Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice serves up a special one-hour results show Thursday evening (8 p.m. NBC).

And this is one case where there’s enough drama to keep us in suspense for a full hour.

Josh Logan of Team Christina Aguilera is one of the contestants likely to be hoping for a coach’s save this evening on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Tonight, they whittle that field to just 12 singers.

If this works the way it has in the past, two singers from each team will advance on the basis of fan voting.

Then each coach will have to decide which of their remaining three singers to save.

Here’s a look at what I think will happen.

Team Blake: Fan voting is likely to be the tightest on Team Blake. Say what you will about his vocals, Nic Hawk was entertaining when he performed “Blurred Lines.” Austin Jenckes was sitting at number one on the iTunes’ rock chart when voting ended, so I’ll figure he’ll make the top 12. Ditto for Ray Boudreaux, who’s been consistently very good. Blake might very well use his save on Shelbie Z., who has a big voice and tons of stage presence and might have suffered in fan voting and on iTunes because she was forced to sing first on Monday. She loses out if Nic is a fan pick.

Team Adam: Three contestants — James Wolpert, Will Champlin and Grey — entered Monday’s show needing a moment. James delivered; he should be in the top 12. His version of “A Case of You” was the week’s best-performing song on iTunes. Tessanne Chin is a lock. Preston Pohl should have been a lock, but stumbled badly Monday night. Will that stumble be enough to give Will his third save of Season 5. My guess: It won’t. And we’ll be looking at a formidable final three of Tessanne, Preston and James.

Team Cee Lo: The Tuesday night performances were largely underwhelming. And the night’s best, served up by Caroline Pennell, was less about vocal fireworks than a great match of singer and song performed very well by the 17-year-old. She makes the top 12. Any fireworks from Team Cee Lo are most likely to come from Kat Robichaud. Let her rock, let her and Cee Lo collaborate on stage production, and the possibilities are mind-boggling. She needs to make the top 12. The final spot should go to Jonny Gray.

Team Christina: Jacquie Lee and Matthew Schuler were brilliant Tuesday. They should breeze into the final 12 on fan voting. If that happens, Christina will be left with perhaps the night’s toughest decision — Josh Logan, Olivia Henken or Stephanie Anne Johnson. Josh looked like the favorite among the three entering Tuesday, but stumbled with “Crazy.” Olivia, meanwhile, deserved kudos for what she was able to do when forced to go out of genre on Katy Perry’s “Roar.” My hunch is that the coach’s save won’t be used on Stephanie Anne, who’s already been saved twice. And that Christina will pick Josh over Olivia based on the strength of past performances.