‘The Voice’ Recap: Jonny Gray, Josh Logan First to Go
Never underestimate the power of Blake Shelton on The Voice.
Although his team lacks a country singer and it seems like the deck has been stacked against him, the three-time winner was still able to hold onto all three of his contestants in the first 100 percent viewer-voted elimination of the season. None of them were even in the bottom three! A pretty amazing feat considering Austin Jenckes was one of only three contestants who didn’t crack the top 100 of the iTunes songs chart this week.
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The other two? Cee Lo Green‘s Jonny Gray and Christina Aguilera‘s Josh Logan – who just so happened to be the ones who got sent home. (Adam Levine‘s team also came out unscathed.)
Taking Austin’s place in the bottom three was another member of Team Cee Lo, Kat Robichaud. But while her over-the-top performance of AWOLNATION’s “Sail” may have rubbed some viewers the wrong way, it was just enough to wrestle her from the grips of elimination during the show’s very first Instant Save.
Once the top three was announced, America got five minutes to vote on Twitter to instantly save one of the artists. (Of course, the episode only airs live in half the country.) While the concept seems skewed to a certain demographic (like, say, 13-year-old girls), the show tried to reign in the potential feed-jamming mayhem by limiting it to one vote per artist per Twitter account.
And enough of those votes went to Kat to save Team Cee Lo from practically being obliterated before things even really got off the ground. “I’m really pissed,” Cee said about the fact that two out of three of his contestants wound up in jeopardy. However, he was probably the only one shocked by the results, since it’s pretty clear to the rest of us that he has the weakest team. (Right?)
In fact, Team Cee Lo’s terribleness (sorry, Caroline Pennell) was put on full display during a cringe-worthy performance of the B-52’s song “Roam” by the entire team, including Cee Lo. It was almost as if it were a joke. Singing in a pitchy, almost-comical voice, Cee Lo trudged around in what can only be described as a giant black-lace muumuu while his teammates floundered around him.
Then again, most of the group performances of the night weren’t great. Poor Sara Bareilles sounded like a contestant herself while singing “Brave” along with the four women in the competition. She surely would have been voted off if put to the test.
Team Adam fared a little better with its rendition of the Beatles‘ “A Hard Day’s Night” that featured Levine playing drums while singing. Not to be outdone, the male contestants jammed on Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an American Band,” with four of them playing guitar (or bass, in Jenckes case).
But even though he didn’t perform, it all comes back to Blake, who basically stole the show by proving how untouchable he is – even with a lackluster team. So, now the question is: Could Team Blake wind up being unstoppable once again? No wonder the other coaches hate him.
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