With Thanksgiving a newly distant memory, NBC dusted off the holiday set list for its elimination episode of The Voice on Tuesday. Kelly Clarkson performed "Underneath the Tree" off her new Christmas album, Blake Shelton reunited with his season one contestant Xenia to sing "Silver Bells," and the top 6 joined together (along with a particularly overpowering Starbucks Chorus) for "O Holy Night."
The remaining singers also split up to perform Florence and the Machine's "You've Got the Love" and a very well done "More Than Words" with Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt.
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And though it's been four weeks in a row of the Instant Save, which allows one contestant to be rescued from elimination by collecting the most #VoiceSave tweets within a fragile five-minute window, Carson Daly announced that the episode was the final week of the social media experiment. Thank goodness, since only a small portion of the country watches the elimination episode live. We're glad to see that go.
For the last time, Twitter-using viewers had to choose between Christina Aguilera's Matthew Schuler (again) and Adam Levine's James Wolpert. Levine then reiterated that Wolpert was sick this week and begged the Twittersphere to save "one of the best singers I've ever been in a room with," and Aguilera reminded viewers that Schuler "went down in history as the first person on this show that got all four of us coaches to smack our buttons" right away. Cee Lo Green noted that the elimination matchup was "a fair fight."
And just after Shelton scrolled through his feed and saw a ton of tweets for Levine's singer, Wolpert was saved (the votes were split by one percent, said the show). That not only sent Schuler home, but proved -- four times in a row -- that whoever was rescued by the Instant Save one week was then eliminated from the competition the following week. Which begs the question: is Wolpert next? Because even though only one voice was sent home tonight, two are leaving next week. (The Voice seems to like to send two people home before the finals, for some reason, so this is the only single elimination of the season.)
The top five leaves Levine STILL unscathed with his three singers, and Aguilera and Shelton with one each. But remember, Schuler wasn't sent home alone -- the Instant Save was also laid to rest, and hopefully, for good. Let it be one of the Voice experiments that are never to be seen again: remember when each of the coach's last singers had to perform an original song in the season one finale? Or better yet, remember when each of the coaches were actually guaranteed a contestant in the finale?
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What did you think of tonight’s elimination? Was the right singer sent home, or did Twitter’s #VoiceSave rescue the wrong contestant? Sound off in the comments below.
Twitter: @cashleelee
