Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Hannah Huston and Laith Al-Saadi could be two of the singers competing for a Twitter save at the end of tonight’s The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Only four singers advance to next week’s finals.

That sets the stage for a very interesting sing-off and Twitter save at the end of tonight’s show.

If you aren’t already aware, here’s how it will work.

The top three finishers in the voting automatically advance to next week’s Season 10 finale.

The bottom two are automatically eliminated.

The middle three will perform at the end of tonight’s show with the final Twitter save of Season 10 to follow.

My hunches:

1. Alisan Porter and Adam Wakefield, favorites all season long, will automatically advance. They had the best performing songs on iTunes from this week; they also turned in the only duet worth re-watching from Monday’s show.

2. Shalyah Fearing and Paxton Ingram head home. They were the only two singers who didn’t crack the iTunes Top 10. And with the bonus points factor (Top 10 finishers have their downloads multiplied by 10) … well, that’s a pretty big obstacle to overcome.

3. The third spot automatic finals berth goes to Mary Sarah. She’s improved her iTunes ranking every week; she also has the largest social media base of any singer on the show.

4. That will leave Laith Al-Saadi, Hannah Huston and Bryan Bautista to sing for the save at the end of tonight’s show.

Anyway, that’s my prediction. But Season 10 has proven one of the most unpredictable seasons of The Voice in quite a while.

And we’re getting right down to results …

Advancing on The Voice:
* Adam Wakefield: Right now, he’s looks like the biggest obstacle to Christina Aguilera’s quest to become the first female coach to have a singer win The Voice.
* Alisan Porter: “Desperado” turned out to be the magic she needed, even if The Voice camera operators diffused the emotional performance with all those odd angles of the flowers hanging around her last night.
* Hannah Huston: Wow, look at that. The pre-school teacher from Nebraska is all the way to the finals. Well done, Hannah.

Singing for the instant save:
* Mary Sarah: Let’s see if that vast social media following can get her into the final four.
* Bryan Bautista: He’s been most impressive lately, but I’m not sure he has the support to top Mary Sarah.
* Laith Al-Saadi: He’s the only artist besides Adam and Alisan to crack the iTunes Top 10 multiple times.

That means Paxton and Shalyah are eliminated. Paxton made it much, much deeper into the competition than anyone expected. Shalyah gets credit for making it so far against a very experienced cast at age 16.

Mary Sarah: She’ll sing “Something in the Water,” another Carrie Underwood song. And she starts off key, not a good sign. Not sure this is a wise choice for her. Mary Sarah is a fine country singer, but her voice isn’t soaring on the chorus the way Carrie’s does. Oh, well, at least she isn’t hidden behind veils tonight. Grade: C+

Bryan Bautista: He’ll sing “Adorned.” After doing so well with an emotional ballad last night, I would have expected something more along those lines. For that reason, that seemed like a throw-away song choice. But it did offer Bryan another chance to show off his range. Grade: B

Laith Al-Saadi: His song is “All Along the Watchtower.” This is more along the lines of what he should have performed last night. And I can tell you two lines in, this will be my favorite of the save performances. Laith rocks out, finding time in his performance for a pair of guitar solos. Grade: A–

OK, I don’t think it’s even close. Laith deserves the save based on those three performances.

And the final finalist for Season 10 of The Voice is: Laith Al-Saadi.