How Adam Levine's 'The Voice' decision created controversy - and backlash
On Tuesday night, NBC's "The Voice" revealed the final four who will compete in next week's finale: Teen singing prodigy Kennedy Holmes, along with country artists Kirk Jay, Chris Kroeze and Chevel Shepherd.
Exciting, right? Sure - except the narrative that dominated Season 15's penultimate week had nothing to do with the finalists. Instead, many fans were still riled up about last week's bizarre situation involving coach Adam Levine, along with his two contestants, DeAndre Nico and Reagan Strange.
If you missed it, both Nico (22-year-old R&B/soul singer) and Strange (14-year-old pop/soul singer) were up for elimination and had a chance to sing for audience votes for an "instant save." However, Strange was too sick to perform. After Nico's performance, Levine made the odd decision to tell viewers (and we're paraphrasing here) that he loved Nico ... but would prefer them to save Strange. Because as the father of two daughters, he felt it would be unconscionable not to support "an unbelievably talented little girl right now who is not able to fight for her position on this show."
Strange wound up winning the instant save, while Nico was eliminated - and fans, to put it mildly, flipped out. Hundreds upon hundreds of social media comments chastised Levine for throwing Nico under the bus.
It led to an awkward conclusion this week. Instead of addressing the controversy, producers mostly tried to ignore it. On Monday night's performance episode, Levine vaguely addressed the uproar in a pretaped conversation with Strange, as they rehearsed her upcoming song.
"It was a strange week. But it's over now," Levine told her. "DeAndre's my boy, I love him, we talked. It's all good. We've got to keep moving forward."
A few minutes later, producers showed Strange on a video call with Nico, who said: "I called to tell you I love you. And all that extra stuff, don't worry about it. Do your best and stay positive."
Off camera, it was a slightly different story. While Nico was gracious last week, he expressed disappointment with Levine during an interview with 12NewsNow, a local NBC affiliate from his home state of Texas.
"It was just weird because I just felt like - not being rude, I just felt like he sold me out, you know?" Nico said. "And I just don't respect it. Just being honest. ... I know she's a little kid. But it's like, man, you could have put in some words for me at all. Like, something."
As for Strange, the online backlash was vicious. In the aftermath, she posted a note on Twitter thanking her fans for keeping her on the show, and added, "I love you all, even those who don't want to be loved. I don't expect some people to understand. They weren't there." She also told People magazine that she and Nico are still "super close."
Unfortunately, Levine's die-hard support wasn't enough to send Strange to the finale. It may have even cost her votes, as some swore they wouldn't vote for her after Levine's stunt.
On Tuesday's results show, Strange was in the instant save round yet again. Healthy enough to sing, she went up against gospel singer MaKenzie Thomas and Holmes. Alas, Holmes won in a landslide, and Thomas and Strange were sent home.
Levine got to offer a few more remarks Tuesday night; he said he has high hopes for Strange's career, even though he thought she deserved to be in the finale.
"I want you to understand that this is a crazy show on a crazy stage for a crazy amount of people," Levine said. "But at the end of the day, I'm nothing but super proud of you."