The Voice Season Nine Top 11 Power Rankings

Adam has secretly been one of the worst coaches on the show. No one ever talks about it because he did manage to win twice and had three of four finalists two seasons ago. But the thing is he is almost always able to recruit the best talent in the Blind Auditions yet never takes his four of five best singers to the Live Shows. When someone like Gwen or Shakira only gets one great singer in the Blinds and cuts them before the public gets the vote it is more glaring when Adam cuts a couple when still has one or two great singers still around. For instance Gwen cutting Ellie, not once but twice, just looks stupid (granted America looks dumber for saving Braiden instead of Ellie), Adam dumping Alex and Andi is not as glaring because at least he still has Jordan and then stole Amy.

Then there is Adam's song selection which has been some of the worst in the show. He either goes super boring (every Tessanne Chin song) or historically bad (remember the countrified version of Skid Row) which I think sometimes are on purpose to sink someone's chances to help his favorite advance (giving Preston Pohl a rap song). So when I saw Adam was giving Amy, who up to this point has not sung a song less than fifty years old, a crappy Drake song I thought you could add Amy to the very long list of Team Adam members front-runners who he sunk thanks to a historically bad song choice.

Oh wow, I was wrong. Hotline Bling goes in the Pantheon of great performance in the history of the show. And that was not the only bizarrely awesome performance this week, let us not forget the weird reggae / lounge version of Who Will Save Your Soul, it was almost as if Cee-Lo was back as coach (the show has gotten so much more boring without him). Hopefully both stay in the weird zone (though I fear Adam will look at Amy's top ten iTunes result and think to himself, "Let's do Trap Queen next week!"). Unfortunately all the boring white dudes stayed boring and none of them found themselves in the bottom two.  I hate bored housewives.

Speaking of the bottom two, the show only eliminated one singer this week instead of the usual two, which sucks because there is a lot of fat to be trimmed this season, Korin could have well as gone home this week along with Braiden, Evan, Zach, well basically all the country singers could be instantly eliminated. But for the next three weeks, they are actually only cutting one person per week and then they are going to go from nine singer semi-finals to a four person finale, yes that means there is going to be a six person Twitter Save with five people cut at one time. Fun times.

I have seen internet conspiracy theories claiming this is to help certain contestants, keeping one coach's team from being completely decimated before another has even one person eliminated (I could have seen a scenario where Blake and Adam could have made up the entire Final 6) or it is to goose iTunes sale. Um, no. The real reason the show is doing it, and let us be honest, it is the same reason any television show does anything, they are doing it as a way to keep ratings from eroding. I remember three seasons ago they made the Playoffs not live and when asked why Mark Burrnett said that they wanted to cut down on the number of Live Shows because the rating drop a lot when the show goes live. Except that did not work, so they tried the Wildcard Round. Again that did not work so they tried the Coach Comeback, again, mostly a failure.

I agree the more singer that are around longer, the less likely people are going to stop watching when their favorites are gone if you make sure they stick around longer. I know I would stop watching if Amy and Madi are gone, had thy kept the double eliminations, maybe neither would have made the semi-finals. This way at least one, if not both will make it that far, though both will probably get cut during that semi-final bloodbath so four boring white dude and country singers can make the finals.

So the intent is a good one, but there is a much better way to stop the ratings slide when the show goes Live and that is make sure you have a more diverse cast. Look at season three where the rating were pretty stable whose final six singers were very diverse: their was a pop-rocker turned country singer, a classic rocker, a blue eyed soul weirdo, an RnB dude, and indie pop singer, and Amanda Brown, who could basically do it all. Since then the top twelve has gotten more boring and more homogeneous every passing season up to these season when America saved six boring white dudes two straight weeks in a row. There are two solutions to this, first set an unwritten quota for the coaches. Blake needs to stop it with his country heavy team, that country heavy season was a disaster for the ratings and had they done it the same elimination schedule there may very well have been another four country singer top six. Tell the coaches they should only take one singer per genre to the live show per team.  Seriously Blake, enough for turning around for every country singer, get one or two great ones in the Blinds then let some of the other coaches have some.

As for the second fix, it is also clear the bored housewives that run American Idol into a ratings nightmare with their love of boring but cute white dudes and that has started to ruin The Voice. They are currently on their third straight boring white dude winner and it looks like a lock for a fourth as in the Playoffs six of the eight singers saved by America were white dudes (and Madi was lucky she only had one boring white dude to compete against so it was six of a possible seven, and of course that one other girl was a country singer). To me it is clear that the reason Zach and Braiden are still around (seriously, how did none of the boring white dudes make the bottom two this week) is because these bored housewives vote for Barrett and Jordan and figure while I am on the Voice App I might as well vote for all the cute boring dudes so let me give ten votes to Evan too. So to limit this The Voice needs to change the voting system from being able to vote ten times per voting method per singer to ten votes per voting method period. So these country fans can no longer just vote for all country singers pushing them all into the final six, they instead would have to decide, do I want to give all ten of my votes to Barrett or do I want to split them, 3-3-2-2 among all the country singers. If The Voice does not change something soon to make the show appeal to a wider audience and not let just the bored housewives voting block dominate every season (I do not think the one elimination until a semi-final massive cut is a longtime solution; they basically lost all the RnB fans this week) it may soon get American Idol sized ratings.

Now for the Power Rankings which I have grouped into four groups:

The Top of the Crop

1. Amy Vachal (up 1)
2. Madi Davis (down 1)

The only two that actually tried something this week, one to great effect (Amy) and the other (Madi), well it was a decent try. I do hope they continue to push the envelope.  Just no Trap Queen.

The Boring But Acceptable

3. Jordan Smith (up 6)
4. Emily Ann Roberts (down 1)
5. Jeffery Austin (up 2)
6. Barrett Baber (up 4)
7. Shelby Brown (down 2)

Okay Jordan did switch things up this week doing his first non-diva power ballad but he was still mostly boring. The country gals stayed country, Barrett did another countrfied version of an adult contemporary classic. Then there was Jeffery who did his fourth straight blue eyed British neo-soul ballad pure karaoke cover. Ugg. What is he going to do next week: Amy Winehouse's Love Is a Losing Game? Duffy's Warwick Avenue after that? Time to switch things up dude. But then again the one time he has not sung a straight blue eyed British neo-soul ballad pure karaoke cover it was apparently so bad his The Weeknd Battle Round performance was montaged.

The Lucky There Was a Format Change

8. Korin Bukowski (down 5)

Korrin seemed like a lock to be the first to get the boot except instead of a bottom three there was only a bottom two and all she had to do was beat Mark. Had there been a boring white dude or (I gasp thinking of the possibility but it probably would have happened) Madi who would have split votes, she definitely would be gone. It will be shocking is she survives another Twitter Save, the only question is who will she be in the bottom with.  She has had only one great performance (the Battle Rounds) so it is unlikely she will ever find that magic again.

The Why Did They Not Cut Five Now Instead of the Semi-Finals?

9. Evan McKeel (up 2)
10. Zach Seabaugh (down 2)

48. Braiden Sunshine (still dead last, always dead last)

Seeing these three get saved by America two weeks in a row makes me think of Larry Wilmore on the Nightly Show who back in August, a month after Donald Trump topped the polls and kept rising despite calling Mexicans rapists, attacked a POW because he only likes soldiers who do not get captured, and blamed a journalists tough questions on her period, looked straight into the camera and said, "America, I am talking to you directly: Stop it! Stop it!! America, listen to me: Stop it!!!" Every time Carson calls one of their names, I just want to fly to Los Angeles, bum rush The Voice stage and say, "Bored housewives, I am talking to you directly: Stop it! Stop it!! Bored housewives, listen to me: Stop it!!!" Seriously, how many boring white dudes do you need on the show? They could eliminate all three of them and there would still be three boring white dues left. Except I bet at least two, if not all three make it to the semi-finals. Korin is close to a lock to leave next week and I would not be at all surprised if Madi or Amy follow the week before the semis. I said it before and I will say it again, to limit the bored housewife voting block, The Voice needs to change the voting so people only get ten votes per round to divvy up however they want it instead of letting the bored housewives vote for all the cute but boring white dudes ten times each.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 11/15/15

Once Upon a Time: If I am not mistaken, this is the first time they ever brought religion into the show. Though I think that maybe the Holy Grail on the show may not be the one Jesus reportedly drank from during The Last Supper. Of course the biggest giveaway was that this Holy Grail is too fancy, as Indiana Jones knows, Jesus would have drank from a more simplistic cup.
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

The Librarians: I wonder if the elder Stone realized when he called his son a "song of a (expletive deleted) he was actually defaming his wife.
You can download The Librarians on iTunes.

Homeland: So the guardian Angel that saved Quinn just so happens to be buddies with a jihadist that was released from prison because of the leaked documents. Alrighty. And since Quinn killed him, is he now a leader of the jihadists? But my favorite part of the episode was Dar and Saul going at each other. I love it when people on this show call each other out for doing a horrible job because most of them are. And now that Saul is on to the Russians, how long until he learns his bed buddy is also in beds with them? Hopefully sooner than later.

The Walking Dead: After all the speculation on the fate of Glen (I fell in the the guts the zombies were eating were that of the other guy and he slid under the trash bin and waited the zombies out) the actor's name out of the credits. So either he really is dead or this is the biggest bit of trolling from a television show since Joss Wheadon wanted to put someone he killed of in the Pilot in the credits. I guess I am going to move Gen from the probably alive column to he is Schrodinger's Cat.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Affair: As they flashed the "Part 2" on screen I actually groaned thinking I had no desire to see some kid agonize in pain for another segment, but thankfully they flashed ahead a week. I believe this is the first time the second part actually happened after the first part and not at least partially concurrently. And I am horrible with names, but is the guy who is willing to sell the lawyer information about Scotty, is that the same guy who was working at the Lockheart Diner last week and worked as a mechanic back in season one?

Supergirl: I get Kara's explanation on why she does not to ever ask her cousin for help, but when she still ends up being saved by a blurry Superman, who of course makes it back to Metropolis before the show gets back from commercial, that really makes her look bad. But what actually should she expect, Jimmy Olsen's smart watch aside, does she not think he would see the news of one of his rouges kidnapping a business mogul in another ton? He does work at a newspaper.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Gotham: Oh thank goodness, I thought we were going to have a Beth Greene situation on The Walking Dead where they kill off a formally useless character right after they actually made her interesting. I spend most of that last commercial break thinking, that was a very big fall... but... there was a tree there that could break her fall. Of course now she is back in jail. And so is Galavan. So what exactly is his master plan. He said that it was too soon to kill Jim Gordon so he knew Barbara would not be able to kill him and I am guessing he intentionally had her tell Jim about the former mayor's whereabouts. So why exactly incriminate yourself? Still his sister will probably be breaking everyone out again sooner than later.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

The Voice: What the frack America? I was resigned since the Battle Round that Braiden would be this season's Ryan Sill, but I just assumed that it would be Gwen who would have to Save him, not America. Who are these morons who actually thought Braiden was better than Ellie Lawrence? Did someone resurrect Vote for the Worst and not tell me? And yeah, that Coach's Comeback was a massive fail. Of course Adam did not bring back Andi & Alex instead saved some foddery dude no one asked for and then had him sing a song perfect for duos. Adam is such a troll. Blake brought someone just to give them an embarrassing song. Since his team was weak, I though Pharrell had the best chance of one of these contestants advance but he ended up bring back someone who has not performed in a month.

The show quietly got rid of phone voting this season, I wrote it off as Sprint did not want to front the phone bill and the producers were to cheap to pay it themselves. I did not think it would have much effect on the outcome. Yet somehow even more white dudes advanced than usual. Seriously seventy-percent of the people America saved were Caucasian men. How do you end up with a cast less diverse than a Republican debate? Maybe almost as shocking as Braiden getting voted in over Ellie was Emily Ann getting the top ten iTunes bonus and yet was leaped over by not one but two white dudes for the Public Save. Really not a good week for iTunes predictions, Ellie had a twenty spot advantage, Shelby over took Amy's thirty-seven spot lead, and to a lesser extent, there was Celeste Bennon just five spots above Evan.

C'mon America, enough with the boring white dudes. The show does not need two country dudes (not to mention a third country singer voted through, oh no, we might have a season four repeat with four country singers in the top six), two blue eyed soul singers, and two wanna be alt-rockers who are too boring to be alternative to anything. I guess Madi should be thankful that there was only one white dude on her team. If it does not turn into season four, it will likely turn into season seven where the five girls in the Top 12 were the first five out with no females in the top five.

The Voice should be concerned with this because the long string of white guys with guitars phenomenon was one of American Idol's downfall. The Voice is currently on three straight white dudes and with only two females getting through by America's Vote a fourth is pretty much a lock. The fix is pretty easy, right now you can vote ten times for as many artists as you like. The Voice needs to change that to you get ten votes total per method spread out how every you like. So country fans for example cannot just vote for the four country singers ten times each anymore, instead they would have to decide, do I want to give all ten votes to Barrett or do I want to spread two or three votes among all four of the country singers. Here is my very spiteful Top 12 Power Ranking:

1. Madi Davis
2. Amy Vachal
3. Emily Ann Roberts
4. Korin Bukowski
5. Shelby Brown
6. Mark Hood
7. Jeffery Austin
8. Zach Seabaugh
9. Jordan Smith
10. Barrett Baber
11. Evan McKeel

48. Braiden Sunshine

Blindspot: So Chrissy Seaver's ex-boyfriends is still texting, so maybe is on the take from the CIA guy. But the big news from the episode was we are one episode until the mid-season final!!!!!!!! (I am really getting annoyed by all the midseason finale promos.) And someone will not survive!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we saw Chrissy Seaver, Jane's childhood friend, and the Latina (I should really try and learn their names soon especially since it has already been renewed for a second season) walk into what looked like a hospital room. Obviously you can cross Lady Siff off the list, there is no show without her. So to quote another NBC star, always bet on black. So is it the head lady chick or the other black dude who has been fairly useless so far. So the latter seems to be the front runner. That is unless the cop out and kill one of the secondary character. Granted there are not many of those, there is the CIA guy (probably not because he is the big bad, it would be silly to get rid of the antagonist already), FBI dude's father or sister (we still do not know much of them, but I am officially guessing option four, Chrissy Seaver's boyfriend. Chrissy learns he is evil and in a bit of conscious, he sacrifices his life to save Chrissy or Lady Siff.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes..

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: I am officially tired of the Lash storyline, hopefully it is now on ice since he is too. The ACU is reaching that point too, but at least we got a twist this week and we learned the head is working with a head of Hydra.
The question is does she know or does she think she is actually working for the government. But what I am still most interested this season is Simmons alien planet. And is there a more Millennials thing to do than to take selfies while stranded along on an alien planet?
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Survivor: Second Chances: It seems like a couple times every season I complain of alliances splitting votes for no reason. Usually one their members has the Idol, which they do not want to tell anyone, but splitting votes can easily lead to someone voting for the wrong person, be it intentional or on accident, and someone in your alliance. With that said, how do you have a nine to three numbers advantage and not split the votes. Someone could mess up and you would have still had the votes to get out either Kelley or Ciera. You could have been so paranoid for them to pull a Parvati and break out two Immunity Idols and still had enough to put three votes on Kelley, Ciera, and Abi Maria and get one of them out. Thankfully that did not happen because we would have been deprives of one of the greatest kiss offs in the history of the show when Abi Maria told the departing Savage, "At least you made the jury."
You can download Survivor: Second Chance on iTunes.

Nashville: So Scarlett cut her hair. I cannot remember anything else that happened this episode. Jeff died right? But seriously, that hair...
You can download Nashville on iTunes.

The Blacklist: As soon as Red realized the shaving dude was not the bad guy of the week I knew it was Samar's not so dead brother. And what does Samar do when she realizes her brother is alive? Makes out with a dude. And when she learns her brother is a terrorist? Makes out with another dude. I wished all hot chick dealt with drama in that way.
The Blacklist on iTunes.

The Voice Season Nine Knockout Round Power Rankings

Scooter Update: Like I wrote a couple posts ago, I wrote this whole post before learning of the Coaches Comeback twist. Since we no nothing (as I write this) other that four singers that did not win their Knockout Round or got Stolen I decided not to update what I had already written other than this addendum up front. Before we go to my Power Rankings I will say I hope the four that are given a reprieve are Andi & Alex, Ellie Lawrence, Sydney Rhame, and Krista Hughes (all of which would be in my top seven below). Now to what I wrote before learning anyone was coming back.

At the start of the Knockout Round, Pharrell said he was looking for "other" to fill his team. Yet now that the Knockouts are over, somehow he ended up with the most boring team. Instead of picking Amy, Siahna, or even country singer Morgan who would have been other to him, Pharrell ended up with two interchangeable RnB dudes, a bland pop-rocker with Madi being the only interesting person left on his team, but still not as interesting as Amy. Then for his Steal where he could have had unique talents like Andi and Alex, Ellie, Blind Joe, Koda, or even the blued hair country singer Summer who may not have been great but was at least interesting, he instead stole back the bland Riley who undoubtedly will be gone by Wednesday.

But I guess boring is better than bad which is what Gwen's team is and is one of the top five worst teams going into the Live Shows in the history of The Voice. Braiden Sunshine is the worst person to ever make the Live Show not named Nic Hawk. Her Steal of Viktor was just as uninspiring as Pharrell's Steal (sadly where the boring but hot chick will be booted Wednesday, the boring but hot dude will probnably still be around by Thanksgiving). Jeffry and Regina are just complete fodder but somehow either one of them or Braiden will have to make the Top 12. To think her team could have been Ellie, Koda, Korrin, stole Andi and Alex instead of Viktor, and stole Lyndsey Rhame instead Riley or Regina in the Battles, those five would have been one of the best teams in the history of The Voice, instead she has one of the worst.

I actually think there is a good chance Blake and Adam will have the top six singers this season. Seriously who on Gwen or Pharrell's teams are getting more votes than Jordan, Amy, Shelby, Barrett, Zach (who rivels Viktor in the model's looks department) and which country blonde chick makes it out of the Live Playoffs. Of course Adam will probably screw up in the Playoffs and saddle one of those front runners with the Preston Pohl Memorial for Worst Song Choice from a Coach. While Blake has yet to save a country singer (not counting the Swon Brother because he had nothing but country singers that season) so he may save Ivonne who seems like fodder. Will will have to wait until Wednesday to find out. Until then, here is my favorite singers coming out of the Knockout Round and shockingly for the first time in five seasons there are multiple singers I am actually rooting for.

1. Amy Vachal (Team Pharrell Adam): There are no five words scarier on The Voice then when Adam says "I know what to do (with that voice)." How many times has Adam said that only for the person he says that to goes home the very next round? I fear Amy is the prime candidate for the Preston Pohl Memorial. Watch Adam try to give Amy something mordern like Ariana Grande's Focus. I am seriously dreading what Adam will do with that voice.

2. Madi Davis (Team Pharrell): Poor Madi, she get montaged in the Battles beating out one of my favorite Blind Auditions Sydney, then she gives one of the best Knockout performances this season, except Adam paired her with the person who gave the best. And if Pharrell gave balladeer a dance version of a Joni Mitchell song a couple years ago, I am kind of worried about what Pharrell will be choosing for her too.

3. Morgan Frazier (Team Blake Pharrell Blake): First off I have to be pretentious music snob and point out Even if it Breaks Your Heart was originally done by (and better by) Will Hoge even though Morgan credited the song to the more popular version by the Eli Young Band. But anyway. Another female sang this song as her Blind Audition a couple seasons ago it is clear that the song starts out way too low for the female voice. But the song hits such a crescendo it all but makes up for the rough start. And Morgan added a layer of vulnerability that the other versions do not have, it is as if you can hear her heart break while singing, you just cannot teach that.

4. Korin Bukowski (Team Gwen): Wait, has that always been the daughter from Nashville this whole time? But anyway. Korin broke the Cardinal Rule of The Voice: If you are going to sing a song that has already been recently sung on the show you best be better or at the very least different. So after the shock of realizing that Korin and the daughter from Nashville are the same person, I spent the most of the time thinking Deanna Johnson did this song much better last season.

5. Barrett Baber (Team Blake): Colder Weather is one of my favorite country songs of the past decade but I was mostly bored by this performance. Barrett may have been the better singer, but I never was bored when Blind Joe was performing. Oh my, top five and I am already complaining, this may get ugly quick.

6. Shelby Brown (Team Adam): Shelby had one of the most buzzed about Blind Auditions (I just thought it was alright) and seems to be on a downward trajectory ever since and that is not the way you want to be headed going into the Live Shows. Much like Morgan, I think Shelby may want to go back to countrifying pop and rock songs.

7. Regina Love (Team Adam Gwen): She is good and all, but it is going to be hard for older RnB women on a show like this and she certainly is not good as Sisaundra. So she probably will not get America's vote and Gwen will undoubtedly save one of the boys instead (Ryan Sill: never forget).

8. Mark Hood (Team Pharrell): The great thing about Stand By Me is its simplicity, Mark kind of ruined it.

9. Evan McKeel (Team Pharrell): Last round I mentioned how the promos seem to position Evan as Pharrell's front runner but he still needed a breakout performance in the Knockout Round. It did not happen.

10. Ivonne Acero (Team Pharrell Blake): Sometimes the coaches care more about a story than actual talent (or the producers who are manipulating), but it is hard to think Ivonne was one of the five best singers Blake had this season.

11. Emily Ann Roberts (Team Blake): This was fine and all but I actually preferred Nadjah in their head to head match up.

12. Blaine Mitchell (Team BlakeAdam): Oh Adam, why did you dump the best selling act this season for a bland rocker?

13. Keith Semple (Team Adam): Speaking of bland rockers, he is just going to do the Terry McDerrmott playbook every week because I do not think he will go as far especially with Adam's dominant top three.

14. Riley Biederer (Team Pharrell Gwen Pharrell): Sure the Battle Round was not her choice, but she should really stay away from RnB because it just is not a good look for her. But I think at this point there really is not much she can do to advance.

15. Jordan Smith (Team Adam): There is one thing that promo monkeys do better than anything and that is beat something into the ground until you are completely sick of it. I heard Jordan screech "set firrrrrrrrrrrrrre toooooooooo the raaaaaaaaaain so many times; before. every. single. commercial. break. that by the time his Knockout was actually aired in its entirety I was out. I am sick of Jordan. They over promoted him in the Battle Rounds too. I am out. At this point I really hope he gets added to the Preston Pohl Memorial plaque.

16. Darius Scott (Team Pharrell): His vocal gymnastics got old real quick.

17. Viktor Király (Team Adam Gwen): Ugg, it is going to annoying when he continues to advance on his looks rather his talent.

18. Jeffery Austin (Team Gwen): The Voice started at the height of Adele and in those first couple season there was a steady stream of big voiced chicks trying to out-Adele Adele which was always a losing proposition with only one performance I actually liked (Mathai's Rumour Has It). Now that she is back I guess that is going ton start up again (I wish there was somewhere I could bet Hello will close out tonight's show), but how were there two guys who picked an Adele song before the album was even announced (all the pre-Live rounds were taped back in the summer). Neither of them make me update my list of Adele covers that do not suck massively.

19. Zach Seabaugh (Team Blake): How bad do you have to be to get the dreaded lone Knockout Round montage win?

20. Braiden Sunshine (Team Gwen): If he advances, I will riot.

Yeah I started complaining around the top five, but actually four singers I do not hate is rare in recent seasons and one on each team, now if only all of them make the Top 12. This is basically the last time teams matter as anyone can go home starting next week so here is a last look at how strong each team is based on my rankings.

Adam: 58
Blake: 57
Pharrell: 56
Gwen: 39

Wow, it is the tightest ever among the three boys, but Gwen on the other hand is kind of disastrous. Maybe she should not gone with the picking who she thinks is the cutest strategy (and yes, I do realize two of my top three are fairly attractive). But who cares what I think, here is how each artist charted on iTunes since the start of the Knockout Round.

1. Amy Vachal (31)
2. Jordan Smith (42)
3. Madi Davis (46)
4. Braiden Sunshine (54)
5. Korin Bukowski (72)
6. Viktor Kiraly (85)
7. Blaine Mitchell (91)
8. Jeffery Austin (105)
9. Keith Semple (106)
10. Andi and Alex and Chance Pena (125)
11. Evan McKeel (136)
12. Regina Love (154)
13. Barrett Baber (155)
14. Amy Vachal - Dream a Little Dream (158)
15. Ivonne Acero (162)
16. Emily Ann Roberts (174)
17. Riley Biederer (194)
18. Shelby Brown (195)
19. Morgan Frazier (204)
20. Ellie Lawrence - We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off (222)
21. Jordan Smith - Chandelier (235)
22. Darius Scott (282)
23. Mark Hood (303)
24. Zach Seabaugh (373)
25. Jordan Smith and Regina Love (443)
26. Andi and Alex - Thank You (503)
27. Barrett Baber and Dustin Christensen (509)
28. Amy Vachal and Jubal and Amanda (530)
29. Chase Kerby and Korin Bukowski (582)
30. Korin Bukowski - Cecilia and the Satellite (780)
31. Cassandra Robertson and Viktor Kiraly (978)
32. Celeste Betton and Mark Hood (1035)
33. Morgan Frazier - I Want You To Want Me (1302)
34. Blaine Mitchell and Blind Joe (1348)
35. Ellie Lawrence and Tim Atlas (1416)
36. Viktor Kiraly - What's Going On (1431)
37. Barrett Baber - Angel Eyes (1485)
38. Deanna Johnson - All I Want (1489)
39. Jeffery Austin - Lay Me Down (1495)

So Andi and Alex and Chance Pena, all three who were eliminated this round, still managed to chart higher over the past two weeks than over half, eleven, of the singers that are going to the Live Playoffs. Even worse, Ellie Lawrence's month and a half old Blind Audition song charted higher than three people who are advancing. That is never a good look even though it seems to happen every season. Also looking over this list you have to make Amy and Jordan as all three of there songs are still going strong, followed by Korin, Viktor, and Barrett who also saw all three of their song creep back on the list at some point over the past two weeks, even if barely. If you take each artist and average their highest peak in each round, here is how they stack up:

1. Jodan Smith (58.6)
2. Amy Vachal (82.3)
3. Barrett Baber (93.6)
4. Korin Bukowski (209)
5. Morgan Frazier (218.6)
6. Viktor Kiraly (260)
7. Blaine Mitchell (308.6)
8. Emily Ann Roberts (319.3)
9. Keith Semple (329.3)
10. Mark Hood (388.6)
11. Shelby Brown (433.3)
12. Zach Seabaugh (455.6)
13. Evan McKeel (463)
14. Ivonne Acero (479)
15. Madi Davis (549.6)
(the last four missed the top 1500 once and here is if they ranked the one that charted and use 1500 as the non chart-er)
16. Regina Love (584)
17. Braiden Sunshine (596.3)
18. Jeffery Austin (672.3)
19. Riley Biederer (730)
20. Darius Scott (1091.6)

It should be noted that those bottom three were all montaged once (Regina and Braiden's Blind Auditions did not chart despite being shown in full) but then again so were Madi and Zach but still managed to chart all three rounds. Also it looks like Shelby, Ivonne and Madi were really hurt by their poor song choices in the Battle Round, if you just take the average of the Blind Auditions and Knockout Round numbers, Shelby goes from eleventh to third, Madi goes from last among people who charted every round to sixth followed by Ivonne who jumps seven spots. It should also be noted that Amy, who had the highest charting Blind Audition and Knockout Round songs obviously would jump over Jordan on that list. Lets see if any of those four can overcome bad song selections if their coaches are picking in the Playoffs, personally I would not trust Adam at all. Here is how the teams stack up if you rank each singer based on the iTunes average:

Adam: 75
Blake: 63
Gwen: 44
Pharrell: 28

Oh Pharrell, you let go of the the second highest average in the Knockout Round and replaced her with the second worst. Oh yeah, you already had the worst on your team who you kept instead of the fifth best average. What exactly was this guy thinking? Every member of Team Adam is above every member of Team Pharrell. It may be time to bring back Cee-Lo. Now it is prediction time, here is how I predict what will happen on Wednesday before even one note is sung:

Adam
America Saves: Jordan, Amy
Coach Saves: Keith

Blake
America Saves: Barrett, Zach
Coach Saves: Morgan

Gwen
America Saves: Viktor, Korin
Coach Saves: Braiden Jeffery

Pharrell
America Saves: Mark, Evan
Coach Saves: Madi

Finals: Barrett beats out Jordan and Morgan

Scooter Update: Okay the prediction above is kind of mute depending on who comes back. But really there are very few people that got sent home that I think even have a chance of making the Top 12. It seems obvious if they already got dumped by their coach, they will not you their Coach Save on them so they are going to need America's Save to do so. I do wonder if being the coach Comeback would help or hurt. They could get extra votes for being the underdogs or maybe some people just do not vote for them on principal thinking it is not "fair" to the top 20. Andi and Alex are the only ones that could challenge Jordan and Amy for Adam's spot, but I still think they would fall short. On Gwen I would replace Ellie for Korin (sadly Gwen will probably still save Braiden). I think Blind Joe could easily bumb Zach from the America's Save, maybe Krista with a showstopping performance. Pharrell is the trickiest, sure he has a weak team (look at those iTunes numbers above), but none of his also-rans look very strong (unless of course the coaches can poach other teams' losers). I like Lyndsey the most but I do not see her getting more votes than the RnB dudes or Evan. So in the end, I pretty much stand by my predictions above unless Gwen brings back Ellie (or Pharrell is allowed to poach Andi and Alex or one of Blake's country leftovers), while the other Coach Comebacks will be watching from their couch next week.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 10/31/15

Homeland: During the excitement of the return of Crazy Carrie last week I missed that Quinn was sent there to kill Carrie. Of course he did not. Thankfully we learned by the end of the episode who it was because really, there were only two plausible people in my mind, Dar and the German Bureau chief. Now the question was she also involved in the plane explosion too.

The Walking Dead: So Glen died. Or did he? I have a long standing belief to never believe someone is dead until we see a body. Well we definitely see zombies tear at Glen's flesh. But then there is the addendum to that belief that even if you see the body, I am still skeptical. The skeptical part of me noticed that the dude who killed himself was falling on top of Glen so it is very plausible that the entrails being pulled out were that of the other guy so I would not be that shocked if Glen shows up later in the season saying he slid under the trash bin while the zombies ate the other dude and just waited there to leave. Then I switched over from Quantico during the commercial to Talking Dead, which lack the obligatory actor shows up after he dies which is always kind of painful, as the producers saying in the most vague way possible that we will see Glen again in some capacity and the character was not included in the In Memorium package either. But the bigger question is why was Glen even in that position? How did Morgan make it back to Alexandria but Glen's group could not? And in the alley way, why did they not climb over the fence bordering the woods? But the second rule of this show is if the characters did the smart thing every time, there would be no show.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Affair: It seemed like an open and shut case Helen would get full custody of the kids, hey, they were not even around in the future act of the season finale last year with Noah and Allison in their swanky high rise. But how does Helen possibly get any visitation right, let along full custody, after a DUI with the kids in the car and weed in her purse? Grandma may be getting the kids because neither parent seems fit. Or maybe they will get shipped off to their aunt's place. Maybe there is a reason we have yet seen one of the Solloway children in the future yet.

Quantico: This week's Power Ranking of Most Absurd Moments of the Week: 1) The front page picture of Alex which looked like it was taken from a Maxim photo shoot, 2) The live stream instant;u getting twelve million viewers, 3) Taylor Swift (did they already run of hot blondes to call her already or did I just miss it this week) abandoning her mission to have sex with her antagonist.
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Supergirl: Oh my, is it too soon to call this the guiltiest guilty pleasure in the history of television?
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Gotham: It was an obvious joke, but I am still glad Barbra suggested Butch put a chainsaw on his stump of a hand (and the same week Ash vs. the Evil Dead premieres to boot). Just as obvious was Kristen Kingle would die which would push Ed closer to being The Riddler, the only question was when and by who's hand. We finally got our answer this week as Ed stupidly admitted to killing her last boyfriend and then suffocated while promising to never hurt her again. Not how long until his wardrobe turns green?
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Switched at Birth: So if Emmett was home for the summer and the final scene takes place ten months later, that makes it March / April right? So why are Daphne and Bay are still in China? Are they staying there because I am guessing Bay does not obtain gainful employment for a vacation. And what was the phone call? Ug, I hate cliffhangers like this.
You can download Switched At Birth on iTunes.

The Voice: What the frack?!? This show is just trolling me at this point. Andi & Alex were number one on my Battle Ranking Power Rankings, go first and get booted by Adam in favor of some mediocre rocker who has little chance of making it to the top twelve (unless Adam is stupid enough to save him so it is not entirely out of the question). Next up is Ellie Lawrence, who topped my Blind Audition Power Ranking, who goes out to Braiden Sunshine, who has sat in the bottom both times. Making things worse I joked in that post that Braiden would end up being this season's Ryan Sill (never forget), beating Gwen's lone four chair singer in the Battle Round, then probably beat Ellie in the Knockout Round, before Gwen inexplicably saved him in the Playoffs. That was a joke Gwen, you were not supposed to actually do this. Sure picking Demi Lovato was kind of disaster (has anyone ever advanced on this show singing one of her songs) but still I would take Ellie at her worst than Braiden at his worst. I really hate this show. Is it really hard to get the twenty best singers to the Live Show? It seem like five of the twelve that advanced this week just scream fodder and whose only chance to advance is if their coaches save them. I would have said six but sadly Viktor will probably advance by the public because the bored housewife voting block will be voting for his face over his voice.

Blindspot: I would say it is kind of random to have the other chick from Young and Hungry show up on your serious drama but I guess the first time I noticed her was when she was recurring during the first season of The Americans. Since she has that other gig, it is a shame she cannot stick around because it got really sad watching Jane try to connect with anyone and getting shut down every time. Plus that nerd fight scene with the tech person on the team was fun too. Oh well.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes..

Marvel's Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D.: We finally get the what happened to Simmons episode and sadly no talking ducks were involved. I actually enjoyed the first segment but as soon as the astronaut showed up I got less and less involved. Then the ending was just silly, seriously, hold each other's hands so you do not get separated. And though we know know what went on, we are left with more questions, like what is "death." Then you have the promo saying May's husband died last week. Alrighty, there goes my theory that he survived.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Wicked City: I do not really need another serial killer show in my life, but hey, it is the chick from Swimf@n and it is not like there is anything else on at the time. But how exactly how long will the show last if the detective was able to figure out who it is in the first episode. Take the reporter to the artist and then post the picture around town.
You can download Wicked City on iTunes.

Survivor: Second Chances: What a great decision to switch tribes up as many times this season, it is much better than having silly gimmicks like Redemption Island (and the promos says there are merging early next week too). You have one tribe with only one original member of the other tribe but she was the one with an Immunity Idol. Then there was Stephan's weird tearful rant about not wanting an Alpha Male beating him again. But of course it was Abi Maria's tribe that went to Tribal Council. And what weird bedfellows that ousted Woooooooooooo. Aside from Abi Maria, you had Chaos Kass, her nemesis Spencer, and a paranoid Ciera who did appreciate Savage putting her name in his mouth. Seriously, has there ever been a weirder alliance than those four? It will be interesting to see how things shake up after the merge. Will that five strong alliance actually stick together (since not one alliance has stayed strong I am guessing no), and if so, they still need two more for a majority. But now that we are at the merge, you have to go ahead and pencil in Abi Maria into the finals because who would not want to sit next to her. Imagine what fireworks a Abi Maria vs. Kass would produce. But thankfully Terry's son turned out to be alright. You never want to see someone go home like that. It is a bit surprising that it does not happen more often. I believe it was only the second time in thirty season.
You can download Survivor: Second Chance on iTunes.

Nashville: When drunk young Wheeler walked out on the terrace, I thought, oh no, he is the one going over the edge, not Juliette. Instead Jeff awkwardly fell over while trying to save her. Poor Juliette, the one guy who could spin this into her favor just splattered on the sidewalk. And poor Layla, her husband turned out to be gay, she gets dropped from one label and put on the back burner of another, and now her boyfriend dies of what will be ruled as an apparent suicide depending on what dunked young Wheeler says.
You can download Nashville on iTunes.

The Blacklist: There is nothing I hate on television more than the x amount of time earlier place card. Am I really supposed to believe they killed off Lizzy? Never crossed my mind even when they were significantly outnumbered in the Mexican standoff. But I did like that the person who put the hit on her was a teenage girl not like the CIA guy who seemed too obvious or the Congresswoman who was another suspect of mine.
The Blacklist on iTunes.

The Voice Season Nine Battle Round Power Rankings

I have long called Blake Shelton the best coach that has ever sat in a spinning chair. Sure he made the single worse decision ever in the history of The Voice (Holly Henry: never forget) but if I were to make a list of the twenty-five dumbest decisions every in the history of The Voice, that may be the only time he appears. I mostly agree with his decisions about ninety percent of the time. Not this season where I only agreed with him once of his five shown Battles (Blind Joe over Blaine).

I have long assumed Blake takes the March Madness bracket approach to Battle Round pairings (and Knockouts for that matter), seeding his team one through twelve and then paring one with twelve, two with eleven, and so on; weird and random pairings be darned; and then just picks the higher seeds no matter what. Which is probably why in the past his Battles ended up in montages rather than Steals.

I do not know what changed this time around where he seemed to pick the weaker singer more often but for the first time ever half his Battles ended in Steals (unfortunately my favorite on his team Krista did not get a reprieve from anyone) and only one got montaged (but when you pair a female soul singer with a male singer-songwriter type and have them sing Britney Spears, of course that is going to me montaged). Though it makes for some bad Battles, I wish Blake would go back to the March Madness brackets approach because I am not really liking his team very much this season unless he can get a gem of a Steal in the Knockouts.

1. Andi & Alex (Team Adam): I enjoyed their Blind Audition but feared they may turn into a novelty act, except they actually got better. And who actually remembered The Calling were once a thing. I give Adam a lot of crap (and deserved for pretty much the rest of his song choices this round) but he really did a great job pairing the duo with someone I thought was fodder and turn it into the best Battle of the season.

2. Ellie Lawrence (Team Gwen): Gwen was on a roll with her song selection this round. Sure three of them got montaged, one of them probably should have also, and I am not sure Sweater Weather is a very good choice if you have to cut it down to two minute. Ellie was decent, but she is still high on the list as her Blind Audition is still the best performance of the season.

3. Amy Vachal (Team Pharrell): It seems like more often than not, the coaches cleanly give a song that favors one singer over another (sorry dude who was forced to sing Regina Spektor), occasionally they can find songs that are suited for both singers. Then on the very rare occasion the coaches pick a song that does not really help either. Amy did fine in her part but overall this just reminded me of the good old days before Battle montages where the last two singers paired would have to Battle each other and sing the songs in completely different ways like Dia Frampton vs. Serabee or Erin Martin vs. The Shields Brothers (the greatest bad Battle ever in the history of the show). Amy was good when she was by herself but I am really surprised this was not montaged and even more surprised the song sold well. Because of that you kind of have to put Amy on the shortlist of front runners with Andi and Alex, Barrett, Ellie, and Jordan. Hey that is actually one per team and two for Adam. That probably means Adam will throw one of them under the bus and probably either Gwen or Pharrell will do something really stupid.

4. Korin Bukowski (Team Gwen): The biggest winner of the Battle Round. I found her Blind Audition too much (despite the awesome song choice) and Gwen apparently did such a poor job picking songs that suited her singers that half her Battles got montaged, but both really hit it out of the park on this one. Sure girls like this sadly never win, but as long as she keeps it simple and sweet, Korin could get as far as Caroline Pennell.

5. Siahna Im (Team Pharrell): Poor song choice but she did do the best she could do with it.

6. Madi Davis (Team Pharrell): I have long assumed performances get montaged because of one of two reasons: they were just bad, the coach made a horrible decision. Madi and Sydney were the lone montage victims to chart this round while Sydney's Blind Audition lingered around for most of the Battles. Clearly people were interested in the Battle, it charted so I wonder just what went wrong because there were some pretty dreadful or just boring Battle that were shown.I am just going to go with the assumption the montaged it because the other coaches did not Steal Sydney because she clearly resonated within her short time on the show.

7. Mark Hood (Team Pharrell): Another boring song choise by Pharrell but he did well, hopefully he can do something a little less dusty after two straight old soul classic

8. Morgan Frazier (Team Blake Pharrell): I have when coaches hem and haw about this is their hardest pairing and how they were stupid to put these two together when ninety percent of the time everyone at home knew who was going to win the moment the pairing was announced, but this definitely was one of the closest Battles ever. Though I disagree with Blake about going with who he can help the most, for me the tie-breaker should be who gave the better Blind Audition and that was Morgan. But at least she was Stolen by Pharrell. And of course all of Blake's hemming and hawing about this Battle will be moot if Blake just Steals Morgan back next round as the last two season's he has done just that with his Knockout Round Steal. Though Dustin or Blaine may be the better choice since having both Morgan and Emily Ann is like having the same singer. At any rate, I really hate when coaches Steal back contestants they just booted from their team.

9. Blind Joe (Team Blake): Considering his bad choices this season, Blake would take the more polished Blaine but I am glad he actually gave Blind Joe the nod because this bar band classic should not be polished.

10. Dustin Christensen (Team Blake Adam): Barrett closed out the first episode which I considered to be the pimpiest of pimp slots on the show, but I actually like Dustin much better on the show.

11. Blaine Mitchell (Team Blake Adam): Though I thought Blind Joe won, I did like how Blaine managedto work the stage for both of them.

12. Kota Wade (Team Gwen): Montage win... yawn.

13. Emily Ann Roberts (Team Blake): Meh.

14. Tim Atlas (Team Gwen Pharrell): He was okay for someone who was montaged during the Blind Auditions but Steal worthy? I do not know. But then again there really eight losers this season worthy of a Steal. So fine, Tim gets another round, but I would be surprised if he goes further.

15. Keith Semple (Team Adam): So is he supposed to be this season's Terry McDermot? Meh.

16. Barrett Baber (Team Blake): I have always assumed whoever gets to close out the first episode is whoever the producers think should win. I find Barrett mostly boring and wonder if he will suffer the similar fate of the only other time a country singer got that slot when James David Carter could not make it past the first week of voting.

17. Evan McKeel (Team Pharrell): Every season the producers seems to focus a lot on one singer that ended up bombing when people actually start voting (Kat from season five was the most glaring example) and I am beginning wonder if Evan is this season's version. They seem to spend a lot of time on him but his iTunes sales have been middle of the pack. That could just be the result of an obscure Mutemath song and a tired Stevie Wonder Battle, but Evan really needs a Knockout moment because if not he may bomb if he makes it to the Live Show.

18. Ivonne Acero (Team Pharrell Blake): One of the big loser of the Battle Rounds, the weak link of one of the worst Battles this season. But hey, Blake gave her a one week reprieve.

19. Shelby Brown (Team Adam): The other big loser of the round. Every nice thing I said about Adam picking The Calling I take back for giving two seventeen year old Edge of Seventeen. Oh my. I wonder if she is regretting not going with Blake right about now. She had one of the best selling Blind Auditions but almost got outsold in the Battle Round by a duo that was montaged.

20. Regina Love (Team Adam Gwen): Another wasted Steal but then again, no one really stands out as more deserving.

21. Riley Biederer (Team Pharrell Gwen): See above.

22. Jordan Smith (Team Adam): In the beginning there were a lot of weird people auditioning with voices you would not expect, now it has teen into J Crew teenage models after another. Jordan harkens back to those early days, but I find his voice to be too shill but as much as the promo spend on him (he is the only one we hear sing in the Knockout previews) he seems like the biggest lock to make the Live Show.

23. Viktor Király (Team Adam): Simular to Evan but I fear that he will be more like this season's Dez Duron, the mediocre singer with model's looks that goes three or four rounds further than his talent deserves because he appeals to the large bored housewife voting block.

24. James Dupré (Team Adam): A big storyline of the Blind Auditions was Adam managing to get two country singers over Blake. Then in the Battles, he gave them both rock songs that sold significantly less than their Blind Auditions on iTunes. Again, I wonder if James is regretting not going with Blake. But I actually believe Shelby could still make the Live Shows, James, not so much. Which would be Adam's third country artist he got instead of Blake that he then unloaded before the Live Shows.

25. Chris Crump (Team Blake): I would rather Krista had advanced.

26. Zach Seabaugh (Team Blake): Did Blake pick him solely on based on marketability because his vocals are not at all memorable.

27. Nadjah Nicole (Team Blake): Montage win... yawn.

28. Summer Schappell (Team Gwen): Montage win... yawn. And based on the studio version, I thought Hanna Ashbrook was significantly better, which maybe is why they montaged it, so Gwen did not look stupid. Actually is that why half of Gwen's Battles get montaged? Advancing Braiden was also stupid and her two Steals were head scratching at best.

29. Darius Scott (Team Pharrell): Montage win... yawn.

30. Jeffery Austin (Team Gwen): Montage win... yawn.

31. Chance Peña (Team Adam Blake): What a lucky kid, he is a teenager who gets paired with two hot twins who are so good, they made hm seem better than he actually like how Magic Johnson made all his teammates look better, and managed to get Blake to Steal him. But without the twins propping him out, I am guessing there will be no more Steals for him.

32. Braiden Sunshine (Team Gwen): I was never a fan of Lyndsey, but if Gwen was will to toss her lone four chair turn overboard for Braiden, I am really beginning to worry he may actually be this season's Ryan Sill (never forget).

So if you rank them by the team they are on, here is how each team stands up:

Pharrell: 175
Adam: 139
Gwen: 115
Blake: 99

Wow, so coming out of the Blind Audition, I had Blake as the strongest team, but now he is at the bottom. I rip on Gwen a lot, but she still has Ellie and a rising Korin, there is really no one worth caring about on Blake's team. He really does need to Steal someone in the Knockouts. But then again, who cares what I think, here is how high the Battle Round songs ranked on iTunes and included the Blind Auditions that have still popped up over the past two week to show you who has staying power.

1. Andi and Alex and Chance Pena (11)
2. Barrett Baber and Dustin Christensen (41)
3. Celeste Betton and Mark Hood (49)
4. Chase Kerby and Korin Bukowski (78)
5. Jordan Smith and Regina Love (98)
6. Ellie Lawrence (122)
7. Chris Crump and Krista Hughes (139)
8. Ellie Lawrence and Tim Atlas (148)
9. Andi and Alex (169)
10. Amy Vachal and Jubal and Amanda (184)
11. Cassandra Robertson and Viktor Kiraly (192)
12. Jordan Smith (195)
13. Keith Semple and Manny Cabo (231)
14. Braiden Sunshine and Lyndsey Elm (235)
15. Blaine Michell and Blind Joe (236)
16. Amy Vachal (299)
17. Emily Ann Roberts and Morgan Frazier (376)
18. Sydney Rhame (394)
19. Shelby Brown (471)
20. Evan McKeel and Riley Biederer (496)
21. Barrett Baber (503)
22. Tyler Dickerson and Zach Seabaugh (693)
23. Dustin Monk and James Dupre (858)
24. Korin Bukowski (864)
25. Morgan Frazier (932)
26. Ivonne Acero and Siahna Im (989)
27. Krista Hughes (1006)
28. Chance Pena (1044)
29. Amanda Ayala and Shelby Brown (1066)
30. Blind Joe (1068)
31. Lyndsey Elm (1194)
32. Madi Davis and Sydney Rhame (1252)
33. Chris Crump (1434)

Since they went to releasing Battle Round performances as duets instead of separately it is hard to tell who exactly who the buyers were buying for but here is how each team member left would rank if you average their Battle and their Blind Audition


1. Alex and Andi (21.5)
2. Barrett Baber (63)
3. Jordan Smith (67)
4. Ellie Lawrence (98)
5. Amy Vachel (108)
6. Chris Crump (177)
7. Dustin Christensen (184.5)
8. Blind Joe (193)
9. Chance Pena (201.5)
10. Morgan Frazier (225.5)
11. Korin Bukowski (277.5)
12. Viktor Kiraly (347.5)
13. Emily Ann Roberts (392)
14. Blaine Mitchell (417.5)
15. Mark Hood (431.5)
16. Keith Semple (441)
17. Zach Seabaugh (497)
18. James Dupre (536.5)
19. Shelby Brown (552.5)
20. Evan McKeel (617.5)
21. Siahna Im (637.5)
22. Ivonne Acero (651.5)
23. Madi Davis (801.5)
(the next seven only rated once on the top 1500 and here is if they ranked the one that charted and use 1500 as the non chart-er)
24. Regina Love (799)
25. Tim Atlas (824)
26. Braiden Sunshine (867.5)
27. Jeffery Austin (956)
28. Summer Schappell (963)
29. Riley Biederer (998)
30. Darius Scott (1496.5)
(the last two have yet to chart once which is probably not a good sign if they make the Live Show)
31. Koda Wade (1500)
31. Nadhaj Nicole (1500)

Now lets see who the iTunes buyers think has the strongest team if you rank them based on the above standing:

Adam: 174
Blake: 155
Pharrell: 115
Gwen: 83

So the iTunes buyers and me differ on Blake. The big loser is Gwen who has six of the nine singers who have failed to make the top 1500 at least once this season, including her two Steal compared to the other three coaches who had at least one Steal in the top ten. I wonder if Pharrell did his team a disservice with poor song choices and if like me they like Pharrell's team but wished they had better songs.

Unlike the Battle Rounds where the spoiled all the pairings in the preview, we currently do not know any of the Knockout pairings. In fact the only performance we saw in the preview was Jordan's and I looked but I did not even see anyone else on the stage so maybe they are doing Knockouts differently this season. But there is still Steals so either they are still doing it pairs and they are not forcing them to sit on stage while the other sings (which if true booooo, I live the instant reaction and the complete dread when the other singer realizes they are going home just hearing their opponent sing) or the stage was too dark to see.

Without pairing spoilers, it is a bit harder to guess who will advance so I am just going to go with who I predicted after the Blind Audition minus the four (half were Blake's team members; he really messed up this season; of course he will still end up winning) I already got wrong ranking them with how confident I am that they will advance.

Adam: Jordan, Viktor, Shelby, Keith
Blake: Barrett, Zach, Emily Ann, Blind Joe
Gwen: Ellie, Jeffery, Korin, (I really do not want to believe it but it is becoming more and more clear he is this season's Ryan Sill), Braiden
Pharrell: Mark, Amy, Evan, Madi
Steals: Siahna, Dustin, Riley, Ivonne

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 10/25/15

Once Upon a Time: So King Arthur us evil, and Lancelot is (presumable) going to break the curse with his love true kiss with Gwenavere? Huh? And what happened to the Brave chick. I thought she went to Camelot with everyone else and she was thrown in jail with no one else noticing?
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Homeland: Crazy Carrie is back! Is this the first time since season two since we have seen Carrie off her meds (not including when she got drugged last season)? I am pretty sure I saw Dar on her crazy picture wall too so my CIA is at least crazy enough for Crazy Carrie. Then there was the scene with the Berlin chief talking to someone from her bathroom. Obviously who she was talking to was going to be a twist. At first I thought she was going to be a lesbian, but that would be too cliched of a twist. Then I thought she was hooking up with the Foundation head. But no, she has been hooking up with Saul. Alrighty. That certainly makes their bickering over the past couple episodes more pointed and Saul's about face of sending her home make more sense. But now the big question is just what is Quinn going to do with Carrie now that he has her?

The Walking Dead: Too many initials this week. At least we learned the W were Wolves. But what does JSS mean? And what was with the A on Carol's porch?
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Affair: After the show flipped up its formats this season, I kind of held out hope that this season would continue to be random instead of following some combination of Noah / Helen / Alison / Cole like I pretty much assumed after the first two episodes. For instance, during the first segment this week I was hoping the second segment episode would follow drunk daughter. Alas instead we just got Allison tagging along as her boss went to kill his dog (but thankfully just scared him off). Le sigh. Maybe drunk daughter will be the format change in season three. Considering he is the one that dies, you would think Scotty and his teen girlfriend would get to tell their stories at some point.

Gotham: Yeah, this show is much more entertaining when crazy Barbra around.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

The Voice: I complain a lot about how bad the coaches are at picking songs when the Battle Rounds start and all my complains can be summed up in the Higher Ground battle. Seriously Pharrell, why are assigning a funk classic to two of the WASPiest WASPs this season? The Red Hot Chili Peppers are the only white people who have earned the right to sing that song. That performance reminded me of the time I was working at the local amphitheater where I had to sit through 98° giving the happiest performance ever of Superstition while I stood there head in hands wondering how this was happening.

But surprisingly there was one coach who actually made some inspired song choices and Cee-Lo is still on his sabbatical (okay, Adam did have one inspired song randomly pulling The Calling out of his musical quiver). Sure Gwen is a horrible coach with a bad team, so bad half of her Battle got montaged. but kudos for finally having the guts to get Regina Spektor cleared. This show loves the quirky girl but surprisingly nobody had ever done a song by the patron saint of quirky girls up to this point I was beginning to think that either the producers thought Regina was too obscure (though I would think she is more well known than Ingrid Michaelson who's song was featured a couple seasons back) or she would not clear her songs for singing show. Hopefully now that the president has been set Regina's whole catalog can be raided.

And it was not just Regina Specktor who Gwen introduced to The Voice audience for the first time. Yeah The Calling was random, but that was last decade, Gwen went back two more decades to resurrect Howard Jones. And though they got the dreaded montage placement, Gwen also assigned The Wreckers and Talk Talk (sure that song was eventually made famous by No Doubt). I am usually the pro-montage guy but most of the montaged Battles looked much more interesting than most that actually got shown, aside from those two new songs that have never been performed on the show before, there were the two coffee-house singers on Team Pharrell doing Riptide, heck, I would have even rather seen the weird Blake assigned co-ed duet of Baby One More Time; sure it probably was a trainwreck, but a trainwreck would have been much more entertaining than yet another boring overdone Motown song done by people whose parents may have not even been born yet when the songs were released.

Blindspot: Nothing better than a good old Mexican standoff between government agencies. But it seems now that Jane used to be one of the CIA's assetts and evil CIA guy wants her back or at least eliminate Jane before she remembers anything.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes..

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: I spend all season wondering what was going on with Simmons but for the first couple episodes her story has been relegated to that pre-credit scene at the end of the episode. And just when she was about to explain what happened to her in the galaxy far, far away, they cut to black. Boooo. At the promo monkey makes it seem the next episode is going to be a flashback. Hopefully it is the whole episode and does not inner-spliced with the Inhumans saga. I guess I should guess who Lash's other version is; um, if it is someone we know, that does not seem like a long list. Baron's son is probably at the top of the list. Of course my number one rule of television is if you do not see the body, they are not dead (and even then I am a bit skeptical) I do not believe Blair Underwood is dead, maybe that was Baron's son running from Blair. But I am going with Coulson's new love interest who also has been hunting down Inhumans and for some reason was not riding in the van. Speaking of inconsistencies in storytelling, if Lash wants to kill all Inhumans, why did he not go after Daisy while she was incapacitated?
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Survivor: Second Chances: After the first or second episode I said Varner was overplaying himself out of the game and a couple episodes later he is gone. You can also say Monica got voted out this week for playing to hard, except she made the right play. Take out the potential women's alliance (seriously Kimmi, why are you irate at this, you are a female, she is saying she is not voting you out), going after Spencer was the right choice. I would trust Kelly way more than I would trust him. So for the third straight time after the tribe swap, the former tribe with the most members voted one of their own out. The final five that was made this week may end up being just that because the other two tribes are overplaying themselves out of this game. But hey, this week was the very first time Abi Maria did not go to Tribal Council. Who would have thunk it? Good for her.
You can download Survivor: Second Chance on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Finally a "previously on" package, unfortunately they did not remind me who Pee-Wee Herman was. So now I am even more confused as to why he shot Red's henchman. So was he a plant by the kidnappers, or did he turn on him for other reasons?
The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 10/18/15

Once Upon a Time: Why is Snow White so quick to believe Sir Lancelot, this is clearly a different dude (wait, was that the same guy poising as an usher at the beginning of the season who told Emma not to pull the sword from the stone)? But anyway. I am beginning to think King Arthur is not who he says he is, maybe he is Merlin in disguises and the real King Arthur is in the tree. But what is bugging me is that all the new characters that come to Storybrooke never change their clothes anymore. Can't they get the Camelotians a change of clothes?
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Homeland: My favorite part of the early season was when the leaker was talking about how the German spies were probably searching her apartment right now and she did not mind as long as they did not let her cat out, cut to the German spy deadpanning, "Did you see a cat?" Awesome. I also found it interesting that the one guy accused Carrie of being a Trojan Horse for Saul in the evil foundation. That would totally be something they would do (and kind of did in season three when he sold her out to the Senate). But their interaction during their first interaction was too raw and there was no one around for it to be for show (but then again Carrie looked stunned when Saul sold her out to the Senate and no one was around then either). Another great scene was when the German Bureau Chief called out Saul for doing anything for Carrie whenever she messed up but quickly sold her out after one mistake. It is about time someone did that. But the big question is who want Carrie dead? Is the CIA too obvious?

The Walking Dead: Last week I called the plan from the season finale of Fear the Walking Dead the dumbest idea in the history of dumb ideas, but the main show came close. Would it have not been wiser to just set the whole lot on fire instead of Pied Pipering them to... where exactly were they leading all the zombies? Of course, as I have said many times before, if these characters were smart it would be a very boring show.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Quantico: Wait, the gay dude (who is probably not even gay) is in cahoots with Jacob from Lost? Huh, that makes little to no sense and just a shock for shock sake. If your secret agent knows where the suspect is, who not send in the SWAT team? Which probably means Jacob is in on the whole conspiracy. And why is she still on the run anyway, doesn't the fingerprint thing just exonerate her?
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Gotham: Wait, did I just see a grown man punch a teenage girl on national television? That is messed up.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

The Voice: I really do not like the Battle Round, they just seem to drag on since they went from four Battles per hour to three after the first season. I figured I would just watch the episode On Demand later and watched other programming live (I still watched the second hour Monday live thanks to the lack of anything else on at the time). Except when I went to watch On Demand, I just went, nope, cannot watch this crap anymore after the boring hour I already sat through. So I just watched the YouTube versions, so overextended training clips and stop watching when the coaches start talking in hyperbole about how great the performances are just to sit on their hands when Carson tells them the losing singer is available for a Steal. Plus the two bald jokes I already heard got old real quick.

Even condensing those two hours into less than twenty minutes on YouTube (seriously, there were 180 minutes of the show airing this week and only something less than a half an hour are devoted to people actually performing) this week was quite dreadful. The only thing more shocking then Blake picking Zach (I agree with Blake more than any other coach, but I disagreed with each of his decisions) was that Battle was not montaged. Seriously, just how bad were those montaged Battles that they were possibly worse than that Battle. I have a hard time believing it was worse than Madi vs. Sydney, two of my five favorite Blind Auditions this season. Then you had Ivonne vs. Siahna Im which definitely would have been montaged had Gwen and Blake inexplicably pushed their Steal buttons. That was not even the most head scratching Steal Gwen tried this week as giving Regina Love a second chance was mostly unnecessary, not that any of the other loser were really worthy of one either. Can we please just montage the rest of the Battle Round and go straight to the Knockout Round next week please?

Blindspot: I tune into this show mostly to see Lady Sif beating dudes up but maybe one of the few things more entertaining than that is seeing two dudes in HAZMAT suits trying to beat each other up. My favorite part was hen FBI guy reached for his gun and realized, oh wait, I am wearing a HAZMAT suit. But the more serial aspects of the show got really confusing. Seriously, carbon dating teeth can tell you where someone was born? What? If true, does it make the most sense that Lady Sif's teeth were replaced? And while I am predicting things, Chrissy Seaver's boyfriend has to be evil, right? The boring significant other on conspiracy shows are always evil.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes..

Castle: I saw it coming a mile away because I thought early on that the blind priest was going to be involved, but still, the sight of a "blind" priest runnung away was still hilarious.
You can download Castle.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: My favorite part of the episode was when the went subtitles for the Cockneys. But I had to wonder when Fitz showed up right after that scene why they do not subtitle him too but he is unintelligible at times. I was very disappointed that Simmons did not even bring back a parasite or anything and thought we were going to go through a season of watching her get back to normal like Fitz last season, but thankfully the end credits scene she had a Jack from Lost moment saying we have to go back. It would have been a total waste of a cliffhanger if we never say that planet, or any of it inhabitants again. But why exactly does she want to go back? Is the English guy from the opening of last episode still there? Did she befriend an anthropomorphic duck?
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Survivor: Second Chances: How disappointing that Abi Maria did not flip alliances for the forth straight episode. I was actually begining to think this may actually be the episode that the tide turned against Abi Maria, but shockingly her name did not come of across anyone's lips (well aside from when Abi Maria reminded Woooooooooooooo not to write her name; classic Abi Maria). Almost as surprising was that everyone played the short game and booted Jeff because Wooooooooooo is better at challenges. I get booting Jeff because he is slippery, but how do you even know you would have another swap before your next challenge? Probst could swap tribes every two weeks until the merge. But before that, that was a boring Reward Challenge. If you are going to only have one person per tribe participate, at least let the other tribes pick who does it. It would have been much more entertaining had it been Abi Maria vs. Cierra, vs. Kimmi bumbling their way threw a challenge instead of three alpha males.
You can download Survivor: Second Chance on iTunes.

Nashville: I like how the alt-rock dude just called out everybody's dirty laundry. Though I was surprised when he met Layla he did not say, oh yeah, you are the reality star with the gay husband, right? Hopefully he sticks around long enough to cover Juliet's latest album in its entirety in the vein of Joy Division.
You can download Nashville on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Again, the show seriously needs a "previously on" package. I remember Pee Wee Herman was on the last season, but I barely remember who he was on the show.
The Blacklist on iTunes.

The Voice Season Nine Blind Auditions Power Rankings

It seems like ninety percent of the singers this season of The Voice can be divided into three different: country singers, which of course most went to Blake, indie-pop chick, which most went to Gwen (Blake used to be where they used to all go but surprisingly rarely even pushed his button for them this season), and bland singer-songwriter dudes, which are spread out through all the teams (there were way too many Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, and Sam Smith songs this round). It will be interesting how the teams shake out as the rounds progress. Blake has enough southern talent this season he could very well take four of them to the Live Shows, something he has not done since season four. Gwen's first time on the show was quite disastrous (Ryan Sill: never forget) and seemed to favor dudes and could take the boring Jeffery over her more interesting female singers. But I am sure Adam or Pharrell will end up winning anyway with one of their boring singer-songwriter dudes if Blake country block fails this season. But here is my first impressions of the ninth season:

1. Ellie Lawrence (Team Gwen)
2. Krista Hughes (Team Blake)
3. Sydney Rhame (Team Pharrell)
4. Amy Vachal (Team Pharrell)
5. Madi Davis (Team Pharrell)
6. Morgan Frazier (Team Blake)
7. Andi & Alex (Team Adam)
8. Ivonne Acero (Team Pharrell)
9. Kota Wade (Team Gwen)
10. Mark Hood (Team Pharrell)
11. Shelby Brown (Team Adam)
12. Evan McKeel (Team Pharrell)
13. Blind Joe (Team Blake)
14. Emily Ann Roberts (Team Blake)
15. Nadjah Nicole (Team Blake)
16. Siahna Im (Team Pharrell)
17. Keith Semple (Team Adam)
18. Regina Love (Team Adam)
19. Manny Cabo (Team Adam)
20. Blaine Mitchell (Team Blake)
21. Cole Criske (Team Blake)
22. Dustin Christensen (Team Blake)
23. Korin Bukowski (Team Gwen)
24. Tyler Dickerson (Team Blake)
25. Barrett Baber (Team Blake)
26. Dustin Monk (Team Adam)
27. Jeffery Austin (Team Gwen)
28. James Dupré (Team Adam)
29. Alex Kandel (Team Gwen)
30. Jordan Smith (Team Adam)
31. Summer Schappell (Team Gwen)
32. Viktor Király (Team Adam)
33. Jubal and Amanda (Team Pharrell)
34. Riley Biederer (Team Pharrell)
35. Chris Crump (Team Blake)
36. Hanna Ashbrook (Team Gwen)
37. Darius Scott (Team Pharrell)
38. Amanda Ayala (Team Adam)
39. Zach Seabaugh (Team Blake)
40. Celeste Betton (Team Pharrell)
41. Chance Peña (Team Adam)
42. Cassandra Robertson (Team Adam)
43. Tim Atlas (Team Gwen)
44. Noah Jackson (Team Gwen)
45. Lyndsey Elm (Team Gwen)
46. Daria Jazmin (Team Pharrell)
47. Chase Kerby (Team Gwen)
48. Braiden Sunshine (Team Gwen)

Wow, the first nine are all females, dude have to step up their games this season. Of course at this rate the dudes are going to run out of Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran songs to cover by the Knockout Round and will have to try something new. Of course by the time the Live Round starts, I am sure at least seven of the eight spots will be voted through by the bored housewife voting block during the Live Playoffs. But going by my rankings here is how each team ranks if you give each singer a numerical value based on the Power Rankings:

Team Blake: 352
Team Pharrell: 340
Team Adam: 279
Team Gwen: 205

I think this may be the first time I thought Blake came out of the Blind Auditions as the winner, he come out of the pre-taped rounds the winner multiple times because he has always has done the best job getting his best singer to the Live Shows while Adam likes to throw away some of his best singers to make it easier for hid chosen one, and Gwen and Pharrell go with the dumbest philosophy of picking who they think they can help the most, not who was the best (Ryan Sill: never forget).


I did complain of how the boring but cute boys take over the show when voting starts, but looking at the iTunes ranking, seven of the top ten including six of the top seven (the seventh, some even thought was a chick until we saw him), maybe this really is a woman's year.


1. Amy Vachal (31)
2. Andi and Alex (32)
3. Jordan Smith (36)
4. Shelby Brown (39)
5. Ellie Lawrence (45)
6. Sydney Rhame (58)
7. Morgan Frazier (73)
8. Barrett Baber (85)
9. Krista Hughes (111)
10. Blind Joe (150)
11. Lyndsey Elm (166)
12. Cole Criske (195)
13. James Dupre (215)
14. Chris Crump (215)
15. Manny Cabo (250)
16. Siahna Im (286)
17. Zach Seabaugh (301)
18. Ivonne Acero (314)
19. Dustin Christensen (328)
20. Madi Davis (351)
21. Chance Pena (392)
22. Emily Ann Roberts (406)
23. Jeffery Austin (412)
24. Chase Kirby (439)
25. Korin Bukowski (477)
26. Summer Schappell (426)
27. Viktor Kiraly (503)
28. Blaine Mitchell (599)
29. Keith Semple (651)
30. Evan McKeel (739)
31. Mark Hood (814)
32. Jubal and Amanda (901)
33. Tyler Dickerson (1207)
34. Darius Scott (1493)

So Najah was the one Blake team member that failed to crack the top 1500 on the iTunes chart so again, he does have a very strong team this season. Gwen is missing five but three of them were montaged. Then you have Adam dominating the top four but lets see if any of them are his favorite and which of them he throws under the bus. And if we rank them, here is who iTunes shoppers think have the strongest team:

Blake: 206
Adam: 166
Pharrell: 127
Gwen: 118

Every season after the last coach's round up I always think to myself, I really should have paid attention to who they featured in those because that is probably a spoiler to who makes the Live Shows. I actually did remember that half way though Adam's recap that I should pay attention and there were four things, interestingly enough one for each team, that really stood out to me during the recaps: 1) Andi and Alex were not features, it is amazing at just how wrong the coaches can be as this would not be the first time the highest charting Blind Audition did not make the Live Shows (and second time it was a duo on Adam's Team; seriously, duos, do not pick Adam), 2) If I was not mistaken Blake was all dudes (okay I was not paying the closest of attention); I mentioned that did not go for many indie chicks but he does have to strong country chicks, Krista and Morgan; so if this holds up, it will be the first time he has not taken a female country singer to the Live Shows since season one, 3) a montage contestant was included in Pharrell's package which seems very weird, she has to be going far otherwise why give someone as much time in a recap as the time they spend on their whole Blind Audition; 4) and seriously, Braiden Sunshine? He better not be this season's Ryan Sill (never forget) or I may have to delete all the No Doubt songs from my library, yes, all five of them; crap, that probably is a spoiler and watch him knock out Ellie next round in the worst decision on the show since Nic Hawk inexplicably booted Holly Henry. No guessing battle pairings because the previews spoiled them all and here there are with who I think will win listed first and ranked with how confident I am with my guess. I even threw in some steals even though those are very hard to predict because it sometimes seems the coaches randomly push their steal buttons.

Team Adam
Jordan Smith vs. Regina Love (S)
Andi and Alex vs. Chase Pena
Viktor Kiraly vs. Cassandra Robertson
Shelby Brown vs. Amanda Ayala
James Dupre vs. Dustin Monk
Keith Semple vs. Manny Cabo (S)

Team Blake
Barrett Baber vs. Dustin Christensen (S)
Blind Joe vs. Blaine Mitchell
Tyler Dickerson vs. Zach Seabaugh
Krista Hughes vs. Chris Crump (S)
Morgan Frazier vs. Emily Ann Robetrts
Najah Nicole vs. Cole Criske

Team Gwen
Ellie Lawrence vs. Tim Atlas
Jeffery Austin vs. Noah Jackson
Korin Bukowski vs. Chase Kerby
Alex Kandel vs. Kota Wade (S)
Summer Schappwll vs. Hanna Shbook
Braiden Sunshine vs. Lyndsey Elm

Team Pharrell
Evan McKeel vs. Riley Biederer (S)
Darius Scott and Daria Jazmin
Mark Hood vs. Celeste Beston (S)
Amy Vachal vs. Jubal and Amanda
Siahna Im vs. Ivonne Acero (s)
Madi Davis vs. Sydney Rhame

I whine a lot at how bad the song choices in the Battle Rounds are but Gwen does pick songs by Regina Specktor and Howard Jones, so points for that (but those points will be deducted if she picks Braiden Sunshine). Now it is time for my completely premature prediction of the top twenty. It does seem harder this season than in past to guess who advances to the Live Round so I may err heavy on those possible recap spoilers, well except Braiden Sunshine because there is no way he is in the Live Shows. Crap, I cannot trust Gwen, not only is he probably in the Live Show, not only does he probably knocks out Ellie, but Gwen will probably use her Coach Save on him in the Live Playoffs taking him to the Top 12. It really will be Ryan Sill all over again. I am just going to pick five from all team even though they may be on different teams via Steals by the time the Live Shows and are ranking them by how confident I think they make it that far:

Adam: Viktor, Shelby, Jordan, Keith, Manny
Blake: Barrett, Krista, Dustin, Tyler, Blaine
Gwen: Braiden Ellie, Jeffery, Alex, Korin
Pharrell: Mark, Amy, Siahna, Even, Riley, Madi