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Tony Lucca and Chris Mann seemed to be front runners coming into The Voice finale, but instead, after all the votes were counted, they came in 3rd and 4th respectively behind runner-up Juliet Simms and unlikely winner, Jermaine Paul.

What went wrong? They both theorize that the nasty feud between their coaches, Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera may have poisoned their chances. I’d normally tell losing contestants to buck up and not make excuses, but I actually think this scenario–voters were so turned off by the pettiness displayed on both sides that they cast their votes elsewhere–is plausible. Here’s what Chris and Tony had to say to Reality Rocks

When asked backstage if he thought this might be the case, Chris (who admitted he was tired of talking about all the drama, but still graciously answered the question) told Yahoo!’s Reality Rocks: “Sure, I do. There was a lot of hate going on [Monday] night, and I was really sad to be a part of it. Having sung three inspirational songs for the night, and then to basically see anti-Chris tweets because of the feud, was a rude awakening. It was an interesting dose of reality of being in this new sort of realm of attention. So that was not fun.”

Tony, the season-long target of his former “Mickey Mouse Club” co-star Christina’s wrath, answered: “Yeah, [Chris and I] may have negated each other’s votes somehow,” before expressing delight over Jermaine Paul’s victory and theorizing, “Maybe the whole takeaway here is America is not that inspired by drama and petty exchanges.”

Tony admitted that he, like Chris, was frustrated that the drama between the judges this week detracted attention from the show’s singers and the music itself. “It became something that wasn’t flattering for anybody….I’m really sad that this ongoing exchange has been like a dark cloud over this whole thing, and sort of diminished some of the other great stories of some of the other contestants. And I’ve apologized for my role in that,” he said.

Chris Mann

Tony Lucca

HA HA HA HA. Tony says he won’t be surprised if Adam Levine stays involved in his career post Voice. Don’t hold your breath, bud.

In the meantime, Christina apologized to Tony Lucca

“She just wanted to clear the air a bit,” Lucca, 36, explained to Us Weekly of the private chat. The “Dirrrty” singer “apologize[d] that this became much more of a dramatic thing than she ever intended it.”

Lucca (who called Aguilera “pathetic” backstage on Monday’s show) responded in kind.

“I said to her, ‘I hope that we can be cool moving forward,’” he told Us. “I take pride in the fact that my whole career has been a career of integrity, and sound relationships.”

 USA Today

Cee Lo Green, who stayed out of the drama on camera, speaks out on the feud.

“We all caught wind of what the song was going to be and then there was a little bit of internal affairs around not being able to do it. So I wasn’t even sure if [Tony] was going to do it at all,” Cee Lo explained to reporters after the finale.

“But it was a higher degree of indifference last night,” he added. “I’m being politically correct to say that because I’m not involved. Adam hasn’t come to me and spoke to me about it, neither has Christina. But whatever it is, I hope we can get over it because it isn’t something we should carry over into a season three.”

Although Cee Lo admits that there’s a lot of fun and games going on behind the scenes of the show, he also confesses that the tension between his fellow coaches is starting to rain on everyone’s parade.

“It’s getting a little old and inconvenient to everyone,” Cee Lo explained. “When it’s fun, it’s fun but when it’s not, it’s disappointing. I don’t want disappointment to be associated with this show in [any] way. I want the integrity of the show intact.”

OK Magazine