Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice comeback singers for Season 13 include Karlie Webster, Whitney Fenimore, Natalie Stovall and Lucas Holliday

In the past, The Voice has occasionally waited until the day the playoffs begin to announce who the comeback artists are.

Not in Season 13.

The show announced today that Karli Webster, Lucas Holliday, Natalie Stovall and Whitney Fenimore will be back on the stage for the playoffs, which begin Monday night.

Karli will be singing for Team Miley, Lucas for Team Jennifer, Natalie for Team Blake and Whitney for Team Adam.

They face pretty steep odds. The Voice has invited singers back for the live playoffs in three past seasons, only two have advanced to the finals — Daniel Passino and Nick Hagelin.

They both did it in Season 10. And they both did it via fan voting.

There will be no fan voting in this year’s playoffs. Which is a major step backwards for the show in my opinion.

In fact, the live playoffs have already been taped; the finalists already selected. We just won’t find out who those 12 individuals are until the shows air.

The playoffs will air over three nights. Members of Team Blake and Team Jennifer will take the stage during a two-hour show Monday, followed by the members of Team Miley on Tuesday and the members of Team Adam on Wednesday.

Now, as for the comeback artists …

* Karli cracked the Top 200 on iTunes during the blind auditions and battle round. The only other Season 13 artist to do that was Jon Mero. In fact, Karli’s duet with Addison Agen topped all battle round performances on the charts. She was eliminated during a knockout round match with Janice Freeman.

* Having listened to Natalie’s pre-show music, The Voice’s handling of her baffles me. It’s that good. She should be battling Ashland Craft for the female country vote when the finals start. But will that happen? Natalie was montaged in the blinds, then declared the loser of a battle round match I thought she won.

* Whitney’s another Season 13 contestant with impressive original music already on her resume. And she was very impressive in her knockout match with Moriah Formica, which aired last week. Now, she’s headed back to where she started off, with Team Adam, where her biggest obstacle might be another former member of Team Miley, fellow female singer-songwriter Addison Agen.

* Lucas faces the toughest obstacle of the comeback artists because he’s coming back to Team Jennifer. And we just witnessed brilliant performances from Chris Weaver and Davon Fleming in the knockouts, and Team Jennifer also includes talented young artists in Noah Mac and Shi’Ann Jones. But be sure of this, we’ll get a soulful, passionate performance from Lucas, just like he delivered in the first two rounds.