Idol Chatter & Voice Views

 

The Voice will try something I’m sure the show will bill as all-new when the knockout round begins Monday night.

But as the leaked clip of a Team Blake knockout makes clear, it’s the same old knockouts, just with three singers instead of two.

Of course, that will make the stakes higher, because it’s likely at least one singer will head home after every knockout round match.

After all, there are no saves this round and each coach gets just one steal.

If you lost track of who survived the battles, here’s a look at the teams headed into the knockouts.

Team Blake: Austin Montgomery, bodie, Brayden Lape, Eva Ullmann, Kate Kalvach, Kevin Hawkins, Bryce Leatherwood, The Dryes (saved by Blake during the battles) Jay Allen (stolen from Gwen in the battles)

Team Camila: Andrew Igbokidi, Chello, Devix, Eric Who, Morgan Myles, Orlando Mendez, Reina Ley, Steven McMorran (saved by Camila during the batltes), Jaeden Luke (stolen from Blake during the battles)

Team Gwen: Alyssa Witrado, Cara Brindisi, Daysia, Justin Aaron, Kayla Von der Heide, Kique, Rowan Grace, Destiny Leigh (saved by Gwen during the battles), Sasha Hurtado (stolen from Camila during the battles)

Team John: Emma Brooke, Kim Cruse, Morgan Taylor, Omar Cardona, Parajita Bastola, Peyton Aldridge, Valarie Harding, The Marilynds (saved by John in the battles), Ian Harrison (stolen from Gwen in the battles)

Who has the strongest team? In terms of chairs turned during the blinds, that would be Team Legend. John has four four-chair turns remaining on his team in Kim Cruse, Omar Cardona, Parijita Bastola and Morgan Taylor. His artists turned a total of 27 chairs during the blinds, compared to 23 chairs for the remaining members of Team Camila and Team Blake.

For some reason, the show cast Blake as the underdog who was having trouble luring artists to his team in the blinds. In truth, that would have been Gwen. She whiffed, going 0 for 10, in convincing four-chair turns to join her team. At the end of the blinds, her 14 artists have accounted for 27 total chair turns (to 36 for Camila, for instance). Heading into the knockouts, her remaining artists turned 18 chairs in the blinds, again the lowest among the four coaches.

Will the montages return? In theory, they should not. The Voice has typically aired six knockouts during a two-hour episode. The episode schedule I saw earlier this season had seven hours of airtime set aside for knockouts. And with three singers going head-to-head, The Voice only has 12 knockout matches to air.

Of course, don’t count on The Voice to do what’s logical. Remember the blinds, folks. They montaged several singers who made the show, then aired nearly full auditions of 15 singers who didn’t. SolSong and KaraM cKee were eliminated after being montaged in both the blinds and the battles.

Nevertheless, both of those artists have been gracious on social media, praising The Voice experience. Kara does mention in one post that “it took several months of work in California to shoot the blind audition and battle rounds.”

Well, I won’t be so gracious. For The Voice to demand that time commitment from an artist, then not air a single full performance is both disgraceful and disrespectful.

Will the knockouts be fairer that the battles? Regular readers of this blog know I’ve been increasingly critical of the show for its handling of steals and saves during the battle round each season. The coaches tend to use them very quickly. They’re typically gone long before the coaches have seen and heard everyone perform.

The knockouts? In Season 22, they were even less fair. Four steals were available. Three were used in the first four knockouts that were taped. As many as 18 of the 36 remaining singers — 50 percent, folks — took the stage with no steals available.

So if you think you’re watching a fair singing competition … well, you aren’t. And you won’t be until The Voice wakes up and understands that save and steal decisions should be held until after all the artists have performed.

Who will sing against whom? If you want to be surprised, stop reading here. If you’re curious and don’t mind knowing ahead of time … read on.

Here are the matchups:

Team Blake
Bodie vs. Kevin Hawkins vs. The Dryes (already leaked)
Austin Montgomery vs. Brayden Lape vs. Eva Ullmann
Bryce Leatherwood vs. Jay Allen vs. Kate Kalvach

Team Camila
Andrew Igbokidi vs. Devix vs. Steven McMorran
Chello vs. Morgan Myles vs. Orlando Mendez
Eric Who vs. Jaeden Luke vs. Reina Ley

Team Gwen
Alyssa Witrado vs. Daysia vs. Sashua Hurtado
Cara Brindisi vs. Justin Aaron vs. Kayla Von der Heide
Destiny Leigh vs. Kique vs. Rowan Grace

Team Legend
Ian Harrison vs. Morgan Taylor vs. Omar Cardona
Parijita Bastola vs. Peyton Aldridge vs. Valarie Harding
Emma Brooke vs. Kim Cruse vs. The Marilynds