Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Only one contestant goes home tonight on The Voice.

And the two lads from Pennsylvania might have good reason to be nervous.

Matthew Schuler performs Monday night on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Especially if voting followed the download trends on iTunes.

I figured Matthew Schuler fans might rally behind the 21-year-old from West Chester University after he needed an instant save to survive last week.

If so, they didn’t rally by rushing to iTunes to purchase his two songs from last night’s show.

When voting ended at 11 a.m., Matthew was the last of the six contestants to show up on the iTunes singles chart, with “When a Man Loves a Woman” checking in at number 39. (See where everyone landed here.)

“Story of My Life,” his One Direction cover, landed six spots lower at number 45.

Then there’s James, the 22-year-old from Lancaster. He was given the final spot in last night’s show, and that spot isn’t called the “pimp spot” without reason.

Usually it’s reserved for a performance that’s sure to please. One that has the potential to be the best of the night.

Usually the singer in that spot breezes into the next round.

But James’ version of “I’d Do Anything for Love” fizzled. It landed at 34 on iTunes, behind both songs by Cole Vosbury and Will Champlin.

Heck, Tessanne Chin and Jacquie Lee cracked the iTunes Top 20 with songs performed in the first half of the show.

The second bit of bad news for James: His other song — “Fell in Love” — was the least favorite from the show in terms of iTunes downloads.

So don’t be surprised if Matthew or James finds his Voice life on the line when the clock strikes 9:50 p.m. (EST) or so this evening.

If they both land there, Matthew has a big edge in terms of Twitter followers.

The results:

Sounds like we’ll only have a bottom two tonight. And, yep, the Twitter save will be in effect.

Safe this week on The Voice:

* Jacquie Lee of Team Christina is safe. Girl’s on fire, and last night wasn’t even one of her best nights.

* Cole Vosbury of Team Blake. After seeing this week’s iTunes results, I wouldn’t bet against Blake winning this thing again.

* Tessanne Chin of Team Adam. That was deserved. Tessanne was easily the best singer Monday night.

* Will Champlin of Team Adam. Not surprised. Both of his songs did well on iTunes.

And that means a bottom two just as I suspected — Matthew Schuler and James Wolpert, the two guys from Pennsylvania.

For one last time this season, someone will be saved via Twitter.

And the Twitter save goes to: James Wolpert.

Which means Matthew Schuler is eliminated on The Voice.

Wow. Gotta admit, I’m a little surprised. Mainly because Matthew had picked up 15,000 Twitter followers after being saved last week and seemed in a good position to earn a second straight instant save if he needed it.

Heck, as of Monday morning, he had 20,000 more Twitter followers than James.

But I was among those who tweeted to save James, simply because he had been highly entertaining as recently as a week ago. Monday night was his first stumble since the live shows began and, judging from what Adam said, his health might have played a factor in his performances.

Well, check back later this week. I’ll be ranking the final five with just two weeks of competition left on The Voice.

The performances:

We start off the performances tonight with Kelly Clarkson singing “Underneath the Tree” from her “Wrapped in Red” Christmas album. That album, by the way, debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and has now spent four weeks in the Top 10. Way to go, Kelly. The performance gives Kelly a chance to plug her NBC Christmas special, set for Dec. 11 on NBC. Strange that the biggest Idols will appear on NBC specials within a one-week period. Thursday, of course, marks Carrie Underwood’s “Sound of Music” show.

Next performance — Tessanne Chin, Jacquie Lee and Matthew Schuler singing “You’ve Got the Love.” Tessanne’s voice soars every time she’s on stage. I love the tone of Jacquie’s voice. Meanwhile, I keep wondering what happened to Matthew, who is putting together a string of forgettable vocals. But, all in all, the group numbers have gotten stronger as the season has progressed.

Neat. Blake Shelton brings back Xenia from Season 1 to sing “Silver Bells” with him. For those who don’t recall, Xenia was the rather bashful teen who made it all the way to the final eight back when The Voice was just getting started.

Now James, Will and Cole take on “More Than Words.” Cole unleashes that rasp that’s becoming so popular. James still sounds a little under the weather, though he’s certainly been given the task of reaching for all the high notes.

And now we get a Christmas medley from the remaining six contestants. So it’s been mostly Christmas music tonight on The Voice. Hmm, it’s only Dec. 3, folks. But, hey, that sounded nice.