NBC’s ‘The Voice’ rankings: Jordan Smith, Barrett Baber, Jeffrey Austin look great entering top 12
For the first time all season long on “The Voice,” Monday night’s new episode is going to feature contestants doing more than just competing against members of their own team. The competition is ramping up, and every singer is competing in a free-for-all now for votes, iTunes downloads, and much more.
So where do we think things stack up at the moment? Going into this new episode, we’ve compiled a list using the criteria of performance quality, screen time, voting history, and iTunes downloads in order to determine what we think is at least a solid contestant ranking. Agree? Disagree? Then vote at the poll at the bottom of this article.
12. Braiden Sunshine (Team Gwen) – We don’t want to be mean and pile on the kid, especially since we think that there is still a good chance that his fans bring him back even past the upcoming week. We just feel like at the most he is outmatched vocally with everyone across the board.
11. Emily Ann Roberts (Team Blake) – The fact that Emily needed Blake’s help to stay safe after a gospel / country cover is stunning, and we’re not sure how she can perform better than that on Monday night’s episode. Thanks to that, we project a little bit of trouble.
10. Mark Hood (Team Pharrell) – We loved Mark’s version of “What Do You Mean,” but for some reason, voters did not. He has to up his game somehow, but we’re not really sure what more he can do after giving a great performance, and in a spot on the show that generally leads to votes.
9. Korin Bukowski (Team Gwen) – We didn’t think Korin had the best week in the Live Playoffs, and that’s lessened her odds somewhat of making a deep run. Here’s to hoping that she looks at what is coming up as some sort of comeback.
8. Amy Vachal (Team Adam) – Here’s something interesting: Amy is the only contestant remaining who was stolen at any point in the competition. That’s not something that really happens these days; we tend more to see at least one or two contestants in this status go a long way. She does luckily still have that chance.
7. Evan McKeel (Team Pharrell) – We like Evan’s voice, and he has it going for him that he stands out among the other male singers. However, does he stand out enough? There are so many other powerful performers left who are a little more memorable.
6. Shelby Brown (Team Adam) – Shelby has it going for her that she’s a country artist, and maybe there are country fans at this point who want to see Blake be taken down a peg? We don’t want to make it about a country rivalry since she’s great in her own right (plus mainstream enough for other voters), but that’s possible.
5. Zach Seabaugh (Team Blake) – We weren’t that high on Zach entering the live shows, but the last thing we are going to do is sit here and say that American singing-show voters are not going to go crazy for a young male country singer from the south. Plus, the guy works the stage.
4. Madi Davis (Team Pharrell) – We are a little worried about Pharrell in general this season, but Madi easily is his best chance to repeating. Her “Songbird” was something special, and she has that wonderful combination of unique voice and quirky personality that does well on the show.
3. Jeffrey Austin (Team Gwen) – We feel like the soulful singer actually had the best overall performance of this past week, not that it was reflected entirely in iTunes sales. Right now we’d almost compare him to Josh Kaufman in that he’s a little bit of an underdog from a coach not named Adam or Blake, but he could build momentum over time.
2. Barrett Baber (Team Blake) – Barrett has had frontrunner status on him since almost the very beginning, and even though there are an abundance of country singers on this list, we’ve learned a few times at this point that this really does not mean anything.
1. Jordan Smith (Team Adam) – Right now, we’re already starting to see similarities to Jordan and Sawyer / Cassadee Pope when it comes to their potential to run away with the season. He has dominated iTunes so far by such a margin, it could take a major upset to dethrone him.
If you do want to get some other news when it comes to “The Voice,” be sure to head over here to see the lineup of performers from the upcoming results show! Also, sign up right now to score some additional TV news worth singing about via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)