NBC’s ‘The Voice’ retrospective: On Emily Keener’s (surprise) elimination

What happened to cause Emily Keener to be eliminated on “The Voice“? It’s a good question, and it’s something we’re diving into today in what is probably going to be a weekly series at least until the show eliminates a whole mess of people before the finale.

The first thing that we should say here is that there was zero evidence of Emily’s impending exit from Team Pharrell and the competition prior to it happening last night. She was the third-strongest performer on iTunes, and while she wasn’t in the top 10, being third out of twelve artists on there typically makes you a lock to advance. We don’t think that we are necessarily overstating the importance of iTunes as a predictor for the results, but perhaps we are understating voting patterns and the show’s history over the years.

Here’s where we think the problem lied for Emily: She was a non-country female artist without an obvious “superstar” edit. When you look at the show’s winners over the years, Tessanne Chin is the only female singer without some sort of country / Team Blake tie to win the show, and she had a ton of screen time in the early rounds and a story that was easy to follow. The evidence seems to back up that Team Blake members have an inherent advantage first and foremost in the public vote. (This is how Paxton Ingram, who was barely a blip on iTunes, was safe last night.) From here, the evidence suggests that male singers have an edge. That evidence can also be proven by looking at “American Idol” results over the years.

So Emily ultimately had these two things working against here; from here, there was an issue of her repeatedly performing early in the show, which tends to make you more forgettable as opposed to someone with prime real estate either at the end of the first hour or during the second hour of the show. Also, her song choice in “Lilac Wine” is not one familiar to many of the show’s younger viewers.

It’s probably a combination of all the things mentioned above, but the good news for her is that she has one of the most supportive coaches out there. Just take a look at former contestant Mark Hood’s message below. He has no reason to continue to support the show or Pharrell, so you know he’s being genuine with his assessment.

We’ll continue to have coverage of “The Voice” throughout the week over at this link. Also, sign up over here to get some more TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)