The Fifty Best Live Show Performances on The Voice

In a measure of full disclosure, I tend to check out of The Voice when it goes Live because most of my favorites from the Blind Auditions are gone by then. So I have not seen every single Live Show performance, it may not even be twenty - five percent. I just tend to watch the few singers I like via YouTube. And here are my fifty favorite.

1. Heartless - Dia Frampton

2. Dream On - Amanda Brown

3. Hotline Bling - Amy Vachal

4. Love Is Blindness - Madi Davis

5. Ordinary People - Mathai

6. I Call the Shots - Hannah Huston

7. Skinny Love - Lindsey Pavao

8. Blank Space - Amy Vachal

9. Songbird - Madi Davis

10. Over You - Cassadee Pope

11. Stars - Amanda Brown

12. We’re Going To Be Friends - Caroline Pennell

13. The A Team - Caroline Glaser

14. To Make You Feel My Love - Amy Vachal

15. Adorn - Cole Vosbury

16. Why Not Me - Emily Ann Roberts

17. Rich Girl - Cole Vosbury

18. Say You Love Me - Hannah Huston

19. Losing My Religion - Dia Frampton

20. Somebody That I Used to Know - Lindsey Pavao

21. Heads Carolina, Tails California - Danielle Bradbery

22. Dog Days Are Over - Caroline Pennell

23. She Talks To Angels - Austin Jenckes

24. Maggie May - Cole Vosbury

25. Foolish Games - Ashley De La Rosa

26. It’s Too Late - Lilli Passero

27. Maybe It Was Memphis - Danielle Bradbery

28. Stay - Amber Carrington

29. Holding Out For a Hero - Jessie Pitts

30. Ex’s & Oh’s - Ellie Lawrence

31. Ain’t No Sunshine - Mia Z

32. Every Breath You Take - Hannah Huston

33. Stupid Boy - Cassadee Pope

34. The Way You Look Tonight - Amy Vachal

35. Inventing Shadows - Dia Frampton

36. Budapest - Joshua Davis

37. Big Girls Don’t Cry - Madi Davis

38. I’ll Be There For You - Tess Boyer

39. Are You Happy Now? - Cassadee Pope

40. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman - Amanda Brown

41. Leaving On a Jet Plane - Caroline Pennell

42. One More Try - Cody Belew

43. Oh Sherrie - Sisaundra Lewis

44. Alone - Sasha Allen

45. Dirty Diana - Kimberly Nichole

46. My Church - Mary Sarah

47. Somebody To Love - Cody Belew

48. Wake Me Up - Caroline Pennell

49. Before He Cheats - Sasha Allen

50. Blame It On Your Heart - Emily Ann Roberts


Performances by Season

Season 1 – 3
Season 2 – 5
Season 3 – 8
Season 4 - 5
Season 5 - 8
Season 6 – 2
Season 7 - 1
Season 8 - 3
Season 9 - 10
Season 10 - 4
Season 11 – 0
Season 12 – 1

Performances by Coach

Blake - 17
Adam – 12
Pharrell - 7
Cee-Lo – 6
Christina – 4
Shakira - 3
Gwen – 1
Usher – 0
Alicia - 0
Miley – 0


And since I have gone through all the rounds, here is the ranking if you add up all four Best of rounds:

Performances by Season:

Season 1 – 7
Season 2 – 19
Season 3 – 22
Season 4 – 21
Season 5 – 23
Season 6 – 8
Season 7 – 3
Season 8 – 14
Season 9 – 23
Season 10 – 8
Season 11 – 0
Season 12 – 1

Performances of Coach:

Blake – 41
Adam – 34
Pharrell - 21
Christina – 19
Cee-Lo – 18
Shakira - 7
Usher – 6
Gwen – 4
Alicia – 0
Miley - 0

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 4/30/2017

Once Upon a Time: Um, so what happened to the Tin Man? How about now that the Wicked Witch has drained her magic into that heart you give it to the Tin Man?
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Billions: Oh yeah, Chuck is into kinky stuff. I thought it was finally going to catch up with him but he stole the laptop himself. And syncing up “My hands are tied” to him and Wendy reuniting was a little too on the nose. And I have a feeling Taylor with have a change of conscious before the end of the season.

Gotham: So the Riddler has finally gone full green. Um, yeah? But of course the Penguin did not die, the only question would be how he would return. Um, Poison Ivy fished him out of the river? Alright. I guess maybe they will finally give her something to do.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Supergirl: Thank goodness Kara got her job back, blogger just seemed like a horrible cover for a Superhero.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

The Voice: I hate Adam, sure Shakira and Gwen are worse coaches but Adam does plenty of head scratching things. One thing he does almost every season and every time he does it it backfires miserably is that he almost always gives a Battle Round pairing a song by the mentor and it always suck. Every time but twice since season four. That is seven times and never has any of these Battles ended in a Steal. So why the fork does he give Lilli Passero a Shania Twain song other than she was the mentor this week? And more importantly, why did he give Lilli that song? Maybe had he given her You’re Still the One or You’ve Got a Way that could have worked with Lilli’s style. Instead Adam’s inner dialogue said, “Lilli’s sassy, this song is sassy… gold!” Seriously I hate Adam. But by some miraculous event, America took pity on Lilli, be it the horrendous song choice or she was rushed to urgent care earlier that week and still seemed out of it after her performance. So hopefully Lilli is back at one hundred percent this week and Adam does not give her a G-Eazy song.

Bates Motel: Wait, what just happened? Did they really kill of Norman Bates well before he was supposed to? I believe in artistic licenses, but it is weird to build this as a prequel to the movie and then kill him before he gets there.
You can download Bates Motel on iTunes.

Harlots: Awesome, the goat is still around. But poor Emily, she just cannot find a place anywhere. But what actually does she do now, start her own house? Then you have Charlotte and her relationship just get weirder by the episode.
You can stream Harlots on Hulu.

The Challenge: Invasion of the Champions: So they finish the Men’s challenge in five minutes, announced these are your finalists, but did not actually start the Final Challenge until about five minutes before the credits. Then in between all we got was fifty minutes of filler. Why not run the final this week instead of wasting my time?
You can download The Challenge: Invasion of the Champions on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Oh snap! Daisy just tossed Aida out that window. Which begs the question; if a robot dies in the framework does it die in the real world? Real world Aida seemed fine after the fall.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

The Handmaid’s Tale: So what the fork did they do the Rory Gilmore?!? Is this the gental mutilation I hear from time to time but never bother to read the article to find out exactly what it is? That is the only thing I can think off.
You can stream The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu.

Survivor: Game Changers: When Zeke flipped last week and starting targeting Andrea I got worried she might actually go home. This week when Sierra said it time to get rid of Andrea in the post challenge confessional I had a sense of calm. The season premiere was the five hundredth episode of Survivor and probably of the five hundred and nine episodes in the history of the show, I would venture to guess whoever’s name is mentioned in the pre-commercial confessional does not actually go home. And in the end, Michaela was snacking while Andrea name was read except Debbie’s name was written down more often (really, how big must your stones be to have your name brought up only to have a snack while votes are read; she was sipping away when JT was blindsided too).

Though I am not sure if that was the right move for Sarah. In her old alliance, I would be worried sitting next to Brad or Sierra, but in the new one, I would be worried about everyone except for Michaela. And she may not know this but she just left an alliance with three Hidden Immunity Idols and the Legacy Advantage which make her Stolen Vote thing look worthless. Unless of course the deck shuffles next week. The promo looks like the deck will shuffle with all the females on one side (Sierra does approach Andrea and Cirie) and the male identifiers on the other (Zeke talks to Not-Dante and Troyzan). Of course the dudes may have the advantage despite being out numbered six to four with enough Idols to cover everyone if one of them wins Immunity. Still that would be enough to keep them around for another week and maybe the deck will reshuffle again after that.
You can download Survivor: Game Changers on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 4/22/2017

Once Upon a Time: Was this our first look at Tigerlily on the show? They ruined Peter Pan so much it is hard to remember. But Emma being able to bring Hook back to Storybrooke seemed silly. He had some curse that preventing him from getting back there so what was so different about the door Emma created?
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Billions: Does a billionaire really a VR experience with a doomsday bunker when he can build one that is real and probably better? How about a bunker on the moon or Mars? But what exactly do you get a man who can buy anything?

The Voice: Someone mentioned their team on The Voice App and I thought, oh yeah, I have one of those but I have not even looked at it since the Battle Rounds. I was shocked to see my team was still in tack (Lauren, TSoul Chris, Lilli, and Jesse). Usually I am lucky to have two people make it to the Top 12. Aliyah was the big shock getting voted through over Casi (though I think Blake would have saved her anyway). Vanessa was another big shock that night, she was singing a crappy EDM song and still made it in over the overhyped Stephanie and Partridge legacy Jack. The big shocks Tuesday came with the coaches saves, I figured Gwen would save either Quizz because of her creepy obsession with teenagers or the much hyped JChosen. Instead she went with the easily forgettable Troy who has to be most likely to get booted first next week. Then I thought Adam would save one of his rockers but instead boring teen singer Mark who is most likely to be in the bottom two every week yet inexplicably saved by Twitter up until the Semi-Finals. Ugg. But anyway, here is my top 12 Power Rankings:

1. Lilli Passero
2. Lauren Duski
3. Chris Blue
4. Aliyah Moulden
5. TSoul
6. Vanessa Ferguson
7. Brennley Brown
8. Troy Ramey
9. Stephanie Rice
10. Jesse Larson
11. Hunter Plake
12. Mark Isaiah

Harlots: You know what they say, a party never truly starts until someone brings a goat. And poor Lucy, again stuck the war between her sister and her fiancé. That final song was so sad.

Pretty Little Liars: Should I remember who Holden is. Wasn’t the murdered cop named Detective Holden? And please more Ali and Paige mean women scenes.
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTuness.

The Challenge: Invasion of the Champions: Do you believe in highly unlikely’s!!! Camilla over Laurel. Wow. And Camillia is the only Champion girl left. Double wow.
You can download The Challenge: Invasion of the Champions on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: So The Patriot is dead dead right? Dead in the framework is dead in real life. That is not to say they cannot bring him back somehow I guess.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Survivor: Game Changers: Oh my, two hours is just too much. And it was turning out to be a horrible two hours: Debbie grinding on Cirie, Tai streaking, Hali getting booted, and then Andrea almost went home. Instead Ozzy got the boot so it was not all bad. A lot of bad game play this week. When Cirie was debating bringing in Michayla to her alliance and get rid of Hali instead, I had to wonder, why not bring in both and then vote out someone like Brad or Sierra? And did these people really think Hali was smart enough to find an Idol? Really, she could have had come in handy for Cirie’s alliance at the second Tribal. But before that Zeke made a horrible move breaking from what looked like a very tight alliance with Andrea. So Andrea tells Zeke not to tell Debbie her plan, Zeke tells Debbie and they should target Andrea, Debbie than says forget than and then conspires to get rid of Ozzy and does not even let Zeke in on the plan as he is the only one who votes for Aubrey for no apparent reason (did we miss a scene where they told them they were splitting votes just in case Andrea had an Idol and that is why Zeke voted for Aubrey?). So now Debbie does not trust Zeke, Sierra does not trust Zeke, Andrea is still in the game and gunning for Zeke (on the flip side, Andrea will have to go back to camp after saying, “see you never” in her vote). So note to future players, if Andrea tells you to not do something do not do it.

Andrea 💀💀 #survivor pic.twitter.com/uPmX2JZFkO

— lemon ღ (@prejuryflop) April 20, 2017

You can download Survivor: Game Changers on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Wait, Red’s cleaner used to be Lizzy’s babysitter? Huh? But really, I am not sure we really needed an entire episode devoted to her.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

The Voice Season Twelve Knockout Round Power Rankings

So no key adviser this season. I guess they could not find anyone as big as the guy from Fun to help out this season. (Oh wait, Shaina Twain is coming in next week to mentor the Top 12). Instead for the first time ever, the contestants got to watch their opponent practice. Yawn. So basically fodder knew they were going home days before their performance instead of minutes. Except for some head scratching Steals. Seriously, what the fork? Lilli was the only one this round worthy of a reprieve. The other three should have been reserved for Felisha and… um, the Knockouts were pretty meh this season as a whole. Almost everyone gave their worst performance of the season. And much like the Steals, of the rumored Comeback Picks, I wonder why bother to them except for one. No spoilers, so here are the contestants we know for sure will be performing tonight.

1. Lauren Duski (Team Blake): Sure she has given the same performance three times but she has yet to falter. And without a clear frontrunner this season, being country on Team Blake, she may be the closest we got to a frontrunner right now.

2. Lilli Passero (Team Alicia Adam): Her weakest performance of the three, but like I said earlier, you can say that about just about everyone this season. Still leaps and bounds above Ashley. It seems like Alicia has been employing Pharrell’s keep the weaker singer if it seems like the other is going to get Stolen philosophy (which I hate). And on the plus side, it looks like it will be easier to get to the top 12 on Adam’s team.

3. Vanessa Ferguson (Team Alicia): I guess we now know why Alicia got rid of “Felisha Keys” because Vanessa is a much better imitation of her.

4. TSoul (Team Blake): Well that was kind of weird and I kind of liked it.

5. Aliyah Moulden (Team Blake): The best of the way too many teenagers this season, but it concerns me that she already went country.

6. Casi Joy (Team Blake): One of the few times I thought someone gave their best performance this round.

7. Chris Blue (Team Alicia): If you catch me on the right day, I may call Superstition the greatest song of all time. I will never call this the greatest Knockout performance of all time.

8. Brennley Brown (Team Blake Gwen: Well I was wrong about Blake letting her go just to Steal her back in the Knockouts (he ended up Stealing her opponent because, maybe he did not hear who won?). I still find her a bit squeaky.

9. Anatalia Villaranda (Team Alicia) – Her first two performances were high energy fun, but I am not sure if I want to her a teenage pop singer sing a country song about killing a dude.

10. Jesse Larson (Team Adam): He is fine already, but we have seen much better old rockers on this show before.

11. Hanna Eyre (Team Adam): I think I said this last time, but Hanna is much better when she keeps it young and fun, another song about adult love just seems off.

12. JChosen (Team Gwen): I am always annoyed when singers put too many gymnastics in their vocal performance; it gets really annoying after a while. Pick your spot s dude.

13. Stephanie Rice (Team Gwen Alicia): I was going to wonder why Alicia wasted a Steal but there was not much else out there worthy of one and this was not even the worst Steal of the season, not even the second worst.

14. Hunter Plake (Team Alicia Gwen): Looking at iTunes, Hunter is going to be this season’s token boring white dude who gets to the finals despite being very bland. Hopefully Gwen finds a way to screw this up.

15. Josh West (Team Adam): Sometimes you can tell who is going to win just by the pairing. Josh seems to be Adam’s favorite, but I liked Johnny much better. Josh may have the look but sound bar room karaoke.

16. Troy Ramey (Team Gwen): I liked his Blind Audition, but since then he was montaged and gave a slurry, weird Knockout performance. Not a good trajectory.

17. Ashley Levin (Team Blake Alicia): She started out bad and just got worse. And yet Alicia picking her over Lilli was not even the worst decision this season.

18. Mark Isaiah (Team Adam): Montage win… yawn. And though they put up the full performance on YouTube, I could not bring myself to watch him sing Justin Beiber. Hopefully they find a way to montage his Playoff too.

19. Quizz Swanigan (Team Alicia Gwen): I was going to call this the worst use of a Steal ever until….

20. Aaliyah Rose (Team GwenBlake: What the flying fork?!?! I thought Gwen’s Steal of Quizz would go down as the worst ever. No, this may have been the worst use of a Steal ever and worst Knockout performance ever. What the fork Blake, if you wanted to curry favors with your girlfriend, Steal Johnny.

Putting these placements into my patent pending formula to see who has the best team:

Blake – 69
Alicia – 56
Adam – 49
Gwen - 36

Despite the embarrassing Steal, Blake still had four of the top six. On the flip side, Gwen only had one person in the top half of the list. Adam’s Steal helped keep him out of the cellar as the rest of his team is in the bottom eleven. So it is really the Blake, Alicia, and Lilli show to me. Hopefully they can put those two teams on the same night so I can completely ignore the other night other than watching Lilli on YouTube and hopefully remembering to vote for her. But who cares what I think, here is what the iTunes
buyers purchased this round:

1. Hunter Plake (23)
2. Stephanie Rice (60)
3. Brennley Brown (63)
4. Lauren Duski (111)
5. Vanessa Ferguson (137)
6. Hunter Plake and Jack Cassidy (139)
7. TSoul (162)
8. Chris Blue (187)
9. Troy Ramsey (221)
10. Casi Joy (241)
11. JChosen (255)
12. Josh West (272)
13. Jesse Larson (327)
14. Lilli Passero (343)
15. Hanna Eyre (360)
16. Aliyah Moulden (535)
17. Hunter Plake – Carry On (613)
18. Mark Isaiah (785)
19. Jonny Gates and Sammie Zonana (1025)
20. Aaliyah Rose (1047)
21. Casi Joy - Blue (1066)
22. Brennley Brown and Lauren Duski (1189)
23. Anatalia Villaranda (1120)
24. Stephani Rice – Piece By Piece (1203)
25. Ashley Levin (1405)

And if you are looking for Quizz, he could not even crack the top 1500 so clearly I was not the only one scratching my head when he was Stolen. Now if you average their peaks from all three rounds this is where they rank this season:

1. Lauren Duski (135.3)
2. Stephanie Rice (179)
3. Hunter Plake (211)
4. Casi Joy (233.3)
5. Chris Blue (266)
6. Lilli Passero (279.6)
7. JChosen (400.6)
8. Vanessa Ferguson (421)
9. Brennley Brown (450.6)
10. TSoul (549.3)
11. Mark Isaiah (684)
12. Anatalia Villaranda (1178)
Only charted two of their three songs
13. Troy Ramsey (242)
14. Jesse Larson (370)
15. Josh West (437.5)
16. Aliyah Moulden (495)
17. Hannah Eyre (516.5)
18. Ashley Levin (822.5)
Only charted one song
19. Quizz (441)
20. Aaliyah Rose (1046)

Like I have said that without a clear frontrunner, Lauren may be the closest we got. I am not sure what iTunes buyers hear in Stephanie or Hunter. I am also surprised Lilli is not selling better. That indie-folk lane that she kind of controls this season usually sells very well (though not necessarily translates to votes). Amy Vashal even had that throwback vibe and rivaled Jordan that season on the iTunes charts (yet inexplicably could not even make it to the Twitter Save portion of the Semi-Final). So I am hesitant to even predict she will make the top 12 even though she is doing much better than everyone on her team, only Mark had all three songs chart and she averaged four hundred higher than him. And I guess iTunes votes do not even count this round because there will be instant results. I think they did this last season but I stopped watching a long time before that.

But I will still make some predictions even though they seem harder than usually this season. Except for Blake. His team is always the easiest to predict. And his top three will likely make the Semi-Finals

Team Adam:
America Saves: Lilli, Jesse (or Adam’s comeback artist, but I do not want to spoil)
Adam Saves: Josh (or Lilli if his Comeback Artist takes her spot)

Team Alicia
America Saves: Chris, Ashley
Alicia Saves: Anatalia

Team Blake
America Saves: Lauren, Casi
Blake Saves: TSoul

Team Gwen
America Saves: Brennley, Troy
Gwen Saves: Quizz (because Gwen hates America)

The Voice Season Twelve Battle Round Power Rankings

Can we please get a petition going to kick Gwen off the show? In three seasons she has had three very weak teams, she gave us two of the five biggest Live Show disasters Ryan Sill and Braiden Sunshine. Her best contestant ever, Ellie Lawrence, she dumped in favor of Sunshine. Her love affair with Blake this season is completely unbearable. But there is one thing this season that trumps them all and is the reason she needs to get the boot and never come back. Now I am not one of those people who say, the show is called The Voice, the best singer should always advance. I want to be entertained so I will take an entertaining singer over a boring singer who just can happened to hold the biggest note. But even that take is about singing. Gwen actually told Brennley she knew she was going to Steal her before she even started singing based on her look (and I also think Blake told her to Steal Brennley so he can Steal her back next round like I predicted).

Really the Steals all around seemed wasted. Blake paired up his country girls because there are too many of them this season, yet both losers got stolen. Adam’s steals gave boring and unmemorable performances. Then there were two boring white dudes that got a reprieve (okay, I kind of like Dawson’s cheesy performance). Surprisingly Blake had the best Steals despite best known for using his as fodder, Felicia should have never lost to a middle schooler and though I did not care for Caroline going over the top for the Battles when her Blind Audition was so sweet and subdued, maybe with the country Blake they can find something more folksy to do in the Knockouts. Other than Blake’s pair, there were some singer left by the wayside because the other coaches rather go for fodder. I though Lauryn Judd was one of the five best this Battle Round and Kenny P., Gaby, Sammie, Josh, and Kawan were all better than the other six who will be moving on. I have said it before and will say it until it happens, but The Voice needs a Second Chance season for those that did not make it to the Live Shows. All of these six should be given another try.

Then much like the Blind Audition montage victims this season, the Battle relegated to seconds of screen time got uploaded to YouTube. And clearly the producers were right to cut them from television as most were trainwrecks or just downright boring. Only one was at all memorable, Andrea vs. Micah but it looks like Andrea may have irked someone because she is currently set up to be the third ever triple montage. But hey, at least she got her performances on YouTube unlike the other two. But anyways. Here are my favorites of the season.

1. Lilli Passero (Team Alicia): I love her, not much else to say other that I am going to be irate when she gets the boot so all the boring white dudes and country singers make it to the Semi-finales.

2. Lauren Duski (Team Blake): Blake really loves his country singers because he can dip deep into the country library to grab songs people like me have never heard of. But I hope Blake lets her stay weird like doing country pop versions of nineties songs.

3. Aliyah Moulden (Team Blake): Well this was a surprise. Blake has historically been horrible at the Battle Rounds from an entertainment stand point. They are usually lopsided and whenever he picks non-country songs they end up being train wrecks. I am too lazy to look it up, but I would guess half of his Battles get monaged because of this. So when you hear he was giving his two non-country singers quite possibly the cheesiest song ever, my first thought was, wait, this is not being montaged. But congratulations to Aliyah and Dawson for actually making that an entertaining performance. Seriously, these kids’ parents may not have been alive when this song was released.

4. Chris Blue (Team Alicia): In a while I am going to complain the over use of Motown in the Battle Round, and here is proof you do not have to go to the well every time there is an RnB singer. I just wished the break into some nineties RnB tunes also.

5. TSoul (Team Blake): Here is another Battle that deserved a Steal.

6. Johnny Gates (Team Gwen): This was one of the Battles when Johnny starts singing and you go, oh yeah, he is going to win. Then Sammie started to sing and I realized, oh wait, she should win. One of the rare tossups in the Battles. Shame Sammie did not warrant a steal.

7. Felicia Temple (Team Alicia Blake): I jumped ship before the Battle last season so I was unaware of how Alicia picks singers, was she this stupid? How was this even a choice? This may have been the second worst Battle decision ever.

8. Dawson Coyle (Team Blake Alicia): I have to roll my eyes whenever Carson hypes the most shocking steal ever every episode and every commercial break, but that may have finally been appropriate this time around. There were other out there that deserved a Steal over him (Gaby and Kenny P comes to mind) but he did have a much higher degree of difficulty with the cheesiest cheesy eighties song.

9. Caroline Sky (Team Gwen Blake): Caroline came in as a soft singer-songwriter type, I liked that much better that her trying to belt out songs. Hopefully Blake can course correct that after getting some bad advice from Gwen.

10. Jesse Larson (Team Adam): Speaking of random Blake Battles, this seems like something he would have done and would have been montaged. Jesse was fine had it just been him, but goodness these two do not mix well at all. Since they actually released the montaged Battles this season I have to wonder what the producers were thinking airing this instead of half they actually reduced to five seconds.

11. Ashley Levin (Team Blake Alicia): I was kind of meh on this Battle though I leaned towards Ashley. Not so much that I thought she would get three Steal attempts
.
12. Vanessa Ferguson (Team Alicia): I would give the slight edge to Vanessa but the performance was just too subdued.

13. Autumn Turner (Team Alicia Adam): Again, kind of a boring Battle yet she did makes Last Dance really entertaining in 2017 so maybe she can do something better in the Knockouts, Adam does have a weak team.

14. Brennley Brown (Team Blake Gwen): Called it, stolen by Gwen, now where can I bet Blake steals her back in the Knockouts?

15. Johnny Hayes (Team Adam): I spent most of the time thinking Cody Belew was much better than either of them. Both were just trying too hard.

16. JChosen (Team Gwen): I was kind of bored with JChosen, maybe cause it has become an annoying cliché whenever there is a soul singer to have them sing Motown, so I found Keny P much more interesting in this Battle. And even though he seems to be pushed s lot, there are many other RnB singers this season I am more interested in.
17. Casi Joy (Team Blake): I just find her traditional country sound to be mostly boring.

18. Anatalia Villaranda (Team Alicia): Gee, they might as well as montaged this because it was pretty obvious who Alicia was going to pick from the pair and the energetic song choice made it even more obvious since Anatalia basically performed the same song in the Blind Auditions.

19. Malik Davage (Team Adam): Another really bad song choice from Adam, the song just does not showcase any voice very well, but I still thought Kawan was the clear winner.

20. Troy Ramey (Team Gwen): Montage win… yawn. And watching the full version I could see why, they mostly butchered one of the great middle school dance songs of all time.

21. Brandon Royal (Team Gwen): I liked his battle better than his Blind Audition but he is still on the bottom f the RnB singer power raking. Well of the grown men division.

22. Josh West (Team Adam): Montage win… yawn. Really just a bad song choice for both of them. It slightly fit Nala better but clearly Adam knew who was going to win when they paired them.

23. Davina Leone (Team Gwen Adam: This warranted a Steal? She came acrtoss as a more of a background singer to Brandon and he was not really that good either. If this was the last Steal of the season, Adam should have waited. I did notice Carson did not get the obligatory, “coaches let me remind you (the artist) is available to Steal” for Lauryn Judd, he should have waited for her.

24. Andrea Thomas (Team Blake): Double montage victim… yawn. The only question now is will be the third triple montage victim?

25. Hanna Eyre (Team Adam): Montage win… yawn. I actually thought the other chick won hands down. Too bad they did not add the coach’s commentary to the YouTube video because I wonder what Adam’s reasoning was and if the other coaches agreed. Probably another case of Adam picking the winner before he even picked the song.

26. Stephanie Rice (Team Gwen): She gets much too loud for my taste.

27. Enid Ortiz (Team Blake): The biggest shocker of the Battles, Valerie, a much ballyhooed four chair turn against a very forgettable person from the Blinds gets booted via montage. But it also really sucks getting stuck singing an obscure song by a Voice alum, no wonder this was montaged.

28. Jack Cassidy (Team Alicia): see below.

29. Hunter Plake (Team Alicia Gwen): I was going to decry this as another wasted Steal but apparently I am in the minority considering this was the highest charting Battle this season, and higher than any Blind Audition. Granted I have an irrational hatred of boring white dudes and these two are extremely boring. And with Hunter now on Gwen’s team, I fear we may have a redux of Gwen’s last season who took an annoying teenager and boring white dudes to the Lives and they went all the way to the Semi-Finals. Does that make Stephanie this season’s Korin. I would feel really sorry for her if that is the case.

30. Mark Isaiah (Team Adam): Wait, did I watch a different Battle? What was with all the praise for Mark, his voice and whiney. Gaby actually has character. Is this solely a looks thing and everyone thinks Mark is the next heartthrob? To me this goes in the pantheon of worst decisions ever.

31. Quizz Swanigan (Team Alicia): Seriously Alicia, what the fork? He better not become the black Braiden Sunshine.

32. Aaliyah Rose (Team Gwen): Montage win…. Yawn. But she better not turn out to be the female Braiden Sunshine. Seriously, Gwen is a horrible coach.

Alright let put these people into my patient pending formula to see who has the strongest team:

Blake – 170
Alicia – 151
Adam – 107
Gwen – 100

Oh my, coming out of the Blinds, somehow I thought Adam had the strongest team while Alicia had the weakest. Adam had a bunch of questionable picks and some really bad song selections that really sunk his team this round. And though Alicia made the worst decision of the round keeping Quizz, she chose wisely everywhere else and plucked some great songs too that really showcased her singers which may be why half her losers got stolen. Then there was Blake steady as always, picking the right singer and even picked up some worthy Steals in the process. But who cares what I think, here are the highest charting Battles this season:

1. Hunter Plake and Jack Cassidy (11)
2. Brennley Brown and Lauren Duski (160)
3. Lauryn Judd and Lilli Passero (180)
4. Johnny Gates and Sammie Zonana (193)
5. Autumn Turner and Vanessa Ferguson (232)
6. Ashley Levin and Casi Joy (246)
7. Caroline Sky and Stephanie Rice (311)
8. Brandon Royal and Davina Leone (389)
9. Felisha Temple and Quizz Swanigan (447)
10. Aliyah Moulden and Dawson Coyle (455)
11. Chris Blue and RJ Collins (534)
12. Jesse Larson and Taylor Alexander (555)
13. Chris Blue (579)
14. Gaby Borromea and Mark Isaiah (690)
15. JChosen and Kenny P. (698)
16. Casi Joy (896)
17. Josh Hoyer and TSoul (882)
18. Anatalia Villaranda and Missy Robertson (1348)
19. Hunter Plake (1156)
20. Johnny Hayes and Julian Martinez (1497)

You know my rant about unworthy Steals at the beginning, maybe I am wrong; all eight steals were in the top ten best sellers. Though I should note, Lauryn was third and she more than anyone else this season I think deserved to move on to the Knockouts. Since they gone to the only offering up duets instead of solo of singers advancing, it is harder to pick out front runners (although Chris Casi and Hunter being the only ones who re-charted their Blind Auditions may be a clue, although weirdly Hunter’s did not chart very high the first time), but here is how the singers rank if you average their peaks from the two rounds so far.

1. Lauren Duski (147.5)
2. Casi Joy (221)
3. Stephanie Rice (242)
4. Lilli Passero (248)
5. Chris Blue (308)
6. Johnny Gates (385)
7. Jack Cassidy (397)
8. JChosen (486)
9. Hunter Plake (570)
10. Vanessa Ferguson (617)
11. Brennley Brown (644.5)
12. Autumn Turner (646.5)
13. Mark Isaiah (651)
14. Caroline Sky (733.5)
15. TSoul (904)
16. Johnny Hayes (1069.5)
17. Anatalia Villaranda (1207.5)

Wow, that is almost half that manages to chart both performances. Ashley, Brandon, Davina, Aliyah, Dawson, and Jesse only charted their Battles. Felicia, Troy, Josh, and Hanna managed to chart only their Blind Auditions (the latter three were victims of montages not that is an excuse, Holly Henry almost cracked the top two hundred in the same position), while Malik, Quizz, Aaliyah, Enid, and Andrea have to even crack the top 1500 (again, the final three were featured in a montage, the latter twice). And shockingly Gwen has the best Team in terms of iTunes, just edging out Alicia and Blake. Adam, who had the best iTunes team after the Blinds, fell off a huge cliff. That will happen when you dump you two best charting Blind Auditions (Taylor and Kawan) and have half you team montaged because few people chart and certainly chart high when that happens.

Unlike the Battles where they complete spoiled all the pairings on their YouTube page, we only got a quick glimpse of a couple Battles:

Anatalia vs. Dawson (Team Alicia)
Hannah vs. Autumn (Team Adam)
JSoul vs. Enid (Team Blake)
Chris vs. Quizz (Team Alicia)
Johnny vs. Hunter (Team Gwen)

Not much to go on but some interesting pairings, especially those last three (the producers have been very keen on the spitfire Anatalia and the other, I guess is an obligatory team Adam shot). I would have guessed JSoul would be the easy pick, Blake does like taking a token black person to the Lives, but Enid did upset Valerie who I thought was the most obvious Team Blake Battle Round winner. Speaking of upsets, Quizz took out a former Team Alicia frontrunner, can he do it again. Then thankfully Gwen is putting on a battle of the boring white dudes.

It is hard enough to pick winners when you have the pairings, but I am still going to predict who I think will make the Live Playoffs on their same team ranked with whom I am most confident will advanced first with Steals in parentheses:

Team Adam: Mark, Josh, Jesse, Autumn (Caroline)
Team Alicia: Lilli, Anatalia, Vanessa, Chris (Felicia)
Team Blake: Lauren, Aliyah, Casi, TSoul (Brennley)
Team Gwen: JChosen, Johnny, Stephanie, Aaliyah (Quizz)

The Voice Season Twelve Blind Auditions Power Rankings

I knew Miley Cyrus was going to be annoying to the point I had to skip all the coach’s interaction (which has gotten professedly worse since the start) but the Blake-Gwen relationship was just as unbearable. And almost as worse as that was the new rule change lowering the age limit to thirteen when they should be raising it. And three middle schoolers who tried out were jus horrible and somehow two found their way on team. Scarily one on Team Gwen as it is hard not to forget how she drug a no way ready for primetime Braiden Sunshine to the Live Shows (even more inexplicable was the voting audience took him all the way to the semi-finals). What would be worse is for some reason, Gwen was able to recruite some decent three and four chair turns to her team. If they go home so Gwen can promote a middle schooler, I may finally call it quits on the show.

1. Lilli Passero (Team Alicia)
2. Kawan DeBose (Team Adam)
3. Lauryn Judd (Team Alicia)
4. Lauren Duski (Team Blake)
5. Troy Ramey (Team Gwen)
6. Micah Tryba (Team Blake)
7. Felicia Temple (Team Alicia)
8. Jesse Larson (Team Adam)
9. Josh Hoyer (Team Blake)
10. Gaby Borromeo (Team Adam)
11. Caroline Sky (Team Gwen)
12. Kenny P (Team Gwen)
13. Ashley Levin (Team Blake)
14. TSoul (Team Blake)
15. Josh West (Team Adam)
16. Johnny Hayes (Team Adam)
17. Hanna Eyre (Team Adam)
18. Nala Price (Team Adam)
19. Sammie Zonana (Team Gwen)
20. Malik Davage (Team Adam)
21. Julien Martinez (Team Adam)
22. Jozy Bernadette (Team Gwen)
23. JChosen (Team Gwen)
24. Vanessa Ferguson (Team Alicia)
25. Johnny Gates (Team Gwen)
26. Chris Blue (Team Alicia)
27. Dawson Coyle (Team Blake)
28. Valerie Ponzio (Team Blake)
29. Autumn Turner (Alicia Keys)
30. Sheena Brook (Team Adam)
31. Jack Cassidy (Team Alicia)
32. Casi Joy (Team Blake)
33. Brandon Royal (Team Gwen)
34. Aliyah Moulden (Team Blake)
35. Anatalia Villaranda (Team Alicia)
36. Brennley Brown (Team Blake)
37. Andrea Thomas (Team Blake)
38. RJ Collins (Team Alicia)
39. Edith Oritz (Team Blake)
40. Davina Leone (Team Gwen)
41. Stephanie Rice (Team Gwen)
42. Taylor Alexander (Team Adam)
43. Savannah Leighton (Team Gwen)
44. Mark Isaiah (Team Adam)
45. Hunter Plake (Team Alicia)
46. Missy Robertson (Team Alicia)
47. Quizz Swanigan (Team Alicia)
48. Aaliyah Rose (Team Gwen)

Even though the thirteen year olds were mosty a disaster (as well as most of the teenagers as usual), it is an improvement over last season and really the last two. As I usually do, I ranked the teams and here is how they rank:

Adam – 357
Blake – 309
Gwen – 266
Alicia – 257

I was a little surprised with how things turned out, Adam seemed to be kind of meh going through this season but I guess he did not have any truly horrible team members. Where I was thinking Alicia would be higher. The thing is she has some blue chippers, but a lot of bottom dwellers too. If she chooses wisely, she could be on top by the next round. Except since I did not pay attention much last season I am not sure how much I can trust her. But who cares what I think, here is who the iTunes buyers purchased the most:


1. Chris Blue (82)
2. Lauren Duski (135)
3. Taylor Alexander (153)
4. Stephanie Rice (173)
5. Casi Joy (196)
6. JChosen (274)
7. Troy Ramey (294)
8. Lilli Passero (316)
9. Valerie Ponzio (325)
10. Sammie Zonana (338)
11. Kawan DeBose (576)
12. Johnny Gates (577)
13. Mark Isaiah (612)
14. Johnny Hayes (642)
15. Josh West (679)
16. Hanna Eyre (747)
17. Jack Cassidy (783)
18. Sheena Brook (915)
19. TSoul (926)
20. Josh Hoyer (940)
21. Vanessa Ferguson (1002)
22. Autumn Turner (1061)
23. Anatalia Villaranda (1067)
24. Nala Price (1091)
25. Felicia Temple (1110)
26. Brennley Brown (1129)
27. Hunter Plake (1129)
28. Caroline Sky (1156)
29. Kenny P (1161)
30. Gaby Borromeo (1297)
31. Lauryn Judd (1387)

Wow, this is kind of pathetic, no that no one buys music anymore, it should not be hard at all to get on the iTunes charts with ten million viewers every night, but seventeen contestants this season could not crack the top 1500. It even took the very last person to gain a team to even crack the top 100. The third highest was a novelty audition by someone I doubt will advance any further. And what happened to Blake? Dead last with only half his team charting. Was it the lack of boring male country crooners? But as it always seems, Adam was in the lead, Gwen surprisingly in second, but a lot of people surprisingly picked her this season.

Usually it is easy to pick who makes the Live Shows even after the Blind Auditions because the show would completely telegraph it with their Best of the Blinds recap. Except this season it seemed like that showcased everyone but three or four on every team. And it is unclear anymore if placement in the show means anything are if they are putting singers there because of the coaches commentary. No better way to end the show this season than to have Alicia sing to you. But they did release all the Battle Pairings on their YouTube page and I listed who I think will win first and listed them by how confident I am with my picks as well as my usually way off picks of Steals. But really, nothing says you have no chance of advancing than being one of the three or four people on your team that did not even get a quick feature on the Best of the Blinds recap.

Team Adam:
Josh vs. Nala
Jesse vs. Taylor
Hanna vs. Sheena
Mark vs. Gabby (steal to Gwen)
Johnny vs. Julien
Malik vs. Kawan (steal to Alicia)

Team Alicia:
Lilli vs. Lauryn
Anatalia vs. Missy
Chris vs. RJ (Steal to Adam)
Felicia vs. Quizz (Steal to Adam)
Hunter vs. Jack
Autumn vs. Vanessa

Team Blake:
Valerie vs. Enid
Aliyah vs. Dawson
Casi vs. Ashley
TSoul vs. Josh
Andrea vs. Micah (Steal to Alicia)
Lauren vs. Brennley (steal to Gwen which Blake will steal back in the Knockouts because he always annoyingly does that)

Team Gwen
Troy vs. Jozy
Brandon vs. Davina
JChosen vs. Kenny P (Steal to Blake)
Johnny vs. Sammi
Stephanie vs. Caroline (Steal to Blake)
Aalyiah vs. Savannah

So with little help from the Best of the Blinds, I have a feeling that my prediction of who will make the Live Shows will be way off, but here they are ranked by confident that they will survive:

Team Adam: Josh, Hanna, Jesse, Malik, Gabby
Team Alicia: Felicia, Anatalia, Lilli, Chris, Hunter
Team Blake: Aliyah, TSoul, Cassie, Lauren, Brennley
Team Gwen: JChosen, Johnny, Aalyiah, Caroline, Brandon

Picking a winner this early is usually easy (even if I end up being really wrong). Either there is just a standout performer or the producers tip their hand by shoving one person down our throuts during the intro and outro of every ad break, but in recent seasons, they are shoving down the annoying coach’s banter. So if there is no obvious chose, might as well go with Team Blake, so here are my picks for the finals:

Casi over Johnny, Chris and Lauren

The Twenty-Five Best Knockout Round Performances on The Voice

I knew last season of The Voice would be a hard watch just because of Miley Cyrus as judge (who ended up being worse than I expected) but the reason I stopped watching after the Blind Auditions was the lack of talent. No one singer grabbed me with a first impression. I did go through all the Knockout Round performances later for this list but realized I made the right decision to stop the season early because not one was worthy of this list.

My favorite part of the Knockouts is the completely unnecessary staging of having your opponent sit in the corner while you perform.  And there is really is only three reactions you can have, 1) enjoy a front seat experience, 2) sit stone face like you are playing poker, or my personal favorite, 3) give the oh crap I am going home face.  Though you can usually tell who is going to win from early on, the Knockout Round is a make or break for most everyone else. But for every breakout, there is just as many falls. I remember thinking Savannah Berry was a front runner… right up until she chose to sing a Justin Beiber song, letting Danielle Bradbery to take her country-pop spot and the win on one of the rare seasons the winner was not easily telegraphed. As for those who actually excelled at the Knockout Round, here is my list of the best.

1. A Sunday Kind of Love - Amy Vachal


2. Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!) - Regan James


3. Leave Your Lover - Caity Peters


4. Put Your Records On - Nicholas David


5. A Case of You - Madi Davis


6. Even if it Breaks Your Heart - Morgan Frazier

7. I Heard it Through the Grapevine - Juhi

8. Electric Feel - Brooke Adee

9. Gypsy - Katie Basden

10. Let Her Go - Cole Vosbury

11. At Last - Sasha Allen

12. Hold On, I'm Coming - Mia Z

13. The Way I Am - Caroline Pennell

14. No Woman, No Cry - Preston Pohl

15. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free - Kimberly Nichole

16. Listen to Your Heart - Deanna Johnson

17. Stompa - Jacquie Lee

18. Paris (Ooh La La) - Amanda Brown

19. Heartbreaker - Ashley Morgan

20. Little Talks - Caroline Glaser

21. Creep - Holly Henry

22. Don't Know Why - Stephanie Anne Johnson

23. I'm with You - Amber Carrington

24. Could You Be Loved - Suzanna Choffel

25. Cosmic Love - Matthew Schuler



And here is how they rank per coach.

Adam – 6
Pharrell - 5
Blake - 5
Cee-Lo – 4
Christina – 4
Shakira – 1
Usher - 0
Alicia - 0
Miley – 0
Gwen – 0

I was a bit surprised that Adam ranked on top, granted he only had one in the top ten… and even that was a Battle Round Steal he sent home. Then you have Pharrell who was only on four of eleven season had just one less than Adam and as many as Blake despite those other two being on every season. Dude has an eye for talent. As for the most by season, here is that list (keep in mind the Knockout Round did not start until the third season and inexplicably was replaced with a second Battle Round for season six):

Season 3 – 3
Season 4 - 3
Season 5 - 8
Season 7 – 1
Season 8 – 5
Season 9 - 3
Season 10 – 2
Season 11 - 0

The Voice Season 11 Blind Audition Power Ranking

I knew going into this season, The Voice was going to be a drag just by the announcement of Miley Cyrus as coach and I figured I would be going back to just watching the YouTube highlights. I did watch the post Olympics preview and was unimpressed by the two they featured. Unfortunately there was nothing else on Tuesdays so I did turn in those days, but found myself flipping around to wrestling and news to see what stupid thing Donald Trump said that day to avoid Miley who is just completely unwatchable. Then this week the Best of the Blinds happened and I realized, I have not even bothered to go back watch the Mondays show. Not a good sign. But for the first time in a long time, there was actually someone who tried out that I actually had on my iPod, except the dude from Mêlée did not get anyone to turn (granted for a reason). Then there was an actual ringer, Billy Gilman, who apparently had a hit record when he was a child and probably has already won. Oh and we got two daughters of famous athletes on this season: Ron Harper and Valeri Bure. Meh.

1. Whitney & Shannon (Team Alicia)
2. Nolan Neal (Team Adam)
3. Christian Cuevas (Team Alicia)
4. Brendan Fletcher (Team Adam)
5. Jason Warrior (Team Alicia)
6. Courtney Harrell (Team Blake)
7. Blaine Long (Team Blake)
8. Austin Allsup (Team Blake)
9. Halle Tomlinson (Team Alicia)
10. Halle Tomlinson (Alicia Keys)
11. Elia Esparza (Team Adam)
12. Josette Diaz (Team Miley)
13. Sa'Rayah (Team Miley)
14. Andrew DeMuro (Team Adam)
15. Karlee Metzger (Team Miley)
16. Simone Gundy (Team Adam)
17. Kylie Rothfield (Team Alicia)
18. Kylie Rothfield (Team Miley)
19. Courtnie Ramirez (Team Miley)
20. Dana Harper (Team Blake)
21. Gabe Broussard (Team Blake)
22. Khaliya Kimberlie (Team Miley)
23. Bindi Liebowitz (Team Adam)
24. Darby Walker (Team Miley)
25. Aaron Gibson (Team Miley)
26. Wé McDonald (Team Alicia)
27. Sundance Head (Team Blake)
28. Ali Caldwell (Team Miley)
29. Sophia Urista (Team Miley)
30. Billy Gilman (Team Adam)
31. Michael Sanchez (Team Alicia)
32. Dan Shafer (Team Blake)
33. Lauren Diaz (Team Alicia)
34. Natasha Bure (Team Adam)
35. Johnny Rez (Team Adam)
36. Riley Elmore (Team Adam)
37. Ethan Tucker (Team Blake)
38. Josh Gallagher (Team Blake)
39. Ponciano Seoane (Team Adam)
40. Maye Thomas (Team Miley)
41. Gabriel Violett (Team Alicia)
42. Dave Moisan (Team Alicia)
43. Belle Jewel (Team Alicia)
44. JSOUL (Team Adam)
45. Christian Fermin (Team Blake)
46. Charity Bowden (Team Miley)
47. Tarra Layne (Team Blake)
48. Preston James (Team Blake)


This is the time I usually give digital ink to how well the contestants did on iTunes, but to be honest, I never really cared enough yet this season to check. And really, it is not just Miley, the contestants have been stale for a while now aside from a small blip two seasons ago. Watching the early seasons of The Real World on MTV Classics reminded why The Voice is becoming stale; just like The Real World recycled stereotypes (the naïve county folk! The token black guy!! The hot lesbian!!! The douchebag frat boy!!!!), it is the same singers every season. Blake has to have his downhome boring county boy. Adam has to have his big voiced diva and cute but bland white boy. Even the weird indie chick has become a cliché. I should be disappointed that the chick that turned (Don’t You) Forget About Me into a jazz standard got montaged, but instead, I just went, meh. Really the two black sisters who sang Stevie Nicks were the only Blind Auditions this season that I thought were just a baseline of interesting. Season six was the only season where I jumped ship during the Battle Round and I get the sense that not only will that happen this season, but I may actually be done with the series.

The Twenty-Five Best Battle Round Performances from The Voice

In honor of the tenth season of The Voice, I decided to make a list of the best Blind Auditions in the shows run. Instead of doing the same for the subsequent round when they started, I decided just to do a new best of each round at the start of every new season. So of course Battle Rounds were the next up. Except I realized, oh yeah, I hate this round. So I decided at a smaller number because it was hard to even find twenty-five I did not hate. The general problem with this round is these contestants are stuck singing with someone they may not match with singing a song that may not even fit them and most end up boring. But at least there were a few trainwreck pairings that were so bad they were entertaining (see Shields Brothers vs. Erin Martin) except starting in season three they started montaging most of these so were never get to see how awesomely bad Beat Frequency vs. Laura Vivas really was. Of course some trainwrecks did sneak through since them because there have been plenty of inexplicable Steals throughout the seasons (seriously, Nic Hawk was saved for some reason). Oh well, here are the few Battles I did not hate:

1. Put Your Records On - Danielle Bradbery vs. Caroline Glaser
2. Vision of Love - Trevin Hunte vs. Amanda Brown
3. If I Ain't Got You - Jesse Campbell vs. Anthony Evans
4. Heart Shaped Box - Lindsey Pavao vs. Lee Koch
5. She's Gone - Nicholas David vs. Todd Kessler
6. As Long As You Love Me - Caroline Pennell vs. Anthony Paul
7. Ain't No Sunshine - Ryan Innes vs. Orlando Dixon
8. Put the Gun Down - Mis Z. vs. Ashley Morgan
9. Wherever You Will Go - Andi and Alex vs. Chance Peña
10. No More Drama - Kim Yarbrough vs. Whitney Myers
11. I Wish it Would Rain - Preston Pohl vs. Barry Black
12. Message in a Bottle - De'Borah vs. Nelly's Echo
13. Dog Days Are Over - Suzanna Choffel vs. Lelia Broussard
14. Sweater Weather - Ellie Lawrence vs. Tim Atlas
15. Everything Has Changed - Madilyn Paige vs. Tanner James
16. Samson - Korin Bukowski vs. Chance Kirby
17. Have You Ever Seen the Rain - Sawyer Fredericks vs. Noelle Bybee
18. Antes de las Seis - Mary Miranda vs. Cáthia
19. Elastic Heart - Hannah Huston vs. Maya Smith
20. When Will I Be Loved - Audra McLaughlin vs. Alaska and Madi
21. You Know I'm No Good - Jess Kellner vs. Taylor Beckham
22. Sugar - Abby Celso vs. Brian Nhira
23. Leather and Lace - Casey Weston vs. Tim Mahoney
24. Baggage Claim - Liz Davis vs. Nicole Johnson
25. Old Time Rock and Roll - Blind Joe vs. Blaine Mitchell


Battles by Coach

Blake - 5
Adam – 4
Pharrell - 4
Cee-Lo – 3
Christina – 3
Usher - 3
Gwen – 2
Shakira – 1


Battles by Season

Season 1 – 1
Season 2 – 4
Season 3 – 4
Season 4 – 4
Season 5 – 2
Season 6 – 2
Season 7 – 0
Season 8 – 2
Season 9 – 4
Season 10 - 2


Like I said, the Battle Rounds are a drag because of bad matchups and bad song selections, but almost as bad as some really head scratching picks. What makes some of these picks so bad is sometimes they seem purposely bad for instance it seems like Adam has one favorite every season then rids his team of any challengers to his chosen one. Then there are Shakira and Pharrell who literally said they pick people who need more of their help, and I am pretty sure Gwen goes by this philosophy too. With that said, here are the ten worst coaches’ decisions during the Battle Rounds:


1. Erin Martin over The Shields Brothers (Cee-Lo Season 2)
2. George Horga jr. over Juhi (Cee-Lo Season 5)
3. Ryan Sill over Jessie Pitts (Gwen Season 7)
4. Daniel Passino over Kristen Marie (Christina Season 10)
5. Taylor John Williams over Amanda Lee Peers (Gwen Season 7)
6. Deja Hall over Ddendyl (Shakira Season 6)
7. Nick Hagelin over Jessica Crosbie (Pharrell Season 10)
8. Olivis Henken over Stephanie Anne Johnson (Christina Season 5)
9. MacKenzie Bourg over Emily Earl (Cee-Lo Season 3)
10. Devon Barley over Rebecca Loebe (Adam season 1)


Some of the decisions in the first two seasons were so bad that starting in season three they added the Steal to keep some of the good talent from going home so soon, except there were some mind numbingly bad Steals which were clearly used by coaches as Knockout Round fodder and so here are the ten most wasted Steals in the history of the show:

1. Nic Hawk (Blake Season 5)
2. Collin McLoughlin (Blake Season 3)
3. Chevonne (Christina Season 3)
4. Music Box (Usher Season 4)
5. Jacob Rummell (Pharrell Season 8)
6. Alessandra Guercio (Christina Season 3)
7. C. Perkins (Usher Season 4)
8. Orlando Dixon (Adam Season 4)
9. Clinton Washington (Adam Season 8)
10. Anthony Paul (Christina Season 5)

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 8/28/16

Ray Donovan: There seems to be a pacing problem this season as they are having trouble balancing between the Russian storyline and the boxer. Two episode, Ray kills a Russian and I think, well the other Russians will not like that. Except it was not brought up once last week. Then finally someone found the body this week. And just as things started to get ramped up, they had to slip in a scene with the boxer and his crazy sister. But at least the Russian plot got interesting. Does Ray get the niece back to save Avi or sacrifice him? (Or a third option where both the niece and Avi are safe?)

Fear the Walking Dead: Has there ever been a more boring season premiere than this? I was actually rooting for the dogs.
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

Roadies: Wait, does Machine Gun Kelly have suspenders tattooed on his body? Weird. But anyway. But man, did they really bring Phil back just to kill him? Should have stayed with Taylor Swift.

BrainDead: I do not care if it did not turn out to be true, Ramona Flowers has forever been tainted by having sex with Michael Moore. The dream nightmare sequence will forever be seared into my brain. And I thought the bug sex scene last week was the worst thing I would ever see on the show.
You can download BrainDead on Amazon Instant Video, free with a Prime membership.

Murder in the First: I have talked about the rise of incest on television considering it is one of the last taboo left. But up to this point is has been brother-sister relationship, all of which have been creepy, but oh my goodness, did this show really do a consensual father-daughter relationship? Eww. Then there was Hildy talking about the time her brother got a bit handsy because telling her partner it was a line because saying she was a good liar. I am not sure if it was the writer’s intent, but I was left wondering if her I am a good liar line was about the story she told the pop star or telling her partner she was lying.
You can download Murder in the First on iTunes.

The Voice: I was not expecting much, but I had to bail quite early on the preview episode right around the time Miley Cyrus opened her mouth. The actual person who sang was not that much better though I did like they went straight to the singing, no super sappy background. I did check out the other person they featured who was a big giant meh. The first person picked Alicia and the second picked Miley so this was clearly a showcase on the new coaches not the talent. But that is ever increasing point of the show. Each episode used to end with the best season, but the last three of four seasons, it seems to end with mediocre singers at best but a lot of coach banter and fighting. But if that was the best person Miley got on her team it will be a long season and she will rival Shakira season six as the worst collection of talent on a team ever. Then I had to skip the coaches singing Dream On because I have no desire to hear anyone sing that song on this show other than Amanda Brown.

Pretty Little Liars: I was hoping Hanna would go Liam Neeson this week and after a pitiful attempt at drugging Noel, boom goes the dynomite at the end the episode with a baseball bat. Awesome. I cannot wait to see what goes wrong with the interrogation.
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Casual: Interesting they chose not to end the season like they started the series, at their father’s funeral, but I guess they ended the first season in a church so I guess they did not want to go back to that well. Instead we end with Valerie moving back in with her ex-husband. Alrighty, Hopefully the side piece did not get too comfortable, or pregnant, I thought they we going through fertility procedures. But really, for a show whose title would lead you to believe it is about casual sex, there was a lot of talk of death this season and relationships that are moving out of the “causal” category.
You can watch Casual on Hulu.

Mr. Robot: And we are back to starting episodes with flashbacks that wink and nod but do not really mean much. So the Muslim chick and fat guy who spent most of a season and a half met in a coffee show, presumably owned by the same guy Elliot took down in the first episode, but not the one with his illegal operation, one with crappy wi-fi. Of course this begs the question, when is Elliot going to run into him in prison? Back in current time, Darla kills a chick… alrighty. So is her boy toy going to give her up as the person who took his gun? Instead, Dom pulls in the fat guy. But really, I think it is safe to assume that everyone can agree the best scene this week was Angela singing Everybody Wants to Rule the World even if it was a bit on the nose. Speaking of the karaoke bar, holy Duck Phillips sighting! He has to be tied into the story somehow, you do not bring in Duck Philips just to creepily hit on someone half his age just for one scene.
You can download Mr. Robot on iTunes.

Tyrant: I thought we were going to have a repeat of the first season of Homeland where the suicide vest did not go off then… boom goes the dynamite. And now that Jamal is dead, it looks like Barry is slowly morphing from the voice of reason to the titular character.
You can download Tyrant on iTunes.