The Voice 23 POLLS: Vote for who WILL and SHOULD win. Who was robbed?
The Voice aired its first live episode Monday night (May 15). After the Top 8 performed, the show provided a quick 5 minute window for fans to to vote. Afterward, host Carson Daly announced the Top 5: Team Blake Shelton’s Grace West and NOIVAS, Team Kelly Clarkson’s D. Smooth, Team Niall Horan’s Gina Miles and Team Chance the Rapper’s sister trio, Sorelle. (Read our Recap)
The shock of the night was the departure of fan favorite artist, Ryley Tate Wilson from Team Niall. My theory is that vote splitting wrecked some contestants. The show treated the voting like a giant instant save. Fans voted at the end of the show and could only vote once for ONE singer. In an instant save situation where 2-4 singers are singing for one wildcard spot, the method makes sense. But cutting down 8 contestants to 5? There are a few inherent problems.
While Voice pundits have been hyping up Team Blake’s NOIVAS as the frontrunner, last week’s Facebook stats showed Team Niall’s Ryley Tate Wilson and Gina Miles had the most likes and streams. D Smooth was third. Gina in particular had over 1 million streams of her “Wicked Games” cover. She and Ryley are both young pop singers who probably appeal to the same voters. But fans could only vote for one singer. If NBC had opted to allow fans to vote like they usually do–a certain number of votes for as many contestants as they liked, Ryley and Gina probably would have both advanced.
Sister trio Sorelle live in their own musical lane, which might have made advancing easier for them. It’s a terrible voting system for cutting 8 contestants down to five. I don’t pick one favorite until the Top 5 or Top 3.
First time on a live stage, not one artist performed their personal best
The other thing is how unfair it was to throw artists into a high stakes semi-final that coincided with their first time on a live stage. Not one of the contestants delivered a personal best performance. I felt bad as Niall explained to a perplexed Riley how to use in-ear monitors, which he had never, ever employed before. Total yikes.
What could be the behind the scenes story explaining why NBC delivered a truncated season of The Voice this season. Budget cuts? Working around super-star schedules? The Voice casting was impeccable as always, but the format stunk.
ANYWAY! Next week is the big finale. Blake is the only coach with two artists in the finale. But that still doesn’t mean he’s going to win, no matter how hard the producers attempt to engineer it. Gina Miles, for instance, has a shot.
TIME TO VOTE! Results and predictions later in the week.
