The latest season of The Voice is potentially the one that could break the metaphorical camel's back, at least in terms of fan approval and goodwill. The Top 13 got chopped down to the Top 8 in the most recent episode, and in a shocking turn, the entirety of Adam Levine's team got voted off, with Mari and LB Crew losing the Instant Save performance to Blake Shelton's rapper-minded Kim Cherry. Perhaps it's needless to say here, but fans were flipping out.
Adam Levine himself has taken his fair share of fan criticisms and then some in the past month, largely tied to his faux rift with co-coach Blake Shelton. While some viewers would generally be happy to see him leave the show altogether, lots of fans were pissed that his final two contestants, Mari and LB Crew, didn't make the cut after the Instant Save voting was tallied up. Such as this person:
Once again the West Coast is left out of the voting to Save someone! Also I don’t get how America isn’t voting for Adams team!! They clearly had The Voices and they were both voted off the show tonight!! The Voice is turning into the Country Voice #TheVoice
For the most part, fans on Twitter were largely critical of the voting public for choosing the "wrong" contestant to go forward, while leaving talent like Mari and LB Crew to be eliminated. It's definitely not the first time the piano-playing '90s-enthusiast Kim Cherry was called out for her rapping abilities, or her predictable song choices.
One can bet this viewer hopes it's the last time that Kim is able to get called out for her raps, though.
Shots fired! To be sure, there are plenty of fans out there who genuinely thought that Kim Cherry's iteration of En Vogue's "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)" was more impressive than Mari's take on Disclosure and Sam Smith's "Latch" and LB Crew's version of Khalid's "Better." That's part of how she won the Instant Save, after all.
That said, Twitter was full of fans who were agog at how Mari's arguably more unique and showy talents were even put in a spot to challenge Kim Cherry for a final spot. At least one fan questioned the legitimacy of the voter turnout.
As The Voice gets closer to the season's final rounds, people are now more consistently pulling out the old chestnut of accusing The Voice of being more of a popularity contest than a talent competition. (As if that point of view hadn't been around since the beginning.)
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The way most fans see it, Blake Shelton has the biggest advantage when it comes to wooing voters, and it's why he's got more contestants than the other coaches at this point. Not that everyone is feeling happy (or even healthy) about such distinctions, such as this potentially former viewer.
My family and I are done watching the Blake popularity contest, this show kept trash for the past few weeks and sent true talent home. #TheVoice is hot garbage and I am sick to my stomach.
That kind of thought process was echoed all over social media, with many fans slamming The Voice's voting procedure for basically turning the show into one where country music musicians seemingly have a distinct advantage when it comes to the votes.
As one fans put it, though, the situation may also come down to older voters just not always being aware of what the contestants are even performing, which didn't help either of Adam Levine's last remaining team members.
Interestingly enough, many viewers also consider this season to be a reverse of a popularity contest, wagering that voters were also directly choosing to vote against Adam due to the way he threw last season's contestant DeAndre Nico to the sharks in favor of Reagan Strange. That's a wound that still hasn't closed over for many fans.
At least one person out there thinks that Mari's chances would have been far better had she landed on another team.
I was planning on watching the Voice tonight. Not the Blake Shelton show. So disappointed. I wish Mari picked a better coach. She had a shot. She’s awesome. Adam Levine is a death wish. #TheVoice
I guess not everyone was mad about Adam Levine getting the short end of the stick from The Voice voters, though.
Note that this isn't the first time that Adam Levine has lost his entire team ahead of The Voice's finals. This is actually the third season in a row in which each of his team members were voted off ahead of the finals. It's also the second time that he was out of the competition even before the semifinals start, with that first time happening in Season 3.
Though Adam Levine's entire team has been eliminated from competing in the remaining episodes, each of the other three coaches still have their eyes on the prize. Blake Shelton has the best shot at winning, percentage wise, as he still has another fan favorite, Gyth Rigdon, on his squad, as well as Andrew Sevener, Dexter Roberts, Carter Lloyd Horne and Kim Cherry.
On the flip side, Kelly Clarkson also has a fairly good shot at winning, considering she beat everyone else out for her first two seasons as a coach. She's only got one singer left on the docket, Rod Stokes, but that could be all she needs.
Meanwhile, John Legend could very well step up and win out during his own first year as a coach on The Voice. He's got the talented Shawn Sounds and Maelyn Jarmon left in contention, and both artists already have a ton of fans on their side. It'll just take all of those fans getting on their phones and computers to vote.
What did you guys think about the way things shaped out on Tuesday night's episode of The Voice? Are you guys loving Kim Cherry's talents, or did she deserve to get stomped by either Mari or LB? Let us know below!
The Voice airs every Monday and Tuesday night on NBC at 8:00 p.m. The heat is definitely on, too, now that there are only eight remaining contestants.
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