The Voice 2 Top 16 has a somewhat confusing elimination format. First, the Top 16 is actually taking place over 2 weeks. Blake’s and Christina’s teams will perform on Monday, April 16, 2012. Then, the results show will be on April 17th. Adam’s and Cee Lo’s teams will perform on Monday, April 23, 2012, and the corresponding results show will air on Tuesday, the 24th.
What is odd is that one member of each team will be eliminated immediately on the performance show, not even having a chance to get through on public voting. I suppose this would be a good idea if the producers and/or judges were actually good at judging talent. I have seen them make a heck of a lot of strange decisions over two years and would probably rather the public get a chance to save somebody. If used wisely, though, I like this idea of getting rid of someone before the public vote.
Then, the top vote getter on each team will be saved by the public. The other two will battle it out by singing one last time on the results show. Their coach will then pick the winner of that battle. Once again, if used wisely to pick the best performer, then I like this idea because public voting is overly random at times, resulting in weird decisions like Sanjaya Malakar and Tim Urban getting to the Top 7 on American Idol.
In terms of prediction, I see two almost stone-cold locks to make it to the Top 8. Juliet Simms and Lindsey Pavao will almost certainly make it to the Top 8. If they happen to falter and don’t get the top votes on their teams, the judges would quickly save Juliet or Lindsey.
Another contestant that I predict will make it is Jesse Campbell. Christina will almost certainly pick him if Lindsey gets more votes than Jesse.
Blake’s and Adam’s teams are a little harder to predict for the Top 16. I think either Mathai or Tony Lucca will get the top vote on Adam’s team. Tony Lucca is the favorite among bettors and the one I personally predicted to win after the initial auditions and again after the Battle Rounds. However, he has suffered badly from song choice and needs to step up his game. Was this his fault? I don’t think so. The judges supposedly pick the songs, and Adam has done Tony absolutely no favors in song choice. If the producers and/or Adam finally get their heads out of their behinds and give Tony a good song choice, he is likely be the top vote getter.
If Mathai gets the top vote, I am expecting Tony and Pip to battle it out on the results round. If Tony wins, then Mathai and Pip will battle it out.
In the end, what I now predict is that Tony and Mathai will make the Top 8 for Adam’s team.
On Cee Lo’s team, the other contestant to make the Top 8 is probably going to be Jamar Rogers. He went last and was greatly praised by the coaches and fans for his Top 24 performance. And he was second on his team in iTunes sales, suggesting that he got a lot of votes.
On Blake’s team, RaeLynn is just not all that, but Blake seems to love her. And she may be getting the benefit of being the only country singer left. Her iTunes sales were tops on Blake’s team. The other contestant to make it on Blake’s team is harder to predict. I would say Jordis Unga, but she is great one performance and lackluster the next. And Jordis does not seem to have a star personality. Thus, RaeLynn is my only strong prediction for Blake’s team. Jermaine Paul is extremely inconsistent, and Erin Willett is kind of in the middle of the road. Some people love her, but I was not that impressed. The hardest prediction to make in all of this is that second person to make it to the Top 8 on Blake’s team. At this point, I predict Jermaine Paul will deliver one of his good performances and make it.
Results of both weeks will be posted here after the shows air. For convenience, I have listed my predictions for who will make the Top 8 of The Voice 2. I do not expect to be 100% right here. There is just too much mediocrity at this point to have all strong predictions.
Predictions to Make Top 8:
Team Adam: Mathai and Tony Lucca
Team Christina: Lindsey Pavao and Jesse Campbell
Team Blake: RaeLynn and Jermaine Paul
Team Cee Lo: Juliet Simms and Jamar Rogers
Results for The Voice 2 Top 16:
Check this space after the show for results.