What is IDF's Least Favorite Season?

[Bouli]

I was very honestly conflicted between S11 and S16, but I ultimately voted for S16. The vibe of that season was so "off" to me, and I can't put my finger on exactly why. I can offer a few guesses, though.

• Adam clearly didn't want to be there for a single moment. He was so checked out, and I found him hard to watch.
• And then the Cross Battles were a nightmare to witness. They were such a hot mess.
  • The performance quality was dreadful because the microphones were just not set up right, and most of the singers were drowned out by the backing bands. Almost nobody gave a good performance.
  • More on the Cross Battles - it was ridiculous to watch the coaches rush to use their Saves and Steals, just to run out early, so several more deserving singers who were unlucky enough to go last inevitably had to go home. (I know that happens in real life with the judges rushing to use their Saves and Steals early, and the later singers being unlucky... but at least the editing doesn't make it nearly as brutal to watch because they don't televise every battle/KO in sequential order.)
  • Last point on the Cross Battles - I know Team Blake has an inherent boost in votes, but it was so blatantly obvious during the Cross Battles; it is ridiculous that one coach could leave the Cross Battles with around 50% of the remaining contestants.
• The Comeback Stage needed to leave after Season 15, but it honestly felt like they made it worse in Season 16. Like, we really watched these singers go through this whole gauntlet of extra performances, just for it to be pretty much inevitable that a guy who had just been eliminated in a live show (LB Crew) would win anyway. Also, Kanard sounded beautiful until he went live. And lastly, those performances vanished from YouTube faster than aaaany others, and I have no idea why. That sucked too.

I say this as someone who really liked quite a few of the singers on this season (with my snowflakes being Maelyn Jarmon and Shawn Sounds), and one of the only country singers I ever really loved was on this season (Dexter Roberts). But this season's vibe was wack, everything felt bizarrely rushed and sloppy, and I was relieved when it ended. There were lots of great singers who deserved so much better than that mess.

 

Some good runners-up include S11, S18, and (currently at least) S22. I don't feel as strongly about 22 as I do about the others, but I don't like the three-way KOs, and I feel like a lot of artists are falling apart during the KOs and giving some extremely lackluster performances. It's to the point where it's almost never any wonder who's going to win a KO because it usually ends up being the only one who consistently sang in tune.

[Hsamid]

Since I keep trashing on s22 I'll even it out by saying that the top talent of the season, while not my favourite, is pretty unique and diverse. 

 

Omar is the closest to a rocker we've had to make it to the lives since the earlier seasons. A rocker voice with a touch of rnb/Soul and theatrical tendencies. Can you say we've had a contestant like that?

 

Kique is self explanatory. His style of singing speaks for itself.

 

Eric Who has this weird dramatic affectation to his voice (in a good way) I don't think I've heard on the voice. Also probably the most unapologetically flamboyant personality the show has seen.

 

Kim Cruse is the supposed "powerhouse" of the season that has yet to powerhouse (not a bad thing). Also, her tone sets her apart from most singers that have been on the show.

 

Bodie is also self explanatory. Seems like he can do any genre and sound good. But to me his voice will always remind me of an alt rock singer (not just me?) which is a pretty rare sight on this show.

 

Morgan is similar to Bodie in that it seems like she can sing anything, but will always sound a bit country doing it.

 

Bryce while not unique in general, I'd say his tone stands out from country artists that have been on the voice (though my boy needs to step up, hasn't topped his blinds)

 

Parijita pretty distinct tone as well.

 

Rowan and Katie sound like a lot of singers we've had in the past but they're good.

 

That's all I know for now

 

 

 

[Hsamid]

5 minutes ago, Bouli said:

I was very honestly conflicted between S11 and S16, but I ultimately voted for S16. The vibe of that season was so "off" to me, and I can't put my finger on exactly why. I can offer a few guesses, though.

• Adam clearly didn't want to be there for a single moment. He was so checked out, and I found him hard to watch.
• And then the Cross Battles were a nightmare to witness. They were such a hot mess.
  • The performance quality was dreadful because the microphones were just not set up right, and most of the singers were drowned out by the backing bands. Almost nobody gave a good performance.
  • More on the Cross Battles - it was ridiculous to watch the coaches rush to use their Saves and Steals, just to run out early, so several more deserving singers who were unlucky enough to go last inevitably had to go home. (I know that happens in real life with the judges rushing to use their Saves and Steals early, and the later singers being unlucky... but at least the editing doesn't make it nearly as brutal to watch because they don't televise every battle/KO in sequential order.)
  • Last point on the Cross Battles - I know Team Blake has an inherent boost in votes, but it was so blatantly obvious during the Cross Battles; it is ridiculous that one coach could leave the Cross Battles with around 50% of the remaining contestants.
• The Comeback Stage needed to leave after Season 15, but it honestly felt like they made it worse in Season 16. Like, we really watched these singers go through this whole gauntlet of extra performances, just for it to be pretty much inevitable that a guy who had just been eliminated in a live show (LB Crew) would win anyway. Also, Kanard sounded beautiful until he went live. And lastly, those performances vanished from YouTube faster than aaaany others, and I have no idea why. That sucked too.

I say this as someone who really liked quite a few of the singers on this season (with my snowflakes being Maelyn Jarmon and Shawn Sounds), and one of the only country singers I ever really loved was on this season (Dexter Roberts). But this season's vibe was wack, everything felt bizarrely rushed and sloppy, and I was relieved when it ended. There were lots of great singers who deserved so much better than that mess.

 

Some good runners-up include S11, S18, and (currently at least) S22. I don't feel as strongly about 22 as I do about the others, but I don't like the three-way KOs, and I feel like a lot of artists are falling apart during the KOs and giving some extremely lackluster performances. It's to the point where it's almost never any wonder who's going to win a KO because it usually ends up being the only one who consistently sang in tune.

Maelyn, Shawn and Dexter carried the lives so hard. The few others that performed well in the lives (Matthew, domenic) were eliminated early.

 

And of course, the cross battles being the worst set of performances in The Voice history really does it in for that season. (Even though the blinds are some of the best)

[Hsamid]

25 minutes ago, Misirlou said:

We have to consider there are more contestants than usual, and thus we have seen a lot of subpar performances that have caused people to go home. We aren´t gonna see those contestants in lives. For that part at least, I think everyone out of the Top 16 has had at least a good moment so far. (Brayden´s audition grew on me over time).

That's true, the number of contestants probably has something to do with the number of subpar performances. I do still think the best performances of these live rounds don't match up that well against other seasons though.

[ikwonic]

1 hour ago, Gustavo527 said:

Here is the thing. I'm gonna write a BIG rant, so be prepared if you really want to read it.

 

What bothers me most about the season is how both the producers and the social media team (particulary, the people that manages the Youtube channel) have been handling things since the season started. 

 

With the producers, they montaged a lot of contestants that turned chairs in the blinds when they could have easily shown at least some of them instead of making us lose time with 10 minutes intro packages of no chairs. This happen every season I guess. However, last season there were only 4/48 montages, this season there were 6/56, which means that there is bigger percentage of montages this time. But the worst thing definitely is the knockout montages. If they knew the elections were coming, they should have tought twice before bringing a cast of 56 contestants. There was literally no way in which they could have distributed all the 36 knockout performances in three episodes, they messed up big time. Eliminating 40 contestants pre-lives is also big non-sense. Just bring 48 contestants as usual, is not that hard. We could have had 6 live shows instead of only 5 and three triple eliminations.  

 

And with the social media team, first, what they are supposed to win by geolocking the performances?? The only thing they win is mediocre Youtube viems, and if the contestants are getting less exposure due to the stupid montages, they are gonna receive even less exposure with this bulls**t. Youtube is where the international fans follow the show and they are doing a big disservice to both us and the contestants by doing that. And if they think that somehow is gonna boost their Facebook/Twitter viems, they are wrong. The fans that follow vía Youtube are simply gonna stop following the show, they are not gonna bother to follow social media to keep up with it (And yes, i know VPN exists, very annoying to have to activate the VPN every time i want to watch a performance, and probably a lot of fans think the same). And when i thought things  couldn't get worse, boom, they decide to only upload the KO's of contestants that advanced to the live shows, when the eliminated contestants also deserve to have videos of their performances.

 

So yeah, all these things have really make it hard for me to enjoy the season. They have managed to make it unbearable. I'm still watching because i enjoy the show, mostly because i like to see how the contestants grow during the competition. Now, with that said, i admit that the auditions weren't that exciting for me, there were whole episodes where i wasn't blown away by any of the contestants (even though all of them were good to some degree). Definitely one of the weakest seasons for Blind auditions. The Battles were better, but the Knockouts are, so far, not that great. I'm getting dissapointed by some of my favorites and i don't share the same excitement as social media and IDF over some of the contestants. So, yeah, that's it. I definitely enjoyed the Season 21 pre-lives a lot more. And i'm keeping my expectatives low for the live shows.

 

Completely agree with absolutely everything you said. I didn't even know about the geolocking, that's insane. As I've echoed in other threads, I still cannot understand the terrible format change. Even with the increased teams, we're literally getting basically the EXACT same number of KO performances as we would in a normal season. However, now:

• 4 performances will be completely unaired and there will now be 2 montages instead of 1
• We have to endure the awkwardness of one person getting stolen as the other person just stands there or walks off
• Instead of only 25% of the KO performances being losing performances that don't get autotuned, we now have over 50% of the performances being from people who got sent home (it would be like if a night of the blinds featured 7 people who got no chairs and only 6 who did). 
• With the KOs being much more competitive, the possibility of an upset or a surprise breakout moment is completely gone. There have been and will not be any surprise moments like Lana beating Carson, Ricky Braddy beating Zach Bridges, etc. And based on the really uneven edit we've had so far, we will absolutely go into ever KO knowing exactly who will win and who will get stolen. The only breakout moment/upset this season may have had was Eric Who's performance, but oops, we didn't actually get to see his KO!
• It definitely feels like the pre-determined winners are getting more support and better song choices. I'm not trying to say ALL of the losers have been getting bussed, but it definitely feels like there's more bussing than a normal season... 

It's like the producers made the decision to make this season as hard to watch as possible for literally no explicable reason. I just... do not get it...

[ikwonic]

40 minutes ago, Bouli said:

I was very honestly conflicted between S11 and S16, but I ultimately voted for S16. The vibe of that season was so "off" to me, and I can't put my finger on exactly why. I can offer a few guesses, though.

• Adam clearly didn't want to be there for a single moment. He was so checked out, and I found him hard to watch.
• And then the Cross Battles were a nightmare to witness. They were such a hot mess.
  • The performance quality was dreadful because the microphones were just not set up right, and most of the singers were drowned out by the backing bands. Almost nobody gave a good performance.
  • More on the Cross Battles - it was ridiculous to watch the coaches rush to use their Saves and Steals, just to run out early, so several more deserving singers who were unlucky enough to go last inevitably had to go home. (I know that happens in real life with the judges rushing to use their Saves and Steals early, and the later singers being unlucky... but at least the editing doesn't make it nearly as brutal to watch because they don't televise every battle/KO in sequential order.)
  • Last point on the Cross Battles - I know Team Blake has an inherent boost in votes, but it was so blatantly obvious during the Cross Battles; it is ridiculous that one coach could leave the Cross Battles with around 50% of the remaining contestants.
• The Comeback Stage needed to leave after Season 15, but it honestly felt like they made it worse in Season 16. Like, we really watched these singers go through this whole gauntlet of extra performances, just for it to be pretty much inevitable that a guy who had just been eliminated in a live show (LB Crew) would win anyway. Also, Kanard sounded beautiful until he went live. And lastly, those performances vanished from YouTube faster than aaaany others, and I have no idea why. That sucked too.

Totally agree with all of that. Adam being completely beat down that season was honestly so sad. Like, I hated Adam going into S16 after Robegate, but he was just CONSTANTLY beat down way beyond what he deserved. Everything from Hannah Kay basically telling him to shut up in the auditions to Adam having to BEG LB to come to his team so that he would have more than ONE person going into the Top 13 (only to not even end up with a finalist) was so hard to watch. I still can't rank it as my worst season just because the talent was SO extraordinary that season, but I can definitely see the argument for ranking S16 at the very bottom.

[QueenMae16]

S11 was a disaster, no one could really sing live except a couple(who were still inconsistent at points, but I blame Miley for a part of that)

 

Pre-lives had some questionable eliminations too.

 

S16 was god-awful, but at least Miss Maelyn gave us slayage after slayage.(I would have only switched out her PO song, with maybe "Light On") 

And at least it gave us a laugh with Gyth's Semis performance 

[Bouli]

48 minutes ago, Hsamid said:

Since I keep trashing on s22 I'll even it out by saying that the top talent of the season, while not my favourite, is pretty unique and diverse.

 

I've also been trashing S22, but I 100% agree. This season's only saving grace is the diversity in stellar and unique singers (even as a lot of great singers have been deeply disappointing during the KOs). There are lots of styles we haven't seen before, and lots of singers putting fresh twists on styles we've heard.

 

Like, my biggest snowflakes this season, Omar and Parijita, are nothing like anyone else who has ever been on this show IMO. Omar is a rocker with a soulful, theatrical, and bombastic side that no other rockers have really nailed. I loved him from his audition, but now he's nailed a song from Frozen, and now "Radioactive," one of the most annoying songs in the history of the universe (only partially exaggerating), and he somehow made "Radioactive" not sound aggravating. Parijita's tone is so warm, sweet, and lovely, and I just love the way she passionately emotes through her voice.

 

You nailed it with your descriptions of so many other singers this season. I don't know if I'd be able to handle this season if it had a lower quality in singers overall. The singers are carrying this season harder than has ever happened before - because honestly, aside from the singers, this season's vibe feels peculiarly "off" too.

[TeamAudra]

S18 by far. 

[Misirlou]

2 hours ago, Hsamid said:

Since I keep trashing on s22 I'll even it out by saying that the top talent of the season, while not my favourite, is pretty unique and diverse. 

 

Omar is the closest to a rocker we've had to make it to the lives since the earlier seasons. A rocker voice with a touch of rnb/Soul and theatrical tendencies. Can you say we've had a contestant like that?

 

Kique is self explanatory. His style of singing speaks for itself.

 

Eric Who has this weird dramatic affectation to his voice (in a good way) I don't think I've heard on the voice. Also probably the most unapologetically flamboyant personality the show has seen.

 

Kim Cruse is the supposed "powerhouse" of the season that has yet to powerhouse (not a bad thing). Also, her tone sets her apart from most singers that have been on the show.

 

Bodie is also self explanatory. Seems like he can do any genre and sound good. But to me his voice will always remind me of an alt rock singer (not just me?) which is a pretty rare sight on this show.

 

Morgan is similar to Bodie in that it seems like she can sing anything, but will always sound a bit country doing it.

 

Bryce while not unique in general, I'd say his tone stands out from country artists that have been on the voice (though my boy needs to step up, hasn't topped his blinds)

 

Parijita pretty distinct tone as well.

 

Rowan and Katie sound like a lot of singers we've had in the past but they're good.

 

That's all I know for now

I do like this Top 16. Of course we need to hear them live, but as artists, I dig them.

[FloorWax]

I agree with everything that's been said about the current season. The only way S22 can be redeemed is if the Top 16 are actually great live singers. I'm actually glad to have less people for the first live show... there was a lot of fat to trim this season. Oh and please, please, let the song choices be not awful for once. Team Gwen's battle songs were good, so they can definitely do it if they wanted to

[Teraginn]

S16 for me. Others have already explained the major issues with this season, but my biggest issue is the cast choking on the live shows. Especially when they showed so much promise in the Blinds. 

 

I get the criticism with S18, but I choose to view that season as a triumph considering the extenuating circumstances surrounding it. 

 

The stretch between S14-S16 was the most challenging time for me in terms of my enjoyment of the show. None of my snowflakes made the lives, and Blake's dominance and Adam's descent did not help matters. Then S17 somehow turned things around and reminded me of why I watch this show.

I totally understand the grumblings concerning S22, but the cast saves it for me. I fully believed that if they didn't expand the cast to 56 artists, they wouldn't have to cut so many corners.

[VintageVoice]

15 minutes ago, Teraginn said:

 

I get the criticism with S18, but I choose to view that season as a triumph considering the extenuating circumstances surrounding it. 

It also doesn’t hurt that your snowflake won the whole shebang

[Teraginn]

1 minute ago, VintageVoice said:

It also doesn’t hurt that your snowflake won the whole shebang

 

Yes, that definitely sweetens the season for me.  

Same reason why I liked S6, which is also somewhat a maligned season.

[VintageVoice]

Personal Ranking (Strongest —> Weakest)

 

1. S13 (needs no explanation)
2. S21 (very strong cast + a variety of good performances in each round, though Ariana’s coaching knocks it down a bit below S13)
3. S12 (honestly in some ways underrated - a step up from the previous season and whether or not the top 2 turned out as hoped, it’s hard to argue they shouldn’t have been the top 2)
4. S17 (liked all four finalists, but its predictability on who’d be the front-runner/main horse for every single team before we even hit the lives bumps it down)
5. S10 (Alisan being the third obvious-from-audition winner in a row drives this down to this spot, but it was damn satisfying to see her take it home and finally give a female coach the win)
6. S15 (a mixed bag of auditions, pretty good battles, solid knockouts, and hit-or-miss live shows lands it here, but Robegate overshadowing the entire season is what makes it memorable)
7. S20 (would have likely beat out the two directly above it had we gotten six full weeks of lives rather than just three)
8. S19 (have several snowflakes I love from this season, but kinda just “eh” compared to the two that followed it)
9. S14 (RIP Kyla and Brynn’s backs from carrying this season - jokes aside, the number of inconsistent live vocalists who made it far into the competition brings it down a fair amount despite there being potential on the surface. That said, I do think part of the issue with the season was that it followed two excellent seasons, which makes it all the more underwhelming in comparison)
10. S18 (props to the cast for rolling with the punches and getting the “live shows” out even with COVID happening, but its biggest issue was that a lot of the show just didn’t feel memorable outside of the adjustments made due to COVID)
11. S11 (live vocals were a mess for a lot of contestants and the trend of the top 20 getting crammed into one night  started here, but it’s still not the most egregious Crime Against Formatting this show has committed)
12. S16 (pick your poison: Cross Battles, God Bless the USA and Take Me to Church in the same week, the overwhelming Power of Yeehaw, Adam Levine having the guts to show up for one last season after Robegate…at least we got Maelyn out of the dumpster fire)

[Dai]

9 hours ago, Teraginn said:

S16 for me. Others have already explained the major issues with this season, but my biggest issue is the cast choking on the live shows. Especially when they showed so much promise in the Blinds. 

 

I get the criticism with S18, but I choose to view that season as a triumph considering the extenuating circumstances surrounding it. 

 

The stretch between S14-S16 was the most challenging time for me in terms of my enjoyment of the show. None of my snowflakes made the lives, and Blake's dominance and Adam's descent did not help matters. Then S17 somehow turned things around and reminded me of why I watch this show.

I totally understand the grumblings concerning S22, but the cast saves it for me. I fully believed that if they didn't expand the cast to 56 artists, they wouldn't have to cut so many corners.

Yes to everything 

 

 

 

[allistr]

Voted season 16. Season 11 came close with one of the most dreadful PO formats ever. At least we still had talents like Ali, Sa'Rayah and Simone who saved that night.

I cannot judge season 22 because it's not even lives yet

Edited November 3, 2022 by Ottoxxx

[Gustavo527]

I somehow get the dislike for S14-S15 but i honestly enjoyed these two seasons a lot. Ngl, the female dominance in these seasons was delightful, and having Kelly win with two of my favorite singers back to back was amazing (I know they weren't IDF's favorites and i don't care). Plus, three seasons in a row with female winners?? Yes, absolutely yes. And Maelyn winning the next one was the cherry of the cake (But that season was actually trash)

 

I'm just being honest here, i'm trying to get rid off of my biases for female singers but it's damn hard, especially when they are at a permanent disadvantage against their male counterparts, i can't help but root for them more

[peachfuz]

gonna elaborate a little bit on a previous post: season 4, for me, was not the weakest talent pool by a long shot, but of every season i've seen (and i've only really missed seasons 1 and 7!), that season was the most miserable to sit through because of how much the country vote completely hijacked the competition by the lives. if anyone remembers the top 6 round, in which 10 of the 12 performances were of country songs, you'll understand how much this defined the season. and that had a tangential effect on all of the terrible results throughout the season–blake (and, to a far less egregious extent, adam) was rewarded for playing the country game the entire season, while pretty much everyone else except for michelle chamuel had to eat danielle bradbury and the swon brothers' dirt. it was just an endless cesspool of predictability; it was only a matter of time before pretty much every non-country artist besides michelle dropped. it didn't help that shakira and usher had pretty awful live show teams aside from their one frontrunner apiece, and that this season made it brutally clear how desperately the knockouts needed steals–the amount of robberies was absurd. 

 

in other words, season 4 walked so seasons 15, 16, and 19 could run–into oncoming traffic, that is.

Edited November 3, 2022 by peachfuz

[QueenCami]

14 hours ago, VintageVoice said:

S16 (pick your poison: Cross Battles, God Bless the USA and Take Me to Church in the same week, the overwhelming Power of Yeehaw, Adam Levine having the guts to show up for one last season after Robegate…at least we got Maelyn out of the dumpster fire)

is this the poison you're referring to?

 

[Hsamid]

2 hours ago, QueenCami said:

is this the poison you're referring to?

 

The sweet sound of the Cross Karaoke round.