It was a double elimination Tuesday night on The Voice when the Top 10 was reduced to the Top 8 on the live results show, and one of the coaches — Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keyes — was left with only one remaining artist.
But before the eliminations began, Dolly Parton and Jennifer Nettles performed “Circle of Love” with the Top 10 in a cross promotion. Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love, starring Nettles, premieres tomorrow night on NBC at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
It was followed by a bit where Jane Lynch put the coaches through the Auto Tune game from Hollywood Game Night.
Then it was time for host Carson Daly to announce the first group of saved artists. America saved Team Adam’s Brendan Fletcher, who finished No. 2 on the iTunes singles chart, and Team Blake’s Sundance Head, who charted at No. 1.
After a commercial break and some chitchat with the coaches, the remaining eight very nervous competitors returned to the stage. Getting the good news that they were moving forward were Team Alicia’s Christian Cuevas and Team Miley’s Ali Caldwell. That means, each of the coaches will have at least one artist in the semi-finals.
Next to make it into the Top 8 were Team Adam’s Billy Gilman, who Monday night returned to his country roots with a Martina McBride song, and Team Alicia’s Wé McDonald, the youngest artist in the competition, who surprised the audience by going back to the ’40s with a Billie Holiday song.
Then Miley took the stage with her godmother for a duet of Dolly’s 1974 hit “Jolene.”
With four artists left, only one more would go through without having to sing for the Instant Save. That artist was Team Adam’s Josh Gallagher.
That meant that Team Blake’s Austin Allsup and Courtney Harrell and Team Miley’s Aaron Gibson would sing for the Twitter vote.
When asked what being on The Voice has meant to her, Courtney said, “The world. I’ve had the honor of serving some of today’s greatest artists by writing for them. I just love that I’ve had the opportunity to share my voice here. It means everything to me.”
Up first was Austin, who performed “Tennessee Whiskey” by Chris Stapleton.
Blake said, “One of the great feathers in my cap this season is the fact that I am the only person that turned their chair around for you. We are almost at the end of this thing and for you to be still standing, it’s a little thing for me to go, ‘Yeah.’ You just proved why you made it this far. You are a great country singer.”
He was followed by Courtney, who went country with Rascal Flatts‘ “Bless the Broken Road.”
Blake told her, “This is tough for me because Courtney is one of my favorites ever. The thing I want to say to you and I hope you understand is that your instinct for doing this was right. Look how far you have made it into this competition. Look how far America has taken you.”
The final performance was Aaron, in the bottom for the third week in a row, singing “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”
When the votes were counted, Aaron was saved for the third week in a row, leaving Team Blake with only one artist — Sundance — as both Austin and Courtney were at the end of their time on The Voice.
The Voice returns Monday, Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC when the Top 8 perform. Four artists will be eliminated next week as Season 11 heads into the finals.
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