S11.E19: Live Top 11 Results 2016.11.22

[Dots And Stripes]

Another elimination

[Court]

I'm thrilled. Interesting that none of the spoiler/prediction sites predicted the bottom two correctly. At least, not the ones I read. 

[Dots And Stripes]

4 minutes ago, Court said:

I'm thrilled. Interesting that none of the spoiler/prediction sites predicted the bottom two correctly. At least, not the ones I read. 

I think itunes threw people off. Aaron was something like 5th among Voice artists and Ali did terribly on itunes and looked like she was in trouble. I personally thought Darby would squeak by a few more weeks because being polarizing is often better than being forgettable. Weirdly at the end I was kind of rooting for Darby to stay over Aaron even though I actively dislike her as a performer. She is more interesting than a handful of the remaining guys.

Poor Miley had a rough night. She's barely in a worse position than Alicia overall as both have 2 artists remaining, although clearly Aaron is not going to win this thing. As hokey as some of her speeches were about being good people, for the majority of artists on this show, their placement doesn't really matter. Finishing 10 or 5 really won't make a difference. Leaving feeling good about the experience is actually a gift, so on that level I appreciated what she said.

[Court]

I cracked up when they announced the last safe winner, camera panned to Miley and she very clearly said "what the fuck?"

[JMarie99]

I'm thrilled too! Not that I read spoiler sites, but I saw the posts on here that Darby has a show and presumably might have some big fan base. I was sure we would be stuck with her for a few more weeks. So glad she's gone! 

I hated Aaron's song last week, but I thought he did a very emotional performance of "Hurt" this week and I was sorry to see him in the bottom two. I actually liked his performance of "Budapest" better than the original. I just don't like George Ezra's voice for some reason - and ironically, while I often have trouble with Aaron's enunciation, I actually heard the line "I'd lose it all" at the end of the verses loud and clear, while in Ezra's version it always sounded like he was saying "I diggy doe." Lol. But seriously if it came on the radio while I was in the car with my daughter I would say "oh no it's that 'diggy doe' song! Turn it off!" Anyway I couldn't be happier that Aaron was saved by a large margin over Darby. 

I was very glad that Christian was safe - he did the best he could with that blah "Roseanna" song. With so many "gravelly" guys, I find his voice refreshing. And he has such a sweet personality.

This is my first season watching the show (although I watched last season toward the end) so I wasn't aware of Jordan Smith. Gosh that boy has a gorgeous voice! Glad to hear he's doing well. 

[Ketzel]

Three to one, Aaron over Darby? Wow. I have never liked her performances, but I never would have guessed there were so many others who were also sitting on their sofas, longing to see her leave the show.

[Jabu]

Team rosters/cheat sheets for the top ten:

Team Adam
Billy Gilman (saved by America's vote)
Brendan Fletcher (saved by America's vote)
Josh Gallagher (saved by America's vote)

Team Miley
Ali Caldwell (saved by America's vote)
Aaron Gibson (saved by Twitter vote)

Team Alicia
Wé McDonald (saved by America's vote)
Christian Cuevas (saved by America's vote)

Team Blake
Sundance Head (saved by America's vote)
Austin Allsup (saved by America's vote)
Courtney Harrell (saved by America's vote)

[Michel]

Blake's team was a whole lot of nothing.  Courtney was just there to provide the high voice for the harmonies.  That song was otherwise not in her wheelhouse.

I loved Alicia's team, though!  It was refreshing to hear a nice ballad, for a change.  Alicia, Christian, and Wé all sounded wonderful together.  I do wonder, though, which parts they distributed among themselves that'd previously been Sa'Rayah's?

Jordan, you won with my most hated coach when any of Blake, Pharrell, or even Gwen would've been better coaches for you.  Why should I give said coach the satisfaction of seeing any more of your performances?  I looked away the entire performance and during the stuff with Adam and Carson afterwards.

Well, when Carson was about to reveal the final three safe artists and at least one of them wasn't one of Miley's artists, I knew both Aaron and Darby were in the bottom.  Miley clearly was not happy about that.  As far as her only safe artist, Ali was clearly shocked to be called.  Must've been her lower iTunes rating.

I did like Darby, but I can see how Aaron completely stomped her.  Not only was his Instant Save performance better, but his genre vibes with America way more than Darby's.  And I think his style is way more appreciated, too.  Can't see him saving himself again next week, though, if he hits the bottom again.  Especially if he's against someone from Adam or Blake's team.

Can we please see one of Blake or Adam's people go next week?  I can't believe America actually seems to want this show to be predictable with them winning almost all the time.

[Padma]

wrong post

Edited November 23, 2016 by Padma

[Kendall]

While I will always remember tonight as a win-win situation, I still hate the TV Boyfriend phenomena that occurs with these shows. It's one thing when the guy can actually sing, but when some of the worst singers continue to skate through simply because somebody thinks they are sooooooo cute, it really takes a lot of fun out of watching these types of shows.

But, such is life and much like Sanjaya of old, at some point, Aaron will stand next to someone that even Twitter can't bear to see leave before him.

Edited November 23, 2016 by Kendall

[Padma]

29 minutes ago, Michel said:

....Can we please see one of Blake or Adam's people go next week?  I can't believe America actually seems to want this show to be predictable with them winning almost all the time.

The problem is they usually do have more crowd-pleasing singers than the other two teams.  Not sure how that happens, but I see it again this season, too.  Aaron and Darby deserved to be bottom 2. The only real surprise was that, fortunately, Darby went home, on to tour with Miley. (And I thought that rendition of "My Song" was unforgiveable.  If she didn't know how bad it was, then she should really stick to acting. If she'd sung that way in her audition, she'd have never made it to the blinds.)

Jordan's doing great--ironically, maybe he's going to turn out to be their biggest star. (I wonder if Billy looks at that and thinks, hmmm, "Silent Night?")

Edited November 23, 2016 by Padma

[windtrix]

Finally! 

[Babalooie]

I agree about Blake's team song - Courtney's harmony was not good at all.  Jordan Smith and Billy Gilman would make beautiful duets.

Edited November 23, 2016 by Babalooie

[TaraS1]

Alicia's song with her team was gorgeous and they sounded beautiful together!  Probably one of my favorite Voice team performances ever.

Aaron has been a complete non-entity to me this whole season, but I love "Budapest," so for the song choice alone, I was glad he stayed.  He seemed to be singing some of it a little too quickly, but overall I thought he did a pretty nice job.

Glad to see Jordan back.  He's a local boy and by all accounts a good guy, so I'm really happy for his success.  

I also agree with @Dots And Stripes that while those "Be who you are, live your truth" kind of platitudes can come off as cheesy sometimes, I still appreciated where Miley was going with it and I think she was incredibly sincere.  Being a good person does matter more than how high your falsetto is, and winning really does mean different things to different people.  I had SO pre-judged Miley before this season, to the point that I wasn't even going to watch because I thought she'd be so annoying.  And while she's still a little too out there for my taste, I applaud her for being such a great mentor for her kids.

[Nedsdag]

To paraphrase former president Gerald R. Ford: "Our long national nightmare is over!"

Note to Destiny Hope Cyrus: PICK A BETTER SONG FOR ALI!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all! Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday (LOL!) See you all next week!

[Padma]

When they put up the "vote back in your favorites" they might have hinted at some tv boyfriend potential.  I'm curious which of those three will come back (and, while I liked all of them and didn't vote, I'll be glad if its Zach, at least if he does something fun and energetic. It's not only that he's so good looking, though. "Brand New Girlfriend" brought much needed energy to the show that night--he probably won't try something like that again, but he really should because he pulled it off, surprisingly.).  He's the weakest of the three musically, though, so I suppose that vote will be a bit of a "fantasy bf" test.

Edited November 23, 2016 by Padma

[bluepiano]

17 hours ago, Ketzel said:

Three to one, Aaron over Darby? Wow. I have never liked her performances, but I never would have guessed there were so many others who were also sitting on their sofas, longing to see her leave the show.

What made it especially surprising was how quickly America turned against her, because last week she wasn't even in the bottom two. Maybe she got swamped in the save voting because she changed her look (no hat, different hair) and didn't look like the cute young teen anymore. (Maybe I'm grasping at straws. But the sudden crash in her popularity seems hard to figure. And I'm seeing it as more of anti-Darby than pro-Aaron vote.)

7 hours ago, TaraS1 said:

I also agree with @Dots And Stripes that while those "Be who you are, live your truth" kind of platitudes can come off as cheesy sometimes, I still appreciated where Miley was going with it and I think she was incredibly sincere.   

I'm in agreement too. Her message sounds clichéd, but she comes across as very sincere. How she's presented herself on this show is night and day different from the public image she's projected for the past couple of years. If this is the "real Miley" I hope she will continue to act this way and become a positive role model for her many young fans.

Alicia is actually the one I find a little hard to take. In her "critiques" it sounds like she's just stringing together a bunch of buzz words.  Everyone is the most amazing, wonderful, shining special snowflake and a blessing to the world and yadda yadda yadda.

49 minutes ago, Padma said:

When they put up the "vote back in your favorites" they might have hinted at some tv boyfriend potential. 

I missed this. Is there now an audience vote to bring back an eliminated contestant? If so, can it be anyone, or did they provide a list of candidates to choose from?

Edited November 23, 2016 by bluepiano

[Padma]

32 minutes ago, bluepiano said:

...I missed this. Is there now an audience vote to bring back an eliminated contestant? If so, can it be anyone, or did they provide a list of candidates to choose from?

You can vote on Amazon Echo for a comeback performance from either Chris Jamison, Zach Seabaugh or Hannah Huston.

[Michel]

I voted for Hannah, but Chris will probably win.  The ladies just loved him in season seven.  I don't think Zach or Hannah got anywhere near the love he got.

[Kendall]

3 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

Are you thinking Aaron is skating by on looks?  I feel like that's his big minus.  He looks like a serial killer.  And Pee Wee Herman.  

America likes white guys with guitars and rock music.  Aaron's the only one really in that genre (not white, I mean rock), right?  I have no feel for what Brendan's genre is, off the top of my head.  

I think the 'tv boyfriend' vote factor is overestimated.  A lot of winners on these shows aren't cute.  Or male.  I actually don't think any of The Voice winners are 'tv boyfriend' material.  Maybe Sawyer, though he was also (IMO) the most interesting singer his season.  

I always take a little offense at the accusation that we women viewers only like certain males because mentally we're silly, pubescent girls who think with our twats.  Or do people still think there's a big Voice viewership among tweens and teens?  I strongly doubt it.  

When a singer that is repeatedly in the bottom two and needs to be saved, is then saved by receiving almost 3/4s of the vote, it's people voting for things other than his voice. Yes, the other night had him looking like a serial killer, but a lot of serial killers still get prison pen pals.

Your voting habits may be different from other voting habits, but far too often on shows like The Voice, plenty of subpar males, particularly white males (with or without guitars) have continued on further than their actual talent would suggest. Sorry if you're offended by the accusation, I'm offended by the actual results, tomato, tomahto.

[Gel]

1 hour ago, Kendall said:

is then saved by receiving almost 3/4s of the vote, it's people voting for things other than his voice.

 Well. To be fair, he was up against Darby. 

[Padma]

13 minutes ago, Gel said:

 Well. To be fair, he was up against Darby. 

And she absolutely ruined a song that probably nearly everyone watching this show has heard sung better by someone else. If there's a "boyfriend effect" (which I personally doubt on this show, but maybe have seen at times on Idol), "Darby v. Aaron" last night wouldn't be testing it.  (And Aaron's...fine...but hardly a heartthrob).

[Kendall]

2 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

I don't think anyone knows why others vote for who they vote for.   I personally think the best singer (to my ears) usually wins these shows.  

Too bad there isn't some objective gauge of "actual talent".  It must be hard feeling like you're one of the few viewers who recognizes it.  

Hee! As opposed to many, many, many other people that watch and vote for the people that they believe has "actual talent"?

Hilarious.

[Noreaster]

Pointing to Aaron as evidence of the "TV boyfriend effect" doesn't make sense to me.  Aaron landed in the bottom two for the second week in a row.  He's really not getting much support from viewers.  

The twitter instant save is sort of a different animal.  There are only two people from which to choose.  I was not surprised at all to see the landslide win.  Darby seems to be polarizing so I think many folks were voting for Aaron just to get rid of her.  

5 hours ago, bluepiano said:

What made it especially surprising was how quickly America turned against her, because last week she wasn't even in the bottom two. Maybe she got swamped in the save voting because she changed her look (no hat, different hair) and didn't look like the cute young teen anymore. (Maybe I'm grasping at straws. But the sudden crash in her popularity seems hard to figure. And I'm seeing it as more of anti-Darby than pro-Aaron vote.)

We know Darby got less public votes than Aaron in the live playoffs.  Miley had to save her.  I don't think Darby was ever that popular.   

Edited November 24, 2016 by Noreaster

[Kendall]

1 hour ago, Noreaster said:

Pointing to Aaron as evidence of the "TV boyfriend effect" doesn't make sense to me.  Aaron landed in the bottom two for the second week in a row.  He's really not getting much support from viewers.  

The twitter instant save is sort of a different animal.  There are only two people from which to choose.  I was not surprised at all to see the landslide win.  Darby seems to be polarizing so I think many folks were voting for Aaron just to get rid of her.  

We know Darby got less public votes than Aaron in the live playoffs.  Miley had to save her.  I don't think Darby was ever that popular.   

But, that's just it, he's not getting "much support" and it appears that viewers don't think he should be on the show,  until he's up against a young woman and then suddenly he's the greatest thing evah! This week he received almost 75% of the vote and last week, I think it was over 66%, so for someone that doesn't get much support, it's resounding when he is the opposite choice to a woman.

That's where the "TV Boyfriend" trend started with these types of shows. Not everyone's boyfriend is good looking, not every one is tall, talented, muscular or whatever seems superior or "obvious" on paper, but when it's time you save your guy, you defend your guy, you keep your guy and those that technically should surpass your guy, fall short because they aren't "your guy". They aren't a guy.

I've heard as much praise and fanfare, if not more, for Darby as I've heard for Aaron, but when she had to go up against him, she didn't stand a chance. To me, they both stink, but not so much of a 3:1 ratio of stink, but that's what happened. I think SaRayah has a decent to good voice, nothing overwhelming, but up against Aaron, she too lost with an almost 3:1 ratio.

There have been much closer Twitter saves that a viewer can say "wow, okay, I can see how that one went." I don't think that has happened over the past two weeks.

[Mystery Author]

Quote

He looks like a serial killer.  And Pee Wee Herman.  

LOL. Apropos to what you just said, Happy Thanksgiving:

[bluepiano]

Adding my two cents, I do think that the "fantasy boyfriend" (and similar "boy next door") vote was always more of a factor on American Idol. It was hard to figure out any other reason why some very marginal guy singers stuck around for so long.

22 hours ago, Padma said:

You can vote on Amazon Echo for a comeback performance from either Chris Jamison, Zach Seabaugh or Hannah Huston.

The idea of bringing someone from a previous season seems weird to me. Especially this late in the game. For whatever reason, I'm fairly certain it will be one of the guys. I remember Chris Jamison more than Zach, and I remember not being a fan.                

[Noreaster]

On 11/23/2016 at 11:22 PM, Kendall said:

But, that's just it, he's not getting "much support" and it appears that viewers don't think he should be on the show,  until he's up against a young woman and then suddenly he's the greatest thing evah! This week he received almost 75% of the vote and last week, I think it was over 66%, so for someone that doesn't get much support, it's resounding when he is the opposite choice to a woman.

That's where the "TV Boyfriend" trend started with these types of shows. Not everyone's boyfriend is good looking, not every one is tall, talented, muscular or whatever seems superior or "obvious" on paper, but when it's time you save your guy, you defend your guy, you keep your guy and those that technically should surpass your guy, fall short because they aren't "your guy". They aren't a guy.

I've heard as much praise and fanfare, if not more, for Darby as I've heard for Aaron, but when she had to go up against him, she didn't stand a chance. To me, they both stink, but not so much of a 3:1 ratio of stink, but that's what happened. I think SaRayah has a decent to good voice, nothing overwhelming, but up against Aaron, she too lost with an almost 3:1 ratio.

There have been much closer Twitter saves that a viewer can say "wow, okay, I can see how that one went." I don't think that has happened over the past two weeks.

No, if you're going to make this claim, then you have to look at all the instant saves in the history of this show and not just a couple.  It's too small a sample size and there could be many other reasons why Aaron beat out Sa'rayah and Darby by wide margins.  All these contestants are incredibly different from each other.  It's not just about gender, but genre, song choices, musical styling, etc.  

For these contestants in particular, there was a lot of hate for Darby online (on this board and elsewhere).  Two-person instant save voting is about "eliminating" just as much as it is about "saving". Many folks wanted her gone.  I was one of them.  For Sa'rayah, I also was not surprised about her landslide elimination because she got very little support in the live playoffs despite far outperforming (in my opinion) the rest of her team.  Overall, viewers did not care for her for whatever reason.  Perhaps it was because she advanced over a fan favorite (Michael Sanchez) in the pre-lives. Perhaps it was simply her somewhat dramatic musical/performance style.  I know a few people on this board were quite negative on her because of this.  

For Aaron, I haven't observed much hate for him.  It seems to be mostly indifference.  I personally like his genre and song choices a lot but find the execution lacking.  Still, if I actually participated in these twitter saves, I probably would have voted for him both times because I thought all the instant save performances have been mediocre and his genre/song choices might have swayed my votes.  

Looking at other 2-person instant saves, there have been plenty of times when a man loses to a woman.  In 3-person instant saves when there is only one guy in the mix, the guys don't always get the save either.  The "boyfriend effect" really doesn't play out often enough to automatically characterize the Aaron situation as such.  Viewers vote for a whole host of reasons, some performance-related, some not.  I remember one season where a female contestant (the mini-Gwen one...Korin, I think) landed in the bottom for the second or third week in a row.  It seemed like the stress was getting to her and she royally botched up her instant-save performance and forget a lot of words.  The other contestant was a male who landed in the bottom for the first time and delivered a perfectly serviceable (if boring) performance. The vote results?  Close to 50/50.  The female lost, thank goodness, but I was scratching my head on that one.  People voting for the female most surely were not basing their votes on the instant-save performances themselves.  

Edited November 25, 2016 by Noreaster

[Court]

Also, comparing twitter saves to the live voting is useless. Many people will do the twitter saves but not vote the other way.  Both my mom and husband do exactly this. 

[photo fox]

I've hid a bunch of posts in here - on both sides of the argument, for the record - and now I'm asking everyone to move on.

If you think someone has stepped over the line of civility, report it. Don't reply.

If you find yourself having the same argument with the same person, let it go.

If you have a problem with mod actions, PM one of us. We have the little shields next to our names. Anyone is fine - if it's not our forum, we'll direct you to the right person. But do not argue with our actions on the boards.

And finally, no one has to justify their voting decisions. 

[jjjmoss]

Final estimate on kworb.net for the top Voice song this week: 14k, maybe #40 or so in Digital Songs? And that's the only song of the season to crack the iTunes T10.

By this time last year Jordan had a song that hit 138k and #3 in Digital Songs.

There are still like 10 million viewers, which is not a big drop from last year, so I guess the audience is just super unmotivated to buy the music.

Playoffs + 2 regular live weeks, # of T10s: S11 1

S10, S7, S6, S5, S4, S3 2

S8 5

S9 8. 2015 sure was a big time for Voice downloads even early on.

Edited November 27, 2016 by jjjmoss

[TheGreenKnight]

I don't really care who wins this show because nobody goes on to be a star, but I definitely think there's no denying that white guys get it easier on these shows when the ratings begin to sink over time. I was shocked--in a good way--that Alisan/Christina won last year after 4 white guys in a row. It helps that The Voice plays fast and loose with their voting rules. This is coming from someone who was glad to see Darby out the door, btw.

[Quickbeam]

Alisan had the child star edit which they humped mercilessly plus the Christina never won thing. 

[realdancemom]

I've been late watching this show since I was watching DWTS.  I did think that Aaron and Darby did one of their best performances last Monday.  I like Aaron because of his audition and battle with Sa'rayah.  He's had another good song but I don't remember.  I can say the same thing about Darby.  I haven't liked any of her performances since the battle.  I think she has potential but needs to learn how to control her voice.  She does switch keys and technique in the middle of verses.  For Aaron, I was thinking that maybe he wouldn't land in the bottom two if he was better looking.  I don't vote but I can see others giving bonus points for looks.   I do think that people on Blake's team or country singers get bonus points from certain voters.  

I did think that Aaron did better during the Instant Save performance.  He sang the Budapest song well and it does help that it's popular.  Two weeks ago, I also thought his Instant Save performance was better than his performance from the previous night.

Out of all the team group numbers, I really like Alicia's team.  It helps that their voices match and they can sing the same style.  That's why Blake's team songs have done well in previous seasons because he usually has mostly country singers.