S07.E10: The Battles, Part 4

[Tara Ariano]

The battle round continues. The advisers are Stevie Nicks, Little Big Town, Alicia Keys and Gavin Rossdale.

[Primetimer]

Finally, a moment for Kimberly's hair to shine.

Read the story

[PepperMonkey]

Did no one watch this but me? Not that I blame anyone for not watching...

 

I couldn't even watch that battle between Ricky and Brittany (I don't know if I have their names right; NY street singer guy and jazzy girl). I hated the way they changed the song with such horrible transitions, obviously to accomodate each singtestant's style. It was just jarring. I don't get Brittany and didn't like her Girl from Ipanema, either. Also, she lost so ungracefully. Yes, it is always hard to see someone so crushed, but if she almost falls apart over THE VOICE, for god's sake, perhaps she should choose a new career path. Gwen and Pharrell being supportive was nice, but that girl is old enough to hold it together better than that.

 

Lots of montaged battles so I guess they must have been pretty bad. I'm not really stoked about anyone when I think about it. There are a couple that I like but I don't really care who wins (which coach, I mean) although I would prefer Pharrell.

[LakeGal]

I really enjoyed last week's  battle rounds more than this week.  I feel like they had the best singers first so they could get stolen.  Then had the weaker singers last when most of the steals were already gone.  Also like every season I complain about all the montages.  I would rather hear them all sing instead of continuing to recap the sob stories.  I watch the show to listen to them sing.  Not for the sob stories and multiple recaps/coming up next shots.  If they edited correctly they could fit in all the battle rounds.  They really didn't like Blake's team this season.  He had a lot of montages.   

[kj4ever]

I really enjoyed last week's  battle rounds more than this week.  I feel like they had the best singers first so they could get stolen.  Then had the weaker singers last when most of the steals were already gone.  Also like every season I complain about all the montages.  I would rather hear them all sing instead of continuing to recap the sob stories.  I watch the show to listen to them sing.  Not for the sob stories and multiple recaps/coming up next shots.  If they edited correctly they could fit in all the battle rounds.  They really didn't like Blake's team this season.  He had a lot of montages.   

So did Gwen.  Hell she didn't even get a performance on this show - they both were montaged.  That just sucks.

 

I don't think it matters with Blake, he's got it in the bag with Reagan.  I'm calling it now!

[beaker73]

So they air the final battle with a coach (Gwen) with a save left.  It completely takes the suspense out of it.  We know that both Beth and Mia (?) would move on  it was just a matter of who would be Team Adam and who would be Team Gwen. 

 

Is Ricky the one who looks like Joaquin Phoenix? 

[tobysmom]

Is Ricky the one who looks like Joaquin Phoenix? 

Or so Adam thinks!  Monday was the first time I watched this season, so when Ricky came out I thought he was fairly good looking and then he started to sing and make all these facial expressions that didn't make him good looking any more.

 

Even though I haven't see the singers from last week, I too think Reagan for the win.

[poppy-]

I thought Ricky was really good - I'd not seen him before, so that was a pleasant surprise.

And the 15 year old redhead is quirky but not annoying. What a natural.

The rest, I didn't care much about, and this episode was a snooze.

Of all the mentors, my favorite moment by far was Stevie Nicks telling those two girls they aren't Christina and don't try to sing like her. It saved that performance. I mean, ouch, but it was good advice.

[MelsW]

What a snoozefest. I can't even muster the energy to comment on any of those battles. I intensely loathe the large amount of montaging that goes on with this show and last night was no exception. I wanted to see Allison Bray's performance, since she showed promise with that Kacey Musgraves song in the Blinds. The Voice is on for three hours a week. Seriously, show? You can't free up some time to show all of the battles? I get they want to save face for the coaches if someone really tanks but it makes for awful TV. I remember last season when Kristin Merlin kept getting montaged week after week, when they finally showed her in the Lives I was all "Who the f is that?" It puts contestents at a huge disadvantage if they end up progressing through the show.

 

Also, Gwen? Enough with the last second steals as the person is practically back in their car heading home.

Edited October 22, 2014 by MelsW

[tmelange]

I think people are posting in battle round threads from other episodes. I think this forum would work better if there was one thread for each round instead of for each episode. I don't even think this is the right thread for last night's episode. Aren't we on episode 5 or 6?

[jjjmoss]

No. It's episode 9.

 

I did a count of how inordinately few steals people accept from Blake's team, but I think it must've been over on TWOP. 

I'll recount then: S3 Cee Lo took Terisa

S4 Adam took Caroline

S5 Cee Lo took Monica

S6 Shakira took Tess

S7 Gwen took Craig

[MelsW]

I think people are posting in battle round threads from other episodes. I think this forum would work better if there was one thread for each round instead of for each episode. I don't even think this is the right thread for last night's episode. Aren't we on episode 5 or 6?

 

I keep track by looking at the air date in each thread title; this thread says 2014.10.21, or last night's episode. I think the last Blind Auditions ended on episode 5, so we're well beyond that now.

[dizzyizzy01]

I think people are posting in battle round threads from other episodes. I think this forum would work better if there was one thread for each round instead of for each episode. I don't even think this is the right thread for last night's episode. Aren't we on episode 5 or 6?

 

 

I don't think so, there's not a lot of activity in other threads either.  I think the battles were just terrible and people's interests are waning a bit.  The ratings are dipping slightly even though relatively the show is doing very well for network television (still beating out the World Series).

 

So far, I think Gwen is really not entertaining as a coach.  I actually think she's been a decent coach in being able to pull out some good performances from people even though I hate some of her song choices (Maneater?  Really??), but she's really mediocre at commentary.  Talking about the the first contestant's body and how happy/great/inspiring everything and everyone is to her?  Her pitches of clothes, being a girl, etc.  They're becoming increasingly repetitive and boring.  She doesn't have the inadvertent WTFness or bluntness from that Christina had.  Gwen's reactions are almost the same for every contestant.  Adam continues to be annoying.  Blake is fine if kind of bland.  Pharrell is a great new addition, but this panel is getting a bit old.  I'm hoping the knockouts are more interesting.

[tmelange]

I'm a bit put off by Gwen's commentary too. I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt because I have a predisposition to not like women who reduce everything to looks, shoes, clothes and fashion. But she's making it hard. I thought the commentary on the one contestant's body was ridiculous, especially considering she had nothing relevant to say about the girl's singing. That was a real WTF moment for me as a viewer. Gwen seems really nice but disconnected in a way. 

[Magic]

This is a snoozefest.  It seems like they figured out some way to low budget production by pre-recording the blinds, battles and knockouts, over a few days relatively speaking.  Then the band, production crew etc. only have to be there, and get paid, relatively few days etc.  They even have it down to stretching out a two hour show for only 6 contestants becuase of how much repeated filler they have.

It is very static feeling.  Even if the viewers obviously started to get really interested in specific contestants, all this filming is static and canned becuase it is from some time ago and they can't really change who they focus on.

It is a cheaply produced version of the Voice and loses the excitment of anything really happening with how much filler there is to new content. 

Half the time I think they are even stitching together judges comments that weren't made in relation to the contestant being shown.

Even the new judges would not be able to adjust until the live shows since everything is so canned.

So Gwen for instance, can't adjust some of her comments on looks, dress etc.

Or Pharrell wouldn't know how well he is coming across when all these episodes were being filmed some time ago.

It really is NOT that fun of a show anymore especially getting aired twice a year.

The immense load of filler is a killer.

After an hour with just three battles it is hard to sustain interest.

[Oscirus]

Brittany vs Ricky-  Admittedly, I came into this battle expecting Brittany to mop the floor the floor with RIcky, but Ricky bought it.  I still thought Brittany won but it wasn't as big of a WTF that he picked Ricky.  Also good job by the band.  It was kind of brutal watching Brittany break down like that, I'm shocked more people don't do that.

 

Kennsington vs Reagan- I can't tell if Reagan forgot the words or if she just got tongue tied but that's a bad sign when you've had more band time then your opponent and that happens.  I think that Blake came into this battle determined to pick Reagan no matter what.

 

Beth vs Mia- This is the first time this season that I saw Adam coaching. While the battle was nothing to write home about, I thought they both did a good job. Mia improved by a lot.  I still thought Beth won. I also thought that Gwen did the most with her steals. Beth is a legit contender.

 

Adam, Toia's going to be shocked to learn that she's not a belter.

 

I sure hope that the knockouts commercial didn't highlight all the winners but as of right now, that's what I'm thinking happened.

Edited October 22, 2014 by Oscirus

[BogoGog24]

I think a large reason why ratings are decreasing is because the show runs too long without showing much- 6 battles for a 2 hour show or only 3 battles + montages for a 1 hour show. Most people just DVR it and watch something else. You can easily watch the hour long show in probably 20 minutes, depending on how much you care about the rehearsal stuff and coaches' comments. They also upload all the battles + coaches' comments on YouTube, so if you missed anything, you can just catch up there or follow blogs such as MJ, TVLine, or Reality Rocks. There is not much incentive to watch the show live at this stage, not until the actual live shows start. And that's really only for people who are interested in voting.

 

Ricky vs. Brittany- I initially thought Brittany would easily win this since it was more her style than Ricky's, but Ricky really wiped the floor with her on this one. I didn't like her audition and I didn't really like her performance here. She sounds like she could be a good singer but sometimes she overdoes it and tries to sound too quirky or something. She has an instrument she doesn't know how to use. You'd think for someone who went to a music school she'd be much better. 

 

Reagan vs. Kensington- I agree with Reagan being chosen over Kensington but I don't get the fuss over this girl at all. I agree for being 15 she has a lot of poise and confidence, but other than that her voice is nothing special to me. Don't get it, don't get her. 

 

Mia vs. Beth- Either one of them could have won it. But it was obvious one of them would be stolen, since they kept going on about Gwen having one steal left. Anti-climatic, isn't it? I'm glad Gwen had the sense to hold out on her steal and save it for Beth. She deserved it way more than Brittany, Kensington, or any of the others. 

 

I would have liked to see the montaged battles, especially Sparks Fly because I'm a big Taylor Swift fan. What they've shown so far of Taylor's mentoring looks really good. I know a lot of viewers made complaints about someone who's not known for being a great singer judging a show called The Voice, but I think Taylor would have some great pointers on performing and emoting. And from the previews, she seems to have done a pretty good job in that department.

[anonymiss]

Yawn. Only good thing about this episode was reminding me of how much I loved Christina Aguilera's voice back then. Those two girls were thin and shrieky although one had good moments.

Edited October 22, 2014 by anonymiss

[braziliangirl]

I'm sad I couldn't see Anita's battle. I loved her audition.  Is there a place where I can see the montaged battles?

[TacoBoutIt]

I'm sad I couldn't see Anita's battle. I loved her audition.  Is there a place where I can see the montaged battles?

 

No, but they're really should be.  If they don't have enough time to show all the blind auditions and all the battles, it would be nice if they could put it on Youtube or something as an online exclusive.  It put all the contestants more on an leveled playing field as we can see all the contestants progress going into the Lives.  It's not like they don't have the footage.  Rebekah Samarin on Adam's team has been montaged so far so if she makes it to the Lives, she's at a total disadvantage. (Her recording of her blind audition is actually quite lovely).  Ever more unfortunate is poor Gianna Salvato whose entire Voice existence was montaged (The most we saw of her voice was 3 seconds of Boom Clap).  Anita is also one of my favourites, so I would have liked to seen that battle (The song choice was also an odd one so I would have liked to see how it panned out) And Boom Clap is a cool song so the battle between Bryana and Gianna would have been nice to see.  

 

Also, if they would cut the cue to commercial break (Where Carson repeats almost the SAME spiel everytime) then maybe they can squeeze n one more battle.  Yes Carson, I know there are still more great battles to come.  No, that steal will be something I see coming because you tell me about it every cue to commercial.

Edited October 22, 2014 by DammitJanet

[Oscirus]

I've seen them do a battle, coaching and commercial break  in 15 minutes, the only reason it takes so long is because they insist upon stretching their shows with silliness.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

I initially thought Brittany would easily win this since it was more her style than Ricky's, but Ricky really wiped the floor with her on this one.

I thought Ricky was only so-so, but Brittany couldn't handle the key she started out in at all. By the time she went to a higher pitch, it was too late. Starting out like she was doing a warmup exercise didn't help.

[Sunnyside]

I thought Brittany was going to have an advantage with that song choice and her vocal style, but good grief, what were they thinking to change the melody up like that for her? It was horrible.

I don't get the fuss over Raegan either. However, I thought she did much better than she did in her blind audition and I can see how her effort for stage presence gave her an edge. Still not in awe at all though.

Beth won IMO. Glad she was saved.

[Cramps]

I think they now film much of the show in advance and close together due to the coaches schedules. They need to have time for their actual music careers so we don't have many live shows anymore.

Brittney may have had a great education, but she doesn't have a great tone to her voice. The UK Voice has had a couple of jazz singers on it whose voices are much better (all their seasons are available on youtube, and it's quite cool to see Tom Jones as a coach!)

Annoyed that two of the singers I was most looking forward to seeing in the battles were montaged last night- glad they won.

I actually really like Gwen. I think she has good taste in singers. She's fun-and I think her contestants' battles have for the most part been better than I expected them to be. She and Gavin have done a good job coaching. And she can give me clothes, shoes and purses any time she wants to!

Blake is hilarious, but could his musical references, even by country standards, always seem limited and mainstream.

I don't get the Reagan love either.

Edited October 22, 2014 by Cramps

[Noreaster]

I'm pretty sure they always filmed a lot of the show in advance.  The blinds, battles, knockouts were always pre-taped.  Last year was a bit unusual in that they had a second battle round instead of knockouts, and then they taped the playoffs instead of making it live. My guess was that the show was trying to accommodate the schedule of one or more of the coaches/mentors.  

 

Montages, back stories, fillers were always a part of the show.  I don't watch the back stories at all during the blinds. Especially since I know they'll repeat them in the next round. The previews/promos are annoying. They're repetitive and spoilerish.  I skip them too.  As for the montages, I don't mind them. Those performances likely weren't that good or entertaining.  In fact, some of the battles shown weren't that good.  This might be me overthinking but I wonder if the producers included the full Brittany/Ricky and Joe/Alessandra performances just so they could show the coaches comforting Brittany and Joe afterwards.  

 

I'm happy that this round of forced duet pairings is over and am looking forward to the knockouts.  This is the stage when the contestants supposedly get some say in the songs and I usually start establishing favorites.  

[limecoke]

They can't show all the battles because they insist on filling the show with background/sob stories and endless reintroducing us to contestants we saw just a couple of weeks ago.  I don't care about their stories and it's stupid to show so little of the actual, you know, singing.  

 

Hated what Ricky and Brittany did to "On Broadway."  Hated it.  That being said, I did think Ricky should get the nod so glad he did.  Brittany needs to learn how to be a gracious loser.  That made me uncomfortable.

 

Kensington and Reagan - both mushy-mouthed singers.  I wouldn't know if Reagan forgot words because I couldn't understand most of them anyway.  But I want her jacket.  

[hincandenza]

So much good thoughts in this thread, can't quote you all.  But totally agree: this is pathetic editing.  3 songs an hour?  You can find a happy medium between this and airing every single audition, blind, and knockout.  I mean, it was only at 40 minutes that they first started airing Mia/Beth's rehearsals... and we're what, going to watch 20 whole minutes of TV for what's probably 2 minutes of singing, just to see who they picked?  Especially when they've done the "No one saw this steal coming" teasers and anyone watching knows there's exactly one steal left- Gwen- and one battle left. 

 

No thanks; I make liberal use of my FF button when watching on DVR, because I can skip the songs when they start sounding bad (such as "On Broadway", which I got maybe 35-40 seconds into and sounded terrible), as well as the coach's comments on those songs, as well as the previouslys, recaps, sob stories and the rest.  I wouldn't even watch this show if wasn't able to easily skip these boring parts. 

 

They're the professionals, so maybe they know better- that most people who tune in are watching idly while making dinner or whatever, so they need these "Dick and Jane" level editing styles and constant repetition.  Admittedly, I don't want to watch the entirety of 48+ blind auditions, 24 battle rounds, and 24 knockout solo performances before we get the live show.  But they could snip the extended bio portions beyond a short blurb, and do montages that at least give us a little bit more of the best parts of the singing, and overall keep it dense enough to be interesting without overwhelming the viewers.

 

And yeah, the whole thing now feels chintzy and low-budget, knowing how they have them all in an assembly line shot months ahead of time, the judges pretending to care as they watch a parade of nobodies they won't remember come and go. A show that's dropping $40M just on the coaches salaries should not look "low budget" or mass-produced.  They really need to protect their brand a little, as much as NBC loves and depends on their ratings; running a little less often, and producing an actual marketable artist that people will recognize, will pay for themselves in improved ratings.

 

As for the singers in this hour- all six of them- I will say that like Matt on Monday, I really loved Reagan's tone... but she does have some mumbling problems, and reminds me of Melanie Martinez but with a lot more vocal range and clearer voice (Jessie Pitts on Monday, however, was pretty much the "quirky" voiced cliche, and practically a MM clone).  Reagan is a very pretty girl, surprisingly self-assured on stage, and at times a stupefyingly gorgeous voice would come out of her throat.  But only at times; if a college-aged Reagan had auditioned to this or a similar show some day instead of at 15 ("What I love about you is, you're only 15!" - Randy Jackson), I bet that woman would be fantastic! :)

 

 

No, but they're really should be.  If they don't have enough time to show all the blind auditions and all the battles, it would be nice if they could put it on Youtube or something as an online exclusive.  It put all the contestants more on an leveled playing field as we can see all the contestants progress going into the Lives.  It's not like they don't have the footage.  Rebekah Samarin on Adam's team has been montaged so far so if she makes it to the Lives, she's at a total disadvantage. (Her recording of her blind audition is actually quite lovely).  

 

See, this makes me mad- the part I'm quoting- because that cover of "Case of You" was lovely, and I have absolutely no idea who this woman is!  I know the recorded ones are much better anyway- full running time instead of a butchered 90 second blind audition version, probably they get a couple of takes to get it right- but as you and others have said in further detail which I didn't quote, there's no good reason we should have artists getting totally montaged all the way to the live shows.  We don't need Carson reciting the same things, or telling us how surprised we'll be at the steal (cut to clip of Adam or Blake hitting their Steal button), or an extended revisit of the same boring sob stories I FF'ed through during the blinds. 

 

[kj4ever]

No, but they're really should be.  If they don't have enough time to show all the blind auditions and all the battles, it would be nice if they could put it on Youtube or something as an online exclusive.  It put all the contestants more on an leveled playing field as we can see all the contestants progress going into the Lives.  It's not like they don't have the footage.  Rebekah Samarin on Adam's team has been montaged so far so if she makes it to the Lives, she's at a total disadvantage. (Her recording of her blind audition is actually quite lovely).  Ever more unfortunate is poor Gianna Salvato whose entire Voice existence was montaged (The most we saw of her voice was 3 seconds of Boom Clap).  Anita is also one of my favourites, so I would have liked to seen that battle (The song choice was also an odd one so I would have liked to see how it panned out) And Boom Clap is a cool song so the battle between Bryana and Gianna would have been nice to see.  

 

Also, if they would cut the cue to commercial break (Where Carson repeats almost the SAME spiel everytime) then maybe they can squeeze n one more battle.  Yes Carson, I know there are still more great battles to come.  No, that steal will be something I see coming because you tell me about it every cue to commercial.

I don't remember what season it was, but I tweeted something about how it sucked that some of my favorites were montaged and Tanya? I think her name was (country chick from Blake's team) PM'd me that they don't let them see it either!  She said they asked to see their performances since the others obviously got to see theirs and the show told them they didn't have them.  Isn't that crazy!?!

[Noreaster]

Showing 3 full battles an hour and montaging are not new. The Voice has been doing this for many seasons.  

 

I can think of several good reasons for montages:

1) To protect the show's image.  What does it say about the coaches' abilities when their teams put out crap performances?

2) To help the battle winner's chances in later rounds.  Sometimes no exposure is better than bad exposure.

3) To make the show as entertaining as possible.  Extremely one-sided performances are really boring. Weak/awkward performances are also not fun to watch.  

 

The only montaged contestant I was really hoping to see was Anita Antoinette.  But that battle round clip didn't sound all that great.  It could very well be better for her that the battle is not shown.  

 

I don't mind at all that they montaged many of the really young contestants this season. 

[photo fox]

I don't mind montaged contestants, for many of the excellent reasons Noreaster has laid out above. But in exchange, I'd like:

 

• The option to watch the full performances on YouTube.
• A much shorter show.  Three hours a week is just too much, considering how little actual new content we see.  I end up just skipping the episodes until we get to the knockouts or the lives, and even then, it's not appointment TV.

 

The battles are just a dead zone to me.  The blinds are entertaining for the sake of the coaches and being exposed to the new contestants.  The knockouts are entertaining because we get to see them do songs of "their" choice.  But the battles are total meh.

[Padma]

So much good thoughts in this thread, can't quote you all.  But totally agree: this is pathetic editing.  3 songs an hour?  You can find a happy medium between this and airing every single audition, blind, and knockout.  I mean, it was only at 40 minutes that they first started airing Mia/Beth's rehearsals... and we're what, going to watch 20 whole minutes of TV for what's probably 2 minutes of singing, just to see who they picked?  Especially when they've done the "No one saw this steal coming" teasers and anyone watching knows there's exactly one steal left- Gwen- and one battle left. 

 

Couldn't agree more. Why won't they show more than 3 battles an hour? They have 60 minutes, minus commercials, and at least 1/3 of every battle could have been cut out, leaving time for 2 more. This would make sense.  3 an hour--when we have to watch montages for others--makes no sense.

 

That they don't even put them all up on Youtube is also a travesty. I thought this show was all about showcasing new talent and giving them a chance. For Pete's sake, put them up on Youtube! There have been several already that I was disappointed not to see, the pace of the 2 hour-6-songs show is ridiculous, and--most of all--all of the singers should have -some- kind of showcase.  Maybe if they showed more actual singing, the ratings would improve.

[viajero]

I agreed with all three winners in this episode and that Beth was the most deserving of a steal among the losers.  Having said that, this was the weakest battle round episode of the four as none of the 3 battles they showed were really all that great.  I think song selection had a lot to do with this, because those battles did include some talented singers.  At least they brought back the knockout rounds rather than subjecting us to another set of battles.

 

I'd say that my personal favorites on each team going into the knockout rounds are:

 

Team Pharrell: Taylor Phelan, Luke Wade, Katriz Trinidad, Jean Kelley and DaNica Shirley

Team Adam: Alessandra, Mark McAndrew and Mia Pfirrman

Team Gwen: Troy Ritchie, Beth Spangler, and Anita Antoinette

Team Blake: Reagan James

[LoneHaranguer]

 

Couldn't agree more. Why won't they show more than 3 battles an hour? They have 60 minutes, minus commercials, and at least 1/3 of every battle could have been cut out, leaving time for 2 more. This would make sense.  3 an hour--when we have to watch montages for others--makes no sense.

Every battle they montage saves money on music rights, but they still have the same amount of time to fill, so the holes gets padded with redundant "coming up"s, recaps, and repeated/more background on the contestants.

[Oscirus]

Showing 3 full battles an hour and montaging are not new. The Voice has been doing this for many seasons. 

 

I can think of several good reasons for montages:

1) To protect the show's image.  What does it say about the coaches' abilities when their teams put out crap performances?

2) To help the battle winner's chances in later rounds.  Sometimes no exposure is better than bad exposure.

3) To make the show as entertaining as possible.  Extremely one-sided performances are really boring. Weak/awkward performances are also not fun to watch.

 

Which is the big problem with this show. Instead of addressing non existent issues with twists that nobody asked for, they should fix the obvious problems that people are noticing.

 

1) The same thing it says about a coach when half of their team gets montaged. It wouldn't be as bad if they were equal as to how many people from each team gets montaged but the disparity is pretty apparent this season.

2) If you get double montaged and make it to the live shows, you're already working from behind. There's no way in hell that you're getting voted through for the next round.  I get that the nature of the beast is that shows tend to have favorites but do they really need  to be this blatant about them?

3) I'd much rather watch battles, then coaches hemming and hawing over decisions, stupid Starbucks skits and whatever nonsense Carson's advertising.

 

If I was Blake I'd probably be pretty pissed. If Kensington didn't get sick then I think he would have had two shows without battles.  That's just wrong.

 

They definitely need to address the missing battle situation either put them on you-tube or on the nbc site.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Oscirus

[TacoBoutIt]

Every battle they montage saves money on music rights, but they still have the same amount of time to fill, so the holes gets padded with redundant "coming up"s, recaps, and repeated/more background on the contestants.

 

I did think about music licensing as a reason for the montages but it is less for a three-second snippet of the song than for a whole song?  Also, all the performances are recorded and put on iTunes, so I imagine they have to pay for the rights for that.  Is there an additional fee to put it on TV?  I'm very unfamiliar with music rights and licensing so I'm not sure how the process works.

As someone said upthread though, they are paying the coaches millions. I feel like they're not that tight of budget so in the scope of things, an extra song wouldn't set them back too much.  (I am not too sure how expensive music rights are though)

[BogoGog24]

I'm going to assume it's more likely they don't air certain battles because they just weren't as interesting, as opposed to music rights. As others said, the show has millions invested in the coaches, set, iTunes recordings, guest mentors, etc. I think they could spare a few for music rights. 

[Noreaster]

Which is the big problem with this show. Instead of addressing non existent issues with twists that nobody asked for, they should fix the obvious problems that people are noticing.

 

1) The same thing it says about a coach when half of their team gets montaged. It wouldn't be as bad if they were equal as to how many people from each team gets montaged but the disparity is pretty apparent this season.

2) If you get double montaged and make it to the live shows, you're already working from behind. There's no way in hell that you're getting voted through for the next round.  I get that the nature of the beast is that shows tend to have favorites but do they really need  to be this blatant about them.

3) I'd much rather watch battles, then coaches hemming and hawing over decisions, stupid Starbucks skits and whatever nonsense Carson's advertising.

 

If I was Blake I'd probably be pretty pissed. If Kensington didn't get sick then I think he would have had two shows without battles.  That's just wrong.

 

They definitely need to address the missing battle situation either put them on you-tube or on the nbc site.

I think most viewers don't care about all this stuff.  They just want good TV.  Montages, double-montages, whatever. Just keep me entertained. I won't really notice what I'm missing. But I'll notice if you show me something bad.  And if you bore me, I'm going to change the channel.  

 

I'm sure NBC and the producers spend a lot of time crunching the data and doing their best to figure out how to improve their ratings.  You say non-existent issues and obvious problems but in whose eyes? The show produces and edits the way it does for a reason.

[mercfan3]

I'm a bit put off by Gwen's commentary too. I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt because I have a predisposition to not like women who reduce everything to looks, shoes, clothes and fashion. But she's making it hard. I thought the commentary on the one contestant's body was ridiculous, especially considering she had nothing relevant to say about the girl's singing. That was a real WTF moment for me as a viewer. Gwen seems really nice but disconnected in a way. 

 

I thought she had nothing nice to say about the girl's singing, and instead of bs-ing it, went with the Paula Abduhl's "You look great." 

 

I don't have a problem with Gwen being girly. Why is there a natural tendency to dislike girl? Blake reduces everything to drinking. Adam reduces everything to himself. Let Gwen talk about the clothes if she wants too. 

 

I always thought the montages were because of three possibilities. The battle was a mess. One contestant completely dominated the other, or the coach's choice was obviously wrong. There's six of them because they need to make a standard, but it's probably important to have those options because it's a tv show. They don't want to show people falling on their faces. 

 

Blake has a tendency to have a bunch of mediocre/poor contestants and a few top ones. Of course his battles are likely the worst for a tv show. 

Edited October 24, 2014 by mercfan3

[viajero]

2) If you get double montaged and make it to the live shows, you're already working from behind. There's no way in hell that you're getting voted through for the next round.  I get that the nature of the beast is that shows tend to have favorites but do they really need  to be this blatant about them.

 

While getting double montaged probably hurts your chances, it's not necessarily the kiss of death on this show.  Kristen Merlin was double montaged last season and made it all the way to the semifinals.

 

Blake has a tendency to have a bunch of mediocre/poor contestants and a few top ones. Of course his battles are likely the worst for a tv show

 

 

Add in the fact that he has a tendency to make really lame song choices and I'm not surprised that a lot of his battles get montaged.

[Padma]

While getting double montaged probably hurts your chances, it's not necessarily the kiss of death on this show.  Kristen Merlin was double montaged last season and made it all the way to the semifinals.

 

 

Add in the fact that he has a tendency to make really lame song choices and I'm not surprised that a lot of his battles get montaged.

He does, but I'm hopeful his buddy Usher (who was getting tips last season from Pharrell) may give him some song ideas when the team is better known. Wouldn't surprise me if "I'm all about the music, not the competition!" Pharrell also gives him some song ideas, at least until the end. For some reason, I had a feeling that the Lorde song might have happened that way.

[realdancemom]

I also thought that somebody mentioned the Lorde song to Blake because it doesn't seem like a song that he would choose.  He definitely stole that one girl from Gwen's team to battle Reagan.  I think Reagan should have won her battle but I also thought the song suited her voice more than the other.  I think Reagan is o.k. but I don't see why the judges love her so much. 

 

I liked Beth better in her battle but Pharrell was the only judge that agreed.  I don't know why Gwen waited so long to press her button.  The family was begging Pharrell to push his button and you can see him saying that he would but he was out of steals.  He shouldn't have stolen Menlik since I think Anita is better at least judging from the blinds.  I wish we could have seen Anita's battle.

 

ETA - I just saw the Knockout pairings.  I was wrong about Blake pairing up Jessie with Reagan.

Edited October 24, 2014 by realdancemom

[Donny Ketchum]

While getting double montaged probably hurts your chances, it's not necessarily the kiss of death on this show.  Kristen Merlin was double montaged last season and made it all the way to the semifinals.

Not to mention she'd have actually made the finale if not for NBC bringing back the Twitter Save at the last minute.  It was obvious to nearly everyone that it was done by the network to save Christina Grimmie (and was probably the big thing that cost her votes when the finale rolled around).

[ToxicUnicorn]

Good grief, someone give Beth and Mia some Kaopectate.

 

I also suspect Gwen went the Paula Abdul "First, can I say you look beautiful tonight".  Also, I agreed with Gwen.  I think Kelli's outfit was distractingly sexy and I laughed because it looked like Gwen couldn't help being honest.

 

After a rocky start in the blinds, I've gotten to like Gwen.  I think she's doing a good job with her contestants.  I also don't mind the way she pushes her steal button late.  I had the impression that Adam and Usher used to wait a little too long, in order to let the contestant stew for a moment in despair before they saved them, but Gwen comes off as much more playful and good humored to me.

[blueray]

So they air the final battle with a coach (Gwen) with a save left.  It completely takes the suspense out of it.  We know that both Beth and Mia (?) would move on  it was just a matter of who would be Team Adam and who would be Team Gwen. 

 

I was also annoyed how they did this. It was obvious then that both of them are going through, since they were the last group shown. I also didn't like how they spoil every time on of the judges are going to use a steal. Kind of ruins the show. Also I was wondering what they were going to do with the people that were on her team. Because that sucks that unlike the people that went before you, you are completely against each other. And none of the judges can save you.

Edited October 25, 2014 by blueray

[MangoFed]

No matter how they organize it, there will be a lack of suspense at the end. Either we know a steal is remaining, or that all steals have been used. The thing is, they probably do the whole 'Let me remind you, (insert singer here) is available for steal' after every battle, regardless of whether steals are available or not (so they can re-order the battles in the way they need to). So it'd be hard to edit that out to the contestant just saying their goodbyes, with no real lead into it.

[Cramps]

Actually, if you watch closely, they didn't do the " this singer is available for a steal" after quite a few of the battles. Don't know if those battles were filmed at the end and then reordered or if they just edited it out.

[BogoGog24]

There have been instances in past seasons where they didn't always do the "this singer is available to steal," implying the steals had all been used by that point but they were airing the battles out of order. Maybe this season it was different since Gwen was left with one on the last battle.

[Padma]

Don't they always show the battles out of order? I'm pretty sure that Gwen's steal wasn't really saved for the end.

[hincandenza]

I suspect the blinds, battles, and knockouts are in roughly the order they happen.  We know from what we see that the last performances we see in a given round really are among the last, because they'll occasionally include a judge commenting about how they aren't able to hit their button or to steal- although it's highly unlikely Gwen saved her steal for the very last performance.  But other than the ones that have to come near the end for that reason, they have a lot of latitude to mix it up- to balance good performances among the different episodes of that stage, and to montage what stunk up the place (especially since all pre-live show rounds have been taped, so they know who makes it to the lives).

[Cramps]

In answer to an above question. The synchronization fees paid for showing a full song on TV are significantly MORE than for showing a few seconds. (Whoops, initially posted "less" that was a typo!)

Also putting the songs on iTunes is different. It doesn't cost the voice-- the performance royalties are paid by whomever buys the song.

That said, I doubt the main reason they don't show all the contestants' battles is that they don't want to pay the synch fees. It may be part of it, but I'm guessing it haas more to do with what they think will make a good show.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Cramps