The vote summary: [Spoiler] Eliminated – Live Playoffs/Top 16 Results

There weren’t that many mic drop moments The voice pitched Tuesday as “leave the mic on the way out” moments. Following Monday’s live playoffs (recapitulated here), the season 22 top 16 was reduced to the lucky top 13, with two contestants per team saved by viewer votes, one per team saved by their coach, and the remaining four by wild card Instant Save competed.

Ahead of the results show, their responses to Monday’s recap poll indicated that Team Gwen Stefani’s Alyssa Witrado, Team John Legend’s Sasha Hurtado and Team Camila Cabello’s vibrato-loving Kate Kalvach would sing for their lives. Commenters jumped at me everywhere because I didn’t like the cover of ONJ’s “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” which turned out to be Team Blake Shelton’s Rowan Grace, but she was the lowest-ranked member of his team in the poll. (Justification?)

Who was actually saved by the spectators and/or their coach? And what did your resident “Simon Cowell wannabe” (my favorite diss of the season so far!) do wrong? Before we found out, we were treated to performances of “That’s Hilarious” and “Left and Right” by Camila’s Battles consultant Charlie Puth (who at one point looked like he was playing a Traeger grill, right?) . And in the moments of truth…

SAVED BY AMERICA’S VOICE
Body (Team Blake)
Brayden Lape (Team Blake)
Parijita Bastola (Team Legend)
Omar Jose Cardona (Team Legend)
Kique (Team Gwen)
Justin Aaron (Team Gwen)
Morgan Myles (Team Camila)
Devix (Team Camila)

RESCUED BY YOUR TRAINER
Rowan Grace (Team Blake)
Kim Cruse (Team Legend)
Alyssa Witrado (Team Gwen)
Eric Who (Team Camila)

SAVE WILD CARDS IMMEDIATELY

Bryce Leatherwood (Team Blake), “Let Me Down Easy” – Grade: B- | While by no means exceptional, I would order another round if Bryce sang in the saloon where I was drinking. His performance was at least 70-80 percent solid, and between his sure song selection, innate charm, and his trainer’s legion of fans, he seemed almost unbeatable here.

Sasha Hurtado (Team Legend), “Resilient Heart” — Grade: B- | Sasha really brought the “wow” to her lengthy notes and seemed to get stronger as her Sia cover went on. Unfortunately, the overall impression her performance gave was that she was kind of all over the map. Maybe the order was to blame? The mixture? Her coach thought it was perfect. (But don’t they always?)

Kevin Hawkins (Team Gwen), “Redbone” – Grade: A+ | Damn what Kevin could do with his voice on Childish Gambino’s hit was only remarkable. People I watched with said, “He’s super talented, but that’s not a sound I want to hear.” I, on the other hand, loved it; I thought it was cool and wild and almost princely. He definitely got my vote.

Kate Kalvach (Team Camila), “When I Look at You” – Grade: A | Kate’s earbuds definitely worked on Tuesday; Undeterred by Monday’s difficulties, she sounded tens of times better – passionate and committed and ninefold amazing. Before that I thought her elimination was a foregone conclusion, but not afterwards. She even tamed the vibrato that used to annoy me!

SAVED | Bryce Leatherwood

ELIMINATED | Kevin Hawkins, Sasha Hurtado, Kate Kalvach

So… any surprises with the results? The decisions of the coaches? Who would you have sent home? Vote in the poll below and let it go in the comments.