NBC’s ‘The Voice’ rankings: Trevin Hunte, Nicholas David face off for Cee Lo Green

For the second straight season on “The Voice,” we are going into the live shows with one strong opinion about the teams: Cee Lo Green is the strongest one of the group. Not only does he have a collection of talented singers, but some of them have both substantial air time and personality to boot.

As we said with our rankings for both Team Adam Levine and Blake Shelton, we are basing these rankings on a few things, including performance quality, edit, and how likely the coach is to put them in front of the voting public. These decisions may actually be more strategic than you think.

The rankings

5. Cody Belew – Out of Cee Lo’s boys, the bottom three are really pretty interchangeable. Cody is supremely talented, and really the only reason that we have Cody in last is because he may have the smallest total amount of airtime out of anyone on this team. This would make him the hardest guy to bank on in the live rounds.

4. Diego Val – Diego has a decent shot at getting to be one of Cee Lo’s top three thanks to more than just his voice: he’s also rather likable, and has the sort of energy that you would just want to be on your team. The only downside to this is that you have to wonder how well he could tackle more painful songs … mostly because all we ever picture him doing is smiling.

3. Mackenzie Bourg – There’s not much distance between Mackenzie, Cody, and Diego, but what really gives him the edge here is simply that Cee Lo will probably see him as a guy that young voters will root for, and rightly so. The geeky look is in right now, and the music Mackenzie performs is modern and he’s not afraid to put his own spin on things. (See “Call Me Maybe.”)

2. Nicholas David – Fear the beard! This guy’s look alone makes him a great person to bring to the voting rounds, since there is no way he will ever be forgotten. Nicholas may also have one of the coolest voices in the entire competition: it’s gritty, folksy, and could even switch between country and rock without much trouble.

1. Trevin Hunte – Is there such a thing as being too much of a favorite? This may be the only thing that could end up slowing Trevin down right now, since he has a power-punch voice that literally can tear down walls. He does still need improvement, though, and we hope that in the middle of all the hype he is working on keeping some of his runs in tune. Everyone in this competition still has room to grow.

Who are you rooting for from Team Cee Lo?