Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Blake Shelton contemplates stealing Jonathan Mouton after his battle round match on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Wasn’t that so dramatic, the way Jonathan Mouton and Paris Winningham dazzled us with their cover of Luther Vandross’ “Here and Now” in the very last battle round match on Season 21 of The Voice?

Not to mention the way Blake Shelton swooped in and stole Jonathan, saving him from elimination after Paris had been declared the winner?

Except it didn’t happen that way.

The dead giveaway — and an editing mistake that made me chuckle — was Ariana Grande leaning toward Blake and encouraging him to steal Jonathan.

Had the Jonathan-Paris pairing truly been the last battle taped for Season 21, Blake would have needed no such encouragement.

He would have been forced to steal Jonathan in order to take a full team into the knockout round.

For those unaware, The Voice does not show us the battles in the order they took place.

They slice and dice them and mix them up, presenting them in whatever order they deem appropriate for dramatic effect.

That also helps disguise an inconvenient truth about The Voice battle round. It’s blatantly unfair.

Thanks to the spoiler site idolforums.com, I can demonstrate just how unfair.

According to the site, the battle were filmed over the course of four tapings. And they’ve broken down which battles were filmed in each taping.

Pay close attention to the saves and steals. Remember, each coach has one of each during the battles, which allows each coach to rescue two contestants on the brink of elimination.

Parker McKay delivered the best individual vocal during her battle round match with The Cunningham Sisters, according to Voice coach John Legend. But no saves or steals were available to rescue her from elimination when the battle round ended. (NBC Photo)

Taping 1: Six battles were filmed. By the end of the taping, all four saves had been used. That left just the four steals for the remaining 18 battles.

Taping 2: Six battles were filmed. John and Kelly used their steals. That left just two steals for the remaining 12 battles.

Taping 3: Six battles were filmed. Ariana and Blake used their steals. The left just no steals of saves for the final six battles.

Taping 4: The final battles were filmed in a win-or-go-home scenario: The Cunningham Sisters vs. Parker McKay; Shadale Johnson vs. Janora Brown; Ryleigh Plank vs. KCK3; Katherine Ann Mohler vs. Vaughn Mugol; Carson Peters vs. Clint Sherman; and Berritt Haynes vs. Kaitlyn Velez.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand why that format is unfair.

If your battle is being filmed in the first taping you have a heck of a lot better chance of advancing than if you’re involved in one of the last battles being filmed, when all the steals and saves have already been used.

I’ve long argued that all saves and steals should be held until the end of the battle round, after the coaches have heard and seen everyone perform.

I mean, doesn’t that seem fairer?

Then the show could march the 24 at-risk contestants onto the stage and have each coach announce which contestant they’d like to save. If any of the other coaches hoped to steal the same contestant, let the lobbying begin.

Once all the saves are used, use the same process to dole out any remaining steals.

Heck, it would even add drama to the end of the battle round.

Because the slicing and dicing and presenting battles in whatever order producers see fit certainly doesn’t create much drama.

After all, when Paris and Jonathan took the stage Tuesday night, everyone watching at home knew it was the last battle being shown and that Blake still had his save.

In other words, regardless of what happened, neither contestant was going to be eliminated.

Dramatic?

Hardly.

And it wasn’t even fair.

See also …
The Voice montages: Disrespectful and unnecessary