Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The knockout rounds begin Monday night on The Voice, and Kelly Clarkson will be on hand to serve as the adviser for all four teams.

That means we’ll get an early glimpse at Kelly’s coaching style before she takes over one of the big red chairs on The Voice Season 14.

Kelly was brilliant as a guest judge on Season 15 of American Idol, so I’m pretty sure she’ll slip into this role with ease.

Oh, and if you haven’t heard, Kelly just released her new album, “The Meaning of Life.” It’s been perched at number one on iTunes ever since it dropped Friday. Wanna know what critics are saying, head here.

Here’s some other things we should look for during the knockout round.

1. There are only four steals this round — one per team. One of those better be used on Chloe Kohanski of Team Miley. The Voice has leaked her knockout match with Ashland Craft. Ashland is great on “Wanted Dead of Alive.” Chloe is equally great on “Landslide.” That might be why the video has already been viewed more than 400,000 times. My guess is Miley will want to keep her country artist. But no way Chloe should be eliminated after that performance.

2. Six singers turned four chairs on Season 13 of The Voice. Through two rounds, three of those — Keisha Renee (Team Blake), Brooke Simpson (Team Miley) and Jon Mero (Team Adam) — have cracked the Top 200 on iTunes. It’ll be interesting to see if the knockouts provide a breakout moment for Moriah Formica (Team Miley), Davon Fleming (Team Jennifer) or Chris Weaver (Team Jennifer), especially since the artists are supposedly free to select their own song this time around.

3. Speaking of Jon, Chris and Davon, has anyone else noticed the amazing pool of R&B/pop-soul talent on Season 13? We also have Lucas Holliday, Anthony Alexander, Stephen Marcellus and Eric Lyn. And that’s after the elimination of Brandon Showell, Brandon Brown and (quite unfortunately in my opinion) Ignatious Carmouche. Allow all of the deserving to advance, coaches. Remember, Voice voting isn’t exclusive. You can vote for as many contestants in the same genre as you like.

4. With the singers picking their own songs this round, I’m most eager to see another performance from Noah Mac and Addison Agen. The Voice loves young artists, and these are two of the best they’ve had in a while. Both were stolen during the battles, with Adam picking up Addison and Jennifer picking up Noah.

5. A lot of what has happened on Team Blake Shelton through two rounds has made little sense, including all the montages of country artists. It makes me believe that: a) the show doesn’t care about its demographics, because it doesn’t take a genius to realize fans embrace country singers on The Voice; b) producers aren’t interested in another country winner or having to rob a deserving country artist of victory (yep, I’m talking about Season 12); or c) There’s a chosen one among the country singers and the path is being cleared for that individual. The chosen one certainly wasn’t the very talented Natalie Stovall, who deserved a much better fate on the show.

6. Could producers possibly be cruel enough to montage Anna Catherine DeHart a third time? To my knowledge, only two Voice contestants have ever been triple montaged — Rebekah Samarin of Season 7 and Katherine Ho of Season 10. Rebekah promptly — and rightfully — lashed out at the show. This season, Alexandra Joyce was eliminated without a single performance airing. She talks about the sting of a double montage here.

Now, here’s a look at the teams as they stand heading into the battles. The links take you to a profile of each contestant. The number is parenthesis indicates blind audition chair turns.

Team Adam Levine (21 chair turns)

Jon Mero (4)
Anthony Alexander (3)
Emily Luther (3)
Hannah Mrozak (3)
Adam Pearce (2)
Addison Agen (2) (stolen from Team Miley)
Dennis Drummond (2) (stolen from Team Blake)
Dylan Gerard (2)

Team Miley Cyrus (21 chair turns)

Brooke Simpson (4)
Moriah Formica (4)
Ashland Craft (3)
Chloe Kohanski (3)
Janice Freeman (2)
Karli Webster (2)
Whitney Fenimore (2) (stolen from Team Adam)
Stephan Marcellus (1) (stolen from Team Jennifer)

Team Blake Shelton (19 chair turns)

Keisha Renee (4)
Mitchell Lee (3)
Adam Cunningham (2)
Anna Catherine DeHart (2)
Esera Tuaolo (2)
Kathrina Feigh (2) (stolen from Team Jennifer)
Megan Rose (2) ** (stolen from Team Miley)
Red Marlow (2)

Team Jennifer Hudson (17 chair turns)

Chris Weaver (4)
Davon Fleming (4)
Jeremiah Miller (2) ***
Shi’Ann Jones (2)
Noah Mac (2) (stolen from Team Blake)
Eric Lyn (1)
Katrina Rose (1) (stolen from Team Miley)
Lucas Holliday (1)