Contestants that overcame TPTB´s /their coach´s bussing

[Misirlou]

Name some contestants you remember TPTB and /or their coach tried to bus throughout the season, and still managed to advance and make it farther that TPTB might have wanted.

These are the two that come to my mind right now:
 

Adam Cunningham (S13)- Making him sing Phil Collins was a move provided by TPTB/Adam that ultimately had Adam C fighting for survival two weeks in a row, he was also given early spots on almost every week  and some horrible song choices by his coach. The guy basically coached himself and managed to almost make to the finale still.

 

Andrew Sevener (S16)- Blake putting him up against the once mighty Bundys in the Cross Battles , who then happened to flop, but still he was presumed to be dead in the water before they took the stage. Early performance spots throughout the competition. Opening for Team Blake in the playoffs, going fourth on the Top 13, and the death spot on the Top 8 and Instant Save. He made it all the way to the finale with no help whatsoever, something that can´t be said about Gyth, for example.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Misirlou

[Bouli]

You are 100% right about Andrew Sevener and Adam Cunningham. Also worth mentioning that neither of them got good performance slots, either.

 

Jean Kelley (7). It was so obvious that Gwen didn't like her at all. (I heard through the grapevine that she didn't have a great personality to work with, so that might explain it.) Gwen tried so hard to get rid of her in the Battles by giving her a song where Sugar Joans could excel and Jean would expectedly struggle. But it was almost like she didn't communicate to the other coaches that they shouldn't have stolen her, because Adam and Pharrell tried to. THE LOOK ON GWEN'S FACE when Jean was stolen is PRICELESS. I will never forget it. It is GENUINE SADNESS, and it is hilarious. The fact that she made it to the Live Playoffs/Top 20 is a miracle, but TPTB made sure she didn't make it one inch farther when they gave her... "Piano in the Dark." One of the worst song choices in the show's history.

 

Chris Kroeze (15). I would argue that if the show were pushing for anyone to win this season, it was either Kennedy Holmes (who I loved), or Blake's second black country experiment, Kirk Jay (who I also really liked). I think Chris Kroeze was at the back of their minds. I think it shocked everyone that his hometown almost singlehandedly gave him enough support to shove him to 2nd place. He got NO help from this show whatsoever, and had he won, he would've beaten Craig for having the worst performance slots out of any winner. He was also the first to finish performing in the finale.

 

Chevel Shepherd (15). For the same reasons as Chris and a little bit of Craig. Also, she never got to close out a show, either. In fact, her performance slots were terrible, too.

 

DeAndre Nico (15). Controversy aside, it really felt like Adam Levine didn't care about anyone on his team except for Reagan Strange. She was his biggest shot at winning, and DeAndre had no shot (and neither did Tyke), so he pushed for her. Had DeAndre survived past the night of RobeGate, then I think he would have placed higher on this list for me, but it felt like Adam was trying to bus him every single second of the live shows - starting with that tragic performance of "Cry for You" by Jodeci (like, seriously?!). The reason I'm including DeAndre here, though, is because he managed to survive past that week. That week was 100% supposed to be his last, but he got to choose his Instant Save song and really nailed it. But then Adam pulled off the coup de grâce with "That's What I Like," which we know now is a song that has only ever destroyed singers. Then, just when you thought DeAndre was going to win the Instant Save AGAIN, Adam used the opportunity to praise DeAndre to instead say something like, "There's a sick little girl at home, and I have to defend her [over you, dude, nothing personal]." I've never seen a singer bussed that hard for his entire time on the show. I don't even know why you'd turn for a singer's audition if you were gonna treat him like that the whole time, like, just make him a 3-chair and leave him alone 

 

Oliv Blu (16). A smaller example, but she was NOT supposed to win against Celia Babini, who was a 4-chair turn. I don't think TPTB or the coaches REALLY knew how divided the public was over Celia, or how much the public was weirdly biased against everything related to Adam and sought to let the other coaches mow his team down, before allowing the two of them to go against each other in Cross Battles. I feel like the only reason Blake saved Oliv for the Top 13 was because it was between Selkii (who was HORRIBLE in the live shows) and Kendra Checketts (who wasn't THAT bad, but also didn't give a performance or have an image that the general public could get into). He didn't really have any other options between Oliv, Selkii, and Kendra. The producers also didn't do Oliv any favors with her songs. They've had singers like her before, but they somehow couldn't figure out how to give her cool arrangements (a la Amy Vachal) or any songs that fit her voice well except for "The Girl from Ipanema." She almost felt like a total throwaway contestant who only made it as far as she did because of the weird Season 16 format.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Bouli
Removed a few that probably needed to be corrected because I didn't remember them properly lol (specifically Britton and CWB)

[indii]

Shane Q performed first in the playoffs for Team Kelly, got awful songs and performance slots in every round of the lives, went first in both Instant Saves, and still made the Top 10. He was definitely supposed to go in the playoffs.

Edited April 26, 2020 by indii

[TeamAudra]

15 minutes ago, Bouli said:

You are 100% right about Andrew Sevener and Adam Cunningham. Also worth mentioning that neither of them got good performance slots, either.

 

Jean Kelley (7). It was so obvious that Gwen didn't like her at all. (I heard through the grapevine that she didn't have a great personality to work with, so that might explain it.) Gwen tried so hard to get rid of her in the Battles by giving her a song where Sugar Joans could excel and Jean would expectedly struggle. But it was almost like she didn't communicate to the other coaches that they shouldn't have stolen her, because Adam and Pharrell tried to. THE LOOK ON GWEN'S FACE when Jean was stolen is PRICELESS. I will never forget it. It is GENUINE SADNESS, and it is hilarious. The fact that she made it to the Live Playoffs/Top 20 is a miracle, but TPTB made sure she didn't make it one inch farther when they gave her... "Piano in the Dark." One of the worst song choices in the show's history.

 

Craig Wayne Boyd (7). Just for background, my favorite this season was Chris Jamison, but I really liked Craig, too - especially when he was a southern rock singer (for all performances between "The Whiskey Ain't Working" and "I Walk the Line"). I also want to specify that Blake didn't bus him at all; Blake was 100% invested in him and no one else. I'd argue that it was TPTB that wanted to kneecap him. His is an interesting case because I feel like TPTB alternated between forcing him to change to make him more marketable, and simultaneously pushing the other favorites ahead of him, especially as it was obvious that it would only be him against 3 Team Adam singers. Like, they got him a makeover to look more contemporary and less like an outlaw, but they also never let Craig close out a show. It also seemed like they didn't give him fancy or artistic stage layouts like they did with Matt and Chris. In fact, out of every single winner in the show's history, Craig had the worst performance slots. (And yes, I did the math on it because I love running statistics on this stuff.)

 

Honestly, the only "pimping" that he really got outside of his makeover was something that had never been tried before, so they didn't know how well it would work; I'm talking about that religious pandering in "The Old Rugged Cross," which was one of his most insipid performances. And it's hard to say if it worked because the pandering was successful, or if people liked him in spite of that (or just preferred his other performance that night and ignored that one). It really felt like the show wanted Matt McAndrew to win. Matt was great too, and he also got the best original single out of all of them. Chris got the second best, just a phenomenally hot song. Craig's single was so plain and totally lacked personality. Well, they either wanted Matt to win, or they wanted to even the playing field so Craig wasn't so heavily favored for being the lone Team Blake guy against three Team Adam guys. Sometimes, even given the circumstances, I'm still amazed that he managed to win.

 

Britton Buchanan (14). How he managed to get 2nd when the show was gunning for the ladies that season is a miracle. Maybe in an alternate reality where they helped him, he could've won. And I say that as someone who thought he was really good, but he wasn't one of my favorites. This season helped all 3 of the finale women in different ways: (1) giving Kyla Jade some of the greatest performances in the show's history and even letting her have a full choir and gorgeous stage layout for "Let It Be," until they destroyed her in the finale and gave her some of the worst finale song choices in the show's history to pave the way for Brynn Cartelli, (2) helping Brynn by destroying Kyla, and (3) giving Spensha Baker a storyline of being Blake's first experimental black country singer, which gives viewers something in which they can feel invested. Britton got NOTHING and STILL managed to beat Spensha and Kyla.

 

Chris Kroeze (15). I would argue that if the show were pushing for anyone to win this season, it was either Kennedy Holmes (who I loved), or Blake's second black country experiment, Kirk Jay (who I also really liked). I think Chris Kroeze was at the back of their minds. I think it shocked everyone that his hometown almost singlehandedly gave him enough support to shove him to 2nd place. He got NO help from this show whatsoever, and had he won, he would've beaten Craig for having the worst performance slots out of any winner. He was also the first to finish performing in the finale.

 

Chevel Shepherd (15). For the same reasons as Chris and a little bit of Craig. Also, she never got to close out a show, either. In fact, her performance slots were terrible, too.

 

DeAndre Nico (15). Controversy aside, it really felt like Adam Levine didn't care about anyone on his team except for Reagan Strange. She was his biggest shot at winning, and DeAndre had no shot (and neither did Tyke), so he pushed for her. Had DeAndre survived past the night of RobeGate, then I think he would have placed higher on this list for me, but it felt like Adam was trying to bus him every single second of the live shows - starting with that tragic performance of "Cry for You" by Jodeci (like, seriously?!). The reason I'm including DeAndre here, though, is because he managed to survive past that week. That week was 100% supposed to be his last, but he got to choose his Instant Save song and really nailed it. But then Adam pulled off the coup de grâce with "That's What I Like," which we know now is a song that has only ever destroyed singers. Then, just when you thought DeAndre was going to win the Instant Save AGAIN, Adam used the opportunity to praise DeAndre to instead say something like, "There's a sick little girl at home, and I have to defend her [over you, dude, nothing personal]." I've never seen a singer bussed that hard for his entire time on the show. I don't even know why you'd turn for a singer's audition if you were gonna treat him like that the whole time, like, just make him a 3-chair and leave him alone 

 

Oliv Blu (16). A smaller example, but she was NOT supposed to win against Celia Babini, who was a 4-chair turn. I don't think TPTB or the coaches REALLY knew how divided the public was over Celia, or how much the public was weirdly biased against everything related to Adam and sought to let the other coaches mow his team down, before allowing the two of them to go against each other in Cross Battles. I feel like the only reason Blake saved Oliv for the Top 13 was because it was between Selkii (who was HORRIBLE in the live shows) and Kendra Checketts (who wasn't THAT bad, but also didn't give a performance or have an image that the general public could get into). He didn't really have any other options between Oliv, Selkii, and Kendra. The producers also didn't do Oliv any favors with her songs. They've had singers like her before, but they somehow couldn't figure out how to give her cool arrangements (a la Amy Vachal) or any songs that fit her voice well except for "The Girl from Ipanema." She almost felt like a total throwaway contestant who only made it as far as she did because of the weird Season 16 format.

CWB was pimped quite a bit, certainly not bussed by his coach or TPTB. 
 

Britton was pimped more than any contestant that season, including closing the bloodbath. He also had his blind audition leaked, and they flew his girlfriend in for his performance of “Perfect.”  I think you should rewatch the season. LOL. EDIT: He also closed the live playoff episode. 

 

Chevel wasn’t pimped, but I don’t think she was bussed either. TPTB knew where the voting stood, and I doubt she needed any pimping. Chris is the one they were actively trying to stop, while they propped up Kirk, because he clearly needed it. Kennedy was probably on the outside looking in all season, but they always knew they could get her through with the instant save, and they did. 

Edited April 26, 2020 by TeamAudra

[antikid]

47 minutes ago, TeamAudra said:

Kennedy was probably on the outside looking in all season, but they always knew they could get her through with the instant save, and they did. 

Tbh, I still don't get. They obviously did everything they possibly could to pimp Rose on bloodbath week last season, while the didn't do the same for Kennedy who was the TCO that season

[TeamAudra]

7 hours ago, antikid said:

Tbh, I still don't get. They obviously did everything they possibly could to pimp Rose on bloodbath week last season, while the didn't do the same for Kennedy who was the TCO that season

Because Kirk needed the pimp spot. Kennedy was a lock for the instant save. I don’t think that would have been the case with Kirk. That’s my theory, anyway. 

Edited April 27, 2020 by TeamAudra

[longtimelurker]

Kristen Merlin (S6): Her blind aired on the premiere episode, but that’s about all the help she got from the show. The next time we saw her with a full performance was 2 months later in the playoffs (!!!) since both her battles were montaged. And then her mic was cut during the climax of her T12 song. Yet she prevailed, and even safely avoided the T8 triple elimination week that sent home Sisaundra, Audra, and Delvin. Unfortunately, her luck ran out when they added a final last-minute Instant Save where she lost. Was she supposed to be the 3rd vote getter that week over Christina Grimmie? It’s possible but we will never know. Oh and of course she sang first in that final Instant Save.

[VintageVoice]

Andrew Sevener (S16) and Shane Q (S17) both earned my begrudging respect simply for the resilience in the face of bussing and TPTB interfering as much as they could to try and get them off the shows; the former especially surprised me by getting better throughout the lives and holding his own in a country-stacked season. I suspect there were two things that TPTB didn't/couldn't have planned for with those two:

1. Andrew beating out both Rod and Shawn in the Instant Save, particularly as he was put first and that's generally the Kiss of Death for the final instant save. 
2. Kelly picking Shane Q as her coach's choice over Hello Sunday and Damali, given we all know that Kelly has a knack for working well with young girls on the show.

Now if only I could erase Shane's "Carribean Queen" cover and Andrew's original song from my mind...

[Misirlou]

32 minutes ago, VintageVoice said:

Andrew Sevener (S16) and Shane Q (S17) both earned my begrudging respect simply for the resilience in the face of bussing and TPTB interfering as much as they could to try and get them off the shows; the former especially surprised me by getting better throughout the lives and holding his own in a country-stacked season. I suspect there were two things that TPTB didn't/couldn't have planned for with those two:

1. Andrew beating out both Rod and Shawn in the Instant Save, particularly as he was put first and that's generally the Kiss of Death for the final instant save. 
2. Kelly picking Shane Q as her coach's choice over Hello Sunday and Damali, given we all know that Kelly has a knack for working well with young girls on the show.

Now if only I could erase Shane's "Carribean Queen" cover and Andrew's original song from my mind...

It is also worth noticing that Shane beat out Max Boyle, who got PV in the playoffs

[joe14]

I cannot think of many. A lot of people mentioned in here don't really fit the description. Getting no help from the show isn't really bussing in my opinion. Bussing is an active attempt to weaken someone. Thus, I could only come up with one contestant who fits that description through and through:

Holly Tucker: The show treated her like trash but she seemed to make it week after week. Ultimately the bussing caught up to her, but she made way past the point that producer's wanted her to. 

 

I guess Damien could be argued

Damien (season 7): He wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the finale. He was given horrible slots and song choices  during the semifinals and the wild card round right before the finale. They were going for Taylor John Williams to get Gwen in the finale, but once he dropped the ball, they tried getting a team Pharrell contestant in the finale since he had squandered his entire team by then. Despite all this, Damien somehow made it to the finale, giving Adam three contestants to Blake's one. By the finale, he had no chance.

Edited April 28, 2020 by joe14

[JOMZ]

On 4/27/2020 at 5:35 AM, Bouli said:

You are 100% right about Andrew Sevener and Adam Cunningham. Also worth mentioning that neither of them got good performance slots, either.

 

Jean Kelley (7). It was so obvious that Gwen didn't like her at all. (I heard through the grapevine that she didn't have a great personality to work with, so that might explain it.) Gwen tried so hard to get rid of her in the Battles by giving her a song where Sugar Joans could excel and Jean would expectedly struggle. But it was almost like she didn't communicate to the other coaches that they shouldn't have stolen her, because Adam and Pharrell tried to. THE LOOK ON GWEN'S FACE when Jean was stolen is PRICELESS. I will never forget it. It is GENUINE SADNESS, and it is hilarious. The fact that she made it to the Live Playoffs/Top 20 is a miracle, but TPTB made sure she didn't make it one inch farther when they gave her... "Piano in the Dark." One of the worst song choices in the show's history.

 

Chris Kroeze (15). I would argue that if the show were pushing for anyone to win this season, it was either Kennedy Holmes (who I loved), or Blake's second black country experiment, Kirk Jay (who I also really liked). I think Chris Kroeze was at the back of their minds. I think it shocked everyone that his hometown almost singlehandedly gave him enough support to shove him to 2nd place. He got NO help from this show whatsoever, and had he won, he would've beaten Craig for having the worst performance slots out of any winner. He was also the first to finish performing in the finale.

 

Chevel Shepherd (15). For the same reasons as Chris and a little bit of Craig. Also, she never got to close out a show, either. In fact, her performance slots were terrible, too.

 

DeAndre Nico (15). Controversy aside, it really felt like Adam Levine didn't care about anyone on his team except for Reagan Strange. She was his biggest shot at winning, and DeAndre had no shot (and neither did Tyke), so he pushed for her. Had DeAndre survived past the night of RobeGate, then I think he would have placed higher on this list for me, but it felt like Adam was trying to bus him every single second of the live shows - starting with that tragic performance of "Cry for You" by Jodeci (like, seriously?!). The reason I'm including DeAndre here, though, is because he managed to survive past that week. That week was 100% supposed to be his last, but he got to choose his Instant Save song and really nailed it. But then Adam pulled off the coup de grâce with "That's What I Like," which we know now is a song that has only ever destroyed singers. Then, just when you thought DeAndre was going to win the Instant Save AGAIN, Adam used the opportunity to praise DeAndre to instead say something like, "There's a sick little girl at home, and I have to defend her [over you, dude, nothing personal]." I've never seen a singer bussed that hard for his entire time on the show. I don't even know why you'd turn for a singer's audition if you were gonna treat him like that the whole time, like, just make him a 3-chair and leave him alone 

 

Oliv Blu (16). A smaller example, but she was NOT supposed to win against Celia Babini, who was a 4-chair turn. I don't think TPTB or the coaches REALLY knew how divided the public was over Celia, or how much the public was weirdly biased against everything related to Adam and sought to let the other coaches mow his team down, before allowing the two of them to go against each other in Cross Battles. I feel like the only reason Blake saved Oliv for the Top 13 was because it was between Selkii (who was HORRIBLE in the live shows) and Kendra Checketts (who wasn't THAT bad, but also didn't give a performance or have an image that the general public could get into). He didn't really have any other options between Oliv, Selkii, and Kendra. The producers also didn't do Oliv any favors with her songs. They've had singers like her before, but they somehow couldn't figure out how to give her cool arrangements (a la Amy Vachal) or any songs that fit her voice well except for "The Girl from Ipanema." She almost felt like a total throwaway contestant who only made it as far as she did because of the weird Season 16 format.

Are you sure that DeAndre Nico's Cry for you was Tragic? Then why Adam seems like loosing his mind on the performance? Are you saying he's faking it?

Edited April 28, 2020 by JOMZ

[antikid]

28 minutes ago, JOMZ said:

Are you sure that DeAndre Nico's Cry for you was Tragic? Then why Adam seems like loosing his mind on the performance? Are you saying he's faking it?

A coach overreacting to hype up their contestant's performance? That's nothing new, though, I get it's weird to make it seem you really enjoy someone you're trying bus. 

[holinessss]

Rayshun 

[joe14]

1 hour ago, holinessss said:

Rayshun 

What bussing attempt did he overcome though? They pushed him as far as he could. Since he was Adam's remaining contestant and they didn't want to complete embarrass Adam, they carried him all the way to bloodbath. He was given the pimp spot in all of his bloodbath performances, even over the other team Adam member, Jackie Verna.

[Misirlou]

I´m also pretty sure Rod Stokes in S16  wasn´t supposed to get far at the beginning. He was paired against the runner up on battles and against the winner in the CB , he got the death spot in the Playoffs with a song that didn´t do him any favors and he still got a PV. It was only after he was Kelly´s last man standing that they tried to help him get to the finale, by making him duet with Maelyn and giving him a good song in T8. 

[QueenMae16]

47 minutes ago, Misirlou said:

I´m also pretty sure Rod Stokes in S16  wasn´t supposed to get far at the beginning. He was paired against the runner up on battles and against the winner in the CB , he got the death spot in the Playoffs with a song that didn´t do him any favors and he still got a PV. It was only after he was Kelly´s last man standing that they tried to help him get to the finale, by making him duet with Maelyn and giving him a good song in T8. 

I mean once they saw he was the only PV on Kelly's team, they started helping him in the Top 13. He had the semi-last spot with a great song, but yeah I agree with him not receiving any help before then.

[joe14]

3 hours ago, Misirlou said:

I´m also pretty sure Rod Stokes in S16  wasn´t supposed to get far at the beginning. He was paired against the runner up on battles and against the winner in the CB , he got the death spot in the Playoffs with a song that didn´t do him any favors and he still got a PV. It was only after he was Kelly´s last man standing that they tried to help him get to the finale, by making him duet with Maelyn and giving him a good song in T8. 

hmmm let's see...he was paired against Gyth. They did not know Gyth would be the runner-up at that time so not sure if I get your point there. They were both country so that pairing was reasonable. Blake just probably preferred the other country guys. He had like 3 others. Same with them not knowing Maelyn was the winner during the cross-battles. It is easy to craft a supposed narrative in hindsight but these things weren't known in real time. 

The cross-battles were kind of messy so I didn't think we can draw any conclusions on bussing there. He was one of the stronger people on team Adam. Adam seemed to just make a split second decision. I think he was pissed at the show (and the cross-battle's format) so just made that decision out of anger. He probably also had it in his mind that Domenic would be safe and he would use his save on Rob but that backfired. Rob was then stolen by Kelly. He was one of the first ones the producers made available for a steal actually so when he up for grabs, majority of the judges still had that option.

Playoffs...like you said they didn't do him any favors but they didn't bus him either. He definitely was not bussed after this especially since he was team Kelly's last option.

He was not given favorable treatment or anything but I don't see bussed.  I do not think they wanted him given they had enough country males that season (3 on team Blake alone) but there was no active push to get him out. 

I think a better argument could be made for Andrew Sevener being bussed.
 

[Misirlou]

13 minutes ago, joe14 said:

hmmm let's see...he was paired against Gyth. They did not know Gyth would be the runner-up at that time so not sure if I get your point there. They were both country so that pairing was reasonable. Blake just probably preferred the other country guys. He had like 3 others. Same with them not knowing Maelyn was the winner during the cross-battles. It is easy to craft a supposed narrative in hindsight but these things weren't known in real time. 

The cross-battles were kind of messy so I didn't think we can draw any conclusions on bussing there. He was one of the stronger people on team Adam. Adam seemed to just make a split second decision. I think he was pissed at the show (and the cross-battle's format) so just made that decision out of anger. He probably also had it in his mind that Domenic would be safe and he would use his save on Rob but that backfired. Rob was then stolen by Kelly. He was one of the first ones the producers made available for a steal actually so when he up for grabs, majority of the judges still had that option.

Playoffs...like you said they didn't do him any favors but they didn't bus him either. He definitely was not bussed after this especially since he was team Kelly's last option.

He was not given favorable treatment or anything but I don't see bussed.  I do not think they wanted him given they had enough country males that season (3 on team Blake alone) but there was no active push to get him out. 

I think a better argument could be made for Andrew Sevener being bussed.
 

Yeah, Andrew was definitely not TPTB´s favorite. As for Rod´s situation, I get what you´re saying, especially in the battle, since yeah, nobody viewed Gyth as a threat at that point, but I do think Adam threw him at the tigers with Maelyn, a clear favorite from the beggining, in the Cross Battles, especially since I´m pretty sure John was gonna challenge another team but Adam insisted to be challenged. The decision could have been strategic like you said but Adam had pretty much a disgrace cross on his face that season and he knew it, and still sacrificied his strongest member at the time.

[VintageVoice]

20 hours ago, Misirlou said:

It is also worth noticing that Shane beat out Max Boyle, who got PV in the playoffs

-my reaction every time I have to remember that fact.

[QueenMae16]

3 hours ago, Misirlou said:

Yeah, Andrew was definitely not TPTB´s favorite. As for Rod´s situation, I get what you´re saying, especially in the battle, since yeah, nobody viewed Gyth as a threat at that point, but I do think Adam threw him at the tigers with Maelyn, a clear favorite from the beggining, in the Cross Battles, especially since I´m pretty sure John was gonna challenge another team but Adam insisted to be challenged. The decision could have been strategic like you said but Adam had pretty much a disgrace cross on his face that season and he knew it, and still sacrificied his strongest member at the time.

Yeah I'm 100% Sure John was gonna go after Kelly against Jej.

People even pointed out Kelly said "Are you ready" like she knew he was gonna challenger her with Maelyn since the beginning against Jej.

We all know some matchups were planned among coaches, but Adam wanted to be an idiot and force John's hand.

[joe14]

12 hours ago, Misirlou said:

Yeah, Andrew was definitely not TPTB´s favorite. As for Rod´s situation, I get what you´re saying, especially in the battle, since yeah, nobody viewed Gyth as a threat at that point, but I do think Adam threw him at the tigers with Maelyn, a clear favorite from the beggining, in the Cross Battles, especially since I´m pretty sure John was gonna challenge another team but Adam insisted to be challenged. The decision could have been strategic like you said but Adam had pretty much a disgrace cross on his face that season and he knew it, and still sacrificied his strongest member at the time.

I see what you are saying but I do not think Rod was some big sacrifice. I mean someone had to go up against the beast that was Maelyn lmao. One thing I'll say about the cross-battles is that it did seem to be less scripted or planned than typical knockout rounds so a lot of decisions seemed like they were made on the fly. I definitely think the producers would have made it harder for Rod in that round if they are actively targeting him out of the competition. Additionally, I do not think Kelly would have stolen him. I agree with him not being an initial favorite though...and then producer's quickly changing plans once they realized he was Kelly's only hope. They probably wanted Jej as her main contestant. 

[TeamAudra]

2 hours ago, joe14 said:

I see what you are saying but I do not think Rod was some big sacrifice. I mean someone had to go up against the beast that was Maelyn lmao. One thing I'll say about the cross-battles is that it did seem to be less scripted or planned than typical knockout rounds so a lot of decisions seemed like they were made on the fly. I definitely think the producers would have made it harder for Rod in that round if they are actively targeting him out of the competition. Additionally, I do not think Kelly would have stolen him. I agree with him not being an initial favorite though...and then producer's quickly changing plans once they realized he was Kelly's only hope. They probably wanted Jej as her main contestant. 

A “Pimped contestants who flopped” thread would probably be a good idea. Someone should make one. Jej would defintely be high on that list. 

[Misirlou]

1 hour ago, joe14 said:

I see what you are saying but I do not think Rod was some big sacrifice. I mean someone had to go up against the beast that was Maelyn lmao. One thing I'll say about the cross-battles is that it did seem to be less scripted or planned than typical knockout rounds so a lot of decisions seemed like they were made on the fly. I definitely think the producers would have made it harder for Rod in that round if they are actively targeting him out of the competition. Additionally, I do not think Kelly would have stolen him. I agree with him not being an initial favorite though...and then producer's quickly changing plans once they realized he was Kelly's only hope. They probably wanted Jej as her main contestant. 

Yeah, Jej was definitely her frontrunner at the beggining, but he declined massively in the lives, so Rod took that spot later. I think Rod would have benefited from a longer season, since he showed much improvement in weeks.

[+Spurrious]

Ya'll are close but no cigar....given her performance order I'm not surprised you don't remember.  Holly Tucker in S4 is the answer.  With Daniellle and the Swons two of the favorites, guessing TPTB did not want a Blake hoedown. 

 

Middle of episode 3 of the blinds

Battle Round 3rd

KO 3rd

Playoffs 2nd

T12 2nd

T10 1st

T8 2nd

T6 1st

 

It's not like her performances were snozefests.  The link below was her T8 performance that led to her opening the T6 round.  Wat?

 

https://www.metatube.com/en/videos/186063/The-Voice-USA-2013-Holly-Tucker-DONE/

 

 

 

 

[QueenMae16]

12 minutes ago, Spurrious said:

Ya'll are close but no cigar....given her performance order I'm not surprised you don't remember.  Holly Tucker in S4 is the answer.  With Daniellle and the Swons two of the favorites, guessing TPTB did not want a Blake hoedown. 

 

Middle of episode 3 of the blinds

Battle Round 3rd

KO 3rd

Playoffs 2nd

T12 2nd

T10 1st

T8 2nd

T6 1st

 

It's not like her performances were snozefests.  The link below was her T8 performance that led to her opening the T6 round.  Wat?

 

https://www.metatube.com/en/videos/186063/The-Voice-USA-2013-Holly-Tucker-DONE/

 

 

 

 

Poor girl, she was better than snoozebros for sure, in fact she was the best vocalist on Blake's Top 3 that season. Although she prevailed to 6th despite TPTB wanting her out ASAP.