'Reality Check': Is This the Most Wide-Open Season of 'The Voice' in History?
Credit: TVLine
TVLine.com's Michael Slezak returns with American Idol Season 6 finalist Melinda Doolittle for an all-new episode of Reality Check, dissecting the week in reality singing competitions.
This week’s episode covers the end of The Voice Battle Rounds, along with the big question of the week: Is this the most wide-open season of The Voice ever? Michael and Melinda seem to think so, as they believe that the number of people who could plausibly win this show right now are in the double digits. Yet the episode also gets into some of the less encouraging aspects of this week's battle match-ups, including another Battle Round "injustice". Which elimination broke Michael and Melinda's heart the most? Check out the full episode below via TVLine.com:
I'm SO glad I'm not the only one who's devastated about Matt Cermanski. He really ought to have won that battle, I thought. And, at the very least, someone should have stolen him. I'm really not sure what the judges were thinking this year with their steals. They made some utterly confounding picks while letting obvious contenders slip by. And maybe I could understand it if they felt these people were better off coming back next season during a time where the competition is a little less fierce, but from all indications, they can't come back now since they'd already made the battle rounds. Ah well, here's hoping Matt gets another shot somewhere.
As for the question of whether this is the most wide-open season, I really can't think of "a dozen contestants who have a legitimate chance to win this thing." But that's more my own fault than any direct fault with Michael's argument. I mean, I'm not really on-board with the idea that there could be as many as fifteen people in the running to win, but I absolutely agree that this is perhaps the first season without a clear frontrunner. There's buzz on Preston Pohl and Tessanne Chin, but there's roughly the same amount of buzz on Matthew Schuler and Caroline Pennell.
It's almost impossible to figure out who actually has the best shot at going all the way, since it's virtually impossible to conceive of having to lose any of these people. And that's the hallmark of a potentially great season, not simply the presence of a high number of plausible contenders, but a wide variety of different musical styles among those contenders. Of course, Blake will probably just end up riding another country singer to the title. But hey, it's fun to dream.
What do you think? Is this really the most wide-open season in the history of The Voice? Is there really no clear-cut frontrunner? And did the coaches make the right call in the Battle Rounds? Sound off in the comments!