Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Top 10 on The Voice Season 11 include (from left): Sundance Head, Courtney Harrell, Austin Allsup, Christian Cuevas, We McDonald, Ali Caldwell, Aaaron Gibson, Brendan Fletcher, Billy Gilman and Josh Gallagher. (NBC Photo)

The Voice hits the accelerator pedal on Season 11 this week.

Two singers will go home Tuesday night, cutting the Season 11 field to eight.

Then next week’s show will reduce that by half, leaving four singers standing for the Season 11 finale.

Here are this week’s rankings. Last week’s rankings are in parenthesis.

1. Ali Caldwell (Team Miley): The show’s best efforts to sabotage Ali to clear the R&B runway for We McDonald failed last week Ali was forced to sing first and saddled with “9 to 5.” If The Voice wants to play fair, Ali should get a great song choice and the pimp spot this week. Don’t count on it. (1)

2. Sundance Head (Team Blake): Speaking of better performance placement, Sundance is certainly deserving. He opened Top 12 night and followed Ali to the stage on Top 11 night. Nevertheless, he became the first Season 11 contestant to crack the Top 10 on the iTunes singles chart. (3)

3. Billy Gilman (Team Adam): He’s still the favorite to win the show and he’s still nearly flawless vocally on every performance. But I’m waiting to be moved emotionally by those vocals and, for me, that just hasn’t happened the past two wins. The Season 11 winner should be able to move an audience. (2)

4. We McDonald (Team Alicia): We got that coveted pimp position on Top 11 night and a better song choice (“Love on the Brain”) than some of her competitors and still finished at least 20 spots lower than Sundance and Billy on iTunes. She’s making a strong case for belonging in a four-singer finale, but isn’t a certainty yet. (4)

5. Brendan Fletcher (Team Adam): Bruce Springsteen’s “The River” was a great song choice for Brendan, and no one brings more intensity to a performance than the bartender from New York. Adam would do well to serve up more classic rock for the show’s only rocker. (5)

6. Austin Allsup (Team Blake): With a very lean pool of country singers in Season 11, Team Blake has been something of an afterthought. After last week’s brilliant cover of “Turn the Page,” Austin and that distinctive voice of his should not be an afterthought. (7)

7. Christian Cuevas (Team Alicia): Last week, I wrote that Christian needed a great song choice to keep from slipping into Season 11 irrelevancy. He got “Rosanna.” Yikes. It’s a credit to Christian’s fan base that he still survived. Alicia: A better song this week. Please! (6)

8. Josh Gallagher (Team Adam): Let’s just say Josh’s last two performances haven’t changed my mind that Blake Shelton made a huge mistake back in the battle round when he advanced Josh over talented singer-songwriter Blaine Long. (9)

9. Courtney Harrell (Team Blake): I’m quickly losing hope that we’re going to see brilliant knockout round Courtney again. that’s a shame because that Courtney was good enough to win Season 11. If ever a singer needed a great song choice more suited to her voice, it’s Courtney this week. (8)

10. Aaron Gibson (Team Miley): He’s needed a Twitter save to stay in the competition two straight weeks. He needed one last week in spite of a much better performnance (“Hurt”) and landing in the Top 40 on iTunes. So what’s the likelihood that he’s going to survive a double elimination. (12)