Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani react to a battle round performance on The Voice Season 19. (NBC Photo)

As viewers have noticed, the pandemic forced changes on Season 19 of The Voice.

The most obvious is the lack of a live audience, replaced by a virtual audience of fans watching from across the country.

Here’s a less obvious change to the average viewer. Some of those virtual viewers were willing to share what they witnessed, meaning more detailed information is available than I can ever remember on what occurred when The Voice filmed its auditions, battle round and knockout rounds earlier this year.

In fact, such detailed spoilers are available that anyone who takes a peek at idolforums.com can find out who advanced in each pre-taped round, what order the battles and knockouts were filmed in, what songs the contestants performed and how many battles and knockouts were filmed during each taping session.

First off, viewers need to understand that we are not shown the performances in the order they are filmed. The coaches wear the same wardrobe to multiple taping sessions so that editors and producers can slice and dice the footage and present those performances in whatever order they see fit.

The spoilers reveal the true order of performance and what happened on each taping day.

And they confirm an unfortunate truth that I’ve long suspected: In the battle and knockout rounds, when saves and steals used, the order in which contestants appear before the coaches has as much to do with their likelihood of advancing as the quality of their performances.

Take the Season 19 battles, which begin Monday.

Seven battles were filmed in the first taping; five resulted in steals or saves. Six battles were filmed in the second taping; three resulted in steals or saves.

By the time the final seven battles were filmed in a third taping, not a single steal or save remained. In fact, only one steal was available when the last 11 battles were filmed.

Now take the upcoming knockout round, in which each coach has one steal and there are no saves.

Six knockouts were filmed in the first taping; every single steal was used during that taping. By the time the second taping of six knockouts began, not a single steal remained.

Don’t know about you, but that strikes me as incredibly unfair on a show with so many talented vocalists, with so many excellent performances.

Perform early, and your chances of a steal or save go through the roof. Perform late, and your chance of a save or steal is non-existent. Hmm.

There’s a fairer, better way of doing this. Let coaches determine with winners of each battle and knockout round; let the fate of all the other singers linger until every performance is completed.

Then bring all the in-danger singers back on stage. Force the coaches to make their steal and save decisions then, after they’ve heard every contestant sing.

That would add more drama to the proceedings. That would add suspense rather than having Carson Daly alert us a save or steal is coming before the last battle or knockout of the night even airs.

It might even help restore some of the show’s lost credibility as a legitimate singing competition after the mad dash from a Top 24 to a winner in four weeks in Season 16 and from a Top 17 to a winner in three weeks in Season 18.

I’ll again remind viewers that in the show’s heyday, contestants had to perform 10-11 times just to make it to the finals. The Voice was a brilliant showcase for artists; easily the best singing competition show around.

Season 18 winner Todd Tilghman needed just five performances to make the finals in a show schedule that was determined pre-pandemic. In recent seasons, it’s as though producers took away The Voice and replaced it with The Voice Lite.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from supporting the singers on the show. They’re an extremely talented group likely to provide us with great music once they’re off the show, music we’re more likely to listen to because they appeared on The Voice.

But these days, The Voice should air with this warning label appearing at the start of every episode: “For entertainment purposes only. Do not take the competition portion of this show seriously. We certainly don’t.”

See also …
A different look for The Voice battles
Which coach has the strongest team?