The Voice Recap: Three of the Top 12 Get the Chop Ahead of the Semi-Finals
Charlie Mason
Editor
Back and forth the axe swung in Tuesday’s episode of The Voice as the Top 12 were cut down to the Top 9 (presumably on our way to a victory by Team John Legend’s superlative Nathan Chester). Based on the poll that followed Monday’s recap, it looked like Tae Lewis (Team Dan + Shay), Nadège (Team Chance the Rapper), Serenity Arce (Team Chance) and L. Rodgers (Team Reba McEntire) would be singing for the Wildcard Instant Save. But was that how things actually shook out?
Before we learned which contestants had advanced to the Semi-Finals and which had landed in the hot seat, we were treated to Reba applying a can-do attitude to her new single “I Can’t” and a 20th anniversary performance of John’s “Ordinary People” by the EGOT winner himself. And in the moment(s) of truth…
SAVED BY VIEWERS’ VOTES
Asher HaVon (Team Reba)
Maddi Jane (Team Chance)
Nathan Chester (Team Legend)
Madison Curbelo (Team Dan + Shay)
Josh Sanders (Team Reba)
Bryan Olesen (Team Legend)
Serenity Arce (Team Chance)
Karen Waldrup (Team Dan + Shay)
WILDCARD INSTANT SAVE
L. Rodgers (Team Reba), “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” — Grade: C | This was arguably a (marginally) better effort than Monday’s. But it didn’t feel like a thought-through performance at all, more like a combination of nerves and determination. And some of those notes toward the end… Oof. Sorry, Reba, that was not a “great” performance.
Nadège (Team Chance), “Smooth Operator” — Grade: C | As nice as Nadège’s tone may be, this was kinda a sloppy mess, as flat as a pancake and not as tasty, either. And did it feel to anyone else like she was rushing? “It sounded like the record,” Carson Daly exclaimed. Um, one that anyone would have bought? No, Carson. Just no.
Zoe Levert (Team Legend), “Slow Burn” — Grade: C+ | Considering how disappointing L. and Nadège were, I thought that Zoe might actually grab herself the Save. Then she opened her mouth. Despite the coaches having always raved about her perfect pitch, she sounded “off” to me. And it never helps her that she has all the presence of a test pattern. Zzz.
Tae Lewis (Team Dan + Shay), “Church on Cumberland Road” — Grade: B | After three “C”-grade performances in a row, the Save was Tae’s to lose. And from the moment that he hit the mic, I assumed that he had it. He sang with confidence, energy, attitude. Unlike the trio before him, he made a real, actual case for why he deserved to stay.
SAVED | Tae Lewis (Team Dan + Shay)
ELIMINATED | L. Rodgers (Team Reba), Nadège (Team Chance) and Zoe Levert (Team Legend)
So, your thoughts on the outcome of Tuesday’s episode? Drop ’em in a comment, and on your way, vote in the poll below for the three contestants you would have eliminated.
I record the show and at the end of who gets saved by our votes. It shuts off and I have a very hard frustrating time finding out if my choice won. I really dislike this about the show and the app. And trying to find out the results. Can you do better? I have watched this show forever and have been disappointed several times.
Used to happen to me all of the time also. I’ve adjusted the recording to stop 1 minute past the scheduled end time & no longer have the issue.
I add 5 minutes just to be extra safe and have never had a problem.
First of all, Reba and John sounded FANTASTIC. Which made it all the stranger that the actual contestants were so off tonight. Was it nerves? I had originally planned to vote for L. Rodgers, but she was so pitchy that I ended up voting for Tae (the only moderately good save performance).
Other than that, I’m happy with the remaining singers. Looking forward to next week!
Brian comes across as smarmy and trying too hard NOT to be 50!
Need to make sure that the show doesn’t cut off before the final selection. This is second show that was cut off before it was over.
It cut off before we were able to see who was the 9th person to make it through, I had to look it up online to see who made it
You can’t really tell how any of them sound because the music over powers them They need to fix this issue.
Maybe it was just us in my house, the sound quality when Reba and John were singing wasn’t good. I was satisfied with the results, and your grades are what we heard, thanks Charlie.
Bryan Oleson on John’s team can make an album I could listen and dance to his music and his voice is moving to as a lot of people out there will say you got this
Well, of my Bottom 3 (Brian, Tae, & Serenity), only Tae was in Instant Save, which he won! So all 3 survived! Go figure!
I did think either L. or Nadege might be the 4th in I.S.; turned out both were! No way did I expect Zoe in the sing-off & gone!
Poor Zoe looked like she was going to burst into tears the whole time she was standing up waiting for names. She was not able to mask her nerves or emotions the way others were, which might have contributed to her performance – which I do not think was as good last night as her past couple of performances had been. I did like her and her fashions so hope that is something she can work on elsewhere, but I can’t deny others like Karen, Madison & Maddi Jane were stronger.
I think it’s terrible that the Pacific time Pacific time zone viewers did not get a vote tonight. Voting was already closed on the west coast. Here I am finally going to start watching the voice again because I can at least watch a few singers without that life story stuff, just voting for good singers based on the strength of the performance tonight.
As a west Coast viewer I honestly don’t know if I’m ever going to watch again because I’m getting counted out of the one episode where it’s worth it to catch some singers without all kinds of story time. I can hear good singing vote for the best one and make a save.
Yes, voting is not allowed in Mountain Zone either. I don’t get it. It’s on at 7 PM here, so do they show it at 5 PM our time? Someone please explain.
Can’t help you on the voting but I suggest recording the show and starting just a bit late (well, anytime if not voting but those voting want to still try to time it for within the voting windows) so you can fast forward through some of the filler. I either do that or use it as chore time in the background, zoning out for most but coming back when the performances are on.
As for Instant Save:
= L. was so off-pitch, I wondered if her earpiece was messing up. She has been too consistent to be that bad, imo. Sorta C-minus.
= The other 3 (Nadege, Zoe, & Tae) were better but a bit ragged & shaky; they were about evenly matched, maybe B-minus. No one shined. Seemed all were surprised to be singing in I.S. tonight & ill-prepared!
Well I had 3 of the 4 in the bottom. I had Bryan for Nadege. Knowing Nadege has a future working with Chance, I was happy to see Tae saved. He deserved it.
Anyone else have this happen.. last night the trio from Chance sounded so good in my 2013 year old tv. So I disagreed with Charlie’s opinions. Then when I heard them on the Instagram app, they weren’t so hot 🙈🤔
Tae is my favorite this year. So disappointed he was in the bottom 4. He certainly proved he didn’t deserve to be there. Thank God L is gone. Cheering for Tae, Josh & Nathan.
Why would you “thank God” anyone is gone? L may not have been your personal choice to move on, but your attitude is disrespectful to other viewers and more importantly, the artist.
I totally agree with America’s top 9 choices & send good karma to the remaining artists! :)
Bryan oleson should have been cut just reminds me of a not great bar singer
Mainly all around talented singers this season. The females faded .more than the males, I thought.Keep hunting. Maybe you’ll find another Kelly Clarkson!
I think this year’s talent is probably the worst I seen in all the years the show has been on…there maybe 3 or 4 that deserve to be in the finals…and you can almost predict who is going to win….I seen singers in the auditions get no chair turns that can sing better than most of this group…anyway….hopefully Blake Shelton comes back….the Voice needs him.