Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice returns Monday night at 8 p.m. with a blind audition episode, and fans will be treated to another two hours of blind auditions beginning at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Here’s a look at what to expect from Season 22.

The coaches

If you’re a fan of the show, you already know major changes are coming to those big red chairs. Kelly Clarkson is taking the season off; Gwen Stefani is taking her place. That’s an entertainment downgrade in my book. While there’s no doubting Gwen’s sincerity, she simply can’t match Kelly’s gift for gab.

Camila Cabello, meanwhile, takes over the spot occupied by Ariana Grande in Season 21. Ariana was a pleasant surprise as a coach. Her pop princess appeal and genuine concern for her artists brought a breath of badly needed fresh air to the show. Can Camila fill those shoes? Her pitch to Morgan Myles in a leaked audition raises my hopes.

Other changes

Most seasons of The Voice have featured 48 contestants, 12 per team. Season 22 will feature 56 — the second most ever. That’s 14 per team.

Will it lead to more montaged performances? It wouldn’t have to. In a baffling Season 21 decision, producers aired nearly full auditions for 11 singers who didn’t make the show; then montaged four who did.

Come on, producers. Give us full introductions to the contestants who turns chairs. In the words of thrice-montaged Rebekah Samarin (Season 7), not doing so shows “blatant disregard and disrespect” of contestants’ time and efforts, especially since they spend about a month preparing for that blind audition.

Meanwhile, as a result of the larger pool of contestants, there will be a rather dramatic change to the knockout round. Instead of knockouts with two singers performing solos in hopes of advancing, Season 21 will featured three-way knockouts. Since The Voice dedicates 20 minutes of airtime per knockout, that’s a positive change. Less filler, more music.

The show

Regular readers of this blog know my feelings about The Voice. Three seasons in, it surpassed American Idol as the best singing show on TV. Ten years later, The Voice is a distant, distant second to Idol, which is now a superior showcase for the artists who excel on that show.

The Voice’s problems: gimmicks, silly format changes, a decision to air twice a year, season finales barely worth watching until the last 5 minutes, and a stubborn refusal to use guest performance spots to promote its own alumni.

An abbreviated format for Seasons 16 and 18 through 20 made the whole exercise seem pointless, the results irrelevant and had me wondering if it was even worth blogging about the show.

That was fixed in Season 21, but there’s still the fact that producers are more invested in twists that turn the attention away from the artists and back to the coaches — like the block — than about hosting a fair singing competition.

Will any of that change in Season 22? There’s no indication that it will. If anything, the battle round — unfair season after season after season — will become more so. With 56 contestants, there were 28 pre-taped battles, with four steals and four saves available.

Thanks to a spoiler site, we know six of those eight saves and steals were gone in the first eight battles. By the end of the second day of taping, every save and steal had been used. On the third and busiest day of battles, 28 contestants took the stage without a single save or steal available.

Clearly, a singer’s chance of surviving the battle round depended as much on when they performed as how well they performed. In whose eyes can that possibly be fair?

The simple fix: Make the coaches chose a battle round winner. Let them duke it out over steals and saves after every battle is over, after they’ve watched and heard every singer perform. Less predictability — every battle round episode now ends with a save or steal — and more end-of-battles drama as coaches fight over saves and steals would make for better TV.

The solution is so simple, that it’s exasperating and infuriating that The Voice won’t do it.

And will the show continue using the instant save that’s been proven blatantly unfair to West Coast contestants? Most likely.

The saving grace

What continues to make The Voice worth watching is the fact that the casting department rounds up an amazingly talented group of contestants every season. Having researched the Season 22 cast, I can proclaim with certainty that they’ve done it again.

The Voice clearly had more luck finding female talent than male. Thirty of the 56 contestants are ladies and both duos are fronted by female vocalists. Eighteen of those women — and at least 33 contestants overall — have already released original music.

That’s the real treat. Listen to the covers they sing on The Voice, but also check out the contestants’ original music. Most of these singers are much more than cover artists. They’ve already released music you’re sure to enjoy. You just have to listen.

That’s why I remain a fan of the show. I’ve literally gone a month listening to nothing but post-Voice music on Spotify. And not just the music of the singers who enjoyed the most success on The Voice.

Charlotte Sometimes — now LACES — from Season 2 released a brilliant album earlier this year. Ditto for Nicolle Galyon, better known now as a songwriter than a recording artist. Alexa Cappelli, who didn’t survive the live playoffs in Season 14, has released such an impressive string of catchy pop songs, she’s now signed to a Sony Music label.

Want to learn more about the Season 22 cast? Just follow the links below. Most take you to a full profile of the contestant, complete with information on already released music if there is any. Any partial profiles will be replaced with full profiles after the singer’s blind audition airs.

And if you’re in the mood for more post-show music, check out this series of blogs I wrote highlighting my all-time favorite post-show songs, published to celebrate The Voice’s 20th season.

Alyssa Witrado
Andrew Igbokidi
Ansley Burns
Austin Montgomery
Ava Lynn
Benny Weag
Bodie
Brayden Lape
Bryce Leatherwood
Cara Brindisi
Chello
Constance Howard
David Andrew
Daysia Reneau
Destiny Lilia
Devix
Dia Malai
The Dryes (Katelyn & Derek)
Emma Brooke
Eric Who
Eva Ullmann
Grace Bello
Hillary Ward
Ian Harrison
Jaeden Luke
Jay Allen
Jillian Jordyn
Julia Aslanli
Justin Aaron
Kara McKee
Kate Kalvach
Kayla Von der Heide
Kevin Hawkins
Kim Cruse
Kique Gomez
Lana Love
Madison Hughes
The Marilynds (Lindsay & Kasey)
Morgan Myles
Morgan Taylor
Nia Skyfer
Omar Cardona
Orlando Mendez
Parijita Bastola
Peyton Aldridge
Reina Ley
Rowan Grace
Sadie Bass
Sasha Hurtado
Solsong
Steven McMorran
Sydney Paige
Tanner Fussell
Tanner Howe
Valarie Collins-Harding
Zach Newbould