NBC’s ‘The Voice’ rankings: Jordan Smith, Barrett Baber, Amy Vachal lead entering top 9 performance show

It feels awful late in “The Voice” to still have nine singers remaining, but that is a testament mostly to the weird way of doing things for the show this season. Only four artists will be left standing come Tuesday, so we’ve had to frame our rankings a little bit differently here with one question in mind: Who is the most likely to survive the bloodbath? Thanks to this, we’re looking at more than an individual performance from last week in gauging where people stand. We’re considering iTunes results for the whole season, fan support, and also similar acts who are still around. (Quick example: We don’t see more than one or two country acts making it to the finale.)

Still with us? Then let’s get to it.

9. Braiden Sunshine (last week: 9) – The easiest name to figure out right now, given that was ranked last on iTunes this past week and needed the #VoiceSave to make it through. While he does clearly have some fans, it’s probably not going to be enough to survive the big cut.

8. Zach Seabaugh (4) – Maybe it was just song choice, but “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” showed that maybe Blake Shelton has run out of things to do here other than make him move around the stage and act somewhat like Elvis.

7. Shelby Brown (8) – It doesn’t seem altogether fair to have someone at this spot on the chart when they hit the top 10 on iTunes this past week, but that is what makes the remaining field so interesting to us: Everyone is immensely talented, and almost anything could theoretically happen.

6. Emily Ann Roberts (5) – We should mention that the odds are high that we are underrated Blake’s team vastly here, since we realistically could see all of them in the finale with Jordan. Our feeling, though, is that some of the country could cancel one another out.

5. Madi Davis (6) – This one is painful, since Madi is a very skilled performer … but we think that only one of her or Jeffery is probably going to make it to the next stage.

4. Jeffery Austin (3) -We love Jeffery, but the fact that he hasn’t been as high on iTunes as we’d like compared to some other artists has us feeling like there’s at least a slight chance he doesn’t make it to the finale. He’s our personal favorite of the group, so we hope it doesn’t happen.

3. Amy Vachal (3) – Multiple weeks in the iTunes top 10 have us confident in Amy’s ability to be the last female standing this season. We’re not sure that we see her winning, but she’s done a good job making a name for herself this season as someone with a knack for flipping songs.

2. Barrett Baber (7) – We really can’t make up our mind when it comes to Barrett. There are times he seems fairly forgettable, but then he goes out and finishes in the top 3 on iTunes. We’ve had a bad read on the country stars this season, but when you think about recent history, his background, and the country voting block, he’s got the best chance.

1. Jordan Smith (1) – Easily still the frontrunner. He came back to having the top-rated song with “Hallelujah,” even if it wasn’t the most original song choice ever. Given that there are only two more shows left this season, we have a hard time imagining anyone being able to stop him in the near future.

Who shines at the top of your ranking? Let us know below, and head over here to get some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)