Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Ruby Leigh celebrates earning chair turns from all four coaches during her Season 24 audition on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Jarae Womack, a four-chair turn recipient on The Voice, released a brilliant song called “Sound of a Woman” a few years back.

That song could serve as the theme for Season 24 of The Voice.

In case you haven’t noticed, The Voice casting department rounded up an incredibly talented group of ladies to audition for the show.

So much so that those ladies should dominate what we see play out on our TV screens in the weeks to come.

The Voice enters its final audition episode Monday night with nine spots left to fill for this season.

That means 47 spots on the coaches’ four teams have been claimed.

Folks, get this. Female singers have earned 31 of those spots; male singers just 16. That’s a ratio of nearly two to one.

In fact, female singers outnumber male singers on every coach’s team. That only team with a semblance of balance is Team John Legend, with seven ladies and six guys.

And female artists aren’t just earning those spots. They’re doing so in resounding fashion.

An astonishing 18 singers have turned all four coaches chairs in Season 24.

Ladies have earned 12 of those four-chair turns — that’s right, two-thirds again.

When Mara Justine, who dazzled on American Idol a couple years back, got all the coaches to turn and landed on Team Legend in the season premiere, I thought we had just seen the Season 24 front-runner.

Then 17-year-old Kaylee Shimizu turned in a brilliant performance of “Golden Slumber” and claimed a spot on Team Legend as well. Voice fans love to support young singers, so I figured maybe she was the front-runner.

Then Nini Iris shows up, stuns with her vocals and her stage presence. And I watched her amazing performances on The X Factor Georgia. And decided there was a new front-runner. Oh, and she joined Team Legend too!

And let’s not forget Team Reba McEntire’s Ruby Leigh, who seems to already have a legion of fans and is likely to become a fan favorite on a show where viewers love country artists.

It’s not as though the show is devoid of talented guys. In addition to the six four-chair turns, I see lots of potential in Jackson Snelling and Reid Zingale based on Voice fans’ past preferences.

And it’s not as though the casting department didn’t try to balance things out. To date, we’ve seen 12 singers who didn’t turn chairs.

Nine of them — 75 percent — were guys. And when their performances ended without a chair turn, I certainly didn’t feel like any of them had been robbed.

My fear now is that The Voice will try to balance out the field of contestants as it marches toward the voting rounds.

I mean, that’s what we’re used to, on both The Voice and American Idol, a pretty balanced number of guys and gals competing for fan votes.

That’s not what should happen on Season 24 of The Voice. Not with so many talented female singers who have earned their spots on the show.

This should not boil down to fewer than 20 guys competing for six spots in a Top 12 while twice as many ladies do the same.

If that’s what happens, “Sound of a Woman” — listen to the song, folks — will become the Season 24 theme in a far less celebratory fashion.

Editor’s note: Below is a list of artists each coach has landed, in the order we’ve been shown on TV. Understand that’s not likely the order in which it really happened when the auditions aired. The Voice slices and dices the auditions and presents them in an order that creates the best storyline. Or what producers think will be the best storyline. The number is parenthesis is the number of chairs each artist turned.

Mara Justine from The Voice, listening to the coaches before joining Team Legend for Season 24. (NBC Photo)

Team Gwen (8 gals, 3 guys, 4 four-chair turns, 3 spots left)

Joslynn Rose (3)
Kristen Brown (2)
Juliette Ojeda (3)
Jenna Marquis (3)
Chehci Sarai (4)
RUDI (4)
Jason Arcilla (2)
Bias (2)
Jacquie Roar (4)
Brandon Montel (4)
Kara Tenae (3)

Team Legend (7 gals, 6 guys, 8 four-chair turns, 1 spot left)

Deejay Young (3)
Mara Justine (4)
Ephraim Owens (4)
Stee (4)
Claudia B (3)
Talakai (2)
Kaylee Shimizu (4)
Rachel Nguyen (1)
Lila Forde (4)
Jarae Womack (4)
Elizabeth Evans (2)
Willie Gomez (4)
Caleb Sasser (4)

Team Niall (8 gals, 3 guys, 3 four-chair turns, 3 spots left)

Sophia Hoffman (2)
Alexa Wildish (4)
Olivia Minogue (3)
Julia Roome (2)
Reid Zingale (3)
Noah Spencer (3)
Laura Williams (4)
Lyndr (2)
Tanner Massey (3)
Nini Iris (4)
Olivia Eden (2)

Team Reba (8 gals, 4 guys, 3 four-chair turns, 2 spots left)

Jordan Rainer (4)
Jackson Snelling (2)
Ruby Leigh (4)
Mac Royals (4)
Tom Nitti (1)
Alison Albrecht (1)
Ms. Monet (2)
Angelina Nazarian (2)
Al Boogie (1)
CORii (1)
Crystal Nicole (1)
Caitlin Quisenberry (2)

Nini Iris ponders which coach to select before joining Team Legend on The Voice Season 24. (NBC Photo)