Kirk Jay

The fifteenth season of the American reality television show, The Voice premiered on September 24, 2018, on NBC. Adam Levine, Kelly Clarkson, and Blake Shelton returned as coaches from the previous season. Jennifer Hudson, who last coached in season 13, returned for her second and final season as a coach, replacing Alicia Keys. For the first time in its history, the show featured a fifth coach, Kelsea Ballerini, who selected contestants to participate in The Comeback Stage.

Chevel Shepherd was named winner of this season, marking Kelly Clarkson's second win as a coach. This also makes Clarkson the first female coach to win more than one season.

On May 11, 2018, Kelly Clarkson confirmed she would return alongside coach veterans, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton with Jennifer Hudson who returns after a one-season hiatus. Carson Daly returned for his fifteenth season as host. It was announced on September 10 that Kelsea Ballerini would become a fifth coach, mentoring unsuccessful auditioners on an online version in a new round called The Comeback Stage.

The Block, added in season 14, returned for a second season. A new round this season, entitled "The Comeback Stage", saw six artists who did not turn a chair in the Blind Auditions get a second chance to return to the competition for the live shows. The six artists remained, mentored by Kelsea Ballerini, competed against each other in a digital companion series, with the winner securing a spot in the Top 13.

This season's advisors for the Battle Rounds were CeeLo Green for Team Adam, Thomas Rhett for Team Kelly, Halsey for Team Jennifer, and Keith Urban for Team Blake. Mariah Carey was assigned as a mentor for all teams during the knockouts.

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Episode 1 (Sept. 24)

Episode 2 (Sept. 25)

Episode 3 (Oct. 1)

Episode 4 (Oct. 2)

Episode 5 (Oct. 8)

Episode 6 (Oct. 9)

Episode 7 (Oct. 15)

The second half of the Battle Rounds started on October 15. Season fifteen's advisors include: CeeLo Green for Team Adam, Thomas Rhett for Team Kelly, Halsey for Team Jennifer, andKeith Urban for Team Blake. The coaches can steal two losing artists from other coaches. Contestants who win their battle or are stolen by another coach will advance to the Knockout rounds.

• During a commercial break before the Battles Part 1's last pairing, four coaches give the waiting audience an impromptu performance with an acapella version of The Golden Girls' theme song - "Thank You for Being a Friend".

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The Knockouts round started on October 29. The coaches can each steal one losing artist from another team and save one artist who lost their Knockout on their own team. The top 24 contestants then moved on to the Live Playoffs. Mariah Carey is the advisor to contestants from all teams in this round. Cody Ray Raymond from Team Kelly dropped out from the competition due to personal reasons. Kelly Clarkson grouped three of her members into one knockout, with two contestants from the trio advancing, with the third being declared the loser, just like on the eighth season.

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For this season, the show added a brand new phase of competition called The Comeback Stage that was exclusive to The Voice mobile app, The Voice YouTube channel, Instagram TV, Facebook, Twitter, and NBC.com. After failing to turn a chair in the blind auditions, artists had the chance to be selected by fifth coach Kelsea Ballerini to become a member of her six-person team. The Comeback Stage consists of three rounds. In the first, it is the Battle round. Artists would be paired up and given a solo song to perform for Kelsea's favor (similar to the Knockouts). In the second, it is the Comeback's Knockout round. The three remaining artists would be given another song to sing, with two of them advancing to the final stage. The third and final stage is run in conjunction with the Live Playoffs. The two remaining artists perform live for America's votes in the first Twitter Instant Save of the season, with the winner officially joining one of the four main teams of their choosing as a part of the Top 13.

The Battles

The Knockouts

Live Playoffs

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Week 1: Live Playoffs (Nov 12 & 13)

The Live Playoffs comprised episodes 15 and 16. The top twenty-four artists perform, with two artists from each team advancing based on the viewers' vote, and each coach completing their respective teams with their own choice. The Monday night broadcast featured all teams and the Tuesday night broadcast featured the results, along with the final Comeback Stage matchup.

Kelsea Ballerini was added as the fifth coach and has coached six artists who did not turn a chair in the Blind Auditions to help them get a second chance to return to the competition for the live shows. They had their own battles and knockouts, and only two, Ayanna Joni and Lynnea Moorer, get the chance to enter the Top 13 via America's vote (similar to the Instant Save).

Lynnea Moorer won the Comeback Stage matchup, and chose to be part of Team Kelly on the Top 13.

With the elimination of Kameron Marlowe, this marked the first time since the seventh season that Adam Levine did not include the artist that he stole in the Knockouts in his top three, as Brian Johnson, Amy Vachal, Shalyah Fearing, Josh Gallagher, Lilli Passero, Adam Cunningham, and Sharane Calister were all either chosen by him or voted into his top three by the public in the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth seasons, respectively.

Week 2: Top 13 (Nov 19 & 20)

This week's theme was “Dedications”. The three artists with the fewest votes competed for an Instant Save, with two leaving the competition.

This season, the live show voting mechanism has changed. iTunes purchases of the singles released by the top 13 artists no longer count as votes, and have instead been replaced with Apple Music streams counting as votes. This also affected the iTunes multiplier bonus from past seasons. Now, the artist who racks up the most streams on Apple Music during the voting window have their Apple Music votes multiplied by 5.

This week, the recipient of the Apple Music multiplier was Reagan Strange.

Kirk Jay became the first artist this season to crack the Top 10 on iTunes overall singles chart. His cover of “I’m Already There” hit #10 at the close of the voting window.

Week 3: Top 11 (Nov 26 & 27)

The theme for this week was "Fan Night", meaning that the artists performed songs chosen by the fans. The two artists with the fewest votes will compete for an Instant Save, with one leaving the competition.

Once again, The Apple Music multiplier was awarded to Reagan Strange.

This week, two contestants reached Top 10 on iTunes. Kennedy Holmes hit #7 and Kymberli Joye hit #8.

Week 4: Top 10 (Dec 3 & 4)

This week, the recipient of the Apple Music multiplier was Chris Kroeze.

Sarah Grace and Kirk Jay reached Top 10 on iTunes (#3 & #4) at the close of the voting window.

With the advancement of Chevel Shepherd, Kymberli Joye, and Sarah Grace, Kelly Clarkson became the first female coach to get more than two artists on her team to the semifinals.With the elimination of Dave Fenley, this marked the first time since the eleventh season that Blake Shelton lost any members of his team prior to the semifinals, and the second time out of the past seven seasons in which such an event occurred, having kept his entire team intact up until that point in the competition in the ninth, tenth, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth seasons.

Week 5: Semifinals (Dec 10 & 11)

The Top 8 performed on Monday, December 10, 2018, with the results following on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. Three artists were automatically moved on to the finale. The two artists with the fewest votes were immediately eliminated and the middle three contended for the remaining spot in the next finale via the Instant Save. Kelly Clarkson brought in Brynn Cartelli to help her team in the rehearsals. In addition to their individual songs, each artist performed a duet with another artist in the competition, though these duets were not available for purchase on iTunes.

Once again, the Apple Music multiplier was awarded to Chris Kroeze.

Chevel Shepherd and Kirk Jay reached Top 10 on iTunes (#4 & #6) at the close of the voting window.

With the elimination of ReaganStrange, Adam Levine no longer had any artists left on his team. This was the second time in a row after the fourteenth season that he had lost his entire team prior to the finale, and the fourth time overall. The second time was in the fourth season, and the first time was in the third season. Interestingly, this was the second time that he will have gone without a finalist in back-to-back seasons. With the advancements of Chevel Shepherd and Kennedy Holmes, this season also marked the second time that two female coaches were represented in the finale, with Shepherd representing Kelly Clarkson, and Holmes representing Jennifer Hudson. The first time that this happened was the fourteenth season. In addition, Holmes's advancement also marked Hudson's first American season with a finalist, as she did not have one in the thirteenth season. With the advancement of Chris Kroeze, this season marks the first time that an artist who lost his Knockout round but was saved by his coach made it to the finale.

Week 6: Finale (Dec. 17 & 18)

With Chevel Shepherd's victory, this marks Kelly Clarkson's second consecutive victory as a coach and makes her the only rotating coach who has won more than once, as well as the third coach overall to win more than once.In addition, Shepherd's victory marks the first victory by a country artist who was not, at any point in time, coached by Blake Shelton, meaning that Clarkson also became the first coach to defeat Shelton with a country artist, a goal that, strangely enough, Adam Levine had attempted, with no success, in several different seasons.

The contestant's performances reached the top 10 on iTunes as follows Chevel Shepherd (#1 & #9), Chris Kroeze (#3), Kirk Jay (#2, #4 & #5).

Overall

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Artist's info

Result details

Teams

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Artist's info

Results details

Top 10 Elimination

The "Instant Save" during the Top 10 garnered controversy. The bottom group for that week featured three contestants: Dave Fenley (Team Blake), DeAndre Nico (Team Adam), and Reagan Strange (Team Adam). Adam Levine made controversial comments that some fans felt were unfair to Nico, expressing their concern that Levine was "throwing him under the bus" in favor of Strange, who was unable to perform due to "health reasons." Following Nico's performance, Levine chose to advocate for Strange, telling viewers to vote for her despite her not being able to perform, and only briefly touched upon Nico's performance. After the commercial break, fellow coach Kelly Clarkson came in defense of Levine's speech while applauding the singer to console him and clarifies that she was aware of Levine's situation for his team and that he was just disappointed that Strange couldn't sing onstage to save herself as it is what occurred the outcome to this issue. The vote was reported close, with Strange advancing by one percent (thirty-eight percent to Nico's thirty-seven percent).

Following Strange's advancement, fans criticized Levine online for his "lack of respect" towards Nico in a pivotal moment, and many blamed him for the elimination.Some fans stated that Strange's advancement over Nico and Fenley was unfair, as she did not perform.Nico expressed frustration with Levine's behavior in a later interview, saying Levine "sold [him] out."Levine briefly addressed the controversy the following week by having Nico and Strange Facetime. However, some fans felt the controversy was not fully addressed, as both Nico and his mother, Johnna, revealed on Twitter and Instagram that Levine had never actually apologized.The following week, Strange was eliminated. Some fans criticized her elimination, expressing they felt her elimination was the result of the controversy and Levine's handling of Nico's elimination, while other fans found her elimination a perfectly fair compensation for Nico's elimination.

The controversy had lasting effects, carrying over into the following season.By the time the live Cross-Battles arrived, Levine's team was whittled down from eight members to two, with Levine managing to add two more members due to a save and a steal, likely due to angry fans and voters refusing to vote for Team Adam members.The elimination of his team continued all the way up to the week of that season's Top 13, when its obliteration was finally complete. This controversy might have also factored into Levine's departure the following year.

• Patrique Fortson (as Patrick Fortson) was a contestant on the second season of American Idol and was eliminated in the semifinal round.
• Mercedes Ferreira-Dias and MaKenzie Thomas were both on the fourteenth season of The Voice, but neither received any chair turns.
• Dave Fenley appeared on the eighth season of America's Got Talent but lost judges' votes and was eliminated in the semifinal round. He performed the song "Make America Great Again" at the Republican National Convention in 2016.
• Reagan Strange appeared as one of the fifth-grade whiz kids on Fox’s Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? in 2015.
• Jerome Bell from OneUp auditioned on the tenth season of American Idol where he was eliminated in Las Vegas Round.
• SandyRedd made an appearance on the fifth season of the musical drama television series Empire. She was singing in a choir accompanying special guest artist Tina Jenkins Crawley in a song called "Lighthouse".