The three in the middle will compete for the last instant save of Season 17.

Here’s how I expect it to work out.

* Jack Hoot will advance automatically. In fact, he’s now the clear favorite to win Season 17.

* Katie Kadan will advance automatically. She dropped to number four on iTunes, but it’s important to note that two of her past performances are also charting. That’s only happening for one other contestant: Jake.

* Ricky Duran will advance automatically. He’s delivered his best two performances in the last two weeks and landed right behind Jake on iTunes. Plus, he’s Team Blake, and it’s been a long, long time since Blake didn’t have a finalist.

* Rose Short will sing for the instant save. And she’d better get it based on the quality of her performances throughout Seasn 17.

* Will Breman will sing for the instant save. Last night was a rough one for Will, but I can’t believe his Blue Crew still didn’t rally behind him in voting.

* Hello Sunday will sing for the instant save. They don’t deserve it. But if they land in the finale, it will be a deserved (and embarrassing) outcome for a show that calls itself The Voice but where coaches are loathe to say anything negative about even the worst performances.

* Kat Hammock will land in the bottom two and head home, satisfied that she far exceeded her own expectations.

* Marybeth Byrd will land in the bottom two and head home. Remember, she needed last week’s save to get this far.

See also …
Hey, Voice producers: Those duets were a mess
Great for Kaleb Lee; shame on The Voice
iTunes rankings for the Top 8
Song by song grades for the Top 8