‘The Voice’ Season 26 Episode 14 recap: Snoop chooses two and steals one in ‘The Knockouts Part 3’
Tonight on “The Voice,” the Knockouts came to an end with coaches Michael Buble, Snoop Dogg, Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani narrowing down their teams of nine to a locked in five in the last of the three-way knockouts. Joining the teams for this round as mega mentors are former coach Jennifer Hudson assisting Michael and Reba and music legend Sting assisting Gwen and Snoop. In this round of the competition, each of the three artists will perform a song of their choosing in a head-to-head-to-head matchup and then their coach will decide on one winner to advance. For the artists not chosen as the winner of their knockout, their coach has one save available to keep an eliminated artist and the other coaches have one steal to bring an eliminated artist over to their team.
In “The Knockouts Premiere” on Nov. 11, Snoop used his save on Christina Eagle, Gwen stole Jake Tankersley from Team Snoop, and Michael stole Jaukeem Fortson from Team Reba while also using his save on Sloane Simon. In “The Knockouts Part 2” on Nov. 12, Reba successfully stole Edward Preble from Team Buble.
Over the course of tonight’s “The Knockouts Part 3,” Snoop closed out his team by choosing winners in two knockouts for his team and using his steal to bring someone over from Team Buble. In the first knockout performances for his team, Snoop chose Aliyah Khaylyn as the winner over Mary McAvoy and Georgia Starnes. In giving her the win, Snoop said she has “that new Black girl power” and rose to the occasion that he hoped she would after stealing her from Team Buble in The Battles.
In his second knockout, ChrisDeo sang “Beneath Your Beautiful,” Mikaela Ayira picked “Scars to Your Beautiful,” and Torre Blake went with “Slow Burn.” Snoop thought ChrisDeo’s song choice showed that she can grow and that she’s working hard for her success. He also liked that Mikaela didn’t go the expected route with her song choice and is challenging herself. Torre chose the country song as a way of showing that she can’t be pigeon-holed into one lane and that’s something Snoop understood as important for an artist like her. After the performances, Snoop got emotional telling them that they made him proud because they were “the women that I knew you would be” and said that they’re “like my daughters.” Forced to pick one, he stuck with Mikaela because he thinks that “with the right song, right production, she can win this whole thing.”
Then, Team Buble closed out the episode featuring Jeremy Beloate with “Golden Hour” vs. Kiara Vega with “Call Out My Name” vs. Sofronio Vasquez with “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.” Michael chose Sofronio as the winner because “he’s special, he’s unique.” When Snoop gave his feedback for the three performances, he said Jeremy was the best of the three because the song choice “shows highlights of who you are and what you can become.” He also threatened that if “Buble slips up” then he’s going to steal him. Sure enough, he was able to steal him and looks forward to finding a song that will give him “a big moment” and “something tender” that will help him “get over the top.”
The other knockouts shown in episode 14 were: Team Reba’s Lauren-Michael Sellers with “Hold On to Me” vs. Tate Renner with “In Color” vs. Danny Joseph with “It Hurts So Bad” and Team Gwen’s Jan Dan with “Angels Like You” vs. Sydney Sterlace with “Bruises.” Reba chose Lauren-Michael as a the winner and saved Danny, closing out her team of five. Gwen chose Sydney as her winner and saved Jan, closing out her team of five as well. Also noting that her team member Mor Ilderton dropped out of the competition in this round and so they didn’t perform.
The updated teams:
TEAM SNOOP – Aliyah Khaylyn, Austyns Stancil, Christina Eagle, Jeremy Beloate, Mikaela Ayira
TEAM REBA – Adam Bohanan, Danny Joseph, Edward Preble, Katie O, Lauren-Michael Sellers
TEAM GWEN – Gabrielle Zabosky, Jake Tankersley, Jan Dan, Jose Luis, Sydney Sterlace
TEAM BUBLE – Cameron Wright, Jaukeem Fortson, Shye, Sloane Simon, Sofronio Vasquez
The four-time Emmy Award-winning musical competition series “The Voice” is in its 26th season featuring five stages of competition: Blind Auditions, Battle Rounds, Knockouts, Playoffs and Live Performance Shows. In the coaches’ chairs, Reba is the defending champion after winning season 25 with Asher HaVon, the show’s first openly LGBTQ champ. She is joined by Gwen, in her 8th season, and Snoop and Michael, both competing for the first time.