Sylvia Yacoub goes homeThis week on "The Voice's" top 10 results show, Team Xtina's Sylvia Yacoub went home--thus totally ruining Christina Aguilera's grand plan of leading a fellow diva to victory, as this was Christina's second consecutive female contestant to exit the show, leaving her with just one singer to work with: hunky male Dez Duron. But considering that Sylvia performed first on Monday night, and was easily upstaged by the nine singers that followed her (and that Dez makes all the lady voters swoon), this was not such a huge surprise. I never really thought Sylvia could win this show in the end.
But I'd always thought that the other singer who went home this week, Team Adam's Bryan Keith, had a shot.
Bryan was never my favorite in this competition--personally, I found him a little dull--but he was a total pro and a natural onstage, plus he dedicated his "New York State Of Mind" performance to Hurricane Sandy victims this week, which I thought would have won him some sympathy votes. Maybe East Coast viewers were still too busy rebuilding their post-Superstorm lives to worry about making sure they voted for some unknown guy on some singing competition...or maybe the Sandy dedication was perceived as calculating and manipulative, though I'm sure it wasn't...or maybe it was just way too competitive a week (Monday's showdown was arguably the best "Voice" episode of all time) for the once-popular Bryan to stand out.
Bryan Keith learns his fateIt was really unfortunate for Bryan that "The Voice" is eliminating two contestants per week this season. If the format had been like "American Idol's," with only one contestant going home each week, he may have had a chance and squeaked through this Tuesday. It was unclear if he'd come in ninth or 10th this week, but I imagine he might have gotten a few more votes than Sylvia, given his earlier momentum this season.
However, anyone who'd checked the iTunes charts this week, after Monday's top 10 performance show, may not have been that surprised by either of these eliminations. Sylvia's studio recording didn't even crack the top 100, and Bryan's stalled at number 83, while Melanie Martinez's "Seven Nation Army" charted at number eight, and Cassadee Pope's "Over You" went all the way to number one, doing the seemingly impossible and knocking PSY's "Gangnam Style" down to number two. (This gave both girls an edge, since any "Voice" contestant who makes the iTunes top 10 has his or her download sales multiplied 10 times over when counted as votes.) America just wasn't buying what Sylvia and Bryan were selling this week.
But then again, Bryan did chart higher than Cody Belew and Trevin Hunte this week, so perhaps in the end, it's still good old-fashioned voting--just picking up the phone and hitting redial--that is most crucial when it comes to this show's results.
So now, Cee Lo Green is the only coach who has yet to lose a single team member. On this Tuesday's elimination show, before host Carson Daly even read off the results, Blake Shelton said he thought Cee Lo's singers posed the biggest threat to Team Blake, and I really think the man has reason to be shaking in his cowboy boots now. I mean, Cody gave a very risky, outrageous, potentially off-putting performance this week, and Trevin seriously stumbled with a terrible song choice, and both of them sold the fewest downloads of the night...and yet, both were still safe, which makes me think Team Cee Lo is nearly unstoppable at this point. Will this be the season that one of the Red Zoners finally makes it to the winner's circle? Watch this space.
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