New 'Voice' Cross-Battles were an epic fail, according to fans

On Monday, The Voice introduced a crazy new round, the Cross-Battles, during which -- for the first time -- two contestants from opposing teams faced off for the public’s votes. Presumably this was an attempt to shake up the series after 16 seasons. Host Carson Daly hyped up what was supposed to be a historic and epic night… but instead, it was just an epic fail. The night was historic, all right, but for all the wrong reasons. One disgruntled viewer even tweeted that it was (Simpson Comic Book guy voice) the worst Voice episode ever, and not just because of Adam Levine's latest haircut. OK, it wasn’t that bad. (We all know #Bathrobegate was the worst Voice episode ever, let’s get real.) And not everything that went wrong Monday was the contestants’ fault. But it was painfully obvious that some of Monday’s performances were off-key, and that many of the performances in general were plagued by audio problems. How could this be happening in Season 16? Some sound engineer at ABC is probably getting fired right about now. Thankfully, a few stellar performances -- by Presley Tennant, Kayslin Victoria, Domenic Haynes, Oliv Blu, and especially Maelyn Jarmon -- redeemed this iffy episode. The public voting window opened immediately after the East Coast broadcast, and on Tuesday, the winners earning spots in the top 24 Live Playoffs will be revealed -- with each coach having one Save and one Steal. Let’s hope Tuesday’s episode goes a little more smoothly than Monday’s.