'The Voice' Season 18: Blake Shelton holds a puppy hostage, teams up with John Legend to take Nick Jonas down
Right out the gate with contestant number one, Todd Tilghman, we got three out of four coaches talking about the Lord Almighty and going to church and the contestant — a pastor — chose to go with Blake Shelton, the one coach who did not speak about church. Because, according to Kelly Clarkson, his is the soul that needed the saving.
But more importantly, when Nick Jonas pulls out some old school tunes to try and win his first team member, Clarkson muses that at 37 years old, she's a whole decade older than him. Jonas' comeback? "My wife's 37". Score one for the how-many-times-will-Priyanka-Chopra-get-mentioned-on-The-Voice counter!
Speaking of Priyanka Chopra, she and Jonas threw a Voice premiere party that was so exclusive even the show account had to tweet about getting an invite: "What a man TV show twitter account gotta do to get an invite to @NickJonas and @priyankachopra's #VoicePremiere watch party?"
And speaking of The Voice's Twitter account, when did this account turn into a Nick Jonas fan account? The official handle of @NBCTheVoice The Voice now also reads '#1 Nick Jonas Stan Account'. As Shelton puts it, "That's what havin' one of them Jonases does."
They even changed their icon to Jonas' face, and fans couldn't be happier. "LETS GIVE A HUGE THANK YOU TO @NBCTheVoice FOR PROVIDING ALL THE @nickjonas AND @jonasbrothers FANS WITH THIS ICON!!!" tweets one user, to which the account replied, "*Chef's kiss*" and now we can't help but wonder who masterminded this Twitter account takeover.
In other news, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend's wife, was in the audience and she's #TeamKelly this time around. That's two out of four significant others already. Maybe we'll see Brandon Blackstock, Clarkson's husband and longtime manager, and singer Gwen Stefani, Blake's girlfriend, in future episodes? All four partners have dabbled in music, maybe we can get a whole coach switch up episode.
Since this is Jonas' first time on the show, there was naturally a lot of anticipation. And for his premiere show, Jonas was blocked by Legend, hazed by Shelton, and had his first team member threatened with a puppy. Also, the staff tried to kill him. Not really, they just turned his chair around before he could sit back down, causing Jonas to nearly fall off his pedestal.
"It's called "initiation" nick," tweets one user. But Jonas remained unfazed. He snagged contestant Tate Brusa (despite the puppy, who Shelton named 'Snowflake') after giving us all a quick vocal lesson on vowel sounds on higher notes. The trick is to keep them open.
Speaking about his defeat, Blake tweeted "WOW, TATE!!! WOW. that was the last time I saw Snowflake… I remember it like it was yesterday… those puppy dog eyes welling with tears as she got carted away to the shelter…It’s a shame."
Jonas playfully shot back with ".@blakeshelton please stop harassing my teammate, you know Snowflake is fine. I get regular updates from her new owners. Welcome to #TeamNick Tate - you made an excellent decision."
The official Nick Jonas fan account, also known to some as 'The Voice' account jumped in with "Can confirm. Snowflake is happily eating dog treats. #nicksnotes #VoicePremiere #TeamNick"
What are #nicksnotes, you might ask? The young coach brought his notepad to the game and he intends to win. A gem from his premiere notes, as Shelton struggled to tell us was "Who gave you...who you are...who are you...". In case you didn't catch that, Jonas clarifies: "Don't forget who you are." Shelton also made some additions to the notes, including "Nick is my name" and "Pickle".
Amidst the chaos of the show, Kelly had a tiny wardrobe accident, and politely asked the next contestant to wait, saying. "My nail came off, it's the pointer!"
The infamous 'Camp Rock' also got a mention as Jonas gave advice to a high schooler about starting young, to which Legend quipped, "Love that movie, it's in my top 5" and Shelton added, "Have that poster on my wall".
Shelton also gave us some passionate air guitar following a rock performance, and then tweeted, "I’ve been waiting 18 whole seasons to live my rock dreams!" and Nick Jonas fan account dropped this Ariana Grande-inspired gem in response: "You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just bought it."
Lastly, Jonas made up for being blocked earlier by stealing the final contestant of the night, Joanna, and ended the premiere with another four-chair turn!
And that's a wrap on The Voice premiere!