I was very impressed by the performances last night. My favorites were from Amanda, Terry, and Cassadee. Bryan and Nicholas continue to be strong. Melanie turned in a solid performance. Trevin was not great, but he should be in no danger. Dez was a little lounge act for me, but he’s too cute to get voted off yet. That leaves us with Sylvia and Cody. I do not think Sylvia should be in danger, and I have been wrong in predicting Cody would go twice now.

I think it’s going to be a tough elimination round tonight, no matter what.

Because the producers could, the last 4 contestant left standing on the stage last night were the 4 judges’ saves. I was not surprised to see Michaela go home. She’s amazingly talented, but last week, Blake had to save her, and her Monday performance was just not very good.

I was surprised to see Adriana go home. She’s young, pretty, and got in Adam’s face on Monday while singing very well. At the same time, she’s the exact same kind of singer as Sylvia and not quite as good.

I enjoyed both the team performances from both CeeLo and Blake.

In a change in format, the top 12 singers are not just competing against their teammates. I prefer this as it lets the best singers stick around, even if a couple of them happen to be on the same team. And since only two people will go home tonight, that means that even if the same 4 people are the lowest vote getters, two of them will have one more week to impressAmerica.

My guess for who’s going home- Cody and Michaela or Melanie. Melanie performed better last night, but might be too odd for a lot of people.

During the first of the live rounds, a couple people (Amanda, Trevyn) really shined, others not so much. In preparation for the results show tonight, here are my predictions for who makes it through from each team.

Team Adam: Bryan Keith and Amanda Brown, with a coach’s save for Melanie Martinez

Team Blake: Terry McDermott and Michaela Paige, with a coach’s save for Liz Davis. (Julio Cesar Castillo could sneak in here, too.)

Team Christina: Dez Duron and Sylvia Yacoub, with a coach’s save for De’borah

Team CeeLo: Trevyn Hunte and MacKenzie Bourg, with a coach’s save for Nicholas David.

Christina and Blake appeared to have solid ideas of what they wanted. In many cases, it seemed like their decisions were made before the knockout rounds started. And unlike Monday night, when the people who did something a little different made it through, last night it was the people who played it straight. Those who took risks in arrangement and song choice did not stay. (Christina’ Fighter is not a risky song choice, no matter how difficult to sing.) In some cases I disagreed with their decisions, but overall, think all the teams are strong going into the live shows.

The problem with the knockout rounds is the same as my problem with the battles. By having contestants go head to head, the coaches do NOT end up with the strongest teams. Sometimes, a person who wows is sent home because they went up against someone just a little bit stronger while the very next battle, someone mediocre stays because their opponent was just a little bit worse. This was more apparent on team Cee Lo than team Adam, but it was there.

I do think they ended with good teams, just not the strongest teams they could have had.

Final night of the battle rounds! It did not disappoint. Every battle they showed was good. Even the battle that had a clear winner had two really strong performances. On some level, though, the drama was diminished by no one other than Christina having any steals left.  

I am a little bummed that the knockout rounds will once again be head to head competition. Unless the coaches decide to treat this like a basketball tournament pairing their best singers against the worst, there’s still a good chance that the teams won’t actually end up with the 5 best singers left.

Last night’s episode was a little disappointing. I didn’t think the “Whataya Want from Me” performance was good. It made me wish a coach could choose no one. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the “Free Your Mind” performance (though both of those singers were good), as it seemed like the girls were screaming the song. I remember the original version of that song- it doesn’t need to be screamed. It made me wonder how bad the three battles they didn’t show us were. But the battle rounds are almost over, and soon we’ll see the new knockout round.

Christina used her first steal last night. That was the biggest news from The Voice. There were some difficult decisions for the judges, at least one time when I would have chosen differently than the coach (but I understand the decision), etc. It was a pretty typical night for the battle rounds. There were no standout performances. There might have been a bad performance, but they chose not to show us two battles, so we don’t know for certain. What we do know is that the teams are almost full, and soon it will be time for the knockout rounds.