NBC’s ‘The Voice’ rankings: Sawyer Fredericks, Kimberly Nichole, Meghan Linsey still lead

What we are seeing on this season of “The Voice” is an interesting phenomenon. While we are seemingly locked in with a group of favorites, there is still plenty of flexibility beyond that. This means that of the top eight, there are multiple candidates for who could be coming home next. We are this week going to see the competition be narrowed down further, and from there the finale will start to be on the horizon.

So how do we determine the most worthy candidates?  It is the same criteria we’ve been giving them all season long. Performance quality here is the most important, and then we are following that up with iTunes sales, perceived popularity, and then also the popularity of the coach. This mostly matters when it comes to Blake Shelton, since for whatever reason his artists never seem to go home early.

8. Hannah Kirby – Blake Shelton unsurprisingly still has all three of his team members, but the irony here is that we don’t think that any of them is necessarily the consensus pick at the moment to win. Hannah has a charm to her, but she feels way too polarizing to ever have a chance of making the finals.

7. India Carney – A very talented vocalist who may be potentially overshadowed at times now by some of the other big-voiced women still in the competition. Both Kimberly and Koryn have each had enormous moments; it’s time for her to have one of her own.

6. Joshua Davis – We’re giving Joshua a tiny benefit of the doubt here given that he is now Adam Levine’s sole team member, and that means that Maroon 5 fans will most likely put all of their votes behind him. Also, we feel like there is potential in here for him to have a great moment.

5. Corey Kent White – Still calling this the country music + Blake bump. Both India and Joshua have given better performances on the show so far this season, but we have a feeling that Corey’s got a huge audience of people backing him up.

4. Koryn Hawthorne – She’s worthy of a big rise after her last performance of “Make It Rain.” Were it not for the voting history of country acts, we’d be putting her into the top three without hesitation. Consistency so far has been the only real Achilles’ heel of Koryn in the competition.

3. Meghan Linsey – The more that Blake con convince her to appeal to her country fans while still branching out and expanding her base, the better Meghan is probably going to do. The last two weeks she has sold herself much more as a possible favorite.

2. Kimberly Nichole – Someone who can sing on the level that Kimberly can absolutely deserves to be in the finale for this season. No question. We mentioned consistency earlier, and we have yet to hear her really sing more than one or two bum notes all season.

1. Sawyer Fredericks – Even with some recent song choices that do not feel particularly inspired, Sawyer has brought the best out of them, and his down-to-earth appeal and emotional voice bring people into his world. He is not an artist who feels like he is desperately trying to win the season, but most likely will anyway.

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