“The Voice” is finally admitting it in season 29…that it’s all about the coaches and not really the talent.  Because this new variation is called “The Voice: Battle of Champions.”  And, you know who the “champions” are?  The coaches!  Each coach will have a team of ten artists by the end of the Blind Auditions.

At the opening of the premiere episode, host Carson Daly exclaims that every coach is a “Voice champion” and “they’re battling each other for the ultimate crown.”  With three wins under his belt, the only original coach this season, Adam Levine returns  along with one-time winner John Legend and Kelly Clarkson (the coach who took Adam’s place after he first left) who’s won four times.  Clearly, John Legend has the most to prove. 

So Much For Four Chairs!

New Rule:  There’s something  called a “triple turn” competition.  The coach that wins the most three-chair-turns, wins an advantage during the Battles.  This advantage is a “Super Steal,” a Steal that overrides all Steals!  This part of the show is tracked by Druski, a comedian, along with real life sports analyst and basketball player Derek Fisher who serve as commentators.

Kelly Clarkson chose to stay out of the fight for the first artist arriving to “The Voice” stage in this premiere episode.  She made it clear that she is fully in it to get the best Country artists on her team.  Though, she was moved to push her button for the first soul singer of the night, along with the other two coaches.

The first artist of the premiere episode was given some hefty advice from Adam Levine.  While competing against John Legend to win over this artist named Lucas, he told him that when he started-out and was signed, no one knew where to put him. Turns out that being out of the box is a strength that Lucas also possessed when he showed-up to this Blind audition playing the keyboard to an Elton John song.

Pictured: (l-r) Adam Levine, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend — Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC

“Engineer of my own demise…” – John Legend

When Alexia Jayy hit the stage singing “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” by Aretha Franklin, all the coaches were in it to sway her to be on their team, thus creating the first “Triple Turn” battle of the night.  After John asked Alexia to bring her son, Matthew out to meet them. His next question worked against him.  Legend asked the pre-teen who his favorite singer was.  Nine-year-old Matthew replied “Maroon Five.”  This resulted in a definite win for Adam when Alexia ultimately chose to be on Team Adam, and his first artist.  

A Battle of Endorsements:

Kelly Clarkson noted that this is her first time back on “The Voice” since original Country coach Blake Shelton left.  That ushered in new Country coach Reba McEntire.  Serving as a Country Coach this season?  Well…no one.  No clear Country coaches.

While fighting it out over Country artist Julia Golden, after turning for her, John and Kelly got caught in a tangled web of fulfilling the empty Country slot on the coaches’ panel.  John started it by playing a video of Reba McEntire stating that she endorses him as a Country coach.  Kelly was livid, and proceeded to call Reba on the phone, to also get an endorsement from her.  
After Adam’s endorsement of Kelly, Julia went with her for her coach.  Also, making her the first artist on Team Kelly.  

Clearly, no endorsements were necessary at the end of this episode when John Legend scored his own very young Country artist by being the only chair to turn for him.  However, things took a downward turn when the very last artist to audition was a talented R&B singer who did NOT choose Legend for his coach.

High Risk!

A seventeen-year-old Landon got brave when he chose to sing “Glory” by John Legend and Common, of course…in front of John Legend.  The rude awakening, John Legend (nor any other coach) turned for him.  Legend cited some creative choices that weren’t in the original record that were “bold” and he would have turned had he known Landon was younger.  
The main thing with Landon?  Not enough life experience to match-up with the powerful emotions of the song choice.

Another risk-taker followed Landon in Jonah Mayor, a boy-band tribute band member who sang in Italian.  He was wavering between Team Kelly and Team Adam, the only coaches to turn their chairs.  Kelly, who was the first chair-turn, won out over Adam when Jonah chose her as his coach.

Related to ‘The King’!

Bay Simpson is related to Elvis Presley.  His mom’s dad’s great Aunt is Minnie Mae, who is Elvis’ grandmother. Like Elvis, Bay is also a rocker and sang Tom Petty’s “The Waiting” song. He was almost off the show when suddenly, Adam turned his chair at the very end of his blind audition.  Adam admitted to this being a strategic move because he knows that Bay really knows Rock-n-Roll because of how he sang the song.

Better Luck This Time!

Returning artist Liv Ciara didn’t make it past her Blind Audition last season, but is back for another shot at it.  She sang “(We Can Be Friends) Wait for Your Love” song.  Both Adam and Kelly turned for her, resulting in Liv’s tears after she finished her audition.  Liv chose Kelly, who compared this win with Brynn Cartelli, who also returned to “The Voice.”  She chose Kelly, and proceeded to win that season.   

The wildest part of this episode came after artist Aaron LaVigne’s blind audition.  John Legend was aligning right up with Aaron and was prime to win him over from Kelly.  However, Aaron described watching the Olympics on TV and had the same reaction that Kelly had after a comeback performance by Celine Dion.  Based on that , he chose Kelly.  John was floored!
Legend was floored once again after the last artist of the night, an R&B singer, went in another direction after singing with John Legend!