Tony Lucca comes in thirdWhen the Season 2 "Voice" finale results were read on Tuesday night, it was a bit of a shock to see two contestants who'd both seemed like they had a real shot at winning, Tony Lucca and Chris Mann, comprising the bottom two. Interestingly, these were the two singers who'd been caught in the crossfire of an increasingly ugly feud between their respective coaches, Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera--so this outcome didn't seem like a coincidence. Were Tony and Chris in fact punished by disgruntled viewers for Adam and Xtina's behavior?
When asked backstage if he thought this might be the case, Chris (who admitted he was tired of talking about all the drama, but still graciously answered the question) told Yahoo!'s Reality Rocks: "Sure, I do. There was a lot of hate going on [Monday] night, and I was really sad to be a part of it. Having sung three inspirational songs for the night, and then to basically see anti-Chris tweets because of the feud, was a rude awakening. It was an interesting dose of reality of being in this new sort of realm of attention. So that was not fun."
Tony, the season-long target of his former "Mickey Mouse Club" co-star Christina's wrath, answered: "Yeah, [Chris and I] may have negated each other's votes somehow," before expressing delight over Jermaine Paul's victory and theorizing, "Maybe the whole takeaway here is America is not that inspired by drama and petty exchanges."
[PHOTO GALLERY: "The Voice" cast]
Chris Mann comes in fourthTony admitted that he, like Chris, was frustrated that the drama between the judges this week detracted attention from the show's singers and the music itself. "It became something that wasn't flattering for anybody....I'm really sad that this ongoing exchange has been like a dark cloud over this whole thing, and sort of diminished some of the other great stories of some of the other contestants. And I've apologized for my role in that," he said. "Certainly on my end it was beneficial, because it inspired me to basically reinvent myself on national television. But at some point, I think you have to say enough is enough, and hope that time can heal and that relationships can be restored."
Tony revealed that he and Christina hugged after the finale, and "got a chance to clear the air, or at least express an interest in doing so." And Chris later hinted that he and Christina may work together in the future. So perhaps the healing is already underway. But the repercussions of this bizarre TV feud are obviously lasting--and there's no knowing how this season's results might have been different for Chris and Tony, if Adam and Christina had just played nice like Blake Shelton and Cee Lo Green.
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