NBC’s ‘The Voice’ review: Kata Hay, Joe Maye, Bryan Bautista perform in final Knockout Round

While many other Monday-night shows are presently in repeats for whatever reason, “The Voice” is bringing you yet another new episode tonight … and it’s an important one. At the end of the episode we’re going to have the full lineup set for the playoffs, which is a very exciting proposition!

As always, we’re going to be updating this article live as the show goes on.

Brian Nhira defeats Nate Butler, Team Adam – From the moment we saw Brian rocking to “Grenade” in a preview for this episode, we knew that he had a good shot of advancing. Nate did a fine job tonight, but we understand the choice here since from both a performance and story standpoint, Brian is someone viewers are probably going to be remembering throughout the live shows.

Mary Sarah defeats Brittany Kennell, Team Blake – We’re not sure why we thought that Brittany was destined to make it to the live rounds of the show, but we did. Therefore, this one comes as a little bit of a surprise … but either way, this was a really great lesson in song choice. Mary showed something that better showcased who she was, while Brittany really couldn’t get the notes right on her Shania Twain cover.

Bryan Bautista defeats Trey O’Dell, Team Christina – We don’t want to sound as though we’re being harsh on Trey, but the reality here is that this was super-obvious to us. Bryan has been a force ever since returning this season, and he was AWESOME through this. Trey, meanwhile, had some pitching issues and was shaky.

Caity Peters defeats Abby Celso, Team Pharrell – This was a big problem with the show waiting for so long on their final steal: We have a lot of predictable battles leading into it. We don’t think Abby was terrible on “Rich Girl,” but Caity just dominated with the way she carried herself and the emotional resonance that was here during this routine.

Laith Al-Saadi defeats Jessica Crosbie, Team Adam – Another fairly predictable battle, mostly because we think Laith has such magnetism around him almost the entire time he performs that it is hard to deny that he’s capable of going super-far this season. Jessica has potential, but needs more refinement.

(Head over here to see our take on that ridiculous montage.)

Kata Hay defeats Joe Maye, Team Christina – Of course, there was going to be a steal here! There had to be. Blake made the move to take Joe, who does have some potential … but Kata was the clear winner here and she rounds out a really stellar team that Christina has entering the next phase.

Want to get some additional news right now when it comes to “The Voice,” be sure to head over to the link here right away! Also, sign up over here to get some other TV news worthy of a song or two, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)