Katie Kadan - (The Voice/NBC photo)

Jake Hoot - (The Voice/NBC photo)

Thus far there is smooth sailing on The Voice minus Adam Levine with the judging cast of Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, John Legend and Kelly Clarkson - (The Voice/NBC photo)

Video Beat EXTRA - IS THE VOICE LOSING THE PLOT?

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

The Voice seems to be chasing its own tail as the judges have nothing but good thing to say about the contestants. The question is what happened to being judges and critiquing the singers? Ratings are falling as the judges too sweet comments are apparently not paying off

IS DECAY IN THE WAY?

Sunday, November 17, 2019

The Voice judging is in amiss this season. It seems that to the judges none of the contestants have made mistakes, therefore, something is wrong with this picture. It seems that the judges aren't critiquing the talent.

Rather than judging talent they are playing the role of cheerleaders. It seems that to them every talent is incredible and nothing is wrong with those they choose to go to the next level of The Top 12 plus 1. In reality nothing could be further from the truth.

There have been numerous performances where the talent sings off key. This past week several singers were singing songs in a key that was too low for them. One singer started off a song singing the WRONG LYRICS.

It raises the question are the judges using creative license by ignoring the contestants faults and not wanting to stifle their self confidence that may deter their progress? If that is the case then that is an indication that the contestant is not ready.

In the past when a contestant was coming up short of being on point with their performance they are advised of their shortcomings and too develop their skills and come back next year or the following season. In most cases that would apply to a young singer whose voice is still changing and developing. In the past that advice to talent would apply to both The Voice and American Idol shows.

This season's The Voice talent is lacking the quality of voices in previous seasons. This is the poorest talent that the show has had since the first two seasons.

One thing that jumps out is how many overly positive comments are made to young talent who makes mistakes. Why this overly attentive consideration for still developing voices could be linked to the show doing an evaluation of their viewing audience being young and catering to it. Sponsors or potential sponsor money can be the reason why the lack of constructive criticism by the judges. Of course these opinions are subjective.

Moving forward the top VOICES as we see it are Kate Kadan and Jake Hoot. Kelly Clarkson has four singers in the Top 13 which can give her an advantage. John Legend appears to have the strongest team which includes Kadan.

The most outstanding change this season is the show eliminated the Cross Battles where coaches selected an artist from their team, then challenged a fellow coach to compete against. Last season it was that competition that was an irritation to Adam Levine who had all of his talent eliminated and had none of his singers competing for the semi-finals competition of eight singers.

In part that resulted in Levine complaining about that segment of the competition which ultimately may have factored in his decision to leave the show. He also complained that the viewing audience was apparently in love with country music.

The direction this season was that the lowest votes of the talent of each coach would be eliminated. That resulted in each judge having contestants guaranteed to be going forward in the competition.

In all seasons when it comes to a coaches choice of who they eliminate a clash of personalities can be a factor. When it comes down to coaching a contestant after the blind auditions it comes clear who they are compatible with.

One singer with a great country voice was eliminated earlier in the competition in what appeared to be an act of disrespect that irritated his coach Blake Shelton. When the singer entered the rehearsal room to meet with then mentor Taylor Swift the contestant excitedly blurted out... Taylor F'n Swift. Shelton abruptly turned his head toward the contestant and strongly said sit down over there. Shelton pitted him against a teammate and chose the lesser talented teammate following their battle performance.

In contrast four singers with good voices better than most of those remaining in the competition have departed. This past week the voters eliminated three singers being Alex Guthrie, Khalea Lynee and Gracee Shriver.

What remains is a Top 13 of a mixed bag of genres. The show had its lowest rating of the season with the Top 20 Playoffs with a 7.59 million viewers rating. Their highest rating this season was for "The Blind Auditions, Part 4" on October 1, 2019 that attracted 9.03 million viewers.

This season country is not king which adds to the mystery of what direction is The Voice going? Is it about catering to sponsors wishes (conjecture) or finding THE BEST VOICE? Stay tuned….

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