‘The Voice’ Top 5: Did Blake Shelton Jinx ‘Front-Runner’ Sawyer Fredericks?
Last night on The Voice, Blake Shelton drew the seemingly obvious conclusion that Sawyer Fredericks was the “front-runner” among the remaining five contestants. If you’re a fan of Fredericks, then the Voice mentor was right on the money. However, if you’re a superstitious fan of Sawyer, you may be wishing Blake had kept his mouth shut.
The front-runner jinx seems all too real to fans of singing competitions like The Voice where the “obvious” choice doesn’t always win. Some argue that American Idol was doomed in part because after the first few seasons, the persons best suited for victory would leave the show in shocking eliminations. The person that America picked? As seasons passed, those individuals would become more and more obscure.
Fox explains decision to end “American Idol” http://t.co/4946hqYnWC
— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) May 11, 2015
The Voice may or may not suffer from a similar problem; if it does, the NBC competition’s problem is dwarfed by the unavoidable fact that not a single winner has enjoyed the level of fame and international attention enjoyed by certain American Idol winners and contestants. With the eighth season of The Voice wrapping up, many are hoping that someone in this group has something remotely resembling star power.
Sawyer Fredericks, who has been fairly consistent this season, stands out as the most popular person this season. Practically every week, his single has been featured in the Top 10 on iTunes, granting him an extra boost during results. That boost has helped keep Sawyer Fredericks out of the Bottom 3 on The Voice all season long.
But then, “Uncle Blake” named Sawyer as the front-runner on the show. What’s wrong with that? Well, typically in singing competitions like The Voice, a couple of things happen when someone becomes such an apparent front-runner: People stop voting for them as hard as they can. In a show where a person can vote for multiple persons and so have multiple “favorites”, they may opt to help save a Voice hopeful they feel to be in greater danger than Fredericks. Or, fans who feel that Sawyer places their favorite singer in danger of losing may vote TWICE AS HARD as they would have otherwise.
Is this reason enough to fear Sawyer Fredericks will be leaving the show this week? I doubt it. One quick peek at the iTunes chart shows both “For What It’s Worth” and “A Thousand Years” are in the Top 10. Both singles are ahead of any other Voice cover, and it’s pretty clear they were the most well received songs. Although this jinx may play out in the season finale, for now, it appears Sawyer is safe.
Will @SawyerFrdrx sing his way to the finals? Support #TeamPharrell by tuning in to #AXNTheVoice in a while! pic.twitter.com/XHJ02biv31
— AXNPH (@AXNPH) May 12, 2015
Do you think Sawyer Fredericks is the front-runner on The Voice? Did Blake Shelton jinx Sawyer by calling him a front-runner? Discuss below!
[Image Credit: The Voice YouTube]
