The Voice season 16 introducing live cross battles (video)
So, what are these battles? Basically, they are a way for America to get more involved in the competition early on, as we’re going to see contestants face off live in battles against people from other teams in what’s going to be an intense, dramatic series of showdowns. The coaches are going to have an opportunity to steal someone from one of the other coaches, and also save someone from their own team. It’s an interesting change-up and twist from the typical The Voice format we’ve seen over the years. Because of that, it’s a little too early in order to know whether or not it’s going to work. This isn’t the first time cross battles have happened across the format internationally — The Voice was first popular in Holland before it came here to the USA, and a lot of its twists over time have been tested in other places.
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Do we like the idea? In theory, sure. We like anything that is trying to give us a little more in the way of live rounds, and a little bit less in the way of pre-taped stuff where the edit can distort things to a certain extent. We almost wish that we could scrap the battle rounds and go live earlier … or just start with fewer team members and have more live shows as a whole with less filler in the middle.
If nothing else, this is a pretty low-risk idea for The Voice. If it doesn’t work, they can just shrug their shoulders, move on, and not do something like this again. It’s not going to be one of those situations where this twist is going to taint the remainder of the season since coaches will get a chance to save whoever they think is best and most of the big-time favorites are probably going to be sticking around no matter what. The Voice, at least at a certain point in the competition, tends to move along at a predictable pace. We don’t foresee anything changing with this season.
We also think the future implementation of this as a twist may be dependent on some other things in the future, as well, including the schedules for some of the coaches. Doing more live shows is a big commitment for them, which is one of the reasons why we don’t really see more of them.
What do you want to see when it comes to the cross battles, and do you think that this is worthy idea for a new twist on The Voice? Be sure to share right now in the comments. (Photo: NBC.)