simplyme

That was the point where I quit watching for a long time. This is the first season I've watched any part of since, and I've only watched sporadically. Before that Survivor had been my favorite show, but casting people who were obviously unstable made me so uncomfortable and disgusted that I quit watching. Eff that. Those were some baaaaaaad clams, man,

I'll just toss out that generally if you play too hard it's obvious and everyone will vote you out, especially if you are not an alpha male. Women and men who do not fit the traditional alpha mold who are too aggressive tend to be punished for it. I also can't imagine having to be a tactical genius while starving, putting up with strangers with extreme personalities 24/7 for 39 days, competing in mental and physical challenges, only having slices of the information that viewers have, and having no one you can trust 100%. Oh, let's not forget the lack of sleep and hygiene and the fantastic insects and heat or cold. I think as viewers we tend to dismiss how difficult the everchanging game is and be disappointed that no one is "brilliant" at it. Personally? They'd have to pay me a lot more than a million dollars, guaranteed, before I put up with some of these people and that's before I factor in how cranky I get with low blood sugar or when sleep deprived.

*snrk* (Translation: That awkward laugh-snort noise you make in snarky amusement) I'm pretty sure Cena said in Ep 1 that the cadre wouldn't know what the endurance test would be for each Circus. I don't know if I 100% believe that, but pretty sure he said it.

As soon as I saw the ice water, I thought, "I bet that's not good for frostbite." Not that it seemed to bother KJoy.

Jasmine definitely has a legitimate point about her weight working against her in a lot of the challenges. That said, I'm sad she feels so bad, because even with the extra weight she's really pretty.

Wow. Poor Brittany. She would have done better competing with another contestant rather than her trainer.

I don't know, but Tamar was one of Prince's proteges and sang co-lead on one of his Grammy nominated songs and back up vocals for his album 3121. (I disliked the fact that she pretended she'd left the business for school and never really had her shot.) I imagine she's taking the news pretty hard.

She also flushes an idol and negates the threat of the Super Idol. Had she somehow subtly encouraged Tai, it might have made sense. Doing it so openly? *facepalm*

You're right. My bad. :) My middle class neighborhood is mostly people in their 60s and older. Most of them are now on Facebook and use certain favorite websites. When motivated, age is certainly not a limiting factor. I'd guess that younger viewers are the ones more likely to time-shift their viewing of The Voice (watch it on DVR or another medium rather than live), so they may have a slightly more difficult time voting before deadline, but that extended deadline helps a lot. That's supposition based on knowledge of how my friends and I watch TV compared to, say, my parents. I'd also guess younger viewers are more likely to use Twitter (as Noreaster posited) for the Twitter save, but a lot of other factors play into that. I think people overestimate how many teeny boppers (SimplyMom uses that word too) are watching, but I also think there have been distinct attempts to draw in more younger viewers. Part of me saw the Miley Cyrus coaching move as partially motivated by that.

The most recent info I could find was an article written in October 2015 based on information released on reality show viewer demographics from January-May 2015. It confirms that the median age of The Voice viewer is 53 (54 for the results show). Note that the median is not the same as the average. It's where there's an equal number of young and old watching. So for every 33-year-old who watches, there's a 73-year-old watching to get that number.

The falsetto love has been around for a long time. There were singers in the 50s and 60s (mainly teen idols come to mind) who essentially used that high voice to distinguish themselves. It's a preference. Generally not mine, but it does exist and it isn't anything new. I can get past it if it's used more as an accent rather than as the voice for the whole song, and of course my tolerance varies with pitch issues and song choice. Tiny Tim hs never really been my favorite singer. :P Michael Jackson had some groundbreaking songs, and I appreciate his influence on musical phrasing and styling even if I can't say that I truly liked a lot of his stuff. Most boy bands make me shudder in horror. Of course, then there's Freddie Mercury, who I would suggest had one of the best voices of modern times. I love a lot of his music. He certainly used his falsetto at times. So I'd say it all depends what you do with it. That said, I'm not really a fan of what Nick does with his. I'd have preferred Nick or Daniel leaving to Emily or Owen.

I didn't watch the show live. I was in the middle of a good book, and it was more important to me to find out who lived and died in the literary world than who slaughtered a song or soared to new heights. I ended up just watching the performances on YouTube sans coach commentary or any filler, and my comments are based on that. Alphabetical order: Adam- Good song choice, good performance. He's definitely hauling in both pure country and southern rock fan votes. Nice to see him play piano. That deep, a little bit gritty voice just really works. Alisan- Stone Cold is very much an over-the-top emotional song. Alisan may actually have shown more restraint in that area than Demi herself does, and I found myself impressed because the song could easily have sounded like an uncontrolled mess. (I'm sure some people thought it did, but the way the song is written, I'm not sure how to dodge that completely.) I could have done with a few less embellishments, but, eh, Team Xtina. It would be nice to see her do a quiet ballad for a change. Bryan- Oh. This song. A letdown from the previous two weeks. Daniel- I'm still laughing at the Love Boat Captain outfit and whatever those moves were. I barely noticed the song, except that it was boring, clear, and inoffensive, which is what's gotten him this far. Emily- This may have been my favorite performance of the night, which surprised me since she's bored me to tears except for her blind audition. It was creative and gorgeous. Hannah- I had trouble with this performance because I'm very familiar with Xtina's version. This one was a lower key and a different melody (presumably because Hannah lacks XTina's range). So I'm not sure if she really was flat or if I was simply expecting different notes and couldn't adjust. I'll have to depend on others' opinions. Laith- Did his thing. Big, deep voice. Better guitar skills. Mary Sarah- Well, I liked her outfit and the song was recent. Unfortunately it was also Carrie Underwood, and that comparison didn't do MS any favors. Wince. Nick- To me this was clearly the best Nick has sung. I don't know if that's Xtina's influence or not, but he was in his full voice instead of his falsetto for most of the song and he clearly had fewer pitch problems. He's still the weakest singer of the Top 12 to me, but there was obvious improvement in a number of ways. Owen- I love the tone of Owen's voice. I hate this stupid song. Parts of it were okay, and parts of it just went to hell. It was nice to see Owen without his comfort guitar, but I don't think the dancing around/working the stage helped that performance out. I think he needs to be a more gentle mover, at least at this point (though maybe not to the point of Statue Sawyer). Paxton- I view Paxton as more of a whole-package entertainer than a singer. He exudes life and charisma. His vocals aren't as strong as others, but he certainly is in a completely different niche in what he's doing, and I like it. This may be somewhat generational, as SimplyMom seems to think he's a neat person but she doesn't really appreciate his performances. Shalyah- Koryn 2.0 at the moment.

I appreciate Erin's sense of humor a lot. People are very diverse, so no, she won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I prefer watching her to Brooke (who seemed very nice, but not as skilled at coming up with anything to say that was unscripted.) As to Erin filing the civil suit, good for her. No one, man or woman, should have had their privacy violated in that manner, and it is often very difficult for people who have gone through something like that (especially as publicly as she did) to decide to pursue justice rather than let it drop. That is why many people who are sexually assaulted either don't file charges or file them much later. You certainly don't have to like Erin, but I think acknowledging that it was probably no picnic and it took a lot of resolve might be in order. Overall, I don't personally know any of these people, and people are complex. I try not to label people as good or bad or whatever, but rather point out the traits I admire in them and the ones I dislike. (Yeah, and sometimes I fail miserably at doing that.) I certainly think Erin is mentally strong.

Re: the relative strength of Blake's team Honestly, Blake has two singers who will probably be there for a long time if the usual voting patterns hold true. Adam is actually much better than the past several seasons' male country genre representative, and they've all made it pretty far. I think the one who went home earliest was Corey Kent White, and he made the top 8 despite being noted as a particularly weak singer. (Seemed like a genuinely nice guy, but even diehard country fans admitted he needed some work.) Mary Sarah has the potential to be good (see her blinds) and Blake has been marketing her very consistently. He keeps talking about her being both "vintage" and yet "fresh." (I think those were the words. There are two or three words he keeps using for her, trying to drive a certain image of her.) If her song choice improves, she'll also be very difficult to dump. Honestly, it's probably in the other contestants' best interests to hope both stay around for a while or both go home the same week so that the country music fan vote and the Blake fan vote continue to be split. It will be interesting to see how things change once we start to get a bit more of a feel for people's personalities, too. One of the reasons the Swon Brothers made it to the finals was that a lot of people found them humorous and likeable. Same with Michelle Chamuel. So team strength isn't always just about voice...

Yeah. That dancing with animation thing is awful. Reminds me of one of my friend's sayings: "Just because you can doesn't mean you should."

If anyone else wondered, it seems the PLANTs on Pharrell's hats were short for Cactus Plant Flea Market, a streetwear label he is associated with. I'm not sure if I found the obscure reference more or less irritating than that cardigan that made him look like an animated gingerbread man.

I really was surprised by how well Nick did, not simply because I don't like his singing but because I really can't identify who was voting for Nick and buying that version of "Stay." Not the country voting bloc. Not what I think of as the show's usual demographic, which is apparently my father. (SimplyDad doesn't watch, but does opine occasionally as he wanders through. Using him to predict voting works pretty well. SimplyMom and I refer to him as The Common Man, and he detested Nick. He calls him "that whiny one.") His son is admittedly adorable, but that seems like a lot of votes based on kid cuteness. Part of the fun of the Voice for me is trying to predict who will make it through and then thinking about the results afterwards. (Apparently it's not just a singing show to me. I'm such a geek.) In this case, I could use more info.

Ha! Well, Blake didn't exactly hide the fact that he was on the Mary Sarah wagon, and traditionally the show has a country voting bloc that votes through two to three country singers. Regarding that country bloc, Katie may have been hindered in the voting by not starting out on Blake's team and not singing pure country. It's also possible that Boot Barn is heavily encouraging all its employees to vote for Mary Sarah. :P

Once Mary Sarah was announced, I knew Blake would go with Paxton. His two favored country singers were in. He wouldn't want to add Katie or Justin to split the vote any more. That meant Joe or Paxton, and as impressed as he might have been with Joe, he likes Paxton and has had him from the start. He knows that third spot is cannon fodder rather than the winner anyways. He's going to reward the guy who picked him and that he feels closest to. I'm really happy with the way Adam's team shook out. Xtina's? I'm just going to ignore Nick as much as possible.

I certainly hope Blake takes Adam, Katie, and Joe, but I'm worried that Blake will choose Mary Sarah because he seems so invested in her. I'm sure Adam will get the vote. Not sure about anyone else on this team. iTunes isn't always a good predicter for how the country bloc will vote. Hoping Xtina takes Alisan, Bryan, and anyone but Nick, but I'm not counting on that either. Hannah will go through for Pharrell, I think, despite a bad performance. Other than that I'm not sure I can justify cheering for one person over another. As bland as Daniel is, he chose the right song and the rest didn't. I wouldn't be surprised if he got rewarded for it in the voting. If so, Pharrell probably takes Emily over Moushumi or Caity. I wish more from Adam's team could go on, despite how "weak" it supposedly is. I agree with PhD-Purgatory15 that Shalyah and Owen probably get the votes and Adam has a tough choice between Caroline and Laith. Adam does seem to like Caroline a lot, and she has more to work on than Laith, but on the other hand she might compete for some of the same voting demographics as Shalyah and Owen. Laith is more clearly unique. I'd go for Laith, but I have no clue what Adam will do. I'm going to seriously miss Brian N. (Edited for typos. Oops.)

I'm hoping that Bryan B. passed Nick in the non-iTunes voting. Someone mentioned that Bryan's performance spurred a spike in sales for the original version moreso than his version. I have no idea if that's true or not, but it gives me hope that Bryan may have intrigued people who voted for him via other means en masse but didn't shell out on iTunes. I'm just hoping that Nick did not.

I'd love to see that. I've said before that I hate how they tend to censor Martina McBride's "Independence Day" and Demi Lovato's "Warrior" on the show so that all the truly meaningful parts are removed. What's the point? As soon as someone completely guts all meaning from a song like that, I refuse to vote for them that week. Conversely, I was happy Moushumi didn't try to dodge the marijuana lyric in "New Americana" in the KOs. Were some people offended? Yes. But it meant a lot to me. I'm pretty sure SimplyMom agrees with you about Pat Benatar having a hell of a voice, btw. As soon as we realized Lacy would be doing a PB song, my elderly mom muttered, "Oh, God. Where are my Cheetos?"

Yeah. I mean, Carson kept saying the performances tonight were "stripped down" for us. In what way? I mean, there were clearly back up musicians and singers. WTF would the NOT stripped down versions have been? Firing actual cannons during Shalyah's song with an entire choir onstage with her? Or was I misunderstanding something? (Was he referring to Xtina only having half gloves? :P Fashion is dumb. I laughed every time they showed her.)

Well, I liked tonight's performances a lot better than last night's. If it's just me, I admit I ate a chocolate doughnut, so that may have influenced my mood. :) I particularly liked the performances by Adam's team. Shalyah is going through on votes. She sang the hell out of that song. I felt bad for Nate, who I think had a case of the nerves so he didn't have as much breath support as usual AND who followed that so he really suffered in comparison, imo. There are times I really like the sound of Nate's voice, but I would definitely rate him as the weakest on Adam's team. Caroline did well, but I'm really having trouble with my knee jerk reaction to her song choice. Someone sang it in the blinds this season and I'm pretty sure it was used the previous two seasons. Give it a rest. (I also wouldn't call it folk and country, Pharrell, nor do I see how this is so different from what she was singing.) It seemed like a song pretty close to her wheelhouse to me, so I didn't understand the whole "outside her comfort zone" thing. I loved Laith and Owen. Laith can really deliver certain classic rock songs. That's a nice change from pretty much everyone else. Owen has possibly the most emotive voice on here, imo. It's just gorgeous. And then there was Brian. Brian's performance had some pitch issues (not that others didn't), but it also struck me as being particularly difficult to sing compared to some others (and more obvious when he was off pitch). Overall, I liked it despite the problems. Pharrell's team was more of a mixed bag for me, which might have been related to song choice. Emily has a beautiful, unusual voice, but her performance didn't really move me. I don't know if it was the song (not my favorite Simon song) or the fact that she was playing keyboard at the same time... or maybe that it was keyboard instead of piano or something else. Lacy is no Pat Benatar. Just no. Caity sang an Adele song pretty well, but unless you're phenomenal, you ARE Adele, or you change the song to make it more yours, you're going to suffer a bit in comparison to Adele. Moushumi sang a Bieber song I despise, but somehow made me kind of like it in parts and almost snooze in others. In my head, I can hear her do these songs just a bit differently and they're SO good, but the missed potential is starting to drive me batty. Hannah. I love Hannah, but wow, she seemed out of control and screamy tonight. I still hope she goes through. So my favorite performance from Pharrell's team came from Daniel doing the overdone (but very well done) Bruno Mars song. I am slightly disturbed by this.

Are they using some new definition of "stripped down"? What exactly is stripped down about these performances?