'The Voice' Top 12 Results: Don't Know Why

(photo: NBC)

Since The Voice changes its rules as often as Pharrell Williams changes hats and Gwen Stefani changes her clip-on dip-dyed bangs, for Season 9’s results shows, there is another new tweak to the format.

First, the good news: Only one contestant, instead of the usual two, will go home each week. And now, the terrible news: Once it’s down to the top nine, on Dec. 8, five of those nine contestants will go home, ALL AT ONCE, leaving us with the top four moving on to Season 9 finale.

Damn. That’s the worst fuzzy math to hit The Voice since the first two seasons’ bizarre sliding-scale points system, when the coaches had to bring out the algebra books and abacuses and assign their contestants random percentages. Remember that? That sucked. And so does this. I’m already dreading top nine week.

Additionally, while the “Instant Save” gimmick introduced in Season 5 is still in place this season, this time around, the Twitter-powered sing-off takes place between only two singers, not three. And on this Tuesday’s top 12 results show, those two singers were… Team Pharrell’s Mark Hood and Team Gwen’s Korin Bukowski, just as I’d predicted.

(I’d also predicted that Braiden Sunshine would be in the bottom three, back when I thought there would be a bottom three. We’ll never know exactly how close Braiden came to elimination, but since he was this week’s lowest iTunes charter, only peaking at #79 during Monday’s voting window with his ill-advised Styx cover “Renegade,” my guess is he should be very, very happy about this particular rule change.)

When it came time for the Instant Save this Tuesday, this should have been Mark’s time to shine. While he’s not this season’s best vocalist, he’s a superb showman. So why did he go with “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”? As he crooned, “I’ve done a lot of foolish things,” I thought, Yes, like choosing this oldie. That sure was foolish. He did sell the song and bring the energy, but a cooler and more modern song choice – like the Justin Bieber jam he slayed last week – would’ve put me and probably the rest of (East Coast) America in a more hashtag-ready, Twitter-trigger-fingered mood.

And I don’t know why Korin picked… Norah Jones’s “Don’t Know Why.” Her rendition was pleasant, but it was sleepy and wimpy. This wasn’t a fight song. At least Mark performed like he really wanted to stay. He made the effort. When the coaches gushed about how Korin had delivered some sort of phenomenal, game-changing performance, I wondered if they were watching some other show. I was totally unmoved.

Seriously, these contestants (and/or their coaches) need to pick their Instant Save songs as carefully and strategically as they select the songs they sing on Monday nights. Maybe even more carefully and strategically. Just imagine how much more exciting – and competitive – it could have been this Tuesday if this had been the night Korin did “Samson” or Mark did “What Do You Mean.”

Anyway, in the end, Mark lost. I felt bad for the poor guy. Mark did have a terrible week doing “Against All Odds,” but that wasn’t really his fault. With the proper uptempo song choices, he could have gone farther this season. As for Korin, I really liked her in the beginning, but ever since her coach Gwen Stefani started giving her the same bizarre mini-me makeover that the Rossdale-Stefanis’ ex-nanny apparently underwent, she has been falling apart at the L.A.M.B. seams. Maybe if Gwen eases up on the reverse Single White Female treatment a bit, Korin can find her way again.

But for now, all of the obvious Season 9 favorites and frontrunners – from iTunes-topping unicorn Jordan Smith to country hunk Barrett Baber to charming crooners Madi Davis, Amy Vachal, and Jeffery Austin – are still in the game. And for now, I will try not to worry about whether or not they can survive top nine week.

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