Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Well, I expected tonight’s Season 6 finale of The Voice to come down to a showdown between Christina Grimmie and Josh Kaufman.

But if voting patterns follow Tuesday’s iTunes results, the showdown might be between Christina and Jake Worthington.

Carson Daly chats with Jake Worthington, Christina Grimmie and Josh Kaufman during a break in Monday’s episode of The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Christina scored the most successful song on iTunes from last night, hitting number 3 with “Can’t Help Falling In Love.”

But Jake’s three songs from last night landed at number 6, 7 and 9 on the charts, interrupted only by the Christina-Adam Levine duet at number 8.

What’s that mean in terms of outcome?

I still think anyone could win, partly because iTunes bonuses apparently aren’t available for songs performed last night, meaning Josh won’t pay too heavy a price for not matching the iTunes success of Christina and Jake.

See also
The iTunes results after Monday’s show
Song by song grades for the Top 3 on The Voice
Christina Grimmie photo gallery from The Voice finale
Jake Worthington photo gallery from The Voice finale
Josh Kaufman photo gallery from The Voice finale

While we wait for two hours for the results to come down, I’m going to dole out some other awards to the Season 6 cast. Here goes …

Kristen Merlin

Most pleasant surprise: Kristen Merlin. She turned just two chairs during the blind audition. Neither of her battle round victories were televised in full (she was the only contestant to have that happen). Yet she won over voters with her pitch-perfect and heartfelt country ballads, plus her composure during a mic outage, and wound up finishing in the Top 5.

Artist I most want to hear more from: Dawn and Hawkes. Their audition was just so good. I wonder if they would have done better on The Voice if Alex & Sierra hadn’t just won The X Factor and if The Voice hadn’t gone to a second battle round. Battle rounds have never seemed fair for duos; there just isn’t enough time to shine individually, and they have to share harmonies with a third singer.

Delvin Choice

Favorite performance: “Bright Lights” by Delvin Choice. It was fun. It was a fabulous vocal. It was totally unexpected from a guy who sang “Unchained Melody” the week before. Did I mention that it was fun, fun fun? Oh, yeah, and Delvin’s “lobster” from the audition round would also take the honor for most inventive hairstyle. He even dubbed his fanbase “Team Lobster.”

Best pre-performance interview: Ddendyl and her dad debating how many cows outnumber people in the community where she grew up. I want to hear more from her, too. The D.C. lounge singer is blessed with a wonderfully unique tone. I’m still made at the other judges for not saving her after her Team Shakira battle round match with Deja Hall.

Dawn and Hawkes

Favorite pre-Voice songs:
1. “I Bet You Don’t Curse God,” Christina Grimmie
2. “Holler,” Dawn and Hawkes
3. “Degrees of Separation,” Sam Behymer
4. “Hero,” Scarlet Haze (Kat Perkins)
5. “Same Difference,” Josh Murley

You can hear them all here.

So, the first news from the night, all the iTunes results have been discarded from this week’s voting window.

Gee, bet that thrills everyone who plopped down $1.29 to download songs they might not have wanted because they thought they were casting votes.

And Carson assures us throwing out all those votes didn’t change the outcome.

Yeah, tell that to Jake Worthington fans if he doesn’t win tonight. This is a major flub, The Voice.

On with the show. The performances …

1. One Republic opens up with their great new single “Love Runs Out.” Great tune.

2. Jake Worthington’s comeback performance will be “Summertime” with Kat Perkins, Audra McLaughlin, Kristen Merlin, Morgan Wallen and Ryan Maloney.

3. Christina Grimmie takes the stage with Ed Sheeran. They’re singing “All of the Stars.” Superb.

4. Morgan, Stevie Jo, Delvin Choice, Patrick Thompson, Jake Barker. They’re singing Hall and Oates’ “She’s Gone.”

5. Justin Moore, reigning new artist of the year in country music, takes the stage next. “Can’t Wait to See Where it Goes?”

6. Josh Kaufman is bringing back T.J. Wilkins, Stevie Jo and Sisaundra Lewis to sing “Am I Wrong.”

7. Ed Sheeran returns solo this time because he has a new album to pimp. He’s singing “Sing.”

8. Jake Worthington joins Alabama for a performance of “Mountain Music.”

9. Dani Moz, Melissa Jimenez, Tess Boyer, Deja Hall and Madilyn Paige tackle “Umbrella” next.

10. Josh Kaufman joins Robin Thicke on a song called “Get Her Back.”

11. Tim McGraw graces the stage to perform “City Lights.”

12. Christina is bringing back Tess Boyer, Bria Kelly and Jake Barker back for a performance of “team” by Lorde. And that was fantastic!

13. Coldplay up next with “Sky Full of Stars”

And after a baker’s dozen performances, my favorites …

New song by guest star: “Love Runs Out” by One Republic

Best comeback performance: Christina and friends with “Team.” By a wide margin.

Best finalist/celebrity duo: Christina Grimmie and Ed Sheeran on “All of the Stars.”

Favorite coach segment: Adam Levine and all of his favorite songs.

Now, it’s time to learn who wins Season 6 of The Voice … finally.

In 3rd place — Christina Grimmie, but she has a recording contract with Adam Levine.

And the Season 6 winner is — Josh Kaufman

Congrats to Josh. But that victory is going to have a big asterisk beside it, because of all of those discarded iTune votes.