The Voice Season 3 Knockout Round Power Rankings

The mysterious Knockout Round finally debuted (and finished) this week and it turned out they were just an extension of the Battle Round but without the potential of anyone getting stolen. At least it was only a week. And now on to the newly minted Live Playoffs! (Which just seem like the Live Shows except starting next week anyone from any team can get sent home.) So before the show goes live, here is my latest power rankings.

1. Trevin Hunte – Everyone else should be worried that he is already the best this season and I still do not believe we have even seen close to his best performance yet.

2. Amanda Brown – Yep, Cee-Lo makes some really bad decisions.

3. Cassadee Pope – The verse this week was not her best and her Battle Round performance was apparently so bad The Voice only showed three seconds of it, but I still think she is Trevin’s stiffest competition.

4. De'Borah – Who would have guessed a church going lesbian who looks like Urkle would be such a fan of soft rock? After Train and The Fray, I cannot wait for her to take on John Mayer during the Live Playoffs.

5. Terry McDermott – The first two winners of The Voice were dudes in their thirties who never were able to get their big break yet, so do not be surprised is Terry wins this season.

6. Nicholas David – Cee-Lo seems to be the only coach that always dictates songs to his team and considering Nickolas’s best performance was when Cee-Lo gave him She’s Gone, he may be the wild card this season.

7. Adriana Louise – Not the best singer in the competition but has this aura around her that she may be the last member of Team Christina standing. Unfortunately for her, thanks to the rule change, she may be already (take a minute… pause…) gone by the finals.

8. Devyn DeLoera – If she does the backwards shimmy she did during her Blind Audition I will vote for Devyn like a teenage girl voting for Justin Bieber in a meaningless internet poll. I just hope she does not go with the 80's Jersey prom hair she had in the Knockout Round.

9. Brian Keith – Has a strong distinctive voice but lacks, dare I say, that X-factor.

10. Liz Davis – Blake widdled his country-heavy team down to one this season going into the Live Playoffs, but much like the first two season, I do not see one of his country artists making it even to the semi-finals this season.

11. Cody Belew – I will be severely disappointed if he does not sing Fat Bottom Girls during the Live Playoffs.

12. Joselyn Rivera – Apparently Adam was the only coach that took the Steal seriously, taking his two steals to the Live Shows> Playoffs, but I do not see her going much further in the competition.

13. Michaela Paige – Seriously, I do not understand how Suzanna did not get this slot instead.

14. Sylvia Yacoub – Beforehand I thought Aquille would easily win their Knockout, but he did lay a dud.

15. Diego Val – Should have been Caitlin.

16. Melanie Martinez – Her performance of Toxic was quirky and fun, but her persona has started running thin.

17. Julio Cesar Castillo – I was surprised that Blake picked Julio over MarissaAnn but really, Suzanna deserved his spot in the Live Shows Playoffs.

18. Dez Duron – I will give this to Dez, between Hall and Oats and Lionel Richie he has great taste in music, but his voice is way too thin to had made it this far.

19. Loren Allred – Sometimes all you need is one good note on these types of show, but is hard to believe she got this far based on one note. Nicole Nelson was much more consistent and significantly better overall.

20. MacKenzie Bourg – Seriously, the guy squeaked through two Carley Rae Jepsen songs and somehow won twice despite giving two of the worst performances of the two rounds. I really hope he splits the annoying teen girl votes between Dez and are both gone early.

So let us take a look at who has the strongest team (even though it only takes one to win) based on these ranking:

Adam – 47
Blake – 57
Cee-Lo – 52
Adam – 47

Surprising Christina pulled into second place after being last by a mile after the first two of my Power Rankings. It probably helped that she managed to wisely picked each winner during the Knockout Round unlike her other coaches. Adam sank to the bottom after picking Loren, who was so bad in the early rounds they did not bother to show her performances over Nicole Nelson, the best singer on his team. Blake takes the top spot in part to him having the best chance of having two finalists this season with Cassadee and Terry. But anyway. Here are some predictions for this week (and beyond)

Predictions for the Top 12

Adam: Bryan, Melanie, Amanda (Coach Save)
Blake: Cassadee, Terry, Liz (Coach Save)
Cee-Lo: Trevin, MacKenzie, Nicholas (Coach Save)
Christina: Dez, Adriana, Devyn (Coach Save)

Way to early prediction of the finalist: Cassadee, Trevin, Bryan and either Melanie, MacKenzie, or Terry (sorry Christina , it looks like another last place finish for you)

The Voice Season 3 Battle Round Power Rankings

Thankfully The Voice took two suggestions I had and applied them to The Battle Rounds: introduced the Steal and breeze through the lesser Battles via montage like they do during the Blind Audition. Granted it only made the Battle Rounds nominally better this season (it did not help that the coaches wasted six of their eight steals; The next round would have been much better had Lelia Broussard, Brandon Mahone, Nelly's Echo, Benji, Alexis Marceaux, and Emily Earle would have gotten the Steal over anyone aside from Amanda or Caitlin). Before we move to the new and mysterious Knockout Round that starts tonight, here is an updated Power Ranking based on the first two rounds.

1. Trevin Hunte (Team Cee-Lo)

2. Nicholas David (Team Cee-Lo)

3. De'Borah (Team Christina)

4. Cassadee Pope (Team Blake)

5. Caitlin Michele (Team Adam Cee-Lo)

6. Suzanna Choffel (Team Blake)

7. Nicole Nelson (Team Adam)

8. Terry McDermott (Team Blake)

9. Devyn DeLoera (Team Christina)

10. Amanda Brown (Team Cee-Lo Adam)

11. Avery Wilson (Team Cee-Lo)

12. Brian Keith (Team Adam)

13. Diego Val (Team Cee-Lo)

14. Aquile (Team Christina)

15. Melanie Martinez (Team Adam)

16. Adriana Louise (Team Christina)

17. Liz Davis (Team Blake)

18. Cody Belew (Team Cee-Lo)

19. Rudy Parris (Team Blake)

20. Joe Kirkland (Team Adam)

21. Michelle Brooks-Thompson (Team Adam)

22. Gracia Harrison (Team Blake)

23. Mycle Wastman (Team Cee-Lo)

24. Terisa Griffin (Team Blake Cee-Lo)

25. Alessandra Guercio (Team Adam Christina)

26. Celica Westbrook (Team Christina)

27. Joselyn Rivera (Team (Christina Adam)

28. Kayla Nevarez (Team Adam)

29. Sam James (Team Adam)

30. Julio Cesar Castillo (Team Blake)

31. Collin McLoughlin (Team Adam Blake)

32. Michaela Paige (Team Blake)

33. MarissaAnn (Team Christina Blake)

34. Sylvia Yacoub (Team Christina)

35. Chevonne (Team Cee-Lo Christina)

36. Daniel Rosa (Team Cee-Lo)

37. Dez Duron (Team Christina)

38. MacKenzie Bourg (Team Cee-Lo)

39. Loren Allred (Team Adam)

40. Laura Vivas (Team Christina)

Wow, three of the top five contestants are on Team Cee-Lo. Cassadee lost her frontrunner status after being demoted to montage in the Battle rounds (I listen to the studio version of her song and it sounded alright, but when I watched her after-battle interview, it did not sound like the performance was all that good, so it was probably good she was relegated to montage). So clearly Cee-Lo is in the driver’s seat, here is how the other teams stack up if you give one point to the singer in last and so on.

Cee-Lo – 239
Blake – 208
Adam – 202
Christina – 171

It looks like Christina may get her third straight last place finish with her bizarre strategy of going with a predominately bland teenage pop singer team which make me fear for the longevity of De’Borah, her most entertaining singer this year. It did not help that I only agreed with Christina’s decisions half the time, and only agreed with the coaches 58% of the time (Adam 2-3, Blake 4-2, Cee-Lo 5-2). It is weird that only one of Cee-Lo’s battles got relegated to montage while three of Adam’s were not shown.

The Voice Season 3 Blind Audition Power Rankings

Now that the Blind Auditions are done it is clear that having back to back season in the spring and fall was a bad idea for The Voice, even Cee-Lo has already checked out (and I have a feeling he fell asleep during the Blind Auditions a couple times). Well at least from a quality standpoint because I doubt NBC is looking at the ratings and regretting their decision as it is crushing Dancing with the "All-Stars" and X-Factor. But even though there are bigger teams this season (16 compared to 12 last season, and doubled the amount of season one) I am not sure if five artists this season would have been good enough to have even made it to the Live Shows last season. For comparison, despite having sixteen more singers in the competition, this season only five contestants got all four chairs to turn around (which was a bit inflated because I do not know how Adriana Louise got all the coaches to turn around) while last season there were six with sixteen less spots to be filled.

And they did not do a very good job finding professionals that have not gotten a big break this season with only six who have put out records, two of which did not make it on a team (Liz Davis apparently won a record contract on a previous singing competition that no one watch but never released an album; and I am not even counting the other boy bander who was supposable big in Germany because if David Hasselhoff can be big there how hard can it be to get a hit). Last season there was nine. Thankfully they will be cutting down the number of contestants in half over the next month, and will trim the fat even more with the new Knockout Round with only five contestants from each team making it to the Live Show.

1. Cassadee Pope (Blake)

2. Trevin Hunte (Cee-Lo)

3. Nelly's Echo (Christina)

4. Nicole Nelson (Adam)

5. De'Borah (Christina)

6. Caitlin Michele (Adam)

7. Avery Wilson (Cee-Lo)

8. Brandon Mahone (Adam)

9. Devyn DeLoera (Christina)

10. Lelia Broussard (Blake)

11. Amanda Brown (Cee-Lo)

12. Alexis Marceaux (Cee-Lo)

13. Suzanna Choffel (Blake)

14. Aquile (Christina)

15. Melanie Martinez (Adam)

16. Brian Keith (Adam)

17. Terry McDermott (Blake)

18. Mycle Wastman (Cee-Lo)

19. Benji (Adam)

20. Liz Davis (Blake)

21. Rudy Parris (Blake)

22. Terisa Griffin (Blake)

23. Brian Scartocci (Adam)

24. Nicholas David (Cee-Lo)

25. MacKenzie Bourg (Cee-Lo)

26. Samuel Mouton (Adam)

27. Diego Val (Cee-Lo)

28. Joe Kirkland (Adam)

29. Julio Cesar Castillo (Blake)

30. Gracia Harrison (Blake)

31. Michelle Brooks-Thompson (Adam)

32. Jordan Pruitt (Christina)

33. J.R. Aquino (Cee-Lo)

34. Cody Belew (Cee-Lo)

35. Charlie Rey (Blake)

36. Celica Westbrook (Christina)

37. Adriana Louise (Christina)

38. Alessandra Guercio (Adam)

39. Collin McLoughlin (Adam)

40. Kayla Nevarez (Adam)


So let’s go ahead and look who has the strongest team according to my power rankings giving 64 points to number one and so on (though I cut off my list at forty because that is the amount that will make it to the Knockout Round, I did rank all sixty four):

Adam: 569
Cee-Lo: 541
Blake: 529
Christina: 440

The three boys are a bit bunched together but Christina is pulling up the rear thanks to her heavily bland pop team. She has seven (7!) teenage girls that might as well be the same person. She can crawl back into the thick of things after the battle rounds if she chooses correctly because she does have three singers in the top ten of my Power Rankings. Oh wait, the previews show that Nelly’s Eho (#3) will be battle De’Borah (#5) so she will be losing one of them. Hopefully someone will use their Coach’s Save on the loser. That is not the only potential Save possibility because Cee-Lo battle between Trevin Hunte and Amanda Brown should also result in a Coach’s Save (and unless there is some creative editing, it looks like Adam is ready to pounce on the loser).


Sure it is silly to predict who is going to represent each team in the finals this early especial with Team Steals introduced this season which means eight singers will be on different teams after the Battle Rounds, but here are who think will be the finalist for each team based on which team they are on now (with a back up in parentheses):

Adam: Joe Kirkland (Bryan Keith)
Cee-Lo: Avery Wilson (MacKenzie Bourg)
Christina: Aquile (Jordan Pruitt)
Blake: Cassadee Pope (Liz Davis)

Even though they were not as egregious as some of the omissions last season (seriously, what the heck happened to Ducky), there are a couple of contestants that deserved a spot especially above the onslaught of teen girls this season nd hopefully will get a second chance next season. But none of them former boy band members. Seriously, The Voice, stop it with the boy bander after-rans.

1. Kameron Corvet
2. Yolanda Barber
3. Jessica Sharpe
4. Garrett Garnder
5. Anita Antoinette

The Voice Semifinalists Power Rankings

Last week I complained about the Instant Eliminations, but now that everything has played out I have done a complete 180 because it is clear America cannot be trusted. Sure I can quibble with a couple of the coach’s decisions during the Live Shows, the only egregious decision they made so far was Christina Aguilera unceremoniously giving Jesse Campbell the boot. Yet has got it wrong time after time saving Pip and James Massone (which the coaches had to right with their Instant Eliminations) and did not save Charlotte Sometimes in the last round while head scratchingly saving the fifth rate opera singer and rock music ruiner Chris Mann and embarrassing to watch Tony Lucca while the more talented Ashley De La Rosa and Mathai are sent home. So the coaches made just one completely stupid decision while America made five.

After the Sweet 16 was decided this year I thought it was significantly better than last season. But at the end of the results show Tuesday I thought to myself, “Even though the quarterfinalist were much better than the first season, the semifinalist somehow managed to be worse and the semifinalist last year were not that strong. Thanks soccer moms with too much time on your hands.” To see if my premise was right or not, instead of doing a power ranking of just contestants from this season, I thought I would expand it to the semifinalist from both season to see which season was actually strongest (this season’s contestants are in bold).


1. Dia Frampton

2. Lindsey Pavao

3. Xenia

4. Nakia

5. Jamar Rogers

6. Javier Colon

7. Jermaine Paul

8. Juliet Simms

9. Vicci Martinez

10. Katrina Parker

11. Beverly McClellan

12. Erin Willett

13. Tony Lucca

14. Casey Weston

15. Frenchie Davis

16. Chris Mann


If you would add those up giving 16 points to the best and 1 to the worst, Season One would have a 73-63 edge over season. And all you would have done to have significantly better semifinalist this season would be to have simply swapped Ashley and Mathai (who would have been in the top five above) for Chris and Tony. But if voting patterns hold up tomorrow like they did last round, the finals of Jamar, Jermaine, Tony and Chris would be extremely worse than last year that featured Dia, Javier, Vicki and Beverly. Hopefully Christina, who has been shown more than willing to play the game this seasons and clearly does not like Chris at all, will tilt the favor towards Lindsey if the coach’s allot points again this season to their singers because the final would be much more boring without her. And let’s face it, what possible song in her catalogue could she sing with Chris Mann? I bet Christina has already practicing a Hurt duet with Lindsey.

If you are like me a prefer last season to this, you are in luck because all four finalist from the first season are confirmed to perform on the Results Show tomorrow. Vicci will perform with former coach Cee Lo Green. Dia will be performing with Kid Cudi. Beverly will duet with Cyndi Lauper. And winner Javier gets to go stag.



I’ll probably update this space sometime after the show with who I am voting for and you can use the links above to vote for each of the contestants on iTunes or head over to nbc.com/thevoice. Unless you are a Chris Mann supporter, if that is the case please refrain from voting or go back to ruining American Idol by voting for mediocre singers.

Scooter Update: Two spots are beyond obvious: Lindsey and Jermaine. I would give the slight edge to Jamar and Katrina. That is what should happen, but I predict what will happen is Tony and Jermaine are solid locks. Even if America continues to have poor taste and vote for the fifth rate opera singer, Christina will wisely push Lindsey through to the finals. And Cee-Lo is a big toss up and if forced to predict, Jamar squeaks through by one percent.

The Voice Sweet Sixteen Power Rankings

The eliminations of the first round of the Live Show pretty much when exactly how I thought with the exception of Charlotte Sometimes, who I thought was going to be Blake’s finalist, was not only not saved by America but was not even saved by Blake. It is official, America really hates New Jersey hard right now. I guess it was a good thing Chris Christie did not run for president this year. But anyway. The Sweet Sixteen starts tonight and here is my Power Ranking for the contestants still remaining (change since the Top 24 Power Rankings in parentheses).

1. Lindsey Pavao (+1)

2. Mathai (+3)

3. Jesse Campbell (-2)

4. Jamar Rogers (+3)

5. Ashley De La Rosa (+6)

6. Jermaine Paul (-3)

7. Juliet Simms (+5)

8. RaeLynn (+5)

9. Tony Lucca (-5)

10. Erin Willett (+8)

11. Katrina Parker (-1)

12. Cheesa (+2)

13. Chris Mann (+3)

14. Pip (+1)

15. Jordis Unga (+1)

16. James Massone (+7)

And even though the coaches will not be going head to head until the finals, here is how the teams stack up against each other if you have one point for the worst singer and sixteen to the best.

1. Christina (46)
2. Adam (32)
3. Cee-Lo (29)
4. Blake (29)

It looks like The Voice is switching things up yet again introducing Instant Eliminations starting Monday where each coach will have to dump one of their contestants at the end of the show. It should be interesting if anyone eliminated ends up being the highest selling artist from the show on iTunes on Tuesday. So let me go ahead and prematurely predict that Blake Shelton will let Jordis go and in a shocker Christina Aguilera chooses to let Chris go instead of Ashley. Then next week will be a sad day for the monosyllabic as Cheesa and Pip are let go. And since I am in the prediction mode, here is who I think will be in the Elite Eight (America’s Vote in bold): RaeLynn, Jermaine, Lindsey, Jesse, Juliette, Jamar, Tony, Mathai.

Scooter Update: Wow, I did not see Christina giving Jesse the boot. After her versatility comment I was convince she would let go of Chris because he is a bit of a bore and his version of Viva La Vida just did not work. Even with a weak performance I still think Lindsey will get the Viewer Save and without Jesse around Christina will save Ashley. I will stick with my original thoughts on Team Blake. To vote for the remaining contestants via iTunes, click their names above to be taken to the iTunes page. Ashley really is the only one I am considering buying from tonight.

I may or may not update this space with thoughts on who and who not should advance in this space after the shoe airs. Until then, here is a video rundown of who is part of the Sweet Sixteen:

The Voice Top 24 Power Rankings

Before I get into the Power Ranking of the Top 24, let me take a look back at The Post-Blind Auditions Power Rankings and of my top twenty-five, only thirteen moved on to the Live Shows. It did not help that six of the people on that list ended up battling each other. Also not helping: Cee-Lo Green’s horrible decision picking one of the Battles correctly by my calculations (Adam went 3-3; Christina 4-2; and Blake with an impressive 5-1). But enough with the sour grapes, the Live Shows start tonight and here is my rankings of all the singers left (assuming the producers have not stepped in and replaced Erin with The Shields Brothers! like they should).

1. Jesse Campbell

2. Lindsey Pavao

3. Jermaine Paul

4. Tony Lucca

5. Mathai

6. Charlotte Sometimes

7. Jamar Rogers

8. Naia Kete

9. Sera Hill

10. Katrina Parker

11. Ashley De La Rosa

12. Juliet Simms

13. RaeLynn

14. Cheesa

15. Pip

16. Jordis Unga

17. Karla Davis

18. Erin Willett

19. Chris Mann

20. Kim Yarbrough

21. Tony Vincent

22. Moses Stone

23. James Massone

24. Erin Martin

Even though the teams will not go head to head until the Finals, it is still fun to see how the teams stack up. Going into the Battles, Adam had a slight edge over Christina while Blake was battling Cee-Lo for the bottom. What a difference a month makes because of his shrewd battle round chooses, Blake has pulled even with Christina while Cee-Lo put a huge gap near the bottom thanks to having three of the four worst singers going into the Live Shows. Here is how it works point wise if you assign one point for the worst singer and twenty-four to the best.

Christina – 86
Blake – 86
Adam – 79
Cee-Lo - 49 (having three of the four worst singers left in the compitition does not help)

No official word of which teams are up first, but my sources team me that Christina and Blake’s teams will perform tonight. Unfortunately there will not be a week of voting this year (seriously, why not the results show on Sunday? Do they really need two hours of Donald Trump?) so I will be updating this space with the best of tonight’s performances (maybe). And this year there will be four ways you can vote, like last year there will be a phone number for each contestant, NBC.com, and iTunes downloads (clink on the names above to be taken to their iTunes page to download their songs). And the newest way to vote is with a Timeline app on Facebook, whatever that means.

Updated: I'm voting for Lindsey Pavao, Jesse Campbell, Ashley De La Rosa on Team Christina and Jermaine Paul, Charlotte Sometimes, and RaeLynn for Team Blake.

Predictions: Lindsey, Jesse and Chris Mann will be safe and Christina will save Ashley.

Jermaine, Charlotte, and RaeLynn will be safe and Blake will save Erin Willett.

The Voice Post-Blind Auditions Power Rankings

I did not realize just how many Blind Auditions were sat through until I sat down to work on a Power Ranking, almost fifty and that does not even count all the people that did not get anyone to turn around (what the heck happened to Ducky?). Since the coaches will be chopping that list in half during the battle rounds, I decided to just do a top 25 for the power ranking which is how many will make it to the Live Shows plus a bonus person just for a nice round number. So without further ado, here is The Voice Top 25 Power Ranking with a quick thought about each of them:

1. Tony Lucca – The beardless Ray Lamontange

2. Jesse Campbell – A better version of Javier Colon

3. Lindsey Pavao – A less polished Dia Frampton

4. Jamie Lono – Can make me a sandwich any day

5. Whitney Myers – I have not been able to confirmed it just yet, but I am pretty sure she is actually Becky Sproles after dying her hair

6. Nicolle Galyon – Potentially this year’s Dia Frampton, not the most memorable Blind Audition but is poised for a breakout moment if she makes it to the Live Shows

7. Mathai – A much better Raquel Castro

8. Lex Land – A less adventurous Rebecca Lobe

9. The Shields Brothers! – Because America does need to be punched in the face with Rock n Roll

10. Geoff McBride – A funkier version of Jesse Campbell

11. Naia Kete – A dreadlocked Xenia

12. The Line – Thompsons Sisters with more testosterone and talent

13. Charlotte Sometimes – Had a record deal and was on the Warped Tour much like Blake’s finalist last year Dia Frampton

14. WADE – Are we sure this really wasn’t Kevin Hart?

15. Jamar Rogers – The male Vicci Martinez

16. Sera Hill – Better than any female RnB singers from the first season

17. RaeLynn – A sassier version of Casey Weston

18. Angel Taylor – A good voice and all but broke the Cardinal Rule of karaoke contests, never, under any circumstance, try to out-Adele Adele

19. Jermaine Paul – Strong voice but should stop singing white female teen pop songs

20. Lee Koch – He might make dough but do not call him Doughboy because shotgun bullets are bad for your health.

21. Orlando Napier - I did not realize he was playing Waiting on the World to Change when he auditioned and after rewatching it a couple time, I am still not entirely sure

22. Juliet Simms – An edgier Vicci Martinez

23. Jordis Unga – Needs to stop squatting mid performance and do not needlessly change the lyrics

24. Cheesa – If she meant to sound like a boy while performing If I Were a Boy, it was genius, if not, this shot probably went to someone else

25. Chris Cauley – A younger Tim Mahoney


Even though this is advertised as a battle between coaches, they do not actually go head to head until the finals so ranking the teams is kind of silly, but just for fun, I assigned a number to each contestant to see who had the strongest team and here is the Power Rankings for each Coach (which I included all 48 singers). Basically I have one point for the worst singer and forty-eight for the best and here is how strong each team is (in parentheses is the number if you just count my top 25 which surpisingly split evenly between the teams which was not something I did on purpose):

1. Adam – 324 (99)
2. Christina – 320 (93)
3. Blake – 269 (65)
4. Cee-Lo – 263 (68)


So right now it looks like a battle between Adam and Christina for the top and a race to the bottom for Cee-Lo and Blake. Even though I hated the second chance round last year (recognizing the voice defeats the purpose of a Blind Audition), here are the top five singers that did deserve a call back:

1. Ducky – What the heck happened to Ducky? If he had made it to the Battle Rounds he would have been in the top ten of my Power Ranking. If he is not invited back for season three that would be a crime against humanity.

2. Preston Shannon – C’mon, how could Christina not pick him to bolster her Old Black Dude team?

3. Eric Tipton – Much like Adele, it not a good idea to try to match yourself to Daryl Hall, but still solid enough he should have earned a spot

4. Erik Macek – Solid song selection, good voice and still better than a bunch of the tomato cans that were pick

5. Neal Middleton – It is a shame there are no real rock coach on the show

Be sure to return after the Battle Rounds (which I think will be sometime in August) for the next Power Ranking. Until then here is a sneak peak of a Battle Round you can (presumably) look forward tonight featuring Cheesa and Angie Johnson taking on Total Eclipse of the Heart. Only Cee-Lo would think to have someone sing Bonnie Tyler on national television.