The Voice 5 - The Top 12 Results

I’ll be live blogging The Voice Top 12 results. Which two contestants head home tonight?

The big development tonight was not who was sent home (I’ll get to that in a minute) but the use of twitter to eliminated a contestant in real time. It’s something that’s never been done on a US singing show, which makes the instant save ground breaking.

The process appeared to go smoothly. The bottom 3–Kat Robichaud, Jonny Gray and Josh Logan were assembled on stage. Carson announced it was time, and then immediately went to commercial. Fans tweeted #VoiceSave insert first name until time was up a minute or so after the return from commercials. Within a minute, Carson was ready to announce who was saved and who was going home.

It’s a total win for The Voice, because during that time, the hashtag and contstant names trended worldwide on twitter. If the gimmick catches on, the show’s social engagement could climb. Nielsen is tracking this stuff now. And last year, Idol still beat them in the twitter war, even as they lost in the ratings. The Voice producers are looking to own social media as well. The insta-save should help them do just that. More social engagement means more buzz.

The insta-save still has it’s drawbacks. It bothers me that the relatively small number of folks on twitter are determining who gets sent home for the first 4 weeks of the finals. Also, most of those people will inevitably live in the central and eastern time zones. West and Mountain time folks can join in, but they have to be following twitter and willing to be spoiled to participate. I suppose it’s better than the coaches saving a contestant. At least the eliminations are in America’s hands, right? Even if that decision is left up to savvy social networkers.

The eliminations weren’t a surprise. Josh Logan seemed like a dead man walking after his lackluster performance. Jonny’s best performance was his audition. After that, Cee Lo continued to advance him, despite his inability to connect to viewers.

Kat hitting bottom surprised me a little. She’s a powerful performer, but the crazy rocker chick thing she’s got going on may be weirding viewers out. I thought Austin would be a possibility to go, but he had a solid performance in a popular genre–totally non-threatening. So there you go.

At the top of the show, Carson reports a record number of downloads and mentions Matthew’s climb to #2 on iTunes with his rendition of “Hallelujah.”

Sara Bareilles hits the stage first to perform her latest song ~~Roar~~ “Brave.” Kat, Caroline, Tessane and Jacquie sing the bridge.

After the break, we find out the first two artists saved by America. But first, it’s time for filler. Let’s chat with the coaches. How do they feel about losing team members? Blah blah blah. Cee Lo, wearing ridiculous sunglasses, reveals his favs: James, Tessanne, Jacquie, and Matthew. Christina tries on Cee Lo’s silly space age glasses. They look better on her. It’s time for America to take over, she declares. The glasses are passed to Adam. Blake says he looks like the blind guy from Star Trek. The results are why he drinks on Tuesday, says Blake. As if he needs an excuse.

Now it’s time for The Voice Confessional. Blah blah blah. WHERE ARE THE RESULTS.

Adam’s new puppy is ADORABLE

Finally. The Top 12 take the stage with Carson. He announces the first two artists saved by America, and they are Caroline Pennell from Team Cee Lo and Matthew Schuler from Team Christina. No surprises there.

Cee Lo takes the stage to cover “Roam” by the B52s with his team, Caroline, Jonny and Kat. This is really strange. Cee Lo sounds like a strangled cat. Kat sounds like that strangled cat got caught in a blender. Jonny sounds the best, oddly, but their voices do not blend. Lot’s of off-key sangin’ right here.

Back to the results. The next two contestants saved by America are Austin Jenckes from Team Blake and Tessanne Chin from Team Adam.

Carson blah blah blah from the skybox.

The Instant Save begins tonight. When we get the signal, we have 5 minutes to tweet #VoiceSave with the first name of the artist you wish to save. This should be a cluster eff.

Now, The Voice men take the stage to sing “We’re an American Band” This is way better than the first group song.

The eight remaining artists take the stage. The next 3 artists saved by America are Jacquie Lee from Team Christina, Cole Vosbury from Team Blake and Will Champlin from Team Adam.

Adam Levine and his team, Tessanne, Will and James cover The Beatles “A Hard Days Night.” Adam is Ringo on the drums. I love this song. Not this version so much. Better than the wacky “Roam”, but the voices aren’t blending here, either.

The five remaining artists take the stage. The remaining two artists saved by America are Ray Boudreaux from Team Blake and James Wolpert from Team Adam

Josh Logan, Kat Robideaux and Jonny Gray are in the bottom 3.

READY SET GO….THE VOICE INSTANT SAVE BEGINS NOW. You have 5 minutes, people. First name #VoiceSave. Doing a search on the hash tag, and I can’t spot an overwhelming winner. I hope they count names spelled wrong. Like Johnny instead of Jonny.

OK. The insta-save is finished. This is really convoluted. Carson sends Jonny Gray home, based on the insta save. He had the lowest number of tweets. Next, he announces the artist SAVED by the insta-tweet and that is Kat Robichaud. Josh Logan is going home.