On Monday night The Voice decided to annoy viewers by using a tactic other than airing sob stories and cutting to ad breaks in crucial moments. (KYLIE WAS JUST ABOUT TO TELL US WHO WON, SERIOUSLY?!)
Someone had the wonderful idea of cutting two performances from the last episode of the battle rounds.
Chita Henneberry and Emily Rex from #TeamWill battled it out to Zedd’s hit Clarity and #TeamJoel hopefuls Elise Baker and Laura-Leigh Smith sang Burn by Ellie Golding. But, truly shockingly, neither of these battles made it to our actual televisions.
Why? Time restraints, apparently. But of course the viewers and I weren’t satisfied with that answer.
Why not shorten the boring training sessions? Everyone tunes out while two contestants shoot daggers at each other from across the room, so cut that bit right down.
Why not cut the sob stories about who you’re ‘singing this for’? It’s called The Voice for a very clear reason. It’s not the ‘I stubbed my toe when I was seven and my strength has inspired me to sing this song’ show.
Of course the Internet began to speculate, as it does.
Here I present to you the top three theories on why the battles were cut.
1. They ran out of time
The official statement from Channel Nine says it was due to ‘time restraints’ that some battles had to be cut. Sorry. End of story. Or is it?
Emily Rex (who, incidentally, lost her battle) was quite clearly exasperated with the decision and showed her anger by passive-aggressively re-tweeting her supporters on Twitter.
Tweets like “I think The Voice needs to apologise”, “Emily, tell us the story or will they sue you?” and “The Voice messed up tonight” were all re-tweeted by the booted-off singer, which makes me think she’s not dancing in a park picking flowers and praising the TV gods for cutting her. But hey, I could be wrong.
2. The performances just weren’t that good.
TV controversy? Cue the Internet trolls.
Many commenters took it upon themselves to say the performances were underwhelming and therefore The Voice was right to cut them.
Now, I’m no Beyoncé, or even Kesha for that matter, but I thought they were pretty damn good.
Sure, Elise and Laura-Leigh’s battle had some elements that hurt your ears like a baby’s piercing cry, but who has forgotten the sounds-like-she’s-in-a-horror-movie battle between Louise Van Veenendaal and Jayde Grey?
Nah, I’m not convinced this is the reason.
3. Editing happens, people. Get over it.
The latest excuse has come from The Voice itself, although unfortunately not from the mouth of Ricky Martin (I LOVE YOU, RICKY). Adrian Swift, Executive Producer of the show we pretend to hate but secretly love, says they wanted the focus to be on the back stories, in order to “celebrate” the artists.
“Those battles were good … but editorially in the end we decided to do what we did, so we didn’t cripple some other stories or half do them.”
So, let me get this straight. They didn’t want the battles to be half-done, yet they were happy to completely cut two out, bar a small “Laura-Leigh won!/Chita won!”.
Doesn’t make much sense to me.
What did you think of the battle rounds?
Top Comments
I think it was totally unfair to the contestants AND the public! The full airing of each Battleround is what we all wait for! I don't care if I see every little incident of the rehearsals. And to be honest, I think at this level shorting any of the contestants of airing time is TOTALLY unacceptable. Short of time? How and why? Editors know from the get-go how much time the total season has...plan ahead allowing FULL battlerounds...then work backward and decide what length EACH performer gets for preliminary miscellaneous, including the rehearsals! I've been a total supporter of the Voice from the beginning and frankly am "in shock"! Cannot believe they have really screwed with a wonderful show!! Watch the ratings drop...sadly!! For the first time in years I am not excited to watch the Voice every week, they have lost sensitivity and fairness!
Oh noes, not a controversy on a reality TV show? What is the world coming to?!?!