'The Voice' season 16's 'Live Cross Battle' will revolutionize the series and take it to a new level

The four-time Emmy Award-winning singing competition series 'The Voice' will debut an all-new, game-changing round known as the 'Live Cross Battles'.
PUBLISHED APR 11, 2019

'The Voice' is the epitome of innovation when it comes to reality TV competition series. 

Recently, the series revealed that they will be adding a new segment to their series.  The four-time Emmy Award-winning singing competition series “The Voice” will be debuting an all-new, game-changing round known as the 'Live Cross Battles'.



 

For the first time in 'Voice' history, the coaches – Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton – will go head-to-head, each selecting one artist from their team to compete against an artist from an opposing team in the 'Live Cross Battle performance'. The stakes are higher than ever before as America’s vote will ultimately decide the winner of each 'Cross Battle' and who earns a spot in the Top 24 live show.

This is not the first major innovation that the series has come up with. Every season the series tries to shake things up and come up with innovative ideas that will revolutionize the season in order to make it stand out compared to other reality TV competition series. 

Starting from the blind auditions, we go to the battle rounds, knockouts, playoffs and the live performance shows, which eventually lead to the grand finale. Apart from that in season 3, the series introduced the steal button, where each coach is given two steals that they can use to choose an eliminated contestant to join their team. And in season 5 they introduced the 'Instant Save' that helps each judge save one contestant who was eliminated from their team during the 'Knockout Rounds'. 



 

Following that, in season 14 the series introduced the 'Block Button'.  This button stops a judge from being eligible to turn their seat for a contestant. The 'Block Button' can be used only once per judge during the entire first round of the competition. In season 15, they introduced the 'Comeback Stage'  It was the show’s first digital series, contestants who were eliminated during the blind auditions get a second chance to be picked. America will vote for the top two contestants. Once selected they will battle it out in the battle rounds, and one contestant will get the chance to join the other contestants for live shows and stand a chance to win it all. 

With frequent innovations like this, 'The Voice' never fails to impress the audience and fans. No wonder they have a huge following. And now with the addition of 'Live Cross Battle performance', there is no doubt that the series' ratings will show an increase. 



 

The 'Live Cross Battle' is replaced with the Knockout rounds and would revolutionize the show in a major way and make it extra interesting because it is different from the regular knockout rounds, where contestants from the same team perform. We would see the judges go head to head with each other, which will definitely motivate audiences to stick around to find out who won.

And since the decision is up to the public, they would get to choose who moves on to the Top 24. The fans always wanted this, because in previous seasons there were fans who claimed that the wrong contestant was eliminated by the coach. Sometimes it would be the person they have been rooting for.  The healthy banter between the judges as they go against each other would also make the series a bit more fun to watch. 



 

The new Live Cross Battles round will begin with 32 artists remaining in the competition. In every Cross Battle, two coaches will go head-to-head in a “live schoolyard pick,” each selecting one artist from their team to go up against another team’s artist. Each artist will perform an individual song, and then their fate is in America’s hands.

On the Tuesday results shows, host Carson Daly will reveal the winner of each Cross  Battle, and over the course of two weeks, 24 artists will advance to the next round through America’s vote. The coaches will have one save and one steal to use over the course of the Cross Battles, and they will only have ten seconds to decide if they want to push their button to save or steal an artist.

In another “Voice” first, coaches may enter the Top 24 live shows with an uneven number of artists on their team, further adding to the drama and competition.

'The Voice' airs every Monday and Tuesday on NBC. Check your local listings for more information. 

RELATED TOPICS THE VOICE (2011)

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